Segmentation is big part of Marketing. If you can segment your market effectively, you can easily understand, strategize & target any segment as per your brand's requirement.
We all have studied segmentation of western consumers as follows:
Leading Boomers (Age 61-69), Trailing Boomers (Age 51-60), Gen X (39-50), Gen Y( 28-38) & us Millennials (22-27).
Above segmentation is big elaborate and divides today's US population in very acute segments. When a brand or a brand manager tries to segments consumers so minutely, it becomes important to take the geography, history & the market forces in account.
I work for brands which are trying to advertise in Indian markets. Most of the professionals around me have been using the insights mined for the individuals mentioned above. In the broad sense these insights work, but when one is trying to target micromarkets, such insights start to fail as we start ignoring the fact that we are in a different country with consumers with different history.
So I decided why not try to create a segmentation for India.
Indian consumers' segmentation:
Freedom fighters: (Age 70+)
Grew up during the period of freedom struggle of India. They directly or indirectly were part of the whole freedom revolution.
Idealist Socialists: (Age 55-70)
These consumers grew up during the Nehruvian era of Indian Economy. The times were full of infra-structural projects & educational institutes getting setup in the country.
Angry Discontents: (Age 40-55)
These consumer are nearly reaching their retirement phase. These are the individuals who faced severe nationalism, resource shortages & war with Indian neighbours. These were the times when Bollywood started taking over the entertainment industry. Asian games also started to inject Cricket in the Indian DNA.
Half Hopefuls: (Age 30-45)
These individuals got to live in the Rajiv Gandhi era when optimism & youth was growing and getting recognition. This was the same time USA was going through the whole peace phase & hippie culture. This can easily be witnessed in the art & movies of the era. Liberalization was on its way.
Post-liberators: (Age 20-29)
Post liberators are the individuals who saw no license Raj or wars. These are the users who we generally refer to as Millennials of India. Post-liberators have been witnessing growth ever since they understood growth. Education became the passport for success for these youngsters. Choice for brands & products increased as foreign brands kept flooding in for 20 years of these individuals. But as the technology flooded in they started adopting with it. Role of religion, parents and families changed drastically. They embrace them all but may not like to wear the religious rituals on their sleeves.
Will be conducting live research to name the teenagers of this era. Upcoming articles will focus on studying these future consumers as well as above segments.