The Indian middle classes, numbering more than 400 million people, are a large consumer force who are now solidly engaged in gaining upward mobility. This is true perhaps of the middle classes in many emerging countries, especially in the BRIC countries. However, there are specific nuances to the approach to upward mobility in India that arise from the nature of Indian society, which is a highly stratified social hierarchy.
For centuries, social mobility was frozen. People were born into a caste which had its place in the social order, and lived and died there. Even after independence, the socialist economic model with low GDP growth and a huge role for the State ensured that an individual’s chances of moving up the social ladder in his or her lifetime were very low.
However, the economic liberalisation process of the past two decades, the growth of Indian industry and the continuing GDP growth at 8.9%, have opened up avenues for every middle-class Indian to aspire to progress forward and upward in their social milieu. Today, the energy and enterprise of a youthful and hard-working population combined with a spirit of optimism and possibility pervade the atmosphere despite the daily struggles of coping with a host of problems, from rising prices to failing infrastructure.
The path to upward mobility, expressed in material terms, means that Indian families are working hard to acquire all forms of capital – financial, social and cultural capital. Consumption and exchange via trade of products, services and knowledge are the preferred routes to acquire these forms of capital, as it is in all capitalist-consumer societies.
Two characteristics of the Indian mindset give the process of consumption and capital acquisition a distinctly Indian flavour. First, Indians live and work in an extended network of family, friends and peers arranged in a vertical hierarchy of social relationships. This network is the contemporary version of the traditional joint family.
Much trading of products, services and knowledge takes place within this network.
Second, the Indian’s attitude towards consumption is marked by a strong value orientation. From the elite and super rich to the man in the street, everyone tries to maximise the return they get on the money they spend. Goddess Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth in the Hindu pantheon; it is believed that the goddess showers blessings on those who respect her by not taking a cavalier attitude to money.
Brand Benefits
As with aspiring middle classes all over the world, the emerging Indian middle classes value brands. And they value brands for the same benefits that brands provide in all consumer societies: brands function as trust marks; they are affinity markers of identification with like-minded people; they act as status symbols, as identity symbols and as carriers of personal reputation and influence. Brands play the same socio-cultural and psychological roles in India as they do elsewhere.
However, the three singular characteristics of the Indian middle class highlighted here require that brand strategists take a forensic approach to decoding value and its linkages to the acquisition of financial, social and cultural capital.
The table above sets out five elements of value that typically comprise any branded offering, whether a product or a service, and the role of the product versus the brand in delivering value to the consumer.
The most powerful brands are those that are able to transfer more value elements to the buyer for the price he or she pays. By transferring value, brands add to the consumer’s stock of financial, social and cultural capital. If the value transfer is real, not notional, then the consumer is able to trade further down the line, leveraging the brand’s power for personal profit.
Hamsini Shivkumar is a brand consultant [email protected]
The Indian’s attitude towards consumption is marked by a strong value orientation