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Meet Calmat Sidhu. He resides in South
Delhi with his wife and two children. He is an educated
man, holding a senior position in a multinational company.
He works ever tirelessly to take his company to new and
greater heights. Mrs Sidhu is also educated but prefers
to be a housewife.
From a marketer's point there is nothing spectacular about
the Sidhu family. In both the current national surveys,
namely National Readership Survey (NRS) and Indian Readership
Survey (IRS) Mr Sidhu would have qualified as SEC A. The
current studies do not have the scope to analyse Sidhu further
in terms of his potential as a consumer of goods and services.
He would be a potential customer of both - say luxury cruises
as well as washing machines.
"There is a need to understand the super rich end of the
market, since as a group, their consumption is disproportionate
to their size," says Partha Ghosh, associate V-P Initiative
Media. Realising the need the Media Research Users Council
(MRUC) undertook this study calling it The IRS Platinum.
The Communication Channel Planning (CCP) division of Initiative
Media had the first hand privilege to analyse the data.
These are the unique highlights of the study.
SUPER RICH DEFINED
IRS
Platinum defines super rich as any household that has a
colour television, refrigerator, washing machine and a car.
The study was restricted to Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore,
Chennai, and Pune. These were the cities where there was
a high proportion of households that satisfied the above
criteria. These towns account for 39 per cent of all the
super rich households that reside in Urban India today.
It is interesting to note that Metros such as Calcutta and
Hyderabad are missing from the list. These cities would
have definitely qualified by the normal demographic parameters.
They missed out since the penetration of one or more of
the listed durables were low in these other wise large metros.
A sample of 5,226 was surveyed by ORG-MARG on behalf of
MRUC to understand the lifestyles of the affluent, with
media and consumer habits of such individuals and their
households. Only 3.4 per cent of the households in those
six metros qualified to be called the Platinum households.
Sidhu happens to be one of them.
His friends call him Sid. He resides in his own two bed
roomed flat in South Delhi. He is V-P marketing in a consumer
durables MNC. He is a postgraduate and holds a professional
degree in marketing. He and his wife have two children.
Their average monthly household income (MHI) is Rs 23,000.
And interestingly enough every month 60 per cent of this
amount is spent to maintain the life and style of the Sidhu
household. Six years back they had bought their washing
machine. Welcome to IRS Platinum.
DELHI IS THE SUPER RICH CAPITAL AS WELL
As
per the study, every second Platinum household is in Delhi.
Mumbai comes next but the probability drops down to one
out of five. It is true that today Delhi is by far the city
of the super rich of India. These households on an average
have an income of Rs 24,450. Mumbai earns the highest (Rs
31,970) and Bangalore earns the least (Rs 20,180). The chief
wage earner of the family is highly educated. Eighty-eight
per cent of them are at least graduates! In terms of occupation,
he is predominantly a businessman in Mumbai, Chennai and
Ahmedabad. In the other cities he is either an officer or
an executive at a senior level.
In these households the housewife is also highly educated
(68 per cent are at least graduates). However in spite of
their high education only 17 per cent are either working
full time or part time. The average household size is 4.5,
which reflects on the nuclear structure of the families.
In this elite group, 85 per cent of them have their own
house. They are now gradually going in to buy their second
TV set. Almost all of them have a cable and satellite connection.
These households should be now ready to try out DTH, some
form of PAY-TV and of course Internet through cable. Incidentally
every house has at least one telephone connection.
IF YOU HAVE IT THEN FLAUNT IT
The
interesting part is the information that IRS Platinum provides
on the monthly family expenditures. The patterns are indeed
very revealing. On an average 61 per cent of MHI is spent
to maintain the life and style of these elite households.
It rises to 69 per cent in Ahmedabad and drops to 56 per
cent in Chennai! The expenditure is tracked across 20 heads
ranging from the monthly electricity bill to the amount
spent on last eating out. On an average each head accounts
for about 5 per cent of the total expenditure. The highest
amount goes for Monthly provisions accounting for almost
17 per cent of the total spend.
Eating
out emerges as a trend, which is prevalent in this elite group.
Two out of five households eat out at least once a month.
This is highest in Bangalore (43 per cent) and lowest in Pune
(33 per cent).
CHENNAI
IS THE SURPRISE PACKAGE
At
city level certain interesting patterns emerge. Chennai has
the highest average monthly telephone bill. They spend the
maximum on Personal care products as well as on Cosmetics!
Likewise they spend the maximum while eating out, on alcohol
and beverages, on buying gifts and also on charity and donations!
A very interesting city indeed! Bangalore pays the highest
monthly rents, maintenance and on travelling and conveyance.
In
terms of occupation, it is the reflection of the Indian
economy with 44 per cent focussing on the manufacturing
sector. Within this, engineering goods alone accounts for
8 per cent of them. This is the largest skew across all
the three sectors put together. Financial services including
banks (5.5 per cent) and the current favorite, IT and software
(4.2 per cent) stand out amongst the rest.
In
terms of the mother tongue Hindi is by far the language
(78 per cent). Other than Hindi, Gujarati stands out very
clearly (35 per cent) in Mumbai. As expected Gujaratis play
a significant role in this elite segment.
In
terms of their media habits, as expected almost all of them
can be easily reached through either the print or the television.
Radio has lost out (25 per cent), but of these tuning in,
almost 90 per cent of them are tuning into FM! However unlike
the West, predominantly they tune in at home. Listening
to FM on the road is picking up but will score once all
the privatised stations go on air later this year. But the
surprise package is Internet. It has already overtaken Radio
(30 per cent)! They are already spending more time on the
Internet than in reading!
INTERNET
THE NEW AGE MEDIA
Internet is being used predominantly for Email, followed
by chatting, making friends, surfing, and gathering information
other than news. Commercial activities done on the net in
the last one month are checking account statement, buying-selling
shares/bonds and mutual funds. Relative to other cities,
Internet has picked up very well in terms of reach in Chennai
and Mumbai.
Internet is being used predominantly for Email, followed
by chatting, making friends, surfing, and gathering information
other than news. Commercial activities done on the net in
the last one month are checking account statement, buying-selling
shares/bonds and mutual funds. Relative to other cities,
Internet has picked up very well in terms of reach in Chennai
and Mumbai.
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