Help MSY find house for Akhilesh at Index ’14

Lucknow: To know what suitable place Mulayam Singh Yadav is looking for to buy a house for his son and UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in, visit INDEX 2014, a disguised market research event, conducted by students of the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.
The two-day fair that began on Saturday also gives an opportunity to go on a date with stand-up comedian ‘Gutthi’.But for this, you will have to win her heart answering certain questions and then passing through a series of tests by Dadi and Palak of the TV show Comedy Circus.
The 20th edition of INDEX had seven such games centred around real life, television and comic characters to gauge people’s needs and perspectives on several products available in the market. In other events, characters like Harry Potter in ‘Jaddu ki Duniya’ and Amitabh Bachchan in ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ were designed to gauge people’s responses about several things like real estate, favourite advertisements that keep them going. The game Big Boss judged deeds of people and accordingly sent them to heaven or hell. Or, shaadi.com at another stall became the best way to find a partner for your daughter. Film characters like Babu Bhaiya, Gaon ke Sarpanch, beautiful angels, etc also entertained the city people in a great way.
Enjoying the fair, Suman Jaiswal from Gomti Nagar said, “Every year, INDEX offer something new. Games designed by the students are innovative and it’s fun to ‘meet’ famous people in a disguised form. My children love being here.’’
More than a fair, the event is part of the market research initiative by the students of IIM-L. It is based on the concept of ‘disguised market research’ — which seeks to gain insights into customers’ perspective and needs through intelligently designed games to overcome the ‘sensitisation effect’.
“The participants are our consumers. Through their response, students identify the brand awareness, consumer needs and assess competition,” said Vartika, one of the organisers. She added that after the data is collected, it is evaluated by the experts.
The fair was also host to events like Lucknow Idol, Footloose, Roadies and Sunburn music festival, which is based on Goan music, enthralled the audience. With impromptu events that invited people to participate on the spot, there’s always something going on at the fair.