Only? should be put on notice. It is a word that ought to be redefined in dictionaries across the world, if only because on current trends, its uniquely Indian usage ? as an emphatic sort of substitute for ?verily? ? could easily overcome its original English meaning sometime this century. Indeed, an Indian consumer market of a billion plus is emerging so inexorably that it won?t stop only to bother with the niceties of how the world insists this ought to be done. Forget the knife and fork. Between the proper way and the highway, the nation takes its own way. And there?s no looking back. Or rather, the ?look? is backless choli, not little black dress. This needed to be said, and in English too, which is why Rama Bijapurkar?s We are like that only is such a compelling read. Not just for marketers, but for anybody scratching a head over the strange sight of India?s in-spite-of-the-odds emergence.
Expecting India to follow set patterns of market development would be an exercise in frustration. The market is not about to get Brazilian parades, Russian education levels or Chinese infrastructure, and is not just another Bric in other ways too. It?s not really the virgin market of MNC assumption, having had some universally sophisticated campaigns of its own, and does not resemble other markets back when they hit $1,000 per capita GDP or whatever. As a marketing consultant, Bijapurkar does not suffer superficialities easily, and she speaks of a market composed of living and breathing people, not factory-installed templates.
The author uses elaborate charts and tables to address such tricky questions as the true size of the ?Indian middle-class?, with a mea culpa on her own role (in the early 1990s) in popularising a larger figure than would be meaningful to MNCs. Mind you, nothing was fudged. After all, the issue of size comes down to an argument over definitions, and here she seems inclined to go by an old rule on pornography she recalls: ?I can?t define it, but I know when I see it.?
In all, only about a quarter of India?s population would be an addressable middle-class market. Yet, Bijapurkar makes an interesting case for inclusive marketing in terms of demographics. Be adaptive, she urges marketers. Think beyond the upper-crust, and go for the millions of people who spend only tiny amounts individually but add up to a mega opportunity. The ?force? of India?s emergence, she argues, is more about ?mass? than ?acceleration?. Shampoo sells thousands of tonnes more in cheap sachets designed for occasional use than in bathroom cabinet bottles, and marketers of disposable diapers should take a cue from this. Given India?s pluralities, it?s a question of what market you choose to target, and how you rethink everything from first principles to achieve results.
As one would expect of Bijapurkar, this book is also a treasure trove of broad psychographic insights into consumer behaviour. Most of these are easily endorseable. India is a market of ?this as well as that?, not either-or. Of reducing ?power distances?, in Geert Hofstede?s terminology, since aukaat angst is vanishing. And of ?age cohorts?, with their attitudes shaped uniquely by their times. So, the country?s Liberalisation Children have none of the consumption iffiness that Midnight?s Children do, and it?s the Midway Children (born 1970-1991) who must help negotiate this transition and manage the market?s schizophrenia. And modernity, this book suggests, ?is nothing but negotiated tradition?.
Perhaps so. In this context, chart 9.1 on the impact of liberalisation (page 176) is a must-study. Some of this book?s particulars, though, leave me somewhat puzzled as a partially fessed-up midway schizophrenic. If Indian political parties now adopt ?centrist? positions, what might the old extremes have looked like? Also, why ask PepsiCo and The Coca-Cola Company to sell water and nutrition if they?re making such hearty headway ? into consumer heartspace ? with cola as their raison d?etre? And, unless there?s a maternal matrix that matters, is cornflakes really in confrontation with culture (cold milk or not)? Anyhow, as Virginia Valentine is quoted as saying, ?Culture isn?t inert??, and one is grateful that this sort of stuff now forms a non-trivial part of India?s grand debate with itself on the transition to a market economy. For marketers who are clear about what they must hold steadfast as their brand?s guiding star, and are voyagers of their own volition in the spirit of Bunty Aur Babli, to extend a metaphor from the narrative, this book is a worthy sextant.