Consumer India

Consumerism is phenomenon spreading across the width and length of the country like never before. This phenomenon is not endemic to particular cities and zones but a characteristic to the modern India. This has led to a spree of chain retailing, hypermarkets, supermarkets, etc. The Indian consumer has never been so privileged to have such a diverse access. News of world class players entering into Indian markets is common place today. The Indian consumer is no more a commodity starved lot today. The Big Bazaar belonging to the Future Group is a revolution to the Indian consumer upheaval.


There have been a number of major reasons to this consumer revolution that is being witnessed in India. The segmentization of the market has been a welcome change where the consumers and retailers are aware of the expectations from each other. The Indian economy comprises mainly of workers in the unorganized sectors and a chain like Big Bazaar has provided affordability and reliability to such a market segment. The possibility of such a revolution can also be attributed to the meticulous supply chain that has been set up by these organizations. This enables enhanced revenues and decreased overheads. The example of such an initiative is the e choupal set up by ITC. Aggressive advertising has helped each of the brands to become visible across the varying demographics of the country. Again, ITC's work has been exemplary in this regard; Bingo is a wonderful example (Demographically varying target segments). The booming economy has helped brands with the improvement in the buying capacity of the consumers; the current generation of Indian consumers is uncompromising in nature. A simple example would be to observe that there is simply no difference in retailing patterns between a posh mall in Bangalore and a similar one in the Queens, NY. Our IT sector also deserves a huge applaud here, after all we are arguably the most sought after IT destination in the world. The role played by the FIIs (Foreign Institutional Investors) is a critical one as we all realize the significance of investment into any sector, we all hope the bulls carry it on........ The recent urbanization trend of modern India has also helped this scenario to a very great extent, also because urbanization entails greater representation in the tax net and that creates a hope for a better India. Last to mention, but not the least is the role played by our very own intrepid entrepreneurs with their incredibly original and innovative ideas. Hats off to our desi leaders.... I strongly feel that Indians have the capability of being immaculate managers due to the fact that the implication of the phrase manage kar lena yaar comes very naturally to us.

The picture is not as rosy and does not apply to the whole of the nation as there are a number of issues on which our country still struggles on. But, the picture presented above is definitely the way forward. This is an optimistic account of things and hope that the optimism pays off. I find the line India Poised very apt in this scenario, with a hope that India finally turns it on......

After all, one cannot discount one seventh of the world population!!!