New trends and orientations in Indian consumer behaviour.

Vintila, Georgeta ; Preda, Oana ; Nedelescu, Mihai 等

1. INTRODUCTION

Consumer behaviour will change world over and more so in developing countries like India where social behaviour and literacy levels too are changing. As people migrate from the villages to the cities in search of employment, so will their buying patterns albeit slowly. The main objective of the paper is to provide a real image of the Indian world, and is the beginning of a larger research on the Asian consumer behaviour. The interest on this part of the world's consumers is given by the specific cultures and habits. For those companies who want to be successful in this part of the world consumer behaviour must be of major concern. The interest on this topic is also given by the lack of data in the international literature. The huge Indian market is a target for a lot of companies. In order to be successful on this market one should understand 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.

2. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INDIAN

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

The Indian consumers are noted for the high degree of value orientation. Such orientation to value has labeled Indians as one of the most discerning consumers in the world. Even, luxury brands have to design a unique pricing strategy in order to get a foothold in the Indian market. Indian consumers have a high degree of family orientation. This orientation in fact, extends to the extended family and friends as well. Brands with identities that support family values tend to be popular and accepted easily in the Indian market. Indian consumers are also associated with values of nurturing, care and affection. These values are far more dominant that values of ambition and achievement. Product which communicate feelings and emotions gel with the Indian consumers.

Apart from psychology and economics, the role of history and tradition in shaping the Indian consumer behaviour is quite unique. (http:// www. knowledgestorm. com). Perhaps, only in India, one sees traditional products along side modern products. For example, hair oils and tooth powder existing with shampoos and toothpaste.

About three quarters of the Indian population are in the rural areas and with the growing middle class, specially in the Indian cities, the spill over effect of the growing urban middle class is also felt in the rural areas.

The Indian rural market has been growing at 3-4% per annum, adding more than 1 million new consumers every year and now accounts for close to 50% of the volume consumption of fast-moving consumer goods in India. The market size of the fast moving consumer goods sector is projected to more than double to US$ 23.25 billion by 2010 from the present US$ 11.16 billion.

3. INCREASING AWARENESS OF INDIAN CONSUMERS

In a fast paced marketing environment mangers in the present day are facing a constant challenge--adapting western marketing strategies to the Indian context. (http://www.iimb. ernet.in).

The complexities of the Indian marketing context are vastly different from those in the west--ranging from daily paid consumers to those who can afford designer cars, from consumers who have biscuits for breakfast to those customize their diet for fitness and beauty reasons and from those who buy unbranded apparel to those who buy heritage labels, to name a few marketing situations. Over the years, as a result of the exposure to the west, satellite television, foreign magazines and newspapers, there is a significant increase of consumer awareness among the Indians.

Today more and more consumers are selective on the quality of the products/services. This awareness has made the Indian consumers seek more and more reliable sources for purchases such as organized retail chains. The consumer also seeks to purchase from a place where his/her feedback is more valued. Indian consumers are now more aware and discerning, and are knowledgeable about technology, products and the market and are beginning to demand benefits beyond just availability of a range of products that came from 'trusted' manufacturers.

The Indian consumers are price sensitive and prefer to buy value for money products. (http:// edms. matrade. gov.my). Even it is seen as an impenetrable market many companies such as Ford, Reebok, Nokia, had a great success. What was the key? Let's take the example of Ford. Before establishing their base in India, they engaged in a lot of researches. (http://www.123eng.com). 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 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.

4. MARKETING STRATEGIES

Online Marketing: A study by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the International Trade Centre predicts that e-commerce activity in India will rise from US$ 0.10 million in 2000-2001 to US$ 5.8 billion in 2008-09, of which the business to business segment will account for US$ 5.41 billion. Currently, the products Indian consumers are buying through online are greeting cards, clothes, CDs, cassettes, books, magazines, medicine and educational material.

Celebrity Influence: In India, celebrities are being increasingly used in marketing communication by marketers to lend personality to their products. With the visual media becoming more popular the use of celebrities in the TV media has increased. Celebrities create headlines. Their activities and movements are being closely watched and imitated. What they endorse sell like hot cakes. In India, it is not difficult to look for the reasons why companies are increasingly using celebrities. Indians love their heroes. When a consumer likes the celebrity in the advertisement, he or she is more likely to accept what the celebrity says about the advertised product and therefore will develop more positive feelings toward the advertisement and the brand itself.

Quality Oriented Outlets: Indian consumers looking for quality choose expensive brands as they feel that price is an indicator of quality. However, in the absence of well known brands in selected product range, consumers are likely to take cues from well established retail outlets hoping that these outlets carry quality products.

Freebies: Freebies are consumer products given free of charge as gifts to purchases of selected products above a certain value. TVs, washing machines, refrigerators, and ready made clothes are some of the product categories in which freebies are given to Indian consumers. Freebies generally comprise tooth paste, soaps, detergent, cooking oil etc.

Eco-Friendly Products: In general, Indian consumers are likely to buy environmentally responsible products and packs. The future key for marketing could be to select more ethical and ecological responsible products and packaging, which is also convenient for consumers, thus, balancing environmental concerns with commercial considerations. Consumers in India are taking lead in prompting manufacturers to adopt technologies to produce eco-friendly products.

5. CHANGING TRENDS IN INDIAN CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Bulk Purchasing: Urbanization is taking place in India at a dramatic pace and is influencing the life style and buying behaviour of the consumers. The working urbanites are depending more on fast and ready-to-serve food, they take less pain in traditional method of cooking and cleaning. Bulk purchases from hyper stores seems to be the trend these days with purchasing becoming more of a once-a-week affair, rather than frequent visits to the neighborhood market/store/vendor. The popular growing shopping trend among urbanities is purchasing from super markets to hyper stores.

Trendy Lifestyles: The current urban middle and upper class Indian consumer buying behaviour to a large extent has western influence. There is an increase in positive attitude towards western trends. The Indian consumer has become much more open-minded and experimental in his/her perspective. There is now an exponential growth of western trend reaching the Indian consumer by way of the media and Indians working abroad. Foreign brands have gained wide consumer acceptance in India.

Buyers' Market In The Making: The sellers' market is slowly moving towards becoming the buyers' market. Since, India's economic liberalization policies were initiated in 1991, many new product offerings have entered the Indian market and product variety has also increased manifold. Import licensing restrictions are being eliminated and tariffs significantly reduced and this has led to large range of consumer goods made available in India. Indian consumers have always preferred foreign goods and with the liberalization, they now have a choice of foreign products vis-a-vis the local products.

6. CONCLUSION

Culture is the most fundamental determinant of a person's wants and behaviour. 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, humanitarism, youthfulness (Agrawal, 2006). A consumer's behaviour is also influenced by social factors, such as the consumer's reference group, family, and social roles and statuses. A person's behaviour is strongly influenced by many groups .A persons reference group are those groups that have a direct (face to face) or indirect influence on the person's attitudes or behaviour. Members of the buyer's family can exercise a strong influence on the buyer's behaviour. A traditional family in India is different from a western family in that the "empty nest" stage of the family life cycle is not very common. The decision making process for the purchasing of consumer durables is quite elaborate, as many members with their diverse view are involved in it. At the same time, the characteristics of Indian families are changing under the influence of external factors such as liberalization and media explosion. Indian families are presently in a state of flux, shifting from being strictly hierarchical to more egalitarian in character. 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 behaviour 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.

Adapting to social conditions play the most important role in establishing your brand in the market. (http:// www.consumerpsychologist.com). 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.

7. REFERENCES

Agrawal, Meenu. Consumer Behaviour and Consumer Protection in India, New Delhi, New Century Pub, 2006 ISBN 81-7708-107-1

(http:// www.consumerpsychologist.com/ 2007-05-03)

(http:// edms. matrade. gov.my 2007-05-03)

http://www.knowledgestorm.com/search (2007-05-03)

http://edms.matrade.gov.my (2007-05-03)

http://www.123eng.com/ (2007-05-03)

http://www.iimb.ernet.in/iimb/docs/eep07-08/28.htm (2008-0210)