Published: Mint dated 25 th October 2010

The heterogeneity
that characterizes
the modern Indian
consumer has
created a maze
that marketers
would like to
unravel in order to
target their
products and
services precisely.
In this fortnightly
series, Indicus
Analytics will
present the various
facets of urban
consumers, across
geographies and
socio-economic
groups

Indicus Consumer Data Products

Urban consumers have varied socio-economic
profiles, and when it comes to consumption patterns,
the educational and occupational profile of the chief
wage earner matter just as much as his or her life
stage, fam- ily type. The broadest five categories can
therefore be sub-segmented by the life stage of the
chief wage earner to get a deeper understanding of
household pro- files. In this piece, we take up the
young- est and most affluent households in ur- ban
India--where the chief wage earner is usually a
graduate, in the age group 25-34 years.
The booming real estate industry has also
SEC A is the most educated of all cate- gories, and
absorbed many from this segment, while
the young chief wage earners are at the beginning of
manufacturing companies and government jobs
their careers.
are the next two sectors offering maximum em-
There is a mix of businessmen and pro- fessionals,
ployment to these well-educated young people.
while the majority have regu- lar salaried jobs as
executive or manag- ers in companies. These chief
If you look at the income distribution, a large
wage earners work in many different sectors, with a
majority fall in the lowest brack- et, earning less
little more than a third taking up education, health and
than `300,000 a year. But remember that these are
social work-relat- ed careers. These include those
small house- holds, usually one or two members,
who are self-employed, professionals or in sala- ried
and the picture changes. There are many already
jobs--not just professors, school teachers and doctors
earning more than `1,500,000 a year and these
but also chartered accountants, lawyers, masters of
households are spread all across the country.
busi- ness administration (MBAs), architects and
When it comes to ex- penditure in this income
engineers--all of whom find a role to play in social
segment, Mumbai and Delhi lead, with cities such
work.
as Nagpur, Vadodara, Patna, Lucknow, Indore and
Surat ranking among the top 20 largest markets.
As these are young households, around a little more than half of
the chief wage earners are married, but do not have children
yet. Household sizes are, therefore, small. In fact, more than a
third of these young rich households are one-member
households and anoth- er one-third constitute two-member
households, usually couples. These fam- ilies will grow as the
chief wage earner gets married and has children. These
households will move into the next life stage, more settled in
life, commanding much higher incomes and more diverse
consumption patterns.

However, already, these young house- holds have done quite

well for them- selves; almost a third live in houses they own and
are moving up in life purchas- ing consumer durables. To give
just one example, on an average, across India, 4% of these
households have bought an LCD/plasma TV, and apart from the
metros, there is higher than average penetration even in cities
such as Amrit- sar, Jabalpur and Visakhapatnam.

This is a small segment but irrespec- tive of where they live,

young people are bound by the same aspirational values, and
with assured incomes and easy pur- chase schemes, gizmos
and gadgets are among the first items to be picked up.

The higher aspirations show up not just in durables but in food

patterns, eating out and in modes of entertain- ment as well.
Whatever they have, they are in the market for an upgrade.