Is the Future Market Happening?
Demand Drivers

Is the Future Market Happening?

Is the Future Market Happening? The Economic Times – September 2000 The marketing of India as an investment destination is moving into high gear again. ‘Indian market opportunity ‘ has been a traditional pillar of our sales pitch, and over the years, we have moved from hype to hope and now, with eight years of post liberalisation market understanding, it’s time for review and realism. When we first started selling India in the early nineties, statistics about the affluence of the consumer base and the current market size were embarrassing. The sales pitches were perforce about ‘what can happen”, rather than “what it is now”, a picture painted about a huge ‘middle class’ consumer base hungry for products and services that they had been deprived of. The “suppressed demand” theory was soon proved wrong, and the sales pitch moved on to saying that over the years, as incomes grow and […]

September 1, 2000 0 Comments
The Kaleidoscope Of Consumer Demand
Demand Drivers

The Kaleidoscope Of Consumer Demand

Consumer demand in India has been behaving in a fairly capricious manner – or so it seems when viewed at an aggregate level. Every few years, and of late every year, the composition of who is buying, and what they are buying changes quite significantly, a bit like a kaleidoscope where with every shake, the resultant picture has totally changed. The usual explanations of bad monsoon, stock market sluggishness, saturation of larger markets, low consumer confidence don’t seem to apply across the board to all products! In a period of economic slowdown and depressed consumer sentiment, television sets sales increase handsomely, and despite poor agricultural performance, motorcycle sales in rural areas have runaway growth. And nothing seems to last long enough to qualify for a trend that is explainable. Some years, there is sharp growth in demand for rural low priced products, except that in the next year, the urban […]

May 15, 2000 0 Comments
The Human Face Of Markets
Demand Drivers

The Human Face Of Markets

Newspapers during the Republic Day week reminded me of the opening lines in A Tale of Two Cities. The spring of hope and the winter of despair, the best of times and the worst of times etc. etc.. They described an India in which live a few world respected dollar billionaires, many more who are speeding (or trudging) along the ‘three way fast lane’ towards prosperity, and a vast majority waiting on the side for a ‘safe pedestrian crossing’, with the mounting ‘fury of the patient and the long suffering’. They provided ample confirmation that the pain of liberalisation is being borne by one set of people and the pleasures by another. One newspaper article talked of how brainy youth from South India are much in demand in Silicon Valley, and special legislation was brought about in the US in 98-99 to enable more of them to work there. Another […]

February 1, 2000 0 Comments
The Reality of the Indian Market
Demand Drivers

The Reality of the Indian Market

It is perhaps time to take stock of all that we have learnt in these past six or seven years about the nature of the Indian market, now that it has emerged from its shackles of socialism, monopolies and hardly visible income growths. Lesson 1: First and foremost, a generic model of market structure has emerged, with five tiers of demand, ranging from “anywhere in the world consumers who just happen to be in India” to “just escaped from poverty and entering the arena of consumption”. In order to fully exploit the potential of this multi tiered consumer base, there is no escape from a multi pronged product strategy, ranging from “as good as anywhere in the world quality at world prices”, all the way to “adequate quality at affordable prices”. The slight diversion that we took in the recent past, in believing that there was a huge and homogenous […]

September 1, 1999 0 Comments
Consumer Durables In The Villages: Who’s Buying?
Demand Drivers

Consumer Durables In The Villages: Who’s Buying?

Consumer Durables In The Villages: Who’s Buying?The Economic Times – August 1999 Rural India’s recently discovered predilection to enthusiastically consume everything from shampoo to motorcycles has been the subject of much discussion. However the dominant view of the market is as seen through the product window (i.e. from the perspective of “how much of what is being bought”). To gain a better insight into the structure and drivers of consumer demand in Rural India, we need to also develop a view of the market by looking at it through the consumer or ‘people’ window (i.e. from the perspective of “how many of what kind of people are buying”). We need to enlarge the discussion from ‘the market’ to also include ‘the consumers’; from not just what is being bought, but also who is buying; and from thinking ‘product segments’ to also thinking consumer segments. This article presents one vignette of […]

August 1, 1999 0 Comments
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