'Sir, it will take only two minutes' I insisted. All I got in return was a nice little smirk from the gentleman (atleast that was what I presumed him to be when I approached him). The day hadn’t been really good but it was exciting to be back in field. I was reminded of the times when I was stalking married women for my survey for a specific brand of detergent about a year ago. At times, it got dangerous, the stalking business and it was only my college ID card that came to my rescue to prove my innocence and intentions. I dreaded when I thought of what would have happened had I forgotten to carry it!
It finally was time to put the Marketing Research concepts learnt in class to practice. The only problem – we were more viewed as salesmen selling credit cards and insurance rather than as diligent students pursuing research purely for academic purposes. Having reached this sweet little mall in Chinchwad to carry out our research, we were again woken up with a rude shock. Welcome to the real world - field is your classroom! Warned sternly by the security guards to not conduct any activity involving ‘paper and pen’ even remotely on the mall premises – we had to take to the roads, literally! Standing next to the road, rushing towards any man or woman who himself or herself was in a rush, it almost felt like we were in a great big stalking championship! Some people were nice and agreed to give us five minutes of their time and answered our questions seriously while others bordered from being bored to showing funny signs with their hands when approached. And that is when it happened. The head security officer saw us and came charging. For a moment, I was stunned. It felt like a herd of wild buffaloes rushing towards us to squash us to death. The next thing I felt was a strong tug from my friend on my shirt – we were running towards our car to save our small marketing lives!
Catch of the day – 17 filled questionnaires! We were on a roll. Celebrations happened at a nearby McDonald’s outlet with a happy meal menu. It was not over though. Tomorrow – a new mall, newer sample of people and even better and bigger security guards to run away from!
And people think that the salesmen die only in Arthur Miller plays!
hahaha
ReplyDeletepoor you
the benefit of being a senior in d advtg agency is that u can send ur juniors for researches and dip sticks
:D
khair, lagey raho
ek din jaroor safal hoge balak
jab tak duniya bikegi, salesmen bhi rahenge yahan
god bless
LOl. good one and I wish Arthur Miller could have read this!
ReplyDelete@adee - he he...thanks man :)
ReplyDelete@ Nikki - :)
kya yaar abhi tak yahi kaam mein laga hua hai!! maine to ye sab grad mein hi niptaa lia.. :D
ReplyDelete@Dhiraj - haan haan..tu to bond hai...we were stupid to spend entire semester on Research Methodology and its nuances...tere se hi seekh leta...kyun?
ReplyDelete