BOOK REVIEW

We are like that Only

Understanding the Logic of Consumer India By Rama Bijapurkar
Published by: Penguin Books India, Published: October 2007, Special Price: Rs 499.00
Cover Price: Rs 499.00 (ISBN: 067099944X , ISBN13: 9780670999446 )
Rama has developed a very strong case
for learning about India on its own terms
before investing. This book is a critical
read for anyone considering building a
large presence for themselves in
Consumer India. From the Foreword
by C.K. Prahalad, The Paul and Ruth
McCracken Distinguished University
Professor of Corporate Strategy, Ross
School of Business, University of Michigan

of a hungry, star-struck billion plus.

Instead, what they encountered were
consumers who were hungry yet astute
people who negotiate and bargain on
anything from taxi fare to interest rates.
It was a market that rebelled against
conventional perceptions of emerging
markets, and left every confident
marketer askingwhere is this billion plus
Indian market?

Consider this excerpt:

The book bombards the reader with a slew

of questions: Why is the India market
untenable? Will India really be the worlds
next consumption powerhouse? Does the
Indian middle class really exist? What is
the exact purchasing power of this
market? Is there really a fortune at the
bottom of the pyramid? Why are demand
patterns so capricious? Is rural India a
sophisticated or a primitive market?

The Indian market is about a lot of

people consuming a little bit each that
adds up to a lot . . . the Indian DNA is
about continuity with change; it is about
THIS as well as THAT; about cobbling
together clever and low-cost solutions
that are ingenious combinations and
adaptations of products available in the
market.
With a billion plus consumers India is one
of the largest, most varied and stratified
markets in the world today. It is young, with
rising incomes and purchasing power, and
has only just begun its consumption journey.
Every marketer would want a piece of
what may arguably be the largest untapped
market in the world. From Kellogs to Coke,
from Honda to Electrolux, from Dunhill to
Revlon, they all came to India in the hope

Cheeky and astute, this book responds to

all these questions as it casts a steady gaze
on twelve key facets of Consumer India.
It successfully works out how much
Indians earn, how they consume, what
they consume and what dictates their
consumption choices.
Taking cues from economics,
demography, history, culture, philosophy
and good old common sense, Rama
Bijapurkar makes sense of the complex
and enigmatic Indian marketvarious

Reviewed by: Archana Jha, NIILM-CMS, New Delhi

78

Journal of Marketing & Communication

BOOK REVIEW
types of Consumers, their diverse and
schizophrenic consumer behaviour and the
way to make your companys fortune in
this billion plus market.
Perspicaciously investigative, this book
explains why the Indian consumer is like
that only, why Consumer India will not

January -April 2008 Vol. 3 Issue 3

change in a hurry and what it takes to build

winning businesses in such a market. A
powerful book, it is the state-of-the-art
ready reference for modus operandi
tactical approaches to Indias consumer
markets, especially of the global
transplant kind.

79