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.








Saturday, December 25, 2010

[depth of] friendship measurement model and the catagories of freindship among the youth in India

In a country where getting "own space" is very difficult (due to population, family, career...)the youth in India are developing 4 types of friends and "friend lists" (other than "real" face to face friends) to categorize the "priorities" and "ways of interaction":

1. Chat friends...some of the chat friends are very distant, they have not even met/ know the person...more of a virtual friendship where the face is replaced by codes, user-names, texts)

2. SNS (Facebook) friends... the friends are still virtual, but much closer, they r having "visual representation", day to day activities can be tracked, more "homely" and more "reliable"

3. Phonebook friends... close freinds who's "true identity" is known...represented by numbers...and much reliable

4. Blackberry chat friends.... micro circle of friends....same / similer AIOs... BB pin is shared, so very much reliable!

the real life friends are also interwoven in above 4 categories...one can be present in the phone book, Facebook page and BB chat list (so they can stay in more than one group at a time).

Among the "real life friends" their depth of friendship is determined on which list they are...whether he/ she is a BB chat "real life" friend (close/ best friends only) or the facebook "real life friend" ("ok" friends to "best" friends)...

Interestingly, the visuals are becoming more "general" (in this world of visuals, thrs no exclusivity in it) ...the voice is more "personal"...the emotions can be "felt" in voice than visuals.... everybody knows, today, the visuals can be "manipulated" by anybody (PHOTOSHOPIFICATION of the world, i call it).
Hence, visuals are becoming "secondary priority" in friendship "core group"

I have proposed below model to measure the "depth and intense" of friendships among the youth, which can be a good tool for the ethnographers and brands to find their focus groups/ promote/ building networks/ understanding activities...


you can mail me /chat/ call for further discussions...

(the discussion on this topic at my facebook page is added above...the "like"s shows how many youth in India are supporting this...)

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