Consumer India now has enough informational resources to concretely imagine a better life. Plurality of income, singular mindset: When marketers were waiting for the Great Indian Middle Class boom, its key trigger was expected to be a significant number of households above a certain level of income, which would become the critical mass of consumption. But what is being increasingly apparent now is that what unifies Consumer India and gives it the consumption push is not so much its income level, but its key characteristics. And these are:

Striving: Most Indian consumers, whether rich or poor, want to get ahead in a hurry. From being destiny-driven and resigned, they are now destination-driven and striving to grasp opportunities to earn more in order to construct a better life for themselves and their children. If one were to segment the country into the Arriving, the Striving and the Resigned, the proportion of Resigned has definitely decreased and become geographically concentrated, rather than well-dispersed, as it was earlier.

" I can": The rise of the self-employed and the service economy requiring less capital and more sweat has changed the mindset of the Indian consumers from one of demanding social justice to one of grabbing economic opportunity.

"The rise of the women": Like the self-employed, women too are saying "I can and I will," and emerging as partners in family progress. Not so much from earning the second income (a mere 23% of Indian households have working wives and that proportion decreases as incomes increase) but by being CEOs of households and intellectual nurturers of their children.

Education- and health-driven: Indian consumers are obsessed with giving their children the education and skills that will provide the escape velocity to move to a higher station in life - and they have seen enough evidence of this to know it is possible. Health is the other magnificent obsession - probably because ill health adversely impacts earning ability. (In fact, the less affluent are more concerned about staying healthy than the more affluent.) A study conducted by HRG in 2003 for the Media Research Users Council (MRUC) among 2,000 households in Mumbai shows interesting differences in household expenditure between the top social class (SEC A) and the lowest social classes (SEC D/E).

Education and clothing attract the same proportion of expenditure in both the income groups, but the poor probably spend a bit more (proportionately) on medical expenses than the rich. (This could indicate a big time bottom-of-the-pyramid opportunity for nutrition and health building in the preventive rather than the curative area.)

Pragmatism in consumption and preference for 'real value' products and services: In the past, marketers assumed that progress and evolution of a market meant adoption of 'feel good' products, susceptibility to razzle-dazzle branding, a Westernised self-image and identity, and bountiful days for FMCG categories. But the latest trends show that consumers are going more for real, 'life quality' improvement products and services.

Consumer India wants a visibly better quality of life for themselves and their children, described in terms of durables that make life better; education, healthcare; transportation and communication. (NSS data shows that these are the three big growth areas in consumption expenditure.) Other priorities seem to be owning decent homes, better clothes (not necessarily better brands) and the like. Status is signalled through the things that are visible to others.
They are not beguiled by brands that are low on functionality and high on image. Pragmatism and functionality is the hallmark of their consumption expenditure. And the threshold of their expectations of how this functionality is delivered is high: low-priced motorcycles must look like motorcycles and deliver enough power. Basic cellphones must be small, even if they aren't feature-rich. And low-priced garments and footwear cannot get away with antiquated styles.

Entertainment: Entertainment is becoming big. The country has traditionally been starved of family entertainment, with the only options being watching television or going to places of religious worship. But family entertainment is becoming a big issue for consumers as they try to find avenues of bonding in an era of nuclear families.
Comfort with borrowing to fund future consumption: Being in debt used to be an area of high discomfort for everybody, but the very poor, who had no other choice but to borrow for survival. Now, however, the concept of EMI (equalised monthly installment) is legitimising borrowing in other groups too, especially to fund future consumption. EMI provides a certain discipline with predictable and planned outflows, and that is probably making indebtedness more acceptable.

Comfort with consumption: Economists talk about the wealth effect - wherein it takes time before consumption decreases in response to decreasing income. Equally, it takes a while for comfort with consumption to happen, and consumption typically lags income increases. One reason for this could be that the country has celebrated abstemiousness for so long that it takes a supply explosion to spark desire, and then translate that desire into actual consumption. However, that has now happened.

Comfort with technology: Infotech awareness, whether it is infotech power (what a computer can do to solve problems or improve life) or infotech-driven employment opportunities, has sunk in to the lowest social classes and to much of the rural population. It has happened through the demonstration effect of model projects of the NGO (non-government organisation) kind. And it has happened by watching the rich use it and prosper. It has also happened because of the mushrooming of call centres and other computer-related services offering employment. As these are located in geographical clusters they get noticed and talked about. Cyber grandmas from upper-middle and upper classes, who have become email literate to communicate with their scattered flock, is one example of this new comfort.