Author: Rama Bijapurkar
The fast growing Indian market is evolving at an unprecedented rate. The business houses of the world are getting allured to earn a share of the money, the growing India is ready to shell out. Rama Bijapurkar, in her book gives a kaleidoscopic perspective of the complex Indian consumer. This book gives multinationals a deep insight into the minds of Indians.
However lucrative the Indian market may seem, it isn’t easy to capture. There is ample of socio-cultural diversity and economic disparity. What lies within India is many small Indias which respond to the same factor in different ways. So how does a new entrant find his target customer? Is it the aspiring middle class, the rural India, educated class with high expectations, the urban poor, the self employed or the very rich? This book focuses on each of these groups and many more like these. Their behavior and expectations and why they should be targeted. Even if India is an emerging market, it’s not necessarily a virgin one. It has been subjected to many products, global as well as indigenous. It’s not necessary that brands which have excelled in other similar markets would perform in the same way in India. Pepsi and Cola struggle but Nokia wins. Honda and Samsung walk away with the market but Mercedes and Kellogg’s do not. Same with Walt Disney. The Indian child represents a poor country’s Internet generation. This situation is different from that in the rest of the world. Indians are growing tech savvy, but they don’t stop believing in astrology. Instead they get computerized horoscopes! On one hand we have farmers in deep debt on the other hand we have the big fat Indian weddings which astonish the entire world. We are the global IT powerhouse but retaining students in primary schools is a challenge. Thus the Indian population is diverse in all aspects. We must understand that no country can change its DNA, and so is it with India. The author therefore suggests that we have a more local and customized strategy which is tailor made for the Indian market.
To understand the market more, it is essential to study its evolution over the decades. The book takes you through the Nehruvian times of socialistic economy to the post 1991 liberalization. The growth which happened subsequently and the income rise witnessed by Indians make India a promising economy. What is important is the rate at which this growth is happening. Suddenly the consumer was exposed to myriad brands and was spoilt for choice. The price of goods and services reduced and credit was more easily available. Consumption increased but not uniformly. The author has scrutinized the situation quite well. Considerable part of the income was spent in buying cell phones, automobiles, refrigerators, houses etc. which also improved their status. As a result less or limited money was available for goods like soaps etc. Thus the preferred quality of certain products went down. The per capita income rose and the life style of people improved. But the bad news is that though car owners increased, the situation of roads did not. Cell phones penetrated villages but they exhaust network capacity. The infrastructure did not improve to sustain high growth rate. Consumption is determined by other factors as well. The stock market, prices of real estate, interest rates etc. Poor monsoon affects rural consumption but does not affect the footfall in malls. Recession or turmoil in the American economy result in salary cuts, layoffs and job insecurity among the IT professionals. But it hardly affects rural spending. The book provides an in-depth analysis of these sections of the country.
The curiosity of what actually lies at the bottom of the pyramid is answered satisfactorily. It has a large section of the population who buy little bit of lot of things. This fact gets reiterated in the book through various facts, figures and findings. The construct of the market structure can be defined as premium, popular and discount. These categories are based on the consumption habits of the customers. The premium segment consists of 10% of the population followed by 30% and 60% by popular and discount respectively. But these categories are equal in terms of value. So the categorization is simplified for the market entrant. Bijapurkar in her book also mentions the characteristics of these specific groups. The premium segment follows “money for value” approach where as the consumer class looks for “value for money”.
She advices rethinking upon the community consumption strategy. The consumption habits of Indians are highlighted impeccably. Their habit of squeezing out the last drop of everything is something which is non-existent in the rest of the world. The book also discusses the target market of various businesses along with the underlying reasons. The characteristics of these markets; also highlighting their positive and negative sides. The difference in consumption patterns of people with the same income but different occupations is depicted very well. The analysis of the different SECs to map the mental models of the people belonging to them is a very good indicator of the market behavior. This shows that SECs can also determine your target customer. Along with income levels, the author heavily emphasizes on the psychographic determinants of consumption. The demographic advantage which India has and the attitude of people belonging to different generations form an indispensible part of studying India.
The Indian consumer has also been analyzed on ethnic basis. Similarly she also goes a step ahead to talk about how changes in the surroundings affect theses various groups. How these changes create a ripple effect and become trends. These changes include education, better job opportunities, and social changes due to increased literacy. The working women population and their requirements give rise to new business opportunities. The Tiffin box service or increased demand of ready-to-eat food is an outcome of serving the working woman. Improving technology has visibly changed the façade of Indian lifestyle. The IT sector employing bright minds at a handsome cost, penetration of ATM machines in rural areas, and ticket bookings over the internet as opposed to serpentine queues; all indicate how the Indian consumer has changed and moreover has shown willingness to change.
Finally, in a country where people negotiate prices at every step, cut blood sugar detection strips into two and reuse them, the DNA would not change easily. But when the traditional system of arranged marriage goes online, we say this can happen in India! When McDonald’s comes up with an Indian alu tikki burger, a Jumbo King pops up serving vada paav in the burger style! Innovation happens every minute, every second. Not all of them work. This book will help you decide probably which one might and which may not. It is a comprehensive insight on the Indian mindset, but does get repetitive at times. Keeps you wanting more of her apt examples which shows you that we are like that only!
