Last decade plus a few years have been significant for the Indian market and consumer. Globalization, growth, multiple choices, increasing purchasing power and unprecedented access to information have all burst on to the scene in rapid succession.
With increasing purchasing power today's consumer is far more discerning. And this can be witnessed in areas beyond the world of products alone. Look at the "massification" of news. For years Doordarshan has delivered news like an information delivery system and Indian consumers have consumed it thus. With the mass media boom, coupled with a relatively stable economy and increasing disposable incomes, the consumer is willing to pay extra for a cable connection. And with this willingness to pay extra, came the demand and assertion for wanting to see things his own way. "I will decide what I enjoy"- so news today is "infotainment".
The importance of understanding the Indian consumer in his own space, his comfort zone, his cultural context, value system, the underlying beliefs but contradictory behavior, is critical.
Majority of the Indian consumers today are in a cusp-like situation. A transition phase-he is not averse to change, is ready to accept new types of things but is negotiating traditions. For example, while the old practice of manual grinding, etc. has given place to newer gadgets in the kitchen, it is still not easy to sell a product to an Indian housewife on the basis of pure convenience alone even though she may desire precisely that. It has to be packaged in benefits like "this will leave you more time to spend with your children and husband". |
