The Market Research Society of India a Webinar on 5th April 2024, on "Using the ISEC classification". The session was hosted by Mitali Chowhan, Director General at Market Research Society of India and welcomes speakers Parijat Chakraborty, India Lead - Public Affairs, Corporate Reputation, ESG, CSR, Ipsos; Prashant Kolleri, Leader - Consumer & Marketing Insights and Analytics, NielsenIQ; and Siddhartha Banerjee, Director F2F & CATI Data Acquisition South Asia, Kantar. This insight session will serve as a guide to learn and understand more about the ISEC classification system and its relevance.
The session began with Prashant Kolleri, Leader - Consumer & Marketing Insights and Analytics, NielsenIQ introducing ISEC. He expressed his enthusiasm saying, “As we have witnessed the official launch of ISEC, we have received so much acceptance and excitement from stakeholders, whether research practitioners like us or agency experts. For us as an industry, it is a significant milestone.”
Stressing on the changing landscape of India and ISEC’s relevance Prashant said, “Over the last 5 to 7 years, there has been a significant shift in terms of development in utility-driven aspects and social aspects of the country. Some of these have far-reaching implications when it comes to consumerism or consumption as a whole. Our society is experiencing a rapid rise in living standards and access to consumer goods, improving lives for a broader segment of the population and there are massive overlaps between social strata across the band. This is why ISEC is relevant.”
Speaking on new construct he said, “We needed a definition which can be adaptable and live across the entire nation. We are proud to have developed a system that delivers all four pillars: Stability, Discriminating, One definition and Simple and Clear. The most optimum construct for classifying households is on three core aspects: chief wage earner's occupation, education of the highest educated male adult, and the education of the highest educated female adult.”
Speaking on the implementation of ISEC, Parijat Chakraborty, India Lead - Public Affairs, Corporate Reputation, ESG, CSR, Ipsos said, “While implementation we ensure micro classification through occupation and education grid, which is more dynamic. There are 6 segments of occupation including labour, farmer, worker, trader/shopkeeper, clerical/sales/supervisory and managerial/professional. Followed by 6 segments of education including no formal education, up to 5th standard, class 6th to 9th, class 10th to 14th, degree regular and degree professional. This system essentially tracks how a household's outlook evolves based on the education levels of both the male and female adults living there. Interestingly, even within the same occupation category, you can see a wide range of changes in how these households are classified. The next challenge we face is determining how to handle interviews that involve diverse scenarios and, specifically, how to best represent those scenarios in our quotes.”
Speaking on how ISEC’s functionality, Siddhartha Banerjee, Director F2F & CATI Data Acquisition South Asia, Kantar said, “The real challenge lies in practical implementation, particularly when the industry relies on freelancers for data collection. Investing significant time in training them on the classification system (the grid) is crucial to capture accurate classifications. While comprehensive documentation exists online, it should be readily available to everyone as a reference. However, even the most exhaustive documentation can't predict every situation. Open communication is essential to address unique scenarios that arise during data collection. By discussing these situations and sharing learnings across the team, we ensure everyone remains aligned and captures data effectively.”
Watch the complete webinar and delve deeper into the ISEC classification system
here.