The changing India

Indian society has always been rich in traditions. Norms are strictly adhered to generally.
Regard for age and family elders have been a typical Indian phenomenon, where caring for
children and parents is a part of the norms across sectarian groups in all religions in the
country. The values that drive this norm are deeply embedded in social mores and in most
cases has religious sanctions. The traditional family unit in India, joint families where
siblings co resided, is now becoming rare as families break up and become more unitary.
But strong traditions regarding supporting one’s children till they are independent in their
means, as well as the inclusion of parents in the family unit especially once they have
stopped earning, are norms that would continue beyond the wane of joint family systems.

However, post liberalization, these values also started eradicating to such an extent where
the Government was forced to pass a law to ensure that dependant parents are taken care
off. Yet another change in values is visible in the adoption of a material culture over the
older generations’ values of simplicity, daily spirituality and observance of codes of
consumption of food, clothing, occupations, and so on. Peer pressures, expressions of
individualistic identities, and aspirations for material lifestyles are clearly the paradigm
shift in social values. Rural India, traditionally known to be rational and traditional bound
are buying more of lipsticks, talcum powder and cosmetics. Urban male is doing everything
to look good and his basket today includes all those products that were truly belonging to
the women’s kitty. Western clothing is becoming a style statement amongst the young
Indians.

Children and youth who contribute an overwhelming majority of the population are the
drivers of the new culture. Their roles in making purchase decisions in households are
extremely vital today. Advertisements using children and youth are a testimony to the fact.
Most marketers have accepted this new challenge and have geared themselves to ‘satisfy’
these new breed of “hungry” consumers. Creches and day-care facilities, full time
household help, have now become the prerogative of the middle class and not just upper
class groups. Mobile phone connections have overtaken landline ones. Net sales of many
high value branded products are growing at a minimum of 20% per annum. The rise of web
buying is also an evidence of changing India.

Many services that are seen as necessities today across the nation were till yesterday seen
as luxuries that many who could afford also did not indulge in, like video games, fast cars
and bikes. Booming airline travel, tourism abroad, adventure tourism, internationalization
of consumption norms and aspirations across the country, are indicators of the changing
norms of consumptions far away from what our national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi
preached about simplicity frugality. The mad rush to McDonalds, Café Coffee Day, are
trend setters in their own respect. Contrast this with the huge popularity of Indian food in
general and Indian curry in particular in the West and the fact that Indian mythological
characters like Hanuman, Durga and Shri Ram overtaking the popularity of Superman,
Batman etc. in the U.S. The simultaneous launch of Harry Potter books across the globe
and the large serpentine queues outside bookstalls of kids and their parents in India are
strong trend setters. The huge influx of easy money with youngsters by way of high paying
jobs at BPOs, IT industry and so on has just fuelled this astonishing madness for brands.

Questions for discussions:

1. Some Psychologists strongly believe that the last decade or so has made Indians
more Americanized than even the Americans. Do you agree with their views?
Discuss.
2. Discuss how Indian and multinational companies can exploit the changing Indian
consumers to achieve their business objectives?