UNDERSTANDIng
Indian Millennials
Many brands, which came to India like Coca Cola, iphone, Mc Donald’s, Kellogg’s had to pack their bags, go back home, do their homework and come back. The main reason for their failure was the Indian unpredictable and capricious consumer. But now India is changing, and it is changing fast. The consumers are gaining more global mindset. Many cultural and social changes are happening on a daily basis. The habits, choices, mindsets, incomes, decisions, expectations of people are changing. There are some very interesting offline and online trends are being seen. And a new millennial youth consumer is emerging. Today, this is biggest potential consumer segment for almost all the top consumer brands in the world that are looking towards India. This is generation Y moving towards generation Z. More than half of this segment is born after the economic liberalisation in India. Education and exposure to world because of digitalisation and Internet has changed the definition of Indian Youth. Let's see some interesting cultural traits of these consumers.
Passions
The earning as well as spending power of youth is increasing, they are eager to share their opinions and thoughts on all the available platforms. They dream for bigger and better. They demand transparency and honesty. They look beyond basic needs and think of something more. They have a mindset that education is as necessary as food, an post graduation degree is more necessary than that. They are not afraid of any uncertainties of life. They are more open, more liberal, more opinionated and more innovative. They want to stand for something radical, make their voice heard, they want to display their skills and talents, for example using their music skills to show off to the world by uploading it on YouTube, blogging, tweeting etc. Now they are taking keen interest in politics and social issues as well.
Patriotism
Competition is not internal, it’s international. Indian youth want to be number one in the world. They want fusion, in fashion, in culture, in values, in everything. They don’t want to be completely like western countries so they tend to screen everything with an Indian filter and then consume it. No, they don’t want to go abroad to settle but just to get better education and come back to India and make use of their knowledge and skills for India. The anti corruption movement or Nirbhaya movement were some excellent example of a youth led movements. They are ready to strive for a better change in India.
Values
It's not about ‘me doing good or great’, it's always ‘about my parents feeling that I am doing good or great’. Making family proud is going to always be on top of the charts of all the Indian youth. First importance goes to family, second to career, third to relationships (love) and then to society and others. Friendship is a new ‘in’ thing. Friends trust friends, they don’t trust well wishers, they don’t trust advertisers, but they trust recommendations from their friends. They are less selfish and they want to grow together with their friends not alone.
Pleasures
Weekend plans and Saturday night parties are the new stress relievers. Chinese, Pizza is a new fascination, but wada pav and chat has its own place in the monthly pocket money. Adventure Sports is something, which everyone wants to do. But still, Cricket is their second life, they literally breath cricket during the tournaments and leagues. Stand up comedy, rock, pop, jazz, hip-hop and Salsa are the trending forms of art. They watch Indian TV shows but being updated with the English television shows is a must. Love has got an important place, now it starts in school itself, but short-term relationships and one-night stands are still off the radar for a huge rural segment.
Fashion
Tattoos and piercing is in fashion now, but only symbolic, one just for personal satisfaction mostly on birthdays. Parents don’t allow tattoos. They have their own fashion style. You can see girls in a kurta on top with denim jeans below, swatch watch in the wrist, and spiritual guru's locket around the neck, traditional kolhapuri chappals, and D&G glares. An interesting mix of fashion, tradition, spirituality, brands and family values.
Language
India is the 2nd largest English speaking country of the world, but has its own 22 official languages. Mild slang is cool, Yo! & Wassup! Whoa! Awesome! Cool! are the common youth buzz words, but recently it is seen that youth are more and more communicating with each other by merging English language with their native language and a very different pattern is seen. Many people are calling it Inglish or Indian-English. This is basically various language mergers like Hindi-English is Hinglish, Tamil-English is Tamglish, and Marathi-English is Manglish. Along with the personal communication between youth, this language is also often seen in mass communication on almost all platforms, journalism, brand advertising and online social media. 'What’s your bahana?' of Mc Donald's and 'Har ek friend zaroori hota hai' of Airtel are some of the latest examples. Modernism with traditionalism is something youth are talking about.
Online
Reading newspaper is out of trend, reading it online is in. Youth are becoming more a more aware of things, twitter has given them an alternative entertainment from television. Youth are sharing information, opinions thoughts and emotions with a very fast pace. Blackberry messenger and Whatsaap messenger are very popular among all these youth. Due to Internet penetration many new ecommerce players have emerged in 2011. Facebook is the second life. Updating status message is more important than brushing teeth every morning. Yebhi, Flipkart, ebay, snapdeal, etc. are emerging at a very fast pace. Twitter and SMS Gupshup, Pinterest is gaining pace in India.
Viral
Viral campaigns are a new thing in India. Youth especially are fascinated by this new concept. They are trying to get their share of fame by going viral. A group of young enthusiast led by a college going girl, performed the first flash mob event of India at CST station in Mumbai as a tribute to the victims of 26/11 terrorist attacks and started this trend, they gathered 1,100,000 views on Youtube immediately. Dhanush’s song ‘Why this Kolaveri di?’ had almost become a youth anthem. The video won a YouTube Gold Award for getting the most number of daily hits. It managed to score more than 20 million views and managed to be the trending topic for more than a week in India and other countries. Dhinchak Pooja somehow has become the talk of town in recent days. There is a lot of content created, uploaded and consumed by Indian Millennials every day.
Passions
The earning as well as spending power of youth is increasing, they are eager to share their opinions and thoughts on all the available platforms. They dream for bigger and better. They demand transparency and honesty. They look beyond basic needs and think of something more. They have a mindset that education is as necessary as food, an post graduation degree is more necessary than that. They are not afraid of any uncertainties of life. They are more open, more liberal, more opinionated and more innovative. They want to stand for something radical, make their voice heard, they want to display their skills and talents, for example using their music skills to show off to the world by uploading it on YouTube, blogging, tweeting etc. Now they are taking keen interest in politics and social issues as well.
Patriotism
Competition is not internal, it’s international. Indian youth want to be number one in the world. They want fusion, in fashion, in culture, in values, in everything. They don’t want to be completely like western countries so they tend to screen everything with an Indian filter and then consume it. No, they don’t want to go abroad to settle but just to get better education and come back to India and make use of their knowledge and skills for India. The anti corruption movement or Nirbhaya movement were some excellent example of a youth led movements. They are ready to strive for a better change in India.
Values
It's not about ‘me doing good or great’, it's always ‘about my parents feeling that I am doing good or great’. Making family proud is going to always be on top of the charts of all the Indian youth. First importance goes to family, second to career, third to relationships (love) and then to society and others. Friendship is a new ‘in’ thing. Friends trust friends, they don’t trust well wishers, they don’t trust advertisers, but they trust recommendations from their friends. They are less selfish and they want to grow together with their friends not alone.
Pleasures
Weekend plans and Saturday night parties are the new stress relievers. Chinese, Pizza is a new fascination, but wada pav and chat has its own place in the monthly pocket money. Adventure Sports is something, which everyone wants to do. But still, Cricket is their second life, they literally breath cricket during the tournaments and leagues. Stand up comedy, rock, pop, jazz, hip-hop and Salsa are the trending forms of art. They watch Indian TV shows but being updated with the English television shows is a must. Love has got an important place, now it starts in school itself, but short-term relationships and one-night stands are still off the radar for a huge rural segment.
Fashion
Tattoos and piercing is in fashion now, but only symbolic, one just for personal satisfaction mostly on birthdays. Parents don’t allow tattoos. They have their own fashion style. You can see girls in a kurta on top with denim jeans below, swatch watch in the wrist, and spiritual guru's locket around the neck, traditional kolhapuri chappals, and D&G glares. An interesting mix of fashion, tradition, spirituality, brands and family values.
Language
India is the 2nd largest English speaking country of the world, but has its own 22 official languages. Mild slang is cool, Yo! & Wassup! Whoa! Awesome! Cool! are the common youth buzz words, but recently it is seen that youth are more and more communicating with each other by merging English language with their native language and a very different pattern is seen. Many people are calling it Inglish or Indian-English. This is basically various language mergers like Hindi-English is Hinglish, Tamil-English is Tamglish, and Marathi-English is Manglish. Along with the personal communication between youth, this language is also often seen in mass communication on almost all platforms, journalism, brand advertising and online social media. 'What’s your bahana?' of Mc Donald's and 'Har ek friend zaroori hota hai' of Airtel are some of the latest examples. Modernism with traditionalism is something youth are talking about.
Online
Reading newspaper is out of trend, reading it online is in. Youth are becoming more a more aware of things, twitter has given them an alternative entertainment from television. Youth are sharing information, opinions thoughts and emotions with a very fast pace. Blackberry messenger and Whatsaap messenger are very popular among all these youth. Due to Internet penetration many new ecommerce players have emerged in 2011. Facebook is the second life. Updating status message is more important than brushing teeth every morning. Yebhi, Flipkart, ebay, snapdeal, etc. are emerging at a very fast pace. Twitter and SMS Gupshup, Pinterest is gaining pace in India.
Viral
Viral campaigns are a new thing in India. Youth especially are fascinated by this new concept. They are trying to get their share of fame by going viral. A group of young enthusiast led by a college going girl, performed the first flash mob event of India at CST station in Mumbai as a tribute to the victims of 26/11 terrorist attacks and started this trend, they gathered 1,100,000 views on Youtube immediately. Dhanush’s song ‘Why this Kolaveri di?’ had almost become a youth anthem. The video won a YouTube Gold Award for getting the most number of daily hits. It managed to score more than 20 million views and managed to be the trending topic for more than a week in India and other countries. Dhinchak Pooja somehow has become the talk of town in recent days. There is a lot of content created, uploaded and consumed by Indian Millennials every day.