How we navigate our life with proxies...

Marketing is a remarkable field, few concepts that I learned back in my MBA are still stuck with me. One such concept is about “proxies”; I got introduced to it in my marketing 101 lecture during my first semester, but it was recently when I realized the concept is still valid in other spheres of life.?

I was simply amazed by how we in our general lifes try to use proxies in our decision making process. Sometimes, these decisions are very trivial in nature but sometimes they can be the inflection point in our life.?

We use proxies because they are measurable whereas real aspects like ‘being supportive’ are not (Ref. example number 4). But one must use them with caution, they are known for giving directions but may not yield accurate results.?

In a nutshell, when you are out shopping, just know “Har chamakti chiz sona nhi hoti!”?

I can discuss on this for hours, but for LinkedIn purposes, I have mentioned 7 occasions in our life where we tend to use to proxies -?

1.Segmentation in marketing: Marketers generally use proxies to segment the audience in different buckets for various purposes from analyzing to targeting them. The purpose is to understand the broad behavior of subjects belonging to a particular group, which in turn helps in a better decision making process.?

Example - The probability of a person going to gym (segment 1) has more likelihood of buying a range of protein powders in comparison who is not into gymming (segment 1). Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t

2. School teachers nominating school/ class heads: A student good in academics is used as a proxy for almost the majority of decision making and perspective formed by teachers & students themselves.?

Examples - Most of us have experienced this atleast once in our school life, that the student who is good in academics is favored for the position of school/ class head. The academic score of a classroom exam is considered as a proxy for on-field leadership and empathetic traits. But a good student might not be very indulgent and a good leader need not to be good in physics

3. CGPA Cut-offs during campus placements: During my UG, I saw companies across domains of finance, fmcg, consulting etc. having a declared/ un-declared grade cut-off for even to apply to these roles. These firms might have nothing to do with Chemical Engineering or Engineering Physics but the grades were used majorly for two reasons-

1> An easily filter, considering the sheer volume of students who apply to these firms, it becomes difficult to be subjective with every CV the HR gets

2> A proxy for commitment and hard work the candidate will bring to those firms

Nevertheless, there are more than enough rags to riches stories both in corporate & business world?

4. Indian arrange marriage market: The filters on the matrimonial sites or the newspaper ads speak more than I would write here. Everyone would prefer a loving, compassionate, supportive and understanding partner but these are difficult to figure out as humans are complex beings to understand. So, these sites (replication of the society) have proxies setup for you - income, universities, profession, religion, caste, mother-tongue, hometown etc.?

Example - A person earning a good salary & is of same religion is a proxy that the person is aspirational & understanding. It can true and it cannot be as well, the later having a higher risk & consequent implications?

That is why they say, if you find who truly loves you, don’t let them go!??

5. Hours one clocks in the office: There is always someone who would spend more hours in the office than anyone else in the team. Either it is required by the person or the work allocated or it was for getting noticed. The number of hours clocked-in is used as a proxy to show one is dedicated. This proxy has a lot of shortfalls, one it discourages stable work-life balance, second, it might create unnecessary inefficiency in the system

6. Cars, watches, clothes and many more: Fancy belongings from expensive brands are often used as proxies for how rich that person is. But as rightly mentioned in the book Psychology Of Money, wealth is what you don’t see.?

Example - Someone possessing an expensive car or watch is considered rich, but who knows, if it is on a loan against his life savings or just another car for the person?

7. Brands & their product extensions: Oh! If it’s Apple then it ought to be great! We might not fully understand and not possible to get into great details of the product like which screw is being used but you know if it is branded as an Apple or Toyota product it is safe to assume that it is of good quality?

Example - TATA & its products have an associated value of ‘trust’ with it especially in tier-2, tier-3 and rural landscapes of India

I have created a quadrant that one can refer to when to rely/ not rely on proxies-

Let me know if you have used proxies in your life or experienced it in some way. Always up for deeper conversations!