AgTalk | Brands have accepted BTR whole-heartedly: TRA's Chandramauli

Considered as the most intensive study on Brand Trust across brands and categories in India, the Brand Trust Report published by Trust Research Advisory TRA, a part of the Comniscient Group every year is a much awaited report. This year too is no exception, the “Brand Trust Report, India Study, 2013”, is the third in its series and lists 1,100 most-trusted brands in India across 211 categories. The report, released recently, includes primary research based on 61 attributes called the brand trust matrix. The research was conducted among 2,505 influencer-respondents from 16 cities and generated more than three million data points.

The personality behind as extensive a study as BTR is N. Chandramauli, CEO, Comniscient Group and TRA. Communications runs in his blood. Over a period of two decades, he has promoted six different communication companies under the Comniscient Group umbrella. Of these, two are PR agencies. The others include Bluebytes, a news research and analysis company and Trust Research Advisory, a business efficiency advisory. Chandramauli also lectures in several communication colleges.

A chemical engineer turned communicator Chandramauli began his entrepreneurial journey straight after his engineering in 1990. His business experience which began with chemicals spanned across stock-broking, banking and exports. His engagement with communications began in 1998 - a business that has obsessively consumed him since then. This unique combination of  engineering, communication and business experience plus his other entrepreneurial exposures has helped Chandramauli to bring a unique perspective to communication.

Adgully caught up with him to learn more about the strategies and challenges involved in creating such a vast and trusted brand report. Following are the excerpts of the conversation.

Adgully: Sir, tell us about the methodologies used for Brand Trust Report BTR 2013 ?

N. Chandramauli: We work on methodologies which are very vigorous because we are talking about brand trust and with brand trust we have to ensure that it is trusted. First thing we have to ensure is that the method of Brand Trust Report should be robust and for that we researched with psychologist, sociologist, behavioral scientist and the communication experts to come out with 61 components after several iterations that makes trust. Second thing which we consider is that when it is applied it should be applied vigorously; there should be no doubt about the research when it’s published. Apart from selecting our respondents we ensure that the interviewer who is going to interview them is chosen meticulously. If they are not chosen properly then it will affect the whole research. The third and the important part is the authenticity of the data, every content is back checked with the respondents so that no false data comes in as brands depend on it.

AG: This is the third year of ‘Brand Trust Report’? How has been the journey so far?

N.C:  It’s been 3 years and today brands are dependent on this report, through this research they judge themselves as to how they are being positioned in the market. Measuring any brand in terms of turnover is not a tough task but qualitative research is difficult to judge.  Through BTR we provide qualitative market research for brands. The journey so far has been good and with each year we are making BTR more robust.

AG:  What was the duration set for this vast research?

N.C: It took about 5 months of hard work and dedication. We start every year by July and finish with it by November.

AG:  What are the key parameters of Brand Trust Report?

N.C: This year we tried getting more data and thus we travelled to more cities, so the quality changed but action remains the same. Any research that helps you to understand depth of the market and your position in it is very beneficial.

AG:  How is this year’s report different from the last year’s report?

N.C: The criteria of the trust is the same, so trust remains constant as that is our backbone but yes we made our methodology more rigorous.

AG:  How do brands react to ‘Brand Trust Report’?

N.C: Brands are reacting to it very positively and today the brands are starving of such data. Unfortunately in India we don’t invest too much in data we prefer action and believe in jumping directly into the work but data is very important. Once you start deciding about your next level of work, you have to know about the work done previously and what needs to go in and go out in the next level. So data plays an important role. Brands have accepted BTR whole-heartedly from the time we started and I am proud to say that this year brands like Sony, Philips, Dell and Panasonic proactively came forward and associated with us and tried to understand brand more widely.

AG: What were the major challenges faced during the entire phase of ‘Brand Trust Report’?

N.C: Taking to interviewer is a challenge as we do not use any financial incentive to get and talk to our interviewers as it’s not like market research where you get any kind of financial incentives. Here interviewer gets nothing, they have to come in front on their own and to find such willing people is not easy. As the process is long, even if an individual wants to be part of this research he can’t because he is busy with other work. But, we consider this challenge as the beauty of our research. Off course now it is considered more as fashion and people want to be part of it. Earlier Sachin Bhosle, Research Head, TRA and me used to work very hard by ourselves up to the last moment but today we don’t worry much as we have a team today which takes care of the research.

AG: How beneficial is it for the consumers?

N.C: Consumers will become more aware of brands through BTR that they are using and so thus the brands will become cautious about what they are providing to their consumers. It’s important to govern brands that are present in the market.

AG: What initiative you are planning to take for your next year’s report?

N.C: Now since this is an established parameter, we are focusing on size and to take BTR on global platform and give other countries the benefit of such research. We started BTR with India because it’s a vast country and if this research works in such a complex and diverse country it will surely work in other single language countries like Australia and Singapore.