<div><em>How are the marketers speaking to these different types of consumers?<strong> Shubhi Tandon</strong> reports as the 11th edition of Marketing White Book is launched</em></div><div> </div><div>There are two Indias living in extremes but there is also a strong middle class in between. There are people who use a mobile phone as a family phone and those who are experiencing the internet for the first time to those who are moving seamlessly between devices making traditional forms of media look obsolete. How are the marketers speaking to these different types of consumers?</div><div> </div><div>Raghav Subramanian, COO, IPG Mediabrands believes that the ‘80s concept of middle class does not exist in urban India anymore. He explains, “The urban household income is 50 lakh crore now, out of which 45 per cent comes from the so-called middle class. A large part of growth has happened not just in the metros like Delhi and Mumbai, but also in Tier II cities like Jaipur and Bhubhaneswar.”</div><div> </div><div>Marketers do not consider the Indian market as a pyramid now. Mahesh Kanchan, Director – Marketing, Carlsberg India outlines, “The Indian market has moved from a pyramid structure to that of a diamond – with the middle class forming the bulging middle of the diamond. This change in structure happened as the people from the bottom of the class structure moved to the middle and the some from the middle moved to the top.”</div><div> </div><div>Marketers are always looking to target across the whole structure as the needs of each of these layers keeps differing. Mr Kanchan explains further, “The people at the bottom are still looking at the basics – getting two square meals a day. Marketers look forward to penetrating this category – as this is the category which does not use branded items.”</div><div> </div><div>Highlighting the task for the present-day marketers, Mr Kanchan says, “Marketers need to work to educate and recruit the people from the bottom into the Indian market. For the middle class, the marketers need to work to make them upgrade to a higher category of products or use even more products of the same category that they are using. With the top class, the marketers need to make them consume more luxury products.”</div><div> </div><div>Mr Kanchan concludes, “If the marketers have not cracked the middle of the diamond in the Indian market, they cannot succeed. The middle class cannot be ignored as that is where the scale of India is.”</div><div> </div><div>Some marketers differ on the class divide. Balachander Sekhar, Co-Founder, RenewBuy says, “The digital adoption is breaking down the whole class barrier. There are 125 million Facebook users in India. While it is mostly used to share content and socialise, a large part of India also uses it to promote themselves or their businesses.”</div><div> </div><div>Mr Sekhar believes that the advent of affordable smartphones in the market has completely disrupted the class barriers. He adds further, “The traditional ways of segmenting customers is breaking down. This is not just the case in digital but across different industries, for example, there are no longer just 5-star hotels but local hotels which cater to lower classes as well. A smart marketer would be able to build on these changing dynamics.”</div><div> </div><div>Mr Subramanian adds, “Consumers are now dictating what they want from marketers and it is no longer the other way round. The Indian market skipped a lot of steps – Landline phones never had 100 per cent penetration, but mobile does.”</div><div> </div><div>Microfinancing is another concept that has helped in the growth of the bottom class, especially in the agricultural and rural areas. Sanjay Tripathy, Sr. EVP - Head Marketing, Product, Digital & E-commerce, HDFC Life Insurance, explains, “Before microfinance, financial help was only available to a select few. Since there was no certainty of income for farmers they did not get any bank support. But now in the digital age, rural people have access to information, like in agriculture they can learn the right crop cycle. This combined with microfinance for the rural areas means that now they have the support needed to make the right decision and also someone is there to back you up with finance.”</div><div> </div><div>The speakers were speaking at a panel discussion organised by Businessworld for the launch of its 11th edition of the Marketing White Book on July 1, 2015 in Gurgaon.</div><div> </div><div> </div>
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