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Trends Watch

Survey Methodology

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

Our methodology remains the same as last year. The fist question we've asked

each respondent is on 'top of mind recall' for each category. The other two

questions remain the same as last year, wherein the second asks them for their

'most likely' choice of the primary brand if they were to buy the same category

of products in the coming six months and the third asking them to identify the

'primary' brand they currently 'own' for the same product category.

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That's why this time our story has focused on both factors. We first delve

into the perceptions that different people have about various IT brands with our

Most Wanted IT Brands survey. Next, we've done a comprehensive buying guide of

various enterprise IT products and services, which gets into the physical

aspects of various brand categories. Plus, on popular demand, we've also revived

the PCQuest Users' Choice Awards. This time, the Users' Choice awards have been

awarded to the most future ready brands. The meaning of this term has been

explained in our survey methodology.

What's different this time?



There are lots of new things we've done this time to make the survey more
exciting, interesting, and meaningful for our readers. For one, we've added five

new categories that are of interest to IT decision makers, up from 21 that we

analyzed last year. Plus, we've also tracked 17 consumer IT brands categories as

well. This time, we've surveyed 420 IT decision makers of leading Indian

enterprises and 1100 consumers from across the country.

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This survey is useful for IT decision makers as well as consumers of IT

products and services alike. That's because it tells you the best IT brands out

there not based on any test results, but based on what your own peers are

thinking about them. The base for the survey remains the same. All respondents

are asked three basic questions. First, they're asked to name the first brand

that comes to their minds when they think of a particular category of products,

solutions, or services. Next, they tell which brand do they currently own in

that category, and finally which brand are they likely to purchase in the next

three months. All questions are open-ended, meaning they don't get any list of

brands to choose from. The enterprise survey was done through personal

one-on-one meetings, while the consumer survey was conducted online.

The survey results were used to determine the brand persuasiveness, pull, and

loyalty of each brand. These were then used to predict the future readiness of

each brand. The most future ready brand of the lot was also declared the Users'

Choice winner for that category. The results of the Users' Choice awards are

fairly interesting. Many dark horses have emerged from different categories.

More on this in the survey methodology.

Key Insights into the survey
  • Besides the laws of physics, there's one more law that governs the

    future readiness of a brand-new markets. Unless a brand is able to

    identify new opportunities and markets and make its presence felt there,

    it will just not be able to grow. That's why this time, a significant part

    of our enterprise survey database came from sunrise industries-retail,

    healthcare and pharma, real estate, education, Hospitality. Plus of

    course, we had participation from the evergreen segments like BFSI, IT/ITES,

    and manufacturing.
  • Another thing we've done this time is that we've not combined brands

    from the same company. For instance, Microsoft has different versions of

    Windows and there are different vendors selling Linux. Since we're

    tracking different brands in this survey, we've not combined them into one

    'Windows' or 'Linux' brand umbrella. Each brand has its own value, and

    that's what we're tracking.
  • We've changed our criteria for determining winners of the Users'

    Choice awards. This time the Users' Choice Awards have been given to the

    brands with the highest likely future share. In each write-up, we've given

    a Users' Choice Future Readiness Index, which tells you how many brands

    have made it to the club. It shows the fastest moving brand and the speed

    of other brands relative to it. The way to interpret is to imagine the top

    brand as moving at a speed of 100, and the other brands are moving at

    relatively lower speeds.
  • The brand pull and persuasion graphs show a relative index, wherein

    the brand with the highest score is 100, and the scores of others are

    relative to it.
  • We've also given a brand movement pattern graph in the individual

    write-ups. This shows percent of current users who're likely to stay with

    the brand in the future, those who're likely to switch to another brand,

    and finally those who're not sure which brand to shift to.
  • In both consumer and enterprise segments, we only considered brands

    where at least 20 users already owned the brand.
  • One thing we observed from the results this time was that brands with

    a lower current user base typically have higher brand persuasion and pull,

    as compared to brands that have a high current user base. This is only

    logical because brands with higher mass are likely to loose some of it to

    competing brands with lower mass.
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Each 'measure' in the model reflects a 'milestone' in the consumer's

interaction with the brand during the buying process — from recall to

consideration, to intention to buy, to usage. To measure how well a brand is

performing at each of these 3 critical 'transition points', the JuxtConsult

Brand MomentuxTM Model uses a set of simple but effective diagnostics:

  • Brand Persuasion — how much is the consumer convinced about a brand

    to not just consider it but also 'prefer' it over other brands in a particular

    category (by intending to buy it). It reflects the 'persuasive' power of the

    brand (of its positioning, proposition, benefits, image, value, etc).
  • Brand Pull — how much is a brand able to attract and convince

    consumers of competing brands or non-users of the category to prefer or

    'switch over' to the brand. It reflects the 'consumer pull' power of the

    brand.
  • Brand Loyalty — how much is a brand able to convince its

    existing consumers to 'continue' to prefer and buy the brand. It reflects the

    retention or 'loyalty' power of the brand.
  • Brand Momentum — It is measured as a combination of the

    current 'mass' of consumers the brand has, together with the 'current speed'

    at which it is (likely to) gain or lose consumers as a result of its current

    marketing performance. Symbolically, the brand momentum indicates the future

    'market share' potential of the brand.

The current 'mass' of the brand is measured as the 'cumulative' market (or

user) share the brand has accumulated in the market place. This is reflected by

its existing consumer base (including historical buyers who are still using the

brand).

To measure the 'speed' at which a brand is moving in the market place, the

model uses the three critical speed 'acceleration' factors from the brand's

current performance parameters. These are the brand's current 'persuasion'

power, 'consumer pull' power and 'loyalty' power.

In simple marketing terms, the model states that how many consumers a brand

is likely to gain in the future depends on how many consumers prefer the brand

today, how many are likely to switch-into the brand and how many are likely to

continue to stay with the brand. We've done this calculation for each brand and

mentioned it in the individual category pages. The write-up for each brand

carries a relative index for brand persuasion, brand pull, brand movement

pattern, and brand future readiness index.

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