Marketing Research

Research Project

Utilization of large member base in

market research campaigns.

Harshal Modi
81133
MBA Marcom I
SIBM
 Harshal Modi

Contents
Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................................ 3 
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 4 
Methodology & Limitations .............................................................................................................................. 5 
Findings ........................................................................................................................................................... 6 
Recommendations .......................................................................................................................................... 9 
Appendices ................................................................................................................................................... 10 
Codes & Nomenclature followed in the report .......................................................................................... 10 
Secondary Data ........................................................................................................................................ 11 
Questionnaire............................................................................................................................................ 12 

2
MR Project - MBA Marcom I
 Harshal Modi

Executive Summary

The research project outlined in this report has the primary objective of finding out whether a large member
base of online forum PaGaLGuY.com can be used for market research campaigns or not. The research
carried out in this project conducted a survey on a sample size of 50 respondents, and recommends that
MR campaigns can be conducted using the member base as respondents. It also recognises lacunae in
the present polling system and suggests changes for the same.

The report does not cover areas related to the clients of the forum or the infrastructure utilized by the forum
itself. These areas, although relevant to the project, are highly sensitive and data related to them was not
shared with the researcher.

3
MR Project - MBA Marcom I
 Harshal Modi

Introduction

PaGaLGuY.com is one of India’s largest online youth forums. Primarily an MBA forum, it has a member
base that touched 100,000 in mid January 2007. The forum provides a ready segmented market to
companies targeting the MBA Aspirant/Student/Alumnus market. The services on the forum provided to
corporate clients include Advertisements, Articles and Interviews. The managers of the forum are
expanding upon its present activities, including providing MR services to its clients.

This project was carried out with the intention of finding out whether the large member base can be
properly utilized in carrying out the MR campaigns, and whether there will be any problems or
shortcomings on the forum’s part in carrying out these campaigns.

The primary research objective thus designed was:

PRO:

To identify the possibility of utilizing an existing large member base in conducting Market
Research Campaigns targeted towards the MBA community.

Once the primary objective was realized, the secondary objectives were designed. Secondary objectives
are the broad heads under which data is collected for the research project, and each objective works with
other objectives to realize the primary objective. The secondary objective will have an independent
existence, although there will be an overlap with other secondary objectives with regards to some sections
of the data required. The secondary objectives for this project were:

SROs:

1. To measure the responsiveness of the member base to MR campaigns on a formal level.

2. To gauge the interest of the clients for MR campaigns in an already segmented market arena.

3. To identify the logistical and infrastructural requirements for managing an MR campaign within
the forum.

This project report covers the broad areas of the methodology followed for the project execution, the
findings of the project, and recommendations based on the findings. Appendices give the secondary data,
questionnaire, data collected, and other relevant material.

4
MR Project - MBA Marcom I
 Harshal Modi

Methodology & Limitations

The research project began with designing the PRO and the SROs relating to the PRO. Once finalized,
exploratory data required for conducting the project was collated and utilized. The third step was designing
the questionnaire and conducting the actual survey.

The survey was carried out at an All – India level, with respondents being based in cities across the
country. The primary communication channel was the internet. Sample size of respondents is 50.

The survey was conducted online. The questionnaire was hosted on the website www.createsurvey.com
and available at the hyperlink http://www.createsurvey.com/c/47499-zBMSri/

Respondents were contacted by email and on the forum, and told to fill the survey by clicking on the given
link. Responses were collected by email. The host site also collated data in csv format and let the survey
administrator download all data in a single MSExcel file.

Once all data was collated, analyses were carried out on the data using the SPSS v13 software.

This particular survey was carried out to fulfil the SRO no. 1, discussed in the introduction. SROs nos. 2 &
3 required information from the forum administrators. As the information is sensitive, the forum
administrators did not divulge any data related to these two SROs, except the information available in the
secondary data. Hence, any analyses based on SROs nos. 2 & 3 has not been carried out in this report.

5
MR Project - MBA Marcom I
 Harshal Modi

Findings

Finding 1

80% of the respondents gave positive feedback about the present polling system on the forum, but only
68% are satisfied with the results this system provides. The results of the crosstabulation of Qs:
PresentRating and Satisfaction are given below:

Rows Columns Chi-Square Confidence Interval#

PresentRating Satisfaction 0.001 99.9%
#
Level of Confidence is taken at 80% instead of the regular 90% due to a small respondent base.

PresentRating * Satisfaction Crosstabulation

Satisfaction
Very
Satisfied Neutral Dissatisfied Total
Satisfied
Excellent 0 1 0 0 1
Very
1 15 0 1 17
Good
PresentRating
Good 0 15 7 0 22
Neutral 0 2 6 1 9
Poor 0 0 0 1 1
Total 1 33 13 3 50

Finding 2

The Q: FutureRating was asked with the intention of finding out what would be the respondents’ feedback
on the present polling system if more features were added to it. The overall rating of the recommended
system registered a drop in the average feedback, with the responses changing as given in the table
below:

Response Type Q: PresentRating Q: FutureRating Change

Positive Response 80% 72% – 8%
Neutral 18% 22% + 4%
Negative Response 2% 6% + 4%

Finding 3

An overwhelming 76% of the sampled respondents have responded positively towards the forum
conducting formal MR campaigns (Q: OKforMR).

For more detailed results in relation to this finding, cross tabulation of Q: OKforMR was carried out on the
following Qs: TimeSpent, MRFrequency, & Personal. It revealed the following results:

Rows Columns Chi-Square Confidence Interval#

TimeSpent OKforMR 0.168 83.2%
OKforMR MRFrequency 0.010 99%
OKforMR Personal 0.006 99.4%
#
Level of Confidence is taken at 80% instead of the regular 90% due to a small respondent base.

The findings of these crosstabulations are given below:

6
MR Project - MBA Marcom I
 Harshal Modi

Finding 3.1
A major percentage of respondents who responded positively for Q: OKforMR are online on the forum for a
minimum of 2 hours a day.

TimeSpent * OKforMR Crosstabulation

OKforMR
Definitely Not Probably Definitely
Probably Total
Yes Decided Not Not
< 1 hr/week 1 1 2 0 1 5
< 1 hr/day 2 1 0 0 0 3
TimeSpent 1 - 2 hrs/day 1 3 3 1 0 8
2 - 4 hrs/day 7 3 0 1 0 11
> 4 hrs/day 13 6 3 1 0 23
Total 24 14 8 3 1 50

Finding 3.2
Of those respondents who gave a positive response for Q: OKforMR, the optimal frequency of MR
campaigns (Q: MRFrequency) lies between several times a week to once a month.

OKforMR * MRFrequency Crosstabulation

MRFrequency
Several Once Once a Once in two to
Daily Never Total
times a week a week month six months
Definitely Yes 3 9 5 4 3 0 24
Probably 2 1 6 3 1 1 14
OKforMR Not Decided 0 0 0 3 3 2 8
Probably Not 0 0 0 0 2 1 3
Definitely Not 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
Total 5 10 11 10 9 5 50

Finding 3.3
A large number of respondents who are ready to participate in MR campaigns agreed to share their
personal details with the survey administrators.

OKforMR * Personal Crosstabulation

Personal
Strongly Not Strongly
Agree Disagree Total
Agree Decided Disagree
Definitely Yes 6 8 8 1 1 24
Probably 1 6 5 2 0 14
OKforMR Not Decided 1 0 2 4 1 8
Probably Not 0 0 2 1 0 3
Definitely Not 0 0 0 0 1 1
Total 8 14 17 8 3 50

7
MR Project - MBA Marcom I
 Harshal Modi

Finding 4

The Qs: OKforMR, MRFrequency and Personal were first asked based on the fact that no remuneration
would be given for participating in MR Campaigns. Then, Q: PayChange was asked to gather whether any
change would happen in the above questions in case remuneration was provided.

The results are divided, with 42% of the respondents veering towards a change in their position, and 32%
saying that their answers would not change.

Crosstabulation of Q: PayChange with Qs: OKforMR, MRFrequency and Personal revealed that the
questions were highly interdependent, even though Q: PayChange does not give clear results by itself.

Rows Columns Chi-Square Confidence Interval#

PayChange OKforMR 0.189 81.1%
PayChange MRFrequency 0.148 85.2%
PayChange Personal 0.100 90%
#
Level of Confidence is taken at 80% instead of the regular 90% due to a small respondent base.

Detailed observations of the crosstabulations do not reveal any specifics, as the responses are spread in
an almost even fashion across the whole table in all three instances given above.

8
MR Project - MBA Marcom I
 Harshal Modi

Recommendations
N.B.: The recommendations are based on the findings in the previous section. To ease continuity, the
recommendation no. corresponds directly to the finding no. it is based on.

Recommendation 1

An effort should be made to improve upon the results of the present polling system. Although the majority
of respondents are satisfied with the results, it does not match the percentage of respondents giving a
positive rating to the system itself.

Recommendation 2

The present polling system need not be changed, specifically as in increasing the number of questions that
can be asked. In case it needs to be changed to implement Recommendation 1, another survey should be
carried out with exact details of the new system, so as to find what the respondents think of the new
system prior to implementing it.

Recommendation 3

The forum can immediately implement MR campaigns on a formal level. The member base is highly
responsive to conducting MR campaigns.

Recommendation 3.1
The majority of the respondent base of the MR campaigns have to be those members who spend a
minimum of 2 hours daily on the forum. This type of member is the most responsive to MR campaigns
conducted by the forum.

Recommendation 3.2
The number of campaigns should not exceed one campaign per week, unless exceedingly necessary. The
respondents are also not averse to having a larger frequency of campaigns, but this can be tested during
the implementation phase as well.

Recommendation 3.3
Although the forum provides a cloak of anonymity to the members, they are ready to take it off for the MR
campaigns. Hence, the forum can also take up surveys that require member details to be declared, rather
than taking on only anonymous survey campaigns.

Recommendation 4

As the finding does not give any specific idea of what will happen if remuneration is provided to the
respondents against not providing it, the recommendation is to decide about the remuneration during the
implementation phase. The first few campaigns can be unremunerated surveys, and later, based either on
the feedback given by respondents, or the actual performance of the implementation, remuneration can be
provided to the respondents.

9
MR Project - MBA Marcom I
 Harshal Modi

Appendices

Codes & Nomenclature followed in the report

This section gives some details about the nomenclature followed in this report. For the findings section,
data has been taken from the SPSS v13 software. For questions from the questionnaire in the project, the
format Q: QuestionCode or Qs: Question1Code, Question2Code... have been used. In the crosstabulation
and other tables, the ‘Q: ‘ code has been removed, and only the SPSS code is used. The list of Questions
and their codes is given below:

No. SPSS Qcode Question

1 UName Your PaGaLGuY.com Username
2 AgeGroup Age Group
3 Education Education
4 ULevel PaGaLGuY.com User Level
5 TimeSpent Time spent on PaGaLGuY.com
6 PollPortal Have you participated in the open polls on the PG portal?
7 PollForum Have you ever taken part in a poll on the PG forums?
8 PollStart Have you ever started a poll on the PG forums?
9 NonStandard Have you ever used any of these or other non-standard features to approximate
the polling procedure on PaGaLGuY.com? 1. Quiz/Polls on Shoutbox 2.
Thank/Groan feature to say yes/no or agree/disagree to a question 3. Directly
entering answers in a post based on questions given in another post
10 PresentRating How would you rate the polling system at present on PaGaLGuY.com?
11 Satisfaction How satisfied are you with the results that the present polling system provides?
12 FormalMR Have you ever participated in any formal market research exercise?
13 FutureRating How would you rate the polling system if more than one question was allowed in
the polls?
14 OKforMR Are you ready to participate in Market Research projects if PaGaLGuY.com
starts formal Market Research Initiatives?
15 MRFrequency How regularly would you participate in such formal Market Research surveys?
16 Personal Would you share your personal details with the survey administrators?
17 PayChange Would your answers to Q14 - Q16 change if you were paid for participating in
PaGaLGuY.com's Market Research initiatives?

10
MR Project - MBA Marcom I
 Harshal Modi

Secondary Data

To measure the responsiveness of the member base to MR campaigns on a formal level.

o The member base of PaGaLGuY.com consists of students and working professionals, primarily of
the age group of 19 years to 27 years, with some members above that age.
o The members are divided into the following backgrounds:
ƒ Students of Final, and Pre-final year graduation/college.
ƒ Professionals fresh out of college and into their first jobs.
ƒ Software industry professionals looking outside of their present job scenario.
ƒ Students presently doing their MBA’s.
ƒ Professionals who have completed their MBA – present but in a very small number.
o The primary common points that identifies these groups as similar are:
ƒ Each of the members is, or was at a particular point in time, an MBA Aspirant.
ƒ Each member wants to get information about MBA courses within, and outside India, after
graduation, or graduation & work experience, in India.
ƒ As some members have done, or are doing, their MBA already, they act as counsellors to the
aspirants.
o The forum, as of 10:06 AM, 15th Jan 07, has 1,00,556 members, who have contributed 6,51,153
posts in 19,058 topical threads. The forum gets 200,000 to 400,000 page views daily, from
members and visitors both.

To gauge the interest of the clients for MR campaigns in an already segmented market arena.
o The Forum provides the following services to clients, amongst others:
ƒ Advertisement inventory: Each page has on an average 15 ads spread all around the main
data. The Ads are divided into Internal, & Client advertisements. Internal advertisements are
Ads that are run by the forum to publicize specific activities of the forum itself.
ƒ Articles: In different sections of the Portal, the forum sells space for articles, like Spotlight,
Event News, etc.
ƒ Interviews: The forum puts up paid interviews of Deans & Directors of Bschools.
ƒ Other, non-formal services: Awareness & Outreach Contests, Keyword searches, Content
Management, etc.
o Clients for the forum are:
ƒ Bschools across the country, who tie up with the forum for:
¾ Advertising inter-college Fests and Meets.
¾ Interviews with Deans and Directors.
¾ Placement reports & other Press Releases.
¾ As Online Partners for Events held by students of that Bschool.
¾ As content and logistics providers for Online Contests.
¾ Eg.: SIBM, SCMHRD, SPJIMR, IIMs (ABCIKL), etc.
ƒ MBA Coaching Classes, who tie up with the forum for:
¾ Advertising courses targeted for MBA Aspirants.
¾ As Online Media Partners/Online Partners for Events held by the institute.
¾ As logistics providers for counselling sessions.
¾ Eg.: IMS, MBA Mission, CATalyst, etc.
ƒ Youth Brands, who tie up with the forum for:
¾ Advertising about online sales and youth products.
¾ Online contests & competitions.

To identify the logistical and infrastructural requirements for managing an MR campaign within the
forum.
o The Forum has presently, one Tech Staff, and outsources Server handling (Except moderation &
content management.)
o The Forum is run on two server systems at a Data centre run by a third party.
o Presently, the forum allows questionnaires at two levels:
ƒ Open for All Polls: One question only, with four options, and a person is allowed to vote as
many times as one feels like.
ƒ Poll Threads: One Question only, with different possible settings: Multiple options, single
option, Maximum 10 possible answer options. Open only to members, with specific interest in
the thread where the poll has been designed.
o Other than these, the members run polls and research queries within the threads itself, but the
basic methodology utilized is non-formal and random.
o The Server systems are unable to control more than 2500 users on the site at any point in time,
after which the administrators switch off non-essential services like a chat engine, post related
thank/groan functions, etc. to maintain usability.
11
MR Project - MBA Marcom I
 Harshal Modi

Questionnaire
1 Your PaGaLGuY.com Username

2 Age Group
< 18 years
18 - 21 years
21 - 24 years
24 - 27 years
> 27 years

3 Education
Undergraduation/Diploma
Studying Graduation
Graduation Complete
Studying Postgraduation
Postgraduation Complete

4 PaGaLGuY.com User Level

Moderator/Administrator
Ranked User
Certified Pagal
Addicted Pagal
Expert Pagal
Trainee Pagal
Newbie Pagal

5 Time spent on PaGaLGuY.com

< 1 hr/week
< 1 hr/day
1 - 2 hrs/day
2 - 4 hrs/day
> 4 hrs/day

6 Have you participated in the open polls on the PG portal?

O Yes
O No

7 Have you ever taken part in a poll on the PG forums?

O Yes
O No

8 Have you ever started a poll on the PG forums?

O Yes
O No

9 Have you ever used any of these or other non-standard features to approximate the
polling procedure on PaGaLGuY.com? 1. Quiz/Polls on Shoutbox 2. Thank/Groan
feature to say yes/no or agree/disagree to a question 3. Directly entering answers in a
post based on questions given in another post
O Yes
O No

12
MR Project - MBA Marcom I
 Harshal Modi

10 How would you rate the polling system at present on PaGaLGuY.com?

O Excellent
O Very good
O Good
O Neutral
O Poor
O Bad
O Very bad

11 How satisfied are you with the results that the present polling system provides?
O Very satisfied
O Satisfied
O Neutral
O Dissatisfied
O Very dissatisfied

12 Have you ever participated in any formal market research exercise?

O Yes
O No

13 How would you rate the polling system if more than one question was allowed in the
polls?
O Excellent
O Very good
O Good
O Neutral
O Poor
O Bad
O Very bad

14 Are you ready to participate in Market Research projects if PaGaLGuY.com starts formal
Market Research Initiatives?
O Definitely yes
O Probably
O Not Decided
O Probably not
O Definitely not

15 How regularly would you participate in such formal Market Research surveys?
O Daily
O Several times a week
O Once a week
O Several times a month
O Once a month
O Once in two to six months
O Never

16 Would you share your personal details with the survey administrators?
O Strongly agree
O Agree
O Neutral
O Disagree
O Strongly disagree

13
MR Project - MBA Marcom I
 Harshal Modi

17 Would your answers to Q14 - Q16 change if you were paid for participating in
PaGaLGuY.com's Market Research initiatives?
O Definitely yes
O Probably
O Not Decided
O Probably not
O Definitely not

14
MR Project - MBA Marcom I