About INgene blog : First ever Indian Youth trend Insights blog

About INgene : First ever Indian Youth trend Insights blog:
This blog explores the detailed characteristics of Young-India and explains the finer & crucial differences they have with their global peers. The blog also establishes the theory of “adopted differentiation” (Copyright Kaustav SG,2007) and how the Indian & Inglodian youth are using this as a tool to differentiate themselves from the “aam aadmi” (mass population of India) to establish their new found identity.

The term youth refers to persons who are no longer children and not yet adults. Used colloquially, however the term generally refers to a broader, more ambiguous field of reference- from the physically adolescent to those in their late twenties.
Though superficially the youth all over the world exhibits similar [degree of] attitude, [traits of] interests & [deliverance of] opinion but a detailed observation reveals the finer differential characteristics which are crucial and often ignored while targeting this group as a valued consumer base. India is one of the youngest countries in the world with 60% of its population less then 24 years of age and is charted as the most prospective destination for the retail investment in the A. T. Kearney’s Global Retail Opportunity Report, 2007. With the first ever non-socialistic generation’s thriving aspiration & new found money power combined with steadily growing GDP, bubbling IT industry and increasing list of confident young entrepreneurs, the scenario appears very lucrative for the global and local retailers to target the “Youngisthan” (young-India). But, the secret remains in the understanding of the finer AIOs of this generation. The Indian youth segment roughly estimates close to 250million (between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five) and can be broadly divided (socio-psychologically) into three categories: the Bharatiyas, the Indians & the Inglodians (copyright Kaustav SG 2008). The Bharatiyas estimating 67% of the young population lives in the rural (R1, R2 to R4 SEC) areas with least influence of globalization, high traditional values. They are least economically privileged, most family oriented Bollywood influenced generation. The Indians constitute 31.5% (A, B,C, D & E SEC) and have moderate global influence. They are well aware of the global trends but rooted to the Indian family values, customs and ethos. The Inglodians are basically the creamy layers (A1,A SEC) and marginal (1.5% or roughly three million) in number though they are strongly growing (70% growth rate). Inglodians are affluent and consume most of the trendy & luxury items. They are internet savvy & the believers of global-village (a place where there is no difference between east & west, developing & developed countries etc.), highly influenced by the western music, food, fashion & culture yet Indian at heart.








Sunday, October 3, 2010

"we are the blackberry boys": Blackberry is trying to go mass..in India

Blackberry is trying to become "everybody" phone in India (see this ad : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPZH4OysGZI&feature=related)...

“The blackberry boys” are an omnipresent phenomenon of “lucrative mass market greed” which is to dilute the value of this brand and to define its future (in India). A downfall from being elite to mass…as per my theory of adopted differentiation, even before blackberry gets the status of mass brand (blackberry farmers, blackberry autowalas…) the “elite class” will drop their bb in recycle bean and move to the next great phone (ie iphone or whatever comes as next big thing for elite)…BB is in India cause it already lost the status of elite phone in west (even Mr. Obama stated that he is NOT using BB anymore) due to its mass-greed and soon their fate will be same as Nokia( in India)...due to aggressive invasion of Samsung, Macromax and other brands in mass segment Nokia is almost dead in grassroots…and elite is not using Nokia cause their subordinates/ drivers/ maids use it...BB will follow this path…one can see BB mirrors/ clones are already available under various other brands (read this article)
A product can’t cater to class and mass (other than staple foods and politics) in India and anyway BB wont be able to cater the grassroot needs.

at anencyafqs Pramil commented against the post : Drop your suits, sing and dance- The 'BlackBerry Boys' are the new craze in town "...as the brand grows there is always that temptation to make some more bucks by repositioning your brand and targeting the unconventional prospects. Many brands fall prey to it and most of them fail, because one thing in a human brain can occupy one association at a time, in most of the cases. Going against this basic law about how humans percieve and then act and react leads to so many failures in re-positioning attempts by brand managers across the globe.A very idealistic attempt that comes to my mind is the brand Lexus. After failing miserably to promote itself as a luxury car maker in the North American market, Toyota decided to create an anonymous brand, Lexus, which nowhere told anyone that it belongs to Toyota. It required sincere efforts in every aspect of the marketing function to create a brand that was no where connected to Toyota.Blackberry is trying to do something very "cheap" in terms of re-positioning a brand; just a communication facade and wrap up to enforce the Boy thing. It might give them some more boys and girls singing to their tune but more importantly and more likely, it can take away that loyal class of Executives which build the brand Blackberry.This is not at all an impressive move by the strategists and brand people at RIM."...in this article Rajiv Rao, national creative director, Ogilvy India (they created the ad), tells afaqs!, "I remember the look on the faces of the top executives in suits, sitting in business class age, having to share their seat with a young guy like me in a crumpled T-shirt and torn jeans. It was this feeling that was very similar to the BlackBerry phenomenon a few years ago - when getting a BB was like a big perk in the organisation."
"Today, besides the top executives, a lot of youngsters are using BlackBerry for various reasons. Inspired by this insight, we thought - how about getting these typical BB users singing a song about BB and themselves - and then letting a bunch of youngsters completely take over what was meant to be their stage, since they are the new users," Rao adds...
unfortunately, "a big perk in the organization @ BB is what RIM is....as a micro trend the product might become hot-cake among all the segments in India, but in long run BB will be dead within 5-6 years unless they really creep in their earlier status, which actually is impossible once the "downfall" happens...the best example is Reliance, who is perceived as "cheap" mass brand and they will never be able to become an elite...

No comments: