"Would you consider changing your brand of fever medication?"

"Certainly not. Too risky!"

"Then why would you not go to a doctor when you have fever? Why self medicate?"

Contradictions abound in the Indian market. Having conducted substantial research across categories, we discovered that unless we find some patterns to explain contradictions such as this, we will make only linear progress in selling and marketing products. Transformational growth can only come from a thorough understanding of the paradigm of safety and risk.

This paper attempts to understand the psychological triggers to safety seeking and risk-taking behavior, as well as the semiotics of safety and risk.

The paper has three key deliverables:

� Understanding the safety seeking, risk-taking mindset or psyche

� Eliciting the 'hot buttons' for safety-seeking and risk-taking behaviour

� Identifying the semiotic cues for safety and risk

While this paper was conceived with the aim of understanding risk aversion and risk-taking to aid the financial products category, these learnings can be used in a range of industries. The paper will help marketers develop propositions and communication, perhaps even products that are likely to resonate with consumers.

We used an exhaustive array of research that we had done in various categories to arrive at a list of contradictions in the paradigm of safety and risk. We followed this with a semiotic analysis of the terms 'safety' and 'risk', following it by meeting psychologists and financial marketers. Armed with this dual understanding of the individual and the market, we conducted our primary research with consumers. ... more