Consumer identity and marketing implications: Indian urban

youth
India has become one of the major market for area of research.It has a large youth
population,expected to have 34.33% share of youth in total population by 2020.So,the
marketers need to understand more about the consumers,consumption and purchasing habits
before entering the Indian market.The total disposable income has also been on the rise and
significant increase has been seen in the demand of non-essential goods.Liberalization
brought in an epoch making change and marked the ushering in of non-socialist consumption
friendly ideology and consumption now has become a way of life in a manner that it seems to
shape identities.Many research works have been done before but no research had been done
on establishing consumer identity typology of post liberalization generation of India,until
now.
The research design was such that depth interviews were conducted on a sample of 40
respondents ,which includes 25 females and 15 males belonging to different states and 13
linguistic identities.The duration of the interviews ranged from 60 to 90 minutes so that
respondents feel comfortable in discussing personal matters of shopping,consumption and
disposal.Various methods were used like grounded theory method,iterative
approach,analysis,primary coding,specific coding,systematic coding in the same order to
establish distinct consumer identity type.The major findings were as follows:
 Consumer Socialisation : The narratives brought out four clear Consumer
Socialization categories.
 1. Parents as disinterested shoppers.
 2. Indulgent Parents.
 3. Parents focused on spending to educate children.
 4. Parents focused on avoiding instant gratification.

 Purchase process of Indian youth : The purchase process in India is very different
from other countries like in USA,children their receive pocket money for the doing
the work assigned or working part time but in India children rely on their parents for
all the financial needs till their studies are done with and they start earning.
 Disposal Narrative : Disposal can be viewed as the final stage of the consumer
behaviour stages of acquisition, consumption and disposal,through this research seven
key consumer identity types were identified :

 Reluctant consumer identity : For the Reluctant Consumer, shopping is not a
priority,it is more like a task.They don’t like shopping and will try to avoid it
until it’s a necessity.
 Dependent consumer identity : The Dependent Identity does most purchases
with parents or friends.They trust the decision or choices of others more than
themselves.They are responsible and cautious consumers.They will buy
branded products as it makes it easy for them.
 Economical Consumer Identity : The Economical narrative is about buying but
they are very cautious about spending.They feel the desire to buy but also feel
the need to be responsible.They usually will become spenders once they start
working on their own.So,they are a good target for the marketers.
  Rational consumer Identity : The Rational narrative, in this research is about
planned, careful purchases.They don’t tend to buy when the need arises,they
try to plan it in advance the thing they want to buy and then buy it when the
time is right.

 Squanderer Consumer Identity : The Squanderer narrative is about ardent

buying. They like buying or spending on multiple things at once,They don’t
have any attachment to things while disposing.

 Hedonist Consumer Identity : Squanderer and hedonist consumer are almost

on the same line but the main difference is that to a hedonist consumer it is not
an addiction,it is therapeutic/relaxing/calming.

 Aspirant Consumer Identity : The Aspirant Consumers depend largely on

others while buying.They buy things so as to maintain a status or be in the
right circle.Aspirant consumer has a habit to keep themselves updated so they
dispose of their things very often.

In India, Income alone doesn’t dictate consumption,there are other factors as well like
psychological,demographic, that are responsible for the change in consumption.This research
helped in identifying three new consumer identities i.e reluctant,dependent and aspirant
identity.The other four have been found to be quite similar to other research works. Although
this research has been done on very small sample of a very large urban youth population,yet
it has laid down a base to finalise the consumer identity typology of Indian urban youth.