Since the rapid growth of its economy in the early 1990s, India has charted a path of robust economic growth. Even during the 2007–2009 recession, India maintained impressive growth rates of more than 8%.  With a median age of 26.2 years, the country has one of the youngest populations in the world; Sixty-five percent of India’s population falls in the working age category. 

With the many changes India has seen since the 1990s, companies have a number of emerging segments to focus on:

• Rural India: With 151 million households increasingly diversifying in their occupation, rural India contributes to 54% of India’s GDP and 55% of the country’s monthly expenditure.
• Youth: The economic boom has resulted in more income opportunities and higher wages for the youth entering the economy. Unlike their parents who led a frugal life, the younger consumers have a limited savings mind-set. They live for the present and are willing to live on credit.
• Women: 16% Indian women, especially in cities, are economically independent and work outside of their homes. A recent study by supplier IMRB also showed that in the past decade the average income of the urban Indian woman has doubled.

For more information on these segments and researching this region, see our newest whitepaper: An Introduction to Conducting Market Research in India.

Related blogs:

• Conducting Market Research in China
• Conducting Research in Russia
• Brazil: What to Know before Researching Latin America’s Biggest Market

Guest blogger Judy Wang is a researcher at the Customer Contact Council, a sister program of the Market Research Executive Board. 

I moved to DC a little more than a month ago, and I can’t even tell you how many different bars, restaurants, and salons I’ve tried. And who’s to blame me? With dozens of Groupon-like deals flooding my inbox every morning, my attention and loyalty are at an all-time low. But what happened to the idea of being a “regular” at an establishment? Has that gone out the door in this era of large data and choice, or am I alone in my unfaithfulness to stores and brands?

Interestingly, research conducted on customer loyalty shows that my behavior is a part of a larger trend: loyalty varies widely by demographic, and a person’s age and occupation can be a strong predictor of their purchasing behavior. Knowing this relationship—and more importantly, understanding its causes—can have important implications on how you engage with customers.

So here’s what the research said:

More mature age groups are significantly more loyal than younger counterparts. When behavioral loyalty (as measured by the number of other like-service providers the customer visited in the past two years) and repurchase intention are considered among a diverse age group, those who are more mature (ages 35-54 and 55+) exhibit significantly more loyal behavior than those who are younger (18-24 and 25-34). This finding can be attributed to three age-dependent reasons.

• Mature consumers have different social constructs and social needs. Whereas younger cohorts have large social circles, mature consumers tend to have fewer, but deeper, more meaningful social relationships. As a result, this “older” cohort relies more on social support—the recognition, familiarity, and sense of belonging that being a “regular” service customer offers.

• Older consumers experiment less with new brands. Of those in the older age brackets (65+), 65% maintain loyalty to familiar brands. Meanwhile, only 47% of the younger brackets (20-24) do so. This is due to differing levels of confidence in service and quality. With age, people become more skeptical of providers, and therefore older customers tend to stick with tried and true brands.

• Customers differ in their optimum stimulation level (OSL). This concept explains an individual’s level of affinity for environmental stimuli. High OSL individuals engage in exploratory and switching behavior, while low OSL individuals seek constancy and familiarity. Here’s where it gets cool: OSL has been shown to negatively correlate with age, and as a result, the younger customer is more likely to seek new brand experiences and sample new service providers.

Customer loyalty differs according to occupations. The same metrics of loyalty were analyzed along occupation, and retirees and home makers were found to be significantly more loyal than students. While occupations don’t perfectly capture income and situation, they have strong implications for the two.

• Low-income groups are less loyal than high-income groups. Perhaps not surprisingly, customers who have low income (and, thereby, high price-consciousness) tend to seek the next big deal. As my colleague noted, daily deals draw bargain-hunters, and bargain-hunters are disloyal customers. In fact, one study found that only about one in five daily-deal-buyers returns to the business as a full-price customer. It makes sense, then, that students (who typically have the least income and highest price-sensitivity) would be significantly less loyal than retirees (who tend to have larger budgets).

• Occupations affect socialization. Similar to age, occupation is a strong determinant of social context. Those who are exposed to larger social circles, like students and professionals, require less additional social support than those who have relatively smaller circles, like retirees and home makers. Therefore, students and professionals are likely to be less loyal than retirees and home makers.

What are your thoughts? Have you noticed a relationship between customer loyalty and demographic? Has your company changed its strategy in response to this relationship?

Related Resources:

• Driving Action with NPS® and Other Loyalty Metrics: Focusing on Key Success Factors
• Conducting Customer Loyalty, Satisfaction, and Profitability Research
• Six Myths of Customer Loyalty
• Maybe Your Customers Don’t Want to Talk to You
• Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers?

This post was written by guest blogger Hans Eisenbeis, Iconoculture’s senior Financial Services editor

For a decade now — since the rise of the global economy — political pundits from Mumbai to Madrid, Hamburg to Honolulu have argued about “American exceptionalism”: the idea that the US is unique and can hold itself to different standards than all other nations. When it comes to love and war, you can argue both sides. But when it comes to the hard facts of economics, not so much. Last week Standard & Poor’s downgraded US creditworthiness from a top rating of AAA to a less-than-top AA+. That’s the first downgrade in America’s credit rating since credit rating began, early in the last century (WashingtonPost.com, 8 August 2011). It also puts the US behind many of its European allies, not to mention Canada. (Canada!)

What does it mean? First, we should recognize that credit-rating agencies themselves have been in hot water. There’s evidence that folks like Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and other credit raters contributed to the Great Recession (and the Not-So-Great Recovery) by rubber-stamping financial instruments and portraying risky investments (mortgage-backed securities, credit default swaps) as safe, easy money. The raters are in a fight for their lives, a fight that depends on reestablishing their credibility as objective, neutral evaluators of creditworthiness. And, as uncomfortable as it may be to admit, signs point to the fact that the US simply is not what it used to be in terms of macroeconomics. We’re $14 trillion in debt, and the people in charge of the federal checkbook can only agree on making a $2 trillion minimum payment. As NPR financial correspondent Heidi Moore succinctly commented, “The US government is like a kid who turns in his homework late and incomplete” (Minnesota Public Radio, 8 August 2011). Lucky the teacher didn’t flunk us.

It’s true that carrying the level of debt that we’ve been carrying is a financial disaster waiting to happen, but we’ve actually carried debt for 60 of the past 71 years. One might easily agree with vice president Dick Cheney, who, seven years ago, famously said, “Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter.” And one might ask: Well, do they matter or not? If they do, then why has the US credit rating never before been downgraded? The answer, at least if you listen to S&P, is straightforward enough. The US government is not acting in a unified, responsible way. Simply put, it’s not acting like a triple-A credit risk, so it doesn’t deserve that rating. Time to play catch-up to the rest of the class: Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom all still enjoy AAA ratings. So much for American exceptionalism.

A double-dip recession is bound to have political repercussions stateside in the next 18 months. But for consumers in affected markets across the globe, rating-agency jockeying and stock market woes mostly translate to more of what they’ve already been living through for the past few years. While the Great Recession that started in 2007 forced a seismic shift in consumer attitudes — from a world of ample credit to one of credit scarcity, this economic news won’t immediately make consumers change their minds any more than they already have. Because while nations in North America and Europe are now coming to terms with getting their economic houses in order, regular consumers in homes across the globe have been doing that for some time.

By Kirsten Robinson

It’s no secret that the millennial generation is a game-changing force. We’ve talked about how millennials impact the workplace as employees—but who is the millennial consumer?

Our sister company, Iconoculture, recently conducted a study on millennial consumers, their attributes, and how Research and marketing teams can reach them. Here are some takeaways from the webinar:

Who is the millennial consumer?

The millennial consumer—most commonly thought of as born between 1982 and 2000—can’t be confined to one box. They embody a variety of identities at one time, which are constantly in flux—the “me of the moment.” Some other attributes at a glance:

-They stand out to fit in—fitting in with their tribe of friends, while maintaining individuality.

-They choose to adapt over adopt—they may not be the first product adopters, but when they get their hands on a device or service, they find ways to adapt it to their personal needs.

-They are some-conventionals—millennials are interested in traditional values, just not in the “traditional” sense; they twist values to fit themselves.

Nancy Robinson: “The definition of this group is so fuzzy because it’s a generation we’re still watching in process. There’s already a big difference between today’s 32-year-old and today’s 16-year-old. It’s a smaller group to watch, within a smaller timeframe. Millennials are still in the process of emerging and going through those same stages. And they’re not going through those stages in a predictable way.

They really are that kid who thinks, this looks great, it doesn’t have to be super flashy, but it looks like it’ll work, and it better work. They’re very forgive-me-not in that respect. If it doesn’t work, it’s never their fault—they think that there’s something wrong with the product.”

How can you appeal to Millennials?

-Tap into customization. Millennials are all about personalization—they need to feel like products were made for them. Even product upgrades don’t have to represent a major change; they’re interested in small, incremental changes.

-Be accessible. Millennials are convenience consumers. But, the convenience needs to be fun, and the right fit for the right moment. They want to know what the product is, how quickly they can get to it, and how soon it can be theirs. It’s not about being impatient—it’s about access.

Nancy Robinson: “No, absolutely not. What’s interesting about Millennials is they are equal opportunity information gatherers. They still pay attention to print, particularly magazines, as well as listening to the radio. It’s less about the channel and much more about the content. But they’re looking across a variety of channels. You never just want to jump into one boat, because that one boat will sink. You want to be invested in a variety of approaches to them, and you want to keep those approaches fresh.”

MREB members, learn more about the millennial consumer and how you can reach them by accessing our event replay.

By Anthony Bell

Rising product commoditization and diminishing brand loyalty have compelled managers to turn to customer service to differentiate themselves from the competition. Ensure your Market Research team has a proper understanding of customer behavior, and customer loyalty in particular. Originally published in liveMint.com, our friends from the Customer Contact Council believe avoiding these six myths is a good starting point. Need help identifying customer behavior? MREB Members, get a comprehensive view of the consumer with  Iconoculture’s Consumer Insights to understand what’s going on, why it’s happening, where the consumer is headed next and what it all means for business.

Guest blogger Tim Henderson is Senior Director, Matures and Retail, at Iconoculture, a sister program of the Market Research Executive Board. 

Black Friday is nigh, but retailers hoping for big holiday gift sales may unwrap a turkey. Part of the reason: gift shoppers increasingly shop out of season, meaning Santa’s elves are busy buying gifts year-round rather than waiting for the traditional November-December months.

Shopping out of season is a trend highlighted by respondents to Iconoculture’s holiday shopping survey of IconoCommunities^SM members. Typical of the responses:

It just makes more sense financially – why restrict yourself to shopping during the holiday season when there are so many other opportunities to save money throughout the rest of the year? In fact, I make a huge effort to AVOID gift shopping during the holiday season because the stores are so much more chaotic and congested.

- IconoCommunities^SM participant Michelle, Gen X female, suburban New Jersey, 9.20.10

The bad news is that this trend appears to be here to stay.  The good news: Savvy merchants have taken note of this shift in shopping behaviors and responded with more creative marketing tactics, like this year’s “Christmas in July” promos from brands like Target, Toys R Us and Sears. Read More »