Research firm Quantum launches Quantum 360, a new toolkit for marketers

The qualitative research firm Quantum Market Research has formally announced the launch of its consumer-centric consulting business, Quantum 360.

Quantum 360 aims to address new age brand and marketing challenges. It derives its 360-degree perspective through years of diverse consumer expertise and processes that aid disruptive thinking.

While the division saw a soft launch a couple of months ago, it has been officially announced to brands and marketers now. In the interim period, it has begun work for brands such as Estée Lauder, HUL, Mahindra & Mahindra and ITC, among others.

Discussing the launch, Meena Kaushik, executive chairperson, Quantum Market Research, says, "This is a really big step in our journey to understand the consumer more holistically, and more deeply. It is the new face of Quantum that we believe our clients will find invaluable."

This new division, manned by marketing experts, semiotic and other multidisciplinary experts, provides consumer consulting. The philosophy of the division is to provide an overall perspective of the consumer by integrating the various facets of the consumers' reality, thereby providing consumer insights and marketing solutions.

Quantum 360 takes off as a consumer consultancy, which partners with marketers, in moving from a uni-dimensional view of marketing challenges, to a multi-dimensional perspective derived from understanding the ecosystem.

By wearing multi-disciplinary lenses, it aims to enable marketers to look beyond the obvious questions and think beyond the reasonable answers.

Its process of 'imagineering' (imagination-engineering) aggregates many thought disciplines - research, ethnography, semiotics, market data, retail analysis, consumer trends, psycho-analysis, domain experts, media imprinting, web ethnography and what-if ideations.

Some of the current projects that Quantum 360 is working on include creation of a new automobile targeted at 'future consumers', the search for alternative energy opportunities in rural India, creation of an 'India Marketing Mandate' for a global beauty brand, defining the code of contemporary Indian masculinity and innovative low-cost housing solutions in rural India.

For the record, Quantum started its journey in 1990 in the qualitative research business. The need to understand consumer culture and behaviour more deeply led to the creation of Quantum Ethnography in 2008. Anthropologists and cultural historians who study the consumers in their cultural and historical context handle the division. Data is collected from consumers operating in their own habitats and milieu to obtain a reflection of their reality.

Around the same time, the research firm had also launched Quantum Live, a division that facilitates marketing, innovation and marketing personnel to have live experiences and interactions with the consumers in their homes, as well as in their social setting.