 |
Internet Survey |
The Objective
To study the perceptions of Non Resident Indians about a premier Indian business house.
Learnings...
This project was the first of its kind here in India, and was completed to the satisfaction of Chaitra Leo Burnett. I learnt to make the most of a limited budget to achieve the desired objective. Besides, with no precedents here in India to fall back on, this was a hands-on learning experience for me - one of the most productive ways I've spent my summer vacations to date...
... from the experience
Summer Training is an essential part of our management course,
where students work during the summer "vacations" between
the first and the second year of the Masters of Management Studies (MMS) course. This gives the
student an opportunity to get a hands - on learning experience
in the corporate world.
I worked with Chaitra Leo Burnett, the advertising agency,
for those two months. My project is a confidential one as it was
part of the background work that went into a pitch they were making
for an account. So while I cannot go into specifics, I can discuss
how I carried out the project assigned to me.
It was a research project that required me to single-handedly
find out the perceptions of at least 1000 Non Resident Indians
about one of the big Indian corporations. The only feasible avenue
open to me was to use the Internet to conduct the survey.
Keeping the nature of the Internet user in mind, I designed
a questionnaire that could be filled up before his patience wore
off, but one that got me the information I was looking out for.
This questionnaire was converted to a web page to allow
interested NRIs to point, click, click some more to answer the
questions, and submit the filled questionnaire.
Keeping the target audience in mind, I publicised the URL of
the survey through newsgroups, bulletin boards on the Net, but
mainly through a week's banner advertisements on IndiaWorld's
news-headlines mailing list. To attract NRIs to take the survey,
prizes were to be randomly given away to 10 lucky respondents
as soon as we reached the 1000 mark. This also helped ensure authenticity
as respondents had to give their email addresses in case they
won prizes. Responses from common free email addresses like HoTMaiL
were disregarded to avoid the possibility of multiple responses.
The survey elicited over 1200 authentic responses from 52 countries
within 10 days, after which the survey was stopped. The 10 lucky
winners could choose their gifts and have them delivered through an online gift service.
The rest of the project was completed offline, and included
tabulation and analysis of the responses received, followed by
suggestions on how the company in question could improve their
image.