Change to meet your Needs

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Consumer Behavior is changing in India

Consumer Behavior is changing in India Recently India is undergoing a huge change in consumer behavior. We are undergoing huge changes in last 5-6 years and off course, more to come. The road of super market now opened into a trendy ‘Mall Business’. People don’t always go to the malls only for shopping; it became a joint for a date or cool place to meet friends. “Window Shoppers” are more than actual shoppers. The concept of “Ghost Shoppers” is yet to come here, which will also happen eventually to keep the quality of the retail outlets. Buyers are God now, more knowledgeable and having more options in their hands before they decide to purchase and invest their money. View of Malls in Gurgaon Area. In a diversified country like India cultural factors exert the broadest and deepest influence on consumer behavior; we will look at the role played by the buyer’s culture, subculture, and social class. Culture: Culture is the most fundamental determinant of a person’s wants and behavior. Whereas lower creatures are governed by instinct, human behavior is largely learned. The child growing up in a society leans a basic set of values, perceptions, preferences and behaviors through a process of socialization involving the family and other key institution .Thus a child growing up in India is exposed to the following values: Achievement and success, activity , efficiency and practicality, progress, material comfort, individualism, freedom, external comfort, humanitarianism, and youthfulness. Social Factors: A consumer’s behavior is also influenced by social factors, such as the consumer’s reference group, family, and social roles and statuses. Reference Group: A person’s behavior is strongly influenced by many group .A persons reference group are those groups that have a direct (face to face) or indirect influence on the person’s attitudes or behavior. Group having a direct influence on a person are called membership group. These are group to which the person belongs and interacts. Some are primary groups. With which there is fairly continuous interaction, such as family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Primary group tend to be informal. The person also belong to secondary group, which tend to be more formal and where there is less continuous interaction: they include religious organizations, professional associations, and trade unions. Family Group: Members of the buyer’s family can exercise a strong influence on the buyer’s behavior. We can distinguish between two families in the buyer’s life. The family of orientation consists of one’s parents. From parents a persons acquires an orientation towards religious, politics, and economics and a sense of personal ambitions, self –worth, and love. Even if the buyer no longer interacts very much with his or her parents, the parents influence on the unconscious behavior of the buyer can be significant. In countries where parents continue to live with their children, their influence can be substantial like India. In case of expensive products and services, husband and wives engage in more joint decision making. The market needs to determine which member normally has the greater influence in the purchase of a particular products or services. either the husband or the wife , or they have equal influence . The following products and services fall under such: Husband – dominant: life insurance, automobiles, television Wife – dominant: washing machines, carpeting, non –living – room furniture, kitchenware Equal: Living – room furniture, vacation, Housing, outside entertainment. How to succeed: Companies like Nokia, Reebok, watch the document how they've faced and overcome the Challenge in India, Coke, PepsiCo and major automobile giants like Toyota, Suzuki, Ford, Chevrolet, Mercedes etc.. has made a market for themselves in India. See my earlier posting on their Advertisements to catch up Indian consumers and to get the break through.How did they establish their own individual market in a country like India which is prone to diverse cultures? Let’s take the example of Ford. Kindly see the Ad done by Ford in my last posting. Before establishing their base in India, they engaged in a lot of researches. Their researches were made on the Indian people’s social life, personal tastes and preferences, way of life, how they identify an effective product and what makes them get attracted towards a product. The social and economic conditions were analyzed. The general economy of India was also researched on. They had modified their product to suit the Indian conditions. Their technology had to be adjusted and suited to such an extent that their car is adaptable to Indian conditions. Indians are generally prone to be rough and tough customers and especially taking into account the road conditions and other social factors they designed the product in such a way that it’s best suited to the conditions and it’s received by the target customers. Today Ford is enjoying a huge market in India. If an automobile company from a different country can make wonders why cannot our own manufacturers adapt to these techniques? A customer’s want has to be identified and his expectations must be matched with the other economic and social factors so that their product is receptive. This can be related to any product. Reebok today is enjoying a huge market in India even though they have hired a company which is phoenix to manufacture shoes and operate under Reebok. How did they achieve this? Adapting to social conditions play the most important role in establishing your brand in the market. This also means that customers are open to new and different products from time to time. It’s just that they want the product to be flexible and adaptable to their needs and preferences. People are changing from time to time, so do their tastes and preferences. Identifying those is the first step towards achieving success and the rest depends on the performance of the product.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Consumer behavior isn't changing but the fact that we are all adopting each others culture...

Anonymous said...

With more disposable incomes & access to most latest consumer products things are bound to change, also globalization has changed mindsets.

Anonymous said...

India has adopted the ways of western consumerism since mid-90's after its markets opened up. Privatization of many consumer sectors has changed economies of scale. Better paying jobs, more dispensable income, mushrooming multi-plexes which houses movie theatres, shopping malls, food courts, etc have changed Indian outlook in the new millenium. In the 80's the average Indian dreamt of working overseas and leading a better quality life - Today, that is not the case with the changing structure of consumerism and globalization within India.

Anonymous said...

Before talking about the Indian consumer, we need to take a step back , and evaluate how the social structure has changed in India.

Changing social structure - with a strong unidirectional movement from rural areas to urban India, joint families breaking into segments like Double Income No Kid, Single Income No Kid, Double Income One Kid, live together, our needs & aspirations have taken a big shift.

we no longer tend to discuss with family members, on pre-purchase assessments. we rely on sources like internet, tele-marketing, point of sales promotion etc.

the Urban India is fast becoming a individualist dominating set up, and hence our choices & needs.

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