Journal of The Asia Pacific Economy: Psychographic Segmentation of Indian Urban Consumers

This article was downloaded by:[Kumar, Rohit Vishal]
On: 25 April 2008

Access Details: [subscription number 791765826]
Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954
Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy

Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713703356
Psychographic segmentation of Indian urban consumers
Rohit Vishal Kumar a; Amitava Sarkar b
a
Department of Marketing & Finance, Xavier Institute of Social Service, Ranchi,
Jharkhand, India
b
West Bengal University of Technology, Salt Lake City, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Online Publication Date: 01 May 2008

To cite this Article: Kumar, Rohit Vishal and Sarkar, Amitava (2008) 'Psychographic
segmentation of Indian urban consumers', Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy,
13:2, 204 - 226
To link to this article: DOI: 10.1080/13547860801923590
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13547860801923590
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE
Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf

This article maybe used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction,
re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly
forbidden.
The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be
complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be
independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings,
demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or
arising out of the use of this material.
Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy
Vol. 13, No. 2, May 2008, 204–226
Downloaded By: [Kumar, Rohit Vishal] At: 07:44 25 April 2008
Psychographic segmentation of Indian urban consumers

Rohit Vishal Kumara,∗ and Amitava Sarkarb
a
Department of Marketing & Finance, Xavier Institute of Social Service, Ranchi,
Jharkhand, India; b West Bengal University of Technology, Salt Lake City, Kolkata,
West Bengal, India
Since 1991, India is emerging as a key destination for marketers from across
the globe. However, little work of relevance has been undertaken to understand
the Indian Consumers. It is believed that the Indian metropolitan consumers
are fairly homogeneous in nature. In this paper, we report the results of a
survey conducted amongst 560 respondents in the five metropolises. The ob-
jective was to segment the metropolitan consumers on behavioral aspects and
to understand their consumption pattern. The study, designed on the basis of
VALS, uses cluster analysis to segment the Indian metropolitan consumers
into six behavioral categories, namely Well Settled, Strugglers, Enjoyers, Con-
servatives, Self Concerned and Realist. The segments have been profiled in
terms of their product ownership, Activities and Interests, Financial Invest-
ment avenues and Media habits. Implications for marketing and government
policy have been discussed.
Keywords: segmentation; psychographics; cluster analysis; lifestyle;
marketing; India
JEL Classifications: R11, M31, C49, O53
Introduction
With the introduction of the New Economic Policy in 1991 and the adoption
of liberalization, privatization and globalization as the key drivers of the Indian
Economic Policy, a slew of economic reforms were undertaken by the Government
of India. These reforms have far-reaching implications on how the Indian economy
evolved over the next 15 years. A major thrust was on opening up of the Indian
markets to competition from abroad. The offshoot was that the Indian consumer,
who was until then, protected from the developments of the rest of the world,
now suddenly found himself being courted by companies from around the globe.
The steady growth of consumer finance options, lowering of interest rates and
curtailment of inflation at reasonable levels over the past decade and a half has
∗
Corresponding author. Email: rohitvishalkumar@yahoo.com
ISSN: 1354-7860 print / 1469-9648 online

C 2008 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/13547860801923590
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy 205
resulted in general increase of income levels of the middle and the rich classes
in India. This can be amply understood by the fact that India had about 20,000
crorepati1 households in 2004, as opposed to only 5000 crorepati households
in 1995–96 (Agnihotri 2004). The rapid increase in income levels in the hands
on ordinary Indians meant that over a short period of time, the Indian economy
changed from a socialist oriented economy to a consumption-led economy. The
changes can be aptly understood in the words of Kishore Biyani, the CEO of
Pantaloons Retail India Limited (Biyani and Baishya 2007).
The changing demographic profiles, increasing income levels, urbanization,
technology, globalization and a free flow of ideas from within and outside the
country, has brought about a dramatic shift in consumer taste and preferences.
Consumer segments [in India] are maturing faster than ever.
The rapid change in the Indian consumer’s attitudes and profiles, made it
difficult for organizations to cater to the consumer needs. Indian companies –
more used to licensing policies and under-production during the pre-liberalization
period – faced the uphill task of catering to the changing consumer taste and
preferences. This lead to a rash of research to understand the Indian consumer.
Unfortunately most of the work undertaken in the Indian context remained in the
domain of commercial marketing research agencies and was focused on specific
organizational and brand requirements. For example, the now defunct magazine –
Advertising & Marketing – carried out various researches on profiling consumer
behavior in the Indian context (Jacob 1997; Prabhakaran 1996; Shirali and Singh,
1997). MTV, in collaboration with IMRB International, conducted a study on
18–34 years old in India and segmented the Indian youth into six segments –
Cultural Misfits, Style Bhai’s, Middle Class Majnu’s, Main Bhi NRI, Rich Brats
and Nerdy Nandu’s (Businessworld Editorial Team 2005). Similarly, the Outlook
news magazine, in collaboration with NFO Research, carried out a research on the
sexual orientation of Indian women and classified the modern Indian women into
five segments (Deb 2003). Pantaloons Retail classified India into three segments –
India I, India II and India III (Biyani and Baishya 2007) for its own internal usage
etc.
All such researches, mentioned above, suffered from the limitation that they
were conducted to meet the marketing requirement(s) of a particular organization.
Academically, India lacked a major study which profiled the Indian consumers.
Some work of note had taken place in the Indian context; but except for the
study of National Council of Applied and Economic Research (NCAER), the
other studies have been more region-specific in nature. As such, a growing need
was felt to conduct an academic study of the Indian consumers and to provide a
profile of the Indian consumers that could be used irrespective of the brand or the
organization concerned. The current study attempts to fill in the gap amongst the
urban consumers of India.
In this paper we propose to study the metropolitan urban consumers of India
with the following objectives: (1) to segment the metropolitan urban consumers
into distinct behavioral groups, and (2) to understand the lifestyle pattern of the
206 R.V. Kumar and A. Sarkar
identified behavioral groups and to understand the implications for marketing of

product and services.
This paper is organized as follows: in the next section we review the existing
literature. We do not propose to give an exhaustive review of literature but provide

a brief overview of international studies and concentrate in some detail on the
Indian literature. In the third section we provide an outline of the methodology
followed and in the fourth section we profile the identified segments. In the fifth
section we take a look at the consumption pattern of the various segments in terms
of product ownership, computer and internet usage, avenues of investment and
media habits. In the sixth section we provide our observations and discuss some
marketing implications for companies operating in India.
Review of literature
In order to understand the consumers and their preferences, various demographic
and lifestyle studies have been carried out across the world. For example, signif-
icant studies have been carried out try and understand the correlation between
social class income and buying behavior (Slocum and Mathews 1970) and so-
cial class and lifestyle as a predictor of shopping behavior (Rich and Jain 1968).
Studies have also been carried out to understand the importance of Life Status
and Consumer Preference (Andreason 1984) and the importance of consumer
behavior and cultural values (Henry 1976). In addition, there are studies relat-
ing to the influences of reference groups on consumer brand purchase (Stafford
1966) and on the influence of the reference group on product and brand purchase
(Beardon and Etzel 1982). Studies have also been conducted to understand the
impact of role of sex on purchase decisions (Qualls 1987); on working wives and
expenditure on service (Bellanti and Foster 1984) and the use of advertising for
making purchase decisions (Eighmey 1997). Similarly, studies have been con-
ducted to understand consumer profiles for various products. Notable amongst
them are studies on credit card usage and lifestyle (Plummer, 1971; Slocum and
Mathews, 1969), VCR ownership and lifestyle (Potter et al. 1988), drinking and
driving amongst young males (Lastovick et al. 1987), heterogeneity between the
senior citizens market (Day et al. 1987) etc. Research has also been carried out
to understand the profile the women in the USA, UK and France (Doughlas and
Urban 1997). Lifestyle research has also been extended to the new medium of the
Internet (Eighmey 1997).
In the Indian context, the studies have been comparatively fewer in number.
Deepa Kapoor studied the interrelationship between religiosity, caste prejudices,
and conservatism and life styles among the four major faith groups: Hinduism,
Islam, Sikh and Christianity. The research was carried out under the assumption
that the individual’s stable and persistent beliefs and ideologies – social, economic,
political and region – determined the lifestyle of the individual. It concluded that
religiosity had a lasting impact on all the other aspects and was a major influence on
maintaining the caste prejudices and conservative outlook; which in turn influenced
the lifestyle pattern of an Indian consumer. The study was carried out in the city
of New Delhi (Kapoor 1985).
One of the most comprehensive studies conducted in India to date has been the
study of National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) conducted

in 1993–94. The study had a sample size of 2.81 lakh (1 lakh = 1 × 105 ) house-
holds (65% urban and 35% rural) and covered 410 districts across the length and
breath of the country. It mapped the ownership and purchasing patterns of 281,768
consumer durables and 18,730 consumer non-durables. The study classified the
consumption behavior by using real disposable income corrected for regional im-
balances. Factor and Cluster analysis was used to segregate the Indian population
into five major groups based on the real disposable income and the ownership
of durables and consumption of non-durables: Very Rich (6 million), Consuming
Classes (150 million), Climbers (275 million), Aspirants (275 million) and Desti-
tute (210 million). According to the study, Indian population would blossom into
an inverted pyramid with the Very Rich and the Consuming Classes driving the
Indian market (Rao and Natarajan 1996). The population projections by the study
match the Government of India’s population estimates by age classes.
Seema Kapur (1995) tried to understand the linkages between the ownership
of two-wheelers and the behavior of their owners. Adite Chatterjee (1995) con-
ducted a study to understand the brand association of Denim brands with lifestyle
attributes. The study was qualitative in nature and used only focus groups to arrive
at its findings. Another study, by the same author, was conducted to provide an un-
derstanding of changes in personality traits, family relationships, personal goals,
attitude toward advertising and favored products among Indian consumers aged
between 15–45 years. The study (again based solely on focus groups) concluded
that Indian consumers were different and could not be classified into any known
norms (Chatterjee 1996).
Shirali and Singh (1997) carried out a study on status symbols for Indian males
and tried to identify similar lifestyle segments based on the classification of the
status symbol. The study surveyed 623 respondents in the top four metropolitan
centers in the country – all with at least one car at their disposal. The study
found that there was concordance amongst the males in the top four metros as
regards what they considered as status symbols and classified Indian Males into
four different segments – Yuppies, Already Arrived, Getting There and Won’t Be.
Some other studies have also been carried out in the Indian context. Sharma
and Chaubey (2004) carried out a study with the aim of assessing the consumers’
awareness and their attitude towards different mobile service providers in the city
of Lucknow. Another study attempted to segment the consumers in Kolkata market
using their brand preferences for toothpaste brands. The study concluded that the
consumers in the Kolkata market could be segmented into five groups based on
their toothpaste brand choices (Kumar and Mitra 2004). Similarly, studies have
also been taken up to understand the effect of psychographics on the purchase
frequency amongst college goers in Kolkata (Roy and Goswami 2007). Studies
have also been carried out to study various aspects of disease and substance abuse
(Medhi et al. 2006) and for identifying means of better governance in rural and
urban areas (Bhagat 2005). Biases present in the Indian society have also been
studied (Sudha and Rajan 1999).
Thus, it can be clearly seen that there is a significant lack of work of a pan-India
nature. This paper, based on the study of urban metropolitan consumers in the top
five metropolis of India, is an attempt to fill the lacunae to some extent.
Outline of the study

The present study is based on the premise that the metropolitan urban consumers
in India can to treated as a fairly homogeneous segment. This claim is not without
foundation as researches conducted in the USA have shown that there does exist a
high degree of integration between the urban youths of various countries (Hawkins
et al. 2002; Tully 1994). In the Indian context, we are not aware of any work that has
been undertaken to either prove or disprove the claim; but it can be safely assumed
that the growth of communication technologies, travel and transport and opening
up of new job opportunities in various services sectors has led to an intermingling
of the Indian urban population leading to more homogeneous views and opinions.
This claim is also augmented by the fact that the work was conducted on SEC A
and B households. It is widely believed in marketing circles that SEC A and B
households have a higher propensity to consume high value items (McDonald and
Dunbar 2004) and thereby would be more aware and integrated with fashion, fads
and trends in domestic and international markets. It must be mentioned here that
the SEC A and B segments have been treated as a single homogeneous mass, and
such city level analysis has not been conducted on the data.
In traditional economic literature, consumption is looked upon in terms of
product and price. A product is conceived of as a bundle of attributes that yield a
particular benefit on consumption and is purchasable at a given price. Given that
all the consumers in a particular market face the same product, it is but obvious that
economists tend to take price as the differentiating variable. However, marketing
practitioners generally believe that price is one of the many factors that influences
consumption. For example, marketers believe that even though a blue collar and a
white collar worker may earn the same level of income, differences of social class
will compel them to spend the income in different ways (Schiffman and Kanuk
1997). The identification of the ‘attitudinally affluent’ consumers – consumers who
do not have the income needed to be considered affluent yet desire to have the best
– proves the inability of income or price to be a causative factor. These consumers
buy less, but buy better quality and they achieve this by assigning priorities to the
object of desire and gradually working their way towards possession of the desired
product (Rodkin 1990).
In marketing literature, various methods have been proposed to study consumer
segments and behavior. However, the most unique of these is psychographics in
which the notion of lifestyle is embedded. The term stands for psychological traits
that a marketer ties to consumption. Psychographics is measured by questionnaires
resembling personality interviews along with a wide range of items measuring

attitudes and issues related to lifestyle preferences. It is generally believed that
psychographics tends to give a greater insight into why products and services are
purchased (Wells 1975). As the objective of our study was to segment the urban
metropolitan population into distinct behavioral groups and to understand their
lifestyle’s for marketing purposes; we decided to use the psychographic approach
to segmentation. Within the psychographic domain, Values and Lifestyles (VALS)
(Mitchell 1984) and Attitudes, Interest and Opinions (AIO) (Wells and Tigert
1971) are the two predominant approaches. Our study is based on the VALS
methodology in principle, to study the urban metropolitan consumers.
The methodology
The study focused on the metropolitan population of India residing in the cities
of Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore, thereby covering 19.10%
of the total urban population of India and 50.51% of the population residing in
metropolitan cities as per the census of India 2001. The target respondents for the
study were individuals belonging to SEC A and B households, between 21 to 70
years of age.
A total of 560 interviews were conducted in the five metropolises. To maintain
randomness, the sampling frame was determined using a mix of pin code area and
the Electoral Registers. At the first level, each metropolis was defined in terms
of the pin code area and subsequently the desired numbers of pin code areas
were selected randomly. For each of the selected areas, the electoral registers were
procured and used as a sampling frame. In case the pin code area was bifurcated
by more than one electoral zone, the electoral zone with the largest coverage was
used. Not more than ten completed interviews were conducted in a single pin code
area. The interviews were conducted using the in-home interviewing technique
(Robertson and Conway 2003) using a structured questionnaire.
The questionnaire contained 60 statements on attitudes, opinions and interests
on various aspects of Indian economy and culture. In the first iteration, a list of
about 100 statements was drawn up by the authors by consulting the statements
of the VALS framework (Mitchell 1984) and other sources, such as newspapers
and magazines. This list of 100 statements was given to senior professors of
marketing at the University of Calcutta and other management institutes in and
around Calcutta. They were asked to identify independently all those statements
they thought would be of relevance to the urban metropolitan consumer in the
current Indian context. From this list, 65 statements were chosen. Care was taken
to include all those statements on which the majority of experts were in agreement.
In the second iteration, a small pre-test questionnaire was developed and was
administered to 35 people in Calcutta chosen at random. Out of the 65 statements
it was found that three statements were giving completely skewed data and, as such,
were dropped from the study. Of the remaining 62 statements a few statements
were found to be difficult to understand because of wording-related issues. The
wordings of such statements were simplified and a total of 60 statements retained

for final input.
The breakup of the statements and the broad grouping is as follows: Indian
Business (seven statements), Culture (five statements), Education (eight state-

ments), Politics (five statements), Products (five statements), Social Issues (six
statements), Self Belief (12 statements), Women’s Dignity (five statements) and
Future Prospect (seven statements). Each statement was rated on a six-point scale
Disagree Strongly (1), Disagree Mostly (2), Disagree Somewhat (3), Agree Some-
what (4), Agree Mostly (5) and Agree Strongly (6). A DK/CS point was also
provided to record non-response or refusals. However, the respondents were not
made aware of the DK/CS point.
Segmenting the dataset

In a bid to segment the urban consumers we decided to use cluster analysis on the
statements. There has been much discussion in the literature of cluster analysis
regarding choice of variables in cluster analysis – however three broad areas
of practice can be outlined. Some researchers prefer to use the entire battery of
individual items. Others tend to transform the data to principal components or
other factor scores. Still others prefer to choose a subset of the original dataset and
run cluster analysis on the subset of individual items. However, it has been shown
that using all the variables in cluster analysis tends to provide sharper between-
cluster differences, internal reproducibility and external discrimination (Fiedler
and McDonald 1993). Thus, it was decided to use the all-variable approach for
cluster analysis. As such, 52 statements – which had less than 10% DK/CS – were
used in the final k-means cluster analysis.
However, one of the biggest drawbacks of cluster analysis still remained – that
is, determining the actual number of clusters (Dunham 2005). The problem of
deciding on the number of clusters has been of great significance in the literature
of cluster analysis. Intuitively, the problem of deciding on the number of clusters
can be looked upon as a problem of maximizing the dispersion of cluster centers
(between cluster distances) and minimizing the dispersion within cluster members
(within cluster distances). The earliest work can be attributed to Ball and Hall
(1965) and continues even today. Various rules – known as the ‘cluster index’ –
have been proposed by various authors to decide on the final number of clusters
(Ball and Hall 1965; Calinski and Harabasz 1974; Friedman and Rubin 1967;
Fukunaga and Koontz 1970; Ratkowsky and Lance 1978; Scott and Symons 1971;
Wedel and Kamakura 1998) .
Studies have been carried out to measure the ability of the cluster indexes to
predict accurately the number of clusters. For example, Milligan (1981) carried
out a Monte Carlo simulation of 30 cluster indexes and concluded that ‘Calinski–
Harabasz’ index to have the best predictive power. Subsequently Weingessel et al.
(1999) carried out an exhaustive review of 14 cluster indexes on datasets known
to have a given number of longitudinal and elliptical clusters. Following the study
of Weingessel et al. (1999) we decided to use the following five cluster indexes,
namely Calinski and Harabasz (1974), Ratkowsky and Lance (1978), Scott and
Symons (1971), TraceW (Edwards and Cavalli-Sforza 1965) and the Likelihood
Index (Wedel and Kamakura 1998) to identify the number of clusters in our dataset.
The cluster indexes were computed using the “R Software for Statistical Com-
puting” (R Development Core Team, 2005) using the cclust package (Dimitriadou
2005). The likelihood ratio was computed using WEKA (Witten and Frank 2005).
A detailed analysis of the cluster indexes suggested that there may be five
to seven clusters in the dataset. However, that still left us with a wide variety of
choices. To decide on the final number of segments the data were analyzed using
the outputs of the cluster analysis on 5, 6, and 7 segments respectively. The analysis
suggested that the six-segment solution provided the best overall segmentation in
terms of identifiability, substantiality, accessibility, stability, responsiveness and
actionability (Vriens 2001). As such, the six-segment solution was selected for
further understanding the urban metropolitan consumers.
The urban segments

After deciding on the number of segments, the next task was to study the segments
and provide a descriptive name to these segments based on the manifest demo-
graphics and psychographic characteristics. Table 1 provides the demographic
profile of the segments and Table 2 provides the mean scores on the overall state-
ment groups.
In order to identify the significant means, Tukey’s Honest Significance Dif-
ference Test at 5% level of significance was computed for Age, number of job
changes and family size. It is the preferred choice of post-hoc comparison because
it has greater power than other similar tests and is readily available for computation
Table 1. Demographic profiles of the segments.

Well Settled Strugglers Enjoyers Conservative Self-Concerned Realist
(Segment 1) (Segment 2) (Segment 3) (Segment 4) (Segment 5) (Segment 6)
1. Average Age (years) 41.32 37.10 37.57 44.60 33.31 35.96

2. Family Size (nos) 3.14 3.10 3.22 3.74 1.84 2.71
3. MHI (Rs. pm) 16,859 14,289 23,587 14,550 21,977 19,769
4. Job Changes (Nos) 0.99 1.79 1.31 2.61 3.39 3.00
5. Marital Status (%age)
Married 72.22 53.17 61.48 70.00 28.89 41.82
Bachelor 19.75 36.15 35.25 20.00 66.67 36.36
Widower 6.17 7.94 1.69 10.00 4.44 9.09
Divorced 1.95 2.38 1.14 — 4.44 12.73
6. Occupation (%age)
Private Sector 21.62 25.00 39.13 26.32 42.86 35.90
Public Sector 20.27 9.62 23.19 10.53 10.71 10.26
Self Employed 56.76 63.46 34.74 57.89 42.86 53.85
7. Working for (years) 15.84 10.36 12.83 19.82 8.18 12.62
8. Percent of Population 28.93 22.50 21.79 8.93 8.03 9.82
Table 2. Mean scores on psychographic statements (overall).
Well Settled Strugglers Enjoyers Conservatives Self-Concerned Realist

(Segment 1) (Segment 2) (Segment 3) (Segment 4) (Segment 5) (Segment 6)
Women Issues 5.43 4.81 5.12 5.48 4.25 5.19

Social Issues 5.44 4.91 5.39 5.54 4.04 5.25
Products 4.88 4.47 4.80 4.98 4.07 5.09
Future 4.96 4.47 4.67 4.43 4.04 4.31
Education 4.83 4.40 3.95 5.21 3.75 3.51
Culture 4.86 4.36 4.51 4.66 3.69 3.39
Business 4.75 4.44 4.45 4.82 3.77 4.11
Themselves 4.73 4.46 4.34 4.39 3.59 3.65
(Keppel and Wickens 2004). Table 3 shows the computed probability values of
the significance difference test along with the means, which are different. As can
be seen from the table, segments seemed well separated in terms of Age, number
of job changes and family size.
A review of the demographic profile of the segments reveals that Segment 4 is
the oldest segment in terms of age and has one of the lowest monthly household
incomes. It also has the largest family size and has been in the workforce for
about 20 years. Segment 5, on the other hand, is the youngest in terms of age,
smallest in terms of family size and has the one of the highest monthly household
Table 3. Tukey’s HSD probabilities.
Well Settled Strugglers Enjoyers Conservatives Bachelors Realist

Mean (Segment 1) (Segment 2) (Segment 3) (Segment 4) (Segment 5) (Segment 6)
Age
Segment 1 41.320 —
Segment 2 37.100 0.060 —
Segment 3 37.560 0.137 1.000 —
Segment 4 44.600 0.605 0.006* 0.013* —
Segment 5 33.310 0.003* 0.523 0.393 0.000* —
Segment 6 35.960 0.076 0.994 0.972 0.007* 0.906 —
Job Change
Segment 1 0.990 —
Segment 2 1.790 0.226 —
Segment 3 1.310 0.927 0.790 —
Segment 4 2.610 0.024* 0.658 0.138 —
Segment 5 3.390 0.000* 0.008* 0.001* 0.786 —
Segment 6 3.000 0.000* 0.047* 0.000* 0.984 0.968 —
Family Size
Segment 1 3.140 —
Segment 2 3.100 1.000 —
Segment 3 3.220 0.993 0.977 —
Segment 4 3.740 0.036* 0.030* 0.139* —
Segment 5 1.840 0.000* 0.000* 0.000* 0.000* —
Segment 6 2.710 0.253 0.381 0.124 0.000* 0.009* —
The figures marked with * are significant at 5% level of significance.

incomes. The number of job changes is high – with roughly four job changes in
about 8 years of work experience. This segment is also dominated by bachelors,
with about 67% of the people in the segment having not married to date. Segment
6, which is the next youngest segment, has a moderate family size and a fairly
large monthly household income. It has been in the workforce for about 12 years
and has had about three job changes. This is the only segment that has a sizable
divorced population.
Segment 1 is a fairly old segment with a well to do monthly household income.
The characteristics of the members of Segment 1 are that they have the least number
of job changes and the highest number of married people. They also constitute the
largest segment of the population. In this segment, it is also seen that about one
in every five people are in the government sector. Segment 3 has fairly old people
with the largest monthly household income. It should be noted that Segment 5
and Segment 3 have a sizable percentage of people employed in the private sector.
Segment 2 is the segment with the lowest monthly household income and the
majority of its members are self-employed.
Based on the demographic profiles and the analysis of their responses to
the psychographic statements, the segments were classified under the following
nomenclature.
Segment 1
This segment has been named the ‘Well Settled’ segment. This segment could
be thought of as comprising people who have established themselves in their
respective fields. They are slightly older and have been in employment for the
past decade and a half. They are not keen to change jobs, they normally have one
kid and have a decent monthly household income. They have moderate to strong
opinions on various issues, are happy with the outcome of their lives, and they are
slightly conventional in nature but are open to various other influences.
Segment 2
This segment has been named the ‘Strugglers’ segment. This segment could be
thought of as comprising people who could not quite make it in life and are now
struggling to make ends meet. With an average family size of three and the lowest
income per month, this segment is mostly self-employed and has been working
for about a decade. They are not willing to speak up on various issues and tend
to play safe. Slightly conservative in nature, not too confident, nor willing to take
risks, they tend to spend more than they would like to save and often feel left out
of the things going around them.
Segment 3
This segment has been named the ‘Enjoyers’ segment. This segment could be
thought of as the apex segment in terms of urban consumers. They have the
highest monthly household income and are employed mostly in the private sector.
They have a liberal attitude and have strong to moderate opinions on various issues.
They are happy with the outcome of life and are willing to take risks and want to
live life to the fullest. They are satisfied with themselves and try to enrich their
lives. They believe in consumer rights and protection of the environment and are
strong believers in modern technology.
Segment 4
This segment has been named the ‘Conservative’ segment. This segment could
be looked upon as people who have given in to the fates of life. The oldest of
the lot, they earn the least in terms of income. The family size is the largest.
They are mostly self-employed or engaged in the private sector. Conservative in
nature, they do not prefer to take any kind of risk in terms of work and life.
Financially, they like to save money. Somewhat confident, they don’t see a bright
future for themselves. They believe in government participation in the economy.
Segment 5
This segment has been named as the ‘Self Concerned’ segment. This segment is
the youngest segment identified by the study. Dominated by bachelors, they have
among the highest incomes, and the smallest families to support. This segment
is characterized by the highest number of job changes – approximately 3.4 job
changes – in the short employment career. This segment is characterized by a
strange reluctance to voice opinions. They showed a marked indifference to the
various issues.
Segment 6
This segment has been named as the ‘Realist’ segment. This segment had a sizable
presence of divorced people. It has the second highest number of job changes,
and earns a sizeable income This segment is mostly employed in the private sector
or is self-employed. This segment has liberal views. Financially, it likes to save
money. Social Status is an important part of this segment. These people believe
in conservation of natural resources and environment friendly policies. Responses
on various statements were more on the practical side; hence the nomenclature.
In subsequent sections, we shall use the segment nomenclature to identify the
segments.
Patterns of consumption
In this section, we undertake to look at the impact on consumption of products and
services by these segments in a bid to better profile these segments. This section
reports the differences between the various segments on the following aspects:
Ownership of Products, Activities and Interests, Financial Products and Services

and Media Consumption habits.
Ownership of consumer durables

In terms of consumer durables, an interesting picture emerged. Table 4 shows the
ownership pattern of major household consumer durable goods.
Color Television, Fridge, Gas Stove and Water Filter seemed to be the consumer
durables that were common across households in the segments. In the ‘Conserva-
tive’ segment, there seems to be an absence of any communicating device, such as
the Mobile Phone and the Telephone. The decline of the telephone as a preferred
medium of communication can be seen from the table as, in the ‘Self Concerned’
Table 4. Ownership of consumer durables.
Well Settled (Segment 1) Strugglers (Segment 2) Enjoyers (Segment 3)
Color TV (93) Color TV (91) Color TV (89)

Music System (82) Gas Stove (76) Gas Stove (87)
Telephones (71) Fridge (70) Fridge (84)
Fridge (69) Music System (69) Food Processor (79)
Food Processor (63) Water Filter (53) Telephone (73)
Gas Stove (62) Washing Machine (36) Mobile Phone (73)
Mobile Phone (59) Telephone (34) Water Filter (71)
Washing Machine (51) Mobile Phone (33) Music System (63)
Microwave (37) DVD / VCD (27) Washing Machine (52)
Water Filter (31) Food Processor (23) DVD / VCD (45)
Air Conditioner (20) — Computer (40)
— — Microwave (36)
— — Walkman (35)
— — Geyser (34)
— — Air Conditioner (34)
Conservative (Segment 4) Self Concerned (Segment 5) Realist (Segment 6)
Gas Stove (98) Mobile Phones (82) Music System (81)

Color TV (94) Music System (80) Color TV (78)
Fridge (94) Color TV (77) Gas Stove (78)
Water Filter (46) Gas Stove (72) Fridge (71)
DVD / VCD (40) Fridge (64) Mobile Phone (65)
Food Processor (38) Food Processor (50) Water Filter (64)
Washing Machine (36) Washing Machine (45) Food Processor (58)
Music System (30) Water Filter (41) DVD / VCD (40)
Microwave (26) DVD / VCD (34) Telephone (31)
VCR / VCP (20) Microwave (34) Microwave (29)
— Telephone (32) Air Conditioner (27)
— Air Conditioner (35) Computer (27)
— Digi-cam (25) —
(Figures in parenthesis represent percent of ownership)

and the ‘Realist’ segments roughly 30% had access to telephones, and the use of
mobile phones was dominant in these two segments. Music Systems fared fairly
high on the durables list of all segments except the ‘Conservatives’. The presence
of Air-Conditioners, Microwaves, DVD Players, Washing Machines etc featured

prominently in the hands of the well-to-do segments. Their presence was also seen
in the ‘Conservative’ and the ‘Strugglers’ segments, but in fairly low numbers
The ‘Enjoyers’ segment had the maximum durable ownership. It also was the
largest owner of exercising equipments, answering machines, electronic cooking
ranges etc. The ‘Self-Concerned’ segment showed a preference for ownership for
DVD players, digital cameras, camcorders, microwave ovens, computers etc. The
‘Realist’ segment showed a similar ownership pattern. The ‘Conservative’ and the
‘Struggler’ segments seemed to have much fewer consumer durables.
Computer and internet usage

Another interesting aspect was the usage of computers as reported by the study
(Table 5). Seventy-nine percent of the ‘Enjoyers’ said that they used computers
regularly, followed by the ‘Realist’ (46%), ‘Self-Concerned’ (29%) and the ‘Well-
Settled’ (28%) segments. The hours per week spent on computers and the internet
were again quite good. The least amount of time spent on computers was reported
by the ‘Conservative’ segment (7.9 hours/week) and the highest was reported by
the ‘Realist’ segment (43.9 hours/week). Spending time on the internet is seen
to be a fast emerging activity. The ‘Strugglers’ segment spent the least amount
of time on the net (4.4 hours/week), while the highest time was reported by the
‘Self-Concerned’ segment. Email, chatting, computer games and web browsing
emerged as the most conducted activities on the internet across the segments.
The figures regarding regularly use of computers are an eye opener. It has
been reported that roughly 2.9% of all Indians regularly use computers as opposed
to 35.5% in Europe and 68.8% in America. It can be seen that some of the
segments rival European countries in terms of usage; thereby breaking a myth that
Indian consumers are not adept at computer usage. The growth of computer and
internet usage amongst the urban segments can well be attributed to the growth
Table 5. Usage of computer and internet amongst segments.
Regularly Using Computer Usage Internet Usage

Segment Computer (%age) (hours/week) (hours/week)
1. Well Settled 21.60 18.50 9.20

2. Strugglers 16.80 8.10 4.40
3. Enjoyers 44.30 17.00 10.00
4.Conservative 14.00 7.90 5.80
5. Self Concerned 22.20 33.00 20.50
6. Realist 31.50 43.90 16.10
of cyber-café’s, where the charge for using a computer or the internet is low –
roughly Rs. 10 per hour – and the facilities are available throughout the major
part of the day (Haseloff 2005).
Activities and interests

Table 6 presents the top 10 activities undertaken by the different segments.
The Indian urban consumers showed a marked disinterest in taking part in any
kind of physical activity; especially in participation in sports and games. Walking
was the only physical activity that was common across the various segments.
Except for the ‘Self-Concerned’, ‘Enjoyers’ and ‘Realist’ segments, waking as an
activity does not figure prominently in other segments. Other sports that seemed to
figure in the segments were playing cricket, badminton, and football. In the Indian
context, it must be kept in mind that cricket, badminton and football are common
activities and can also be played in a disorganized and ad-hoc fashion. As such, it
is highly unlikely that these activities contribute significantly to the health of the
segments. Playing basketball and going to gym for a workout were some of the new
activities that were seen in the ‘Realist’ and the ‘Self Concerned’ segments. Other
Table 6. Games and other activities undertaken by the segments.
Listening to Music (69) Listening to Music (79) Walking (67)

Walking (43) Eating Out (54) Listening to Music (59)
Gardening (32) Walking (37) Eating Out (56)
Cooking Activity (29) Cooking Activity (34) Computer Games (40)
Playing Football (24) Playing Cards (26) Visiting Amusement Parks (38)
Eating Out (23) Visiting Stores (20) Going to Theatre (31)
Playing Cricket (19) Badminton (20) Visiting Stores (29)
Visiting Stores (16) Gardening (16) Cooking Activity (25)
Going to Theatre (15) Swimming (13) Practicing Yoga / Reiki (22)
Visiting Amusement Playing Chess (13) Playing Cards (21)
Parks (14)
Eating Out (98) Walking (93) Listening to Music (86)

Listening to Music (86) Eating Out (93) Walking (73)
Walking (45) Listening to Music (73) Eating Out (59)
Cooking Activity (20 Cooking Activity (45) Cooking Activities (41)
Playing Cricket (20) Visiting Shopping Malls (30) Playing Board Games (30)
Gardening (18) Backpacking / Trekking (23) Visiting Shopping Malls (29)
Playing Cards (16) Computer Games (17) Swimming (23)
Visiting Stores (12) Practicing Yoga / Reiki (16) Computer Games (20)
Swimming (12) Giving Dinner Parties (11) Going to Gym (14)
Playing Badminton (10) Going to Gym (11) Playing Basketball (14)
(Figures in parenthesis represent percent of ownership).

common activities were mostly indoor activities, such as playing cards, cooking,
playing computer games etc – which are mostly sedentary in nature. Gardening
was an important activity in the ‘Well Settled’, ‘Strugglers’ and the ‘Conservative’
segments.
In terms of Hobbies and Interests, it was seen that listening to music, shopping
and baking or cooking were universal across segments. Visiting the theatre was
an option in the ‘Well Settled’ and the ‘Enjoyers’ segments. Going to the gym,
practicing reiki or yoga were some of the newer activities which were seen in the
‘Self Concerned’ and the ‘Realist’ segments. Visiting an amusement park was a
common activity amongst the ‘Strugglers’, ‘Enjoyers’ and the ‘Realist’ segments.
The analysis of the activities and hobbies showed that the segments have
distinct and diverse activities, which helps in demarcating the segments in a better
manner.
Avenues of investment
In the aspect of investing, the Indian urban consumer seems to be a risk averse
person (Table 7). The traditional mode of savings, such as Fixed Deposits or
Term Deposits with banks, National Savings Certificates (NSC), Kisan Vikas
Patra (KVP), Post Office Savings Schemes and Jewelry were some of the most
preferred avenues of investments. It should be noted that all the investment schemes
mentioned above are schemes launched by the Government of India to encourage
savings by providing a guaranteed rate of return; this rate is much lower that
what an investor will get from investing into various market-based funds or stocks
and shares. Stocks and shares are, however, mainly seen in the ‘Realist’, ‘Self
Table 7. Investment avenues amongst the segments.
Fixed Deposit (78) Fixed Deposit (69) Fixed Deposit (89)

Jewelry (18) Jewelry (16) Jewelry (42)
NSC KVP (15) NSC KVP (14) Post Office Savings (31)
Real Estate (10) Post Office Savings (13) NSC KVP (26)
Post Office Savings (9) Stocks & Shares (6) Public PF (15)
— — Stocks & Shares (15)
Fixed Deposit (68) Fixed Deposit (67) Fixed Deposit (98)

NSC KVP (24) NSC KVP (44) NSC KVP (56)
Stocks & Shares (16) Jewelry (24) Jewelry (50)
Public PF (12) Stocks & Shares (18) Stocks & Shares (40)
Post Office Savings (10) — Post Office Savings (23)
Infrastructure Bonds (10) — —
(Figures in parenthesis represent percent of use).

Table 8. Insurance coverage amongst the segments.
Insurance Well Settled Strugglers Enjoyers Conservative Self-Concerned Realist
Category (Segment 1) (Segment 2) (Segment 3) (Segment 4) (Segment 5) (Segment 6)
Life Insurance 70.20 56.80 82.80 62.00 84.40 100.00

Medical Insurance 9.30 8.00 36.10 6.00 44.40 65.45
General Insurance 3.10 – 19.70 2.00 4.40 3.60
Automobile Insurance 6.20 8.00 9.00 4.00 33.30 41.80
Individual Pension Plan 0.60 1.60 6.60 4.00 2.20 3.60
(All figures are in percentages).
Concerned’ and the ‘Enjoyers’ segments. The emergence of infrastructure bonds

floated and guaranteed by the Government of India again reflects the risk-averse
attitude of the conservative segment. It is not surprising that jewelry constitutes a
major form of investment for an Indian – the idea of procuring gold as a safeguard
during bad times being the motivation behind the tendency to hoard gold in form
of jewelry. Investments into real estate are an emerging option amongst the ‘Well
Settled’ segment.
If we take a look at Loans from Financial Institutions we see an interesting pic-
ture emerge. Home Loans have been taken by the ‘Well Settled’ (5%), ‘Enjoyers’
(8%) and the ‘Realist’ (4%) segments. The ‘Strugglers’ and the ‘Conservative’
show a negligible presence of home loans. This is a reflection of the real estate
boom in the Indian economy owing to the lowering of rates of interest by the
Government of India during the early part of the decade. The increase in home
loans can also partly be attributed to the generous income tax benefits provided
by the Government. The two-wheeler loans (for the purchase of motorbikes and
scooters) were a maximum in the ‘Realist’ segment (9%), followed by the ‘Well
Settled’ (3%) and the ‘Self-concerned’ (2%) segments. The ‘Enjoyers’ segment
has the maximum car loan (8%) followed by the realist (7%). A DEMAT Account
(for transacting in shares and stocks) was present with about 15% of the ‘Realist’
segment.
In terms of insurance products and services, Life Insurance was the most cov-
eted insurance product with the ‘Enjoyers’, ‘Self-Concerned’ and the ‘Realist’
segments (Table 8). It was also present in the other segments but to a lesser de-
gree. A similar pattern was seen for medical insurance. Insurance against theft
and natural calamities was seen only in the ‘Enjoyers’ segment to any significant
degree. Investment into pension plans for post retirement benefits was again neg-
ligible. It is hypothesized that this is because of the low exposure of the Indian
market to insurance concepts and that as the market grows so will the penetration
of insurance products and services.
Media habits
The study found interesting media habits amongst the urban consumers (Table 9).
In the case of print media, newspapers tended to dominate the Indian media
Table 9. Media consumption pattern of the urban segments.
Media Well Settled Strugglers Enjoyers Conservative Self-Concerned Realist

Category (Segment 1) (Segment 2) (Segment 3) (Segment 4) (Segment 5) (Segment 6)
Newspaper 91.40 81.00 98.40 72.00 93.30 92.70

Periodicals 33.30 34.10 79.50 30.00 48.90 32.70
Television 97.50 99.20 98.40 100.00 73.30 85.50
FM Radio 24.10 46.00 59.00 16.00 26.70 40.00
Newspapers
English 59.30 53.60 100.00 38.90 73.80 76.90
Newspapers
Vernacular 52.70 70.10 100.00 69.40 42.90 73.10
Newspapers
Magazines
English (General) 72.2 53.50 91.80 26.70 81.80 61.10
English (Business) 11.1 9.30 15.50 6.70 – 16.70
Vernacular 37.0 55.80 100.00 73.3 36.40 72.20
(All figures in percentages of regular readers).
scenario. Similarly, in the case of non-print media, television viewership was al-
most universal. It was also found that approximately one third of all the segments,
except the ‘Enjoyers’ segment, preferred to read some kind of magazine or period-
ical. The ‘Enjoyers’ segment showed an exceptionally high periodical readership.
The ‘Enjoyers’ and the ‘Realist’ segments preferred to read both English and
vernacular newspapers. The ‘Self-Concerned’ prefer English newspapers whereas
the ‘Conservative’ and the ‘Strugglers’ prefer to read vernacular newspapers.
Similar trends can be found between English and vernacular magazines.
In the non-print segment, television viewership is universal; whereas FM Radio
listenership showed some interesting patterns. For example, FM radio listenership
was low amongst the ‘Well Settled’, ‘Self-Concerned’ and the ‘Conservative’ seg-
ments. However, it was high in the ‘Enjoyers’ segment followed by the ‘Strugglers’
segment. The high presence of FM radio listenership amongst the ‘Strugglers’ seg-
ment does not come as a surprise. The low cost of FM radio sets, coupled with the
fact that most FM stations in India play popular movie songs, make them a perfect
entertainment product for this low-income segment.
To understand better the television viewership, the various television channels
were segregated into seven groups Sports, News, Music, Movies, Knowledge,
Religious and General. It was found that knowledge, news and movie channels
tend to dominate the ‘Well Settled’ and ‘Enjoyers’ segment. The ‘Realist’ and ‘Self
Concerned’ segment prefer watching the news, movies and knowledge channels.
Movie channels were popular in the ‘Strugglers’ and ‘Conservative’ segments. The
growth of religious channels was a phenomenon that was particularly interesting,
with the ‘Strugglers’ dominating the viewership. It is hypothesized that religious
channels viewership will only grow in the future – as demonstrated by the increase
of religious channels from nil to over five in the last half a decade (Rajshekhar
2006).
Discussion
The research raises several interesting points about the Indian urban consumer. The
survey started out with the assumption that the urban consumers are homogeneous
in nature. To maintain this homogeneity, SEC classification was used to identify the
appropriate respondent. SEC, which is based on the highest level of education and
occupation of the chief wage earner, inherently assumes that a person belonging
to a particular SEC would have a similar behavioral pattern. However, this does
not seem to hold true in the Indian context, as we discovered six new behavioral
segments.
If, on the vertical axis, we plot the monthly household income, and on the
horizontal axis we plot the age (Figure 1), it can be seen that the Indian urban
consumer is blossoming into an hourglass figure.
It can be seen that the top of the hourglass is dominated by the ‘Enjoyers’
and the ‘Self Concerned’ segments. These segments have the highest disposable
income on their hands but demonstrate different behavioral traits. Even though
they are extremely lucrative to the marketers, the strategies the marketers need to
follow would be quite different. Even though both segments would be interested in
hedonic purchases, their buying behaviors may differ significantly. The ‘Enjoyers’
Figure 1.
could be more involved in hedonic purchases of products and services; whereas

the ‘Self Concerned’ would be more willing to purchase products and services that
fit in with their style of life. These two segments have shown an increasing interest
in new age sports, such as back-packing, outdoor adventure etc. The consumption
patterns regarding the media seem to suggest that these segments would be well
targeted by newspapers and television. Low readership of magazines in the ‘Self
Concerned’ segment may well hamper effective marketing campaigns. These two
segments could aptly be called the Hedonic Consumption Class of the Indian
economy.
At the neck of the hourglass could be found the ‘Realist’ and the ‘Well Settled’
segments. These segments have significant disposable income on their hands but
have different family size characteristics, which could affect their consumption
pattern of products and services. For example, the ‘Realist’ segment has a smaller
family size (2.71) compared with the ‘Well Settled’ segment (3.14); however, the
percentage of married to singles differs significantly amongst these segments. The
‘Well Settled’ class is mostly married while the ‘Realist’ class is mostly single,
either by choice or compulsion. Both the segments have significant possession of
consumer durables and almost similar investment patterns. However, the ‘Realist’
segment seems to be a more risk taking segment, as it has a significant exposure
in stocks and shares; which is conspicuously absent in the ‘Well Settled’ segment.
The insurance portfolio between the two segments differ significantly, with 100%
life insurance in the ‘Realist’ segment but only 70% in the ‘Well Settled’ segment.
In terms of a marketing strategy, these segments would be looking for hedonic
products and services but would weigh their decisions on practical aspects. Hence,
these two segments could aptly be called the Hedonic-cum-Utilitarian Consump-
tion Class of the Indian urban consumers.
The bottom of the hourglass is dominated by the ‘Strugglers’ and the ‘Conser-
vatives’. Both segments have a similar income but tend to differ in terms of age,
with the ‘Conservative’ segment being the oldest of the lot. Both the ‘Conserva-
tive’ and the ‘Strugglers’ segments have a low possession of consumer durables.
These segments have a large family size and, as such, their purchase patterns would
be driven by bargains and value for money. Thus, these segments could be called
the Utilitarian Consumption Class of the urban consumers.
From the perspective of marketing, opportunities seem to exist in almost all
avenues. For example, in the Insurance sector, we see a much lower presence of
general insurance and medical insurance. Similarly, the urban market has yet to
wake up to the benefits of pension plans. In terms of savings, we have seen that
the majority of the savings are in risk adverse areas such as government bonds,
fixed deposits, public provident funds etc. Stocks and shares, and investments into
real estate and mutual funds are some of the avenues that a marketer can hope to
tap. Computer and internet usage seems to be higher than the rest of India in the
urban sector; however, there is scope for growth as the economy expands. In the
consumer durables market, color televisions, refrigerators, telephones, and mobile
phones seem to have reached saturating proportions. Other consumer durables
have also penetrated significantly into the urban markets. This seems to suggest
that the consumer durable manufacturers need to look towards newer markets,
for example in the rural sector. Scope however remains in the urban sector for
high end electronic items, such as DVDs, camcorders, laptops etc, and other such
items that may be considered as a luxury by the people in the lower half of the
hourglass.
However, all does not seem to be well with the urban class. Besides the
above, the research also provides some implications that may be a cause for social
concern in the coming decade. The Indian government has always assumed that
the urban consumers belonging to SEC A and B would be the drivers of Indian
economic growth. This is the class that has been christened the ‘Great Indian
Middle Class’ and on which lies the burden of fuelling demand and industrial
growth in the country. However, the picture that emerges is somewhat different.
Roughly, the urban consumers could be broken into a 3:4:3 ratio, with the top 30%
of the population being comfortably well off, the middle 40% being fairly well
off, but the bottom 30% are struggling to stay afloat. The bottom 30% consists
of the ‘Conservatives’ and the ‘Strugglers’. The conservatives, already in their
mid 40s and early 50s may soon be out of employment and, unless they have
managed to secure the future of their children or earnings, may soon slid off
into poverty. The ‘Strugglers’, in their late 30s, are already at the bottom of the
heap: how long can they sustain their struggle is anybody’s guess. These two
segments may well be headed for urban poverty and add to the ever-growing woes
of the government. The general belief that Indian seem to be earning more than
before is also contradicted. Even if we consider the highest earning segment, the
monthly household income is close to Rs. 22,000. Given the increasing cost of
living in the urban cities, the income may just insufficient to meet the expenses of
living.
In terms of limitations, we would like to stress the point that the study has
concentrated only on SEC A and B; and as such cannot be taken to be a gener-
alized model of all people residing in urban towns and cities in India. More so,
the study cannot say much about the SEC C, D and E classes, as they were not
included in the study. The authors are aware that a segmentation study, without
the ability to classify a new respondent, is of limited use for practical implemen-
tation. The authors hope to rectify the situation shortly. Nevertheless, within the
limitations of the study, it has achieved a significant milestone by identifying new
behavioral segments amongst the Indian urban consumers; thereby providing new
insights into the consumption patterns of these segments and (possibly) suggest-
ing more efficient ways and means for effective marketing and focused policy
development.
Acknowledgment
Crorepati in Hindi refers to an individual or household that has Rs. 1 crore or more as
disposable income; where a crore is equal to Rs. 10 million (1 crore = 107 ).
References
Agnihotri, A., 2004. Crorepatis: India’s Super Rich Multiply. Pitch Magazine.
Andreason, A.R., 1984. Life status changes and changes in consumer preferences and
satisfaction. Journal of Consumer Research, 11, 184–190.

Ball, G.H., and Hall, D.J., 1965. ISODATA, a novel method of data analysis and pattern
classification. Melno Park, Stanford Research Institute.
Beardon, W.C., and Etzel, M. J., 1982. Reference group influence on product and brand
purchase decisions. Journal of Consumer Research, 9, 183–194.
Bellanti, D., and Foster, A.C., 1984. Working wives and expenditure on service. Journal of
Consumer Research, 11, 700–710.
Bhagat, R.B., 2005. Rural urban classification and municipal governance in India. Singapore
Journal of Tropical Geography, 26, 61–73.
Biyani, K., and Baishya, D., 2007. It Happened in India. New Delhi: Rupa, and Co.
Businessworld Editorial Team, 2005. The Marketing Whitebook 2005. New Delhi: Busi-
nessworld.
Calinski, R.B., and Harabasz, J., 1974. A dendrite method for cluster analysis. Communi-
cations in Statistics, 3, 1–27.
Chatterjee, A., 1995. Personality ploy. Business Today.
Chatterjee, A., 1996. Marketing to new Indian consumer of generation – I. Business Today.
Day, E., Davis, B., Dove, R., and French, W., 1987. Reaching the senior citizen market(s).
Journal of Advertising Research, 27, 23–30.
Deb, S., 2003. She - 2004. Outlook.
Dimitriadou, E., 2005. cclust: Convex Clustering Methods and Clustering Indexes.
Doughlas, S.P., and Urban, C.D., 1997. Lifestyle analysis to profile international markets.
Journal of Marketing, 41, 46–53.
Dunham, M.H., 2005. Data Mining: Introductory and Advanced Topics. Patparganj, New
Delhi, India: Pearson Education (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.
Edwards, A.W.F., and Cavalli-Sforza, L., 1965. A method for cluster analysis. Biometrics,
21, 362-375.
Eighmey, J., 1997. Profiling user responses to commercial websites. Journal of Advertising
Research, 37, 59–66.
Fiedler, J., and McDonald, J.J., 1993. Market figmentation: clustering on factor scores versus
individual variables. AMA Advanced Research Techniques Forum.
Friedman, H.P., and Rubin, J., 1967. On some invariant criteria for grouping data. Journal
of the American Statistical Association, C, 917–923.
Fukunaga, K., and Koontz, W.L.G., 1970. A criterion and an algorithm for grouping data.
IEEE Transaction on Computers, C, 457–468.
Haseloff, A.M., 2005. Cybercafes and their potential as Community Development Tools in
India. The Journal of Community Information [Online]. Available from: http://www.ci-
journal.net/viewarticle.php?id=68 [Accessed June 14, 2006].
Hawkins, D.I., Best, R.J., and Coney, K.A., 2002. Consumer Behaviour – Building Market-
ing Strategy. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill.
Henry, W.A., 1976. Cultural values do correlate with consumer behaviour. Journal of
Marketing Research, 13, 12–17.
Jacob, S., 1997. Kinetic Honda: a case study. Advertising, and Marketing.
Kapoor, D., 1985. Religiosity, Caste Prejudice, Conservatism and Lifestyles in Four Faith
Groups : A Psychometric Study. University of Delhi, India, Department of Psychology.
Kapur, S., 1995. Life style on two wheels. Business World.
Keppel, G., and Wickens, T.D., 2004. Design and Analysis: A Researchers Handbook.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Kumar, R.V., and Mitra, S., 2004. Toothpaste usage and consumer profiles. Organisational
Management, XX, 5–11.
Lastovick, J.J., Murry, J.P., Msthales, E.A.J., Bhalla, G., and Scheurich, J., 1987. A lifestyle
typology to young male drinking and driving. Journal of Consumer Research, 14,
257–263.
McDonald, M., and Dunbar, I., 2004. Market Segmentation: How to Do It, How to Profit
from It. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.
Medhi, G.K., Hazarika, N.C., and Mahanta, J., 2006. Correlates of alcohol consumption
and tobacco use amongst tea industry workers in Assam. Substance Use and Misuse,
41, 691–706.
Milligan, G.W., 1981. A Monte-Carlo study of thirty internal criterion measures for cluster
analysis. Psychometrika, 2, 187–199.
Mitchell, A., 1984. The Nine American Lifestyles. New York: Warner Books.
Plummer, J.T., 1971. Lifestyle patterns and commercial bank credit card usage. Journal of
Marketing, 35, 35–41.
Potter, W.J., Forrest, E., Sapolsky, B S., and Ware, W., 1988. Segmenting VCR owners.
Journal of Advertising Research, 28, 29–39.
Prabhakaran, P., 1996. The denim and the Darzi. Advertising, and Marketing.
Qualls, W.J., 1987. Household decision behaviour: the impact of husband and wife sex role
orientation. Journal of Consumer Research, 14, 264–277.
R Development Core Team, 2005. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Comput-
ing. Vienna, Austria.
Rajeshekhar, M., 2006. Broadcasting Nirvana - The Economics of Religious Chennels.
Available from: http://www.businessworldindia.com/MAY2906/indepth04.asp [Ac-
cessed 4 July 2006].
Rao, S.L., and Natarajan, I., 1996. Indian Market Demographics – The Consumer Classes.
National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER).
Ratkowsky, D.A., and Lance, G.N., 1978. A criterion for determining the number of groups
in a classification. Australian Computer Journal, 10, 115–117.
Rich, S.U., and Jain, S.C., 1968. Social class as predictors of shopping behaviour. Journal
of Marketing Research, 5, 41–50.
Robertson, E., and Conway S., 2003. Face-to-face interviewing. In: R.J. Birm, ed. The
Handbook of International Market Research Techniques. New Delhi: Kogan Page
India Private Limited, 153–176.
Rodkin, D., 1990. Wealthy attitudes wins over health wallets: consumers prove affluence is
a state of mind. Advertising Age, S4–S6.
Roy, S., and Goswami, P., 2007. Psychographics and its effect on purchase frequency – a
study on the college-goers of Kolkata, India. Decisions – Journal of IIM Calcutta, 34,
63–93.
Schiffman, L.G., and Kanuk, L.L., 1997. Consumer Behaviour. New Delhi, India: Prentice
Hall of India Private Limited.
Scott, A.J., and Symons, M.J., 1971. Clustering methods based on likelihood ratio criteria.
Biometrics, 27, 387–397.
Sharma, L.S., and Chaubey, D.S., 2004. Consumer Behaviour towards mobile service
providers – a case study of consumers of Lucknow City. Survey, 44, 35–49.
Shirali, A., and Singh, I., 1997. Status symbols: an A&M ORG-MARG survey. Advertising,
and Marketing.
Slocum, J.W., and Mathews, H.L., 1969. Social class and commercial bank credit card
usage. Journal of Marketing, 33, 71–78.
Slocum, J.W., and Mathews, H.L., 1970. Social class and income as indicators of consumer
credit behaviour. Journal of Marketing, 34, 69–73.
Stafford, J.E., 1966. Effects of group influence on consumer brand preference. Journal of
Marketing Research, 3, 68–75.
Sudha, S., and Rajan, S.I., 1999. Female demographic disadvantage in India (1981–1991):
sex selective abortion and female infanticide. Development and Change, 30, 585–618.
Tully, S., 1994. Teens. Fortune.
Vriens, M., 2001. Market Segmentation: Analytical Developments and Application Guide-
lines. Austin, Texas: Millward Brown IntelliQuest.
Wedel, M., and Kamakura, W.A., 1998. Market Segmentation: Conceptual and Method-
ological Foundations, Dodrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.
Weingessel, A., Demitriadou, E., and Dolnicar, S., 1999. An Examination of Indexes for
Determining the Number of Clusters in Binary Data Sets. Austria: Vienna University
of Technology.
Wells, W.D., 1975. Psychographics: a critical review. Journal of Marketing Research, 12,
196–213.
Wells, W.D., and Tigert, D.J., 1971. Activities interests and opinions. Journal of Advertising
Research, 35.
Witten, I.H., and Frank, E., 2005. Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and
Techniques. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann.

Journal of The Asia Pacific Economy: Psychographic Segmentation of Indian Urban Consumers

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

Journal of The Asia Pacific Economy: Psychographic Segmentation of Indian Urban Consumers

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Journal of The Asia Pacific Economy: Psychographic Segmentation of Indian Urban Consumers

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

This article was downloaded by:[Kumar, Rohit Vishal]

On: 25 April 2008

Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy

Online Publication Date: 01 May 2008

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf

Psychographic segmentation of Indian urban consumers

JEL Classifications: R11, M31, C49, O53

ISSN: 1354-7860 print / 1469-9648 online

identified behavioral groups and to understand the implications for marketing of

literature. We do not propose to give an exhaustive review of literature but provide

study of National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) conducted

Outline of the study

resembling personality interviews along with a wide range of items measuring

wordings of such statements were simplified and a total of 60 statements retained

Business (seven statements), Culture (five statements), Education (eight state-

Segmenting the dataset

The urban segments

Table 1. Demographic profiles of the segments.

1. Average Age (years) 41.32 37.10 37.57 44.60 33.31 35.96

Table 2. Mean scores on psychographic statements (overall).

Well Settled Strugglers Enjoyers Conservatives Self-Concerned Realist

(Segment 1) (Segment 2) (Segment 3) (Segment 4) (Segment 5) (Segment 6)

Women Issues 5.43 4.81 5.12 5.48 4.25 5.19

Table 3. Tukey’s HSD probabilities.

Well Settled Strugglers Enjoyers Conservatives Bachelors Realist

The figures marked with * are significant at 5% level of significance.

Ownership of Products, Activities and Interests, Financial Products and Services

Ownership of consumer durables

Table 4. Ownership of consumer durables.

Well Settled (Segment 1) Strugglers (Segment 2) Enjoyers (Segment 3)

Color TV (93) Color TV (91) Color TV (89)

Gas Stove (98) Mobile Phones (82) Music System (81)

(Figures in parenthesis represent percent of ownership)

of Air-Conditioners, Microwaves, DVD Players, Washing Machines etc featured

Computer and internet usage

Table 5. Usage of computer and internet amongst segments.

Regularly Using Computer Usage Internet Usage

1. Well Settled 21.60 18.50 9.20

Activities and interests

Table 6. Games and other activities undertaken by the segments.

Well Settled (Segment 1) Strugglers (Segment 2) Enjoyers (Segment 3)

Listening to Music (69) Listening to Music (79) Walking (67)

Eating Out (98) Walking (93) Listening to Music (86)

(Figures in parenthesis represent percent of ownership).

Table 7. Investment avenues amongst the segments.

Well Settled (Segment 1) Strugglers (Segment 2) Enjoyers (Segment 3)

Fixed Deposit (78) Fixed Deposit (69) Fixed Deposit (89)

Fixed Deposit (68) Fixed Deposit (67) Fixed Deposit (98)

(Figures in parenthesis represent percent of use).

Life Insurance 70.20 56.80 82.80 62.00 84.40 100.00

(All figures are in percentages).

Concerned’ and the ‘Enjoyers’ segments. The emergence of infrastructure bonds

Table 9. Media consumption pattern of the urban segments.

Media Well Settled Strugglers Enjoyers Conservative Self-Concerned Realist

Category (Segment 1) (Segment 2) (Segment 3) (Segment 4) (Segment 5) (Segment 6)

Newspaper 91.40 81.00 98.40 72.00 93.30 92.70