Studying The Consumer

Updated on: Wednesday, September 21, 2011

XLRI Jamshedpur set up a behavioural lab on campus recently, an inter-disciplinary laboratory; it will allow researchers to explore the minds of prospective consumers across categories. Fr E Abraham S J, director of XLRI, inaugurated the lab. In a way the behavioral research lab initiative is akin to the marketing fair of XLRI - ‘MAXI Fair’ introduced in 1979 and thereafter replicated widely in business schools across India.

The lab will be available for use across all functional disciplines of the XLRI comprising XLRI faculty, fellow-researchers, and post-graduate students. Conceptualised last year, the lab is aimed at providing students and teachers with cutting-edge research tools designed to study behavioural trends. The lab will undertake collaborative studies with all the departments within the XLRI campus. The lab is also forging tie-ups with researchers and institutes of repute in the field. It is also equipped with video-mixing equipment and a conference room.

Fr E Abraham, S J, director, said, “We are delighted to have a behavioural lab on the campus. We at XLRI strive hard to groom responsible leaders for tomorrow, and we have always initiated innovative initiatives with a view to advance the horizons of management education in the country.”
 
The lab has chalked out plans to establish a consumer panel of over 3000 people from different walks of life. The consumer panel will include people from urban and rural parts of Jamshedpur and East Singhbhum district.
                                                                                                                    
Presently the lab is equipped with software like Qualtrics, Media Lab and equipments to run experiments based on the principles of cognitive psychology like direct response time machine that help in understanding whether the stimulus shown to people is having an emotional or cognitive impact. The lab also has facilities like one-way mirror observation rooms for group experiments, etc.

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