Jugaad/ Frugal research

Jugaad is a colloquial Hindi term which means overcoming harsh resource constraints and finding a sustainable, frugal and ingenious solution to a problem. The closest Western term with a similar meaning is “hack”.

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  5-6 weeks of exploratory research to develop the positioning platforms, followed by testing these platforms.
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  This approach is often not suitable when working under resource or time constraints.
• Frugal/‘Jugaad’ research cuts this process down by harnessing the power of information available in the public domain and developing positioning platforms and testing them in as little as 3-4 weeks’ time. Based on this idea, we ran a workshop at the MRS Global conference Impact 2015 in London.

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  Need easy and nimble research solutions that can help make effective and quick marketing decisions, in a world which is fast moving.
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  Want to develop relevant positioning platforms, but have a limited time and budget. By its nature the method is best suited for your second tier brands that do not attract large budgets. It would not be applicable if it is your first foray into a new category, or the category/ segment is tricky and requires a detailed exploratory study to begin with.

• Frugal/‘Jugaad’ research bypasses the exploratory phase without sacrificing the quality and the efficacy of the output. Instead, we analyse the following to develop positioning platforms:
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  Already existing consumer insights.
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  Social indicators like ads, movies, shows, magazines, social media for cultural cues.
• These can be straightaway taken into the testing phase, and adapted/modified or added to if needed.

   

  The inspiration for this idea was drawn from a book by Radjou Navi, Prabhu Jaideep, and Ahuja Simone called ‘Jugaad’ Innovation: A Frugal & Flexible Approach to Innovation for the 21st Century.