The heterogeneity that characterizes the modern Indian consumer has created a maze that marketer would like to unravel in order to target their products and services precisely. In this fortnightly series, Indicus Analytics presents the various facets of urban consumers, across geographies and socio-economic groups
Looking at the sub-segments in the five main socio-economic classification (SEC) segments, the largest sub-segment of close to 7.5 million households is formed by those whose chief wage earners are married with grown-up children and who may be a skilled worker with primary school education or an unskilled worker who may have gone to college. In other words, this is the sub-segment of urban SEC D households whose chief wage earners are in their mature years. The households span a wide diversity in educational and skill back- grounds. The majority of chief wage earners are aged 45 to 65, and most have completed primary or middle school.
The low level of schooling has limited occupation opportunities--just a third of these chief wage earners are in regular salaried jobs. Interestingly, less than a third is self-employed, running their own businesses. For most chief wage earners, contractual work would be the source of income. Less than 10% of the chief wage earners have secured jobs in the government, public or private sector; the majority is in the unorganized sector in small units. Again, the sectors of employment are diverse, even wholesale and retail trade does not account for more than 20% of employment here. Manufacturing and transport and communication have provided the most opportunities for these chief wage earners.
Families could be nuclear or joint; in general, though, household size is larger than four and most of the families have minor children. More than one-third of the households have senior citizens; this segment, therefore, is one with demand of goods and services that spans all age groups. Earning potential in this segment is generally low, and three-fourths of the households earn less than `300,000 per annum.
While most of the households depend on just the chief wage earner, there are close to 45% of the households where two or more members are contributing to household income. Younger members would have higher educational profile than the chief wage earner, though spouses, of course, have considerably lower schooling achievements than the chief wage earners. In any case, in most households, spouses continue to be homemakers. Yet, there are some house- holds which earn more than `15 lakh per annum--the affluent households--and Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and Chennai top in the number of these affluent households. There are also a sizeable number of such affluent house- holds in towns like Nagpur, Visakhapatnam, Thiruvallur, Jaipur, Surat, Durg, etc.
When it comes to expenditure of affluent households in this segment, Mumbai is in the lead, followed by Delhi and Pune.
While most of the households depend on just the chief wage earner, there are close to 45% of the households where two or more members are contributing to household income. Younger members would have higher educational profile than the chief wage earner, though spouses, of course, have considerably lower schooling achievements than the chief wage earners. In any case, in most households, spouses continue to be homemakers. Yet, there are some house- holds which earn more than `15 lakh per annum--the affluent households--and Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and Chennai top in the number of these affluent households. There are also a sizeable number of such affluent house- holds in towns like Nagpur, Visakhapatnam, Thiruvallur, Jaipur, Surat, Durg, etc.
When it comes to expenditure of affluent households in this segment, Mumbai is in the lead, followed by Delhi and Pune.
With the mature profile of the chief wage earner in this segment, almost three fourths of the households live in their own homes and a quarter in rented houses. Ownership of houses is much higher in smaller towns than in the metros; even though earnings are much higher in the latter, the high real estate prices in met- ros, of course, constrain purchase.
It is interesting that despite the low in- come profile of this segment, the Internet is the second most preferred medium.
While the television rates the highest in the amount of time spent per day, the Internet has overtaken newspapers and the old favourite, radio. This is not just in the metros, but in towns across the country such as Patna, Dibrugarh and Ambala. The spread of the Internet for entertainment, news and communication is a re- cent trend that has cut across income segments and regions.
(Source: - mintlive.com)
