Being Destitute Does Not Preclude Aspiration

BOOK REVIEW

We are like that only-Understanding the Logic of Consumer India
By Rama Bijapurkar

Published by Penguin Portfolio,
281 pages, Rs. 495/- in Hardback.



Being Destitute Does Not Preclude Aspiration

In chapter after chapter of this lucidly written and highly readable book, eminent management consultant Rama Bijapurkar makes the point that gives ants their collective strength and efficiency – namely, and to mix metaphors, that mighty oaks do from tiny acorns grow.

Ms. Bijapurkar makes clear, that in India, the small percentage of the rich consume a third of the pie, even if they do tend to nibble on those items and services that meet with their sophisticated approval. The more numerous middle classes, quantified variously by different experts, consume another third of what constitutes the “value proposition” to them. And the teeming masses consume the last third, albeit in bite sizes and sachets and one-at-a-time open packs; but their contribution to the marketers coffers adds up to just as much as the other two broad classifications. Therefore, foreign marketers beware, says Ms. Bijapurkar, please do your homework and gear up to serve all three sections and their sub-sections including the rural/urban variations. And do so appropriately, not in a one-size-fits-all manner. Also, says Bijapurkar, foreign brands and multinationals should take care not to underestimate the choices that the Indian consumer, a predominantly young consumer at that, routinely insists on making. The Indian consumer, she says, at all levels, tends to display strong opinions that sometimes baffle foreign marketers who expect the same sauce to suit both goose and gander while making no strategic differentiation between the western creatures and their desi counterparts.

And even though we have a large number of rich, middle class and poor people, adding up to over a billion souls, we are essentially different, even within such classification. Our rich are often richer than their western counterparts. Our middle classes are, on the other hand, considerably poorer than their opposite numbers in the West. And our poor are indeed very very poor. But this does not stop us exercising great exuberances of free will that makes us likely to reject goods and services that have not been customised to suit Indian demographics, preferences and plurality.


But, while I found myself nodding in agreement with most of Ms. Bijapurkar’s propositions, it does occur to me that perhaps the contents of her new book ends up preaching to the converted. For example, the preface to the book is by CK “core competence” Prahalad and the afterword is by NR Narayana Moorthy, eminent global Indians both, but still from the “we are like that only” brigade after all.

The western mind, on the other hand, as we all know, tends to proceed along more cut and dried lines and finds it difficult to comprehend our oriental subtleties. But, I’m hoping here that there are some eminences amongst them who do and will “get it,” and contribute suitably encouraging blurbs to the international edition. In this Indian edition, strangely, because the content suggests that Ms. Bijapurkar advises a large number of international clients, you have praise, adornment and encomiums exclusively from Indians and ethnic Indians such as Kishore Biyani, Ruchir Sharma and Jagdish Seth. The white men, or for that matter the Chinamen or indeed the Japanese and so on, are conspicuous by their absence. In addition, Ms. Bijapurkar’s latest book has already been reviewed by finance minister P Chidambaram, social, theatrical and communications gadfly Suhel Seth, and the economist cum journalist Bibek Deb Roy.

Everyone likes the book but then every Indian knows what the traditional Marwari businessman has long known and practiced – go for the turnover, even on wafer thin margins, because the total take will more than warm the cockles of your heart. But the western businessman, by way of contrast, tends to obsess over unit value and unit returns thereon - from each item of a good or service sold. They tend not to find it worth their while to build bottom lines by catering to the many, at next to nothing, particularly when the many are not even homogenous in their preferences!

But, having said that, what goes in India’s favour is that the world has, in fact, changed. The growth from now onwards indubitably is in the emerging markets. So, foreigners who are forced to look at doing business in India for the first time, and also those who are now determined to grow what they may have neglected in the past, will perhaps end up paying close heed to the very worthwhile arguments put forward by Ms. Bijapurkar.

And happily, Rama Bijapurkar’s latest book forms part of a welcome and growing list of books on the economy, marketing and business being written by Indian experts on the Indian situation, not only for the academic, but also for the general and interested reader. Together, as a genre, such explorations make for an insightful, authentic and realistic take on subjects that have too often been served more in the breach than the observance by sometimes bizarre attempts of foreigners intent on doing their “India book”. And this, after a mere stint in this fascinating if hard- to-comprehend country and its mysterious DNA.

(850 words)

By Gautam Mukherjee
Thursday 22nd November 2007

Also published in The Sunday Pioneer on December 2,2007 in the BOOKS section