Market Survey means freakin’ out

So there is a market survey on guess what? Man made fibers. MAN MADE FIBERS !!!! You know, polyester, viscose, flax etcetera - study the demand for them. So my friends and I prepare a questionnaire for dealers and customers – that was an ordeal in itself, got that okayed by economics prof and went to hazratganj, the posh area of lucknow and aminabad, the kirana locality. We split into two grps of three and other group went to Bombay dyeing, Raymond et.al while we got smaller shops.

Shop 1: I go to this shop which sells sarees. IIM brand means atleast we weren’t told ‘don’t bug me’ by dealer. Asks what is man made fibers. We explain patiently about different things. Dealer retorts ‘Cotton and jute clothes doesn’t come from sky. They are also man made. Excellent start.

Shop 2: Dealer is warmly receptive. Unfortunately he was more interested in IIM – average salary, companies, streams blah,blah,blah. In the end we weren’t sure who surveyed whom

Shop 3: Chap must have a lot of problems in life. Whatever questions we ask , ‘bhaiya, what is the percentage of cotton-polyester clothing you stock?’, he retorts ‘you tell me, what might be the answer’ Bhaiya, if we were to guess, we would have been saved from the trouble of surveying.

Now to customers- as expected didn’t have a lot of clue except polyester.

We surveyed one kid. When he knew we were from IIM, his face glowed. ‘Bhaiya, I am preparing for CAT. Tell me how to prepare’. Sigh. Forget market survey – Intuition works quite as well.

My friends had lucknow’s famous kabab-Boy! Smells heavenly. Too bad I don’t have too much options as a vegetarian. Had to be satisfied with kheer – another speciality. And roamed the streets – technically called ‘feeling the market pulse’.