The Hindu Business Line : The silver market

Hemu, I call this the `silver market.' The age group of 60-plus is this market, really. The market that is forever morphing in terms of usage, attitude, wants, needs, dreams, aspirations and consumer angst. This is a market that is in the pre-dissolution stage. A market of consumers who have led a reasonably full and hectic life, a market of people that has been there and done that in terms of standard family chores.

This market has gone through bachelorhood in a reasonable state of deprivation, gone through the states of early marriage, the nuclear family of two and then on to the full-nest status. It is currently experiencing the empty nest syndrome where both the kids of the house are away and on their own.

Time to re-live life as the nuclear family of two, without the pressures of earning a daily income through a 9-5 job, if not more! This is a potentially big market. A market that is likely to boom in size in the medium-term future, for sure. Remember, 54 per cent of the population of this country today is below the age of 25. Twenty-five years hence, this very same population will occupy the ranks of the `silver class.' Time to prepare for the needs and wants of this market.

The opportunities that exist are completely related to the new wants and needs of this market which is seldom recognised or understood. The opportunities, much to the contrary of common expectation, are not really one for the traditional and typical geriatric product. It is not the market for Levi's branded walking sticks and Huggies incontinence gel pads of the future. There is more here. More that is least understood. A critical insight to remember is that the Indian market is going to see a progressive down-aging syndrome. This is a syndrome where the 50-year-old behaves in every manner as the 40-year-old and so does the 60-year-old behave as a sprightly 50! The opportunities lie across all segments of offerings that cover the needs of the human body and soul.

Recruiters in companies now say that companies need to have brand consultants to woo prospective employees and retain talent. Your comment on this, please.

- Padma S.V., Chennai

Padma, this is called employee branding in general. I call it internal branding. Internal branding is critical to the IT/BPO/retail/insurance and financial products sectors in particular. Any sector of the employment economy that sees a high degree of attrition and needs to emerge as a magnet employer needs internal branding. Internal branding exercises are not hit-and-run operations. Instead they are activities that are completely ongoing. That is important to remember.

It is like this. The typical FMCG company requires two types of branding - external and internal. In FMCG segments, the need is for 80 per cent external branding and 20 per cent internal branding. In the IT/ITES/retail/insurance/financial products sector, it is the right reverse. Companies in these spaces need to value their internal customers more than external. 80:20. Remember, it is these internal customers who deliver quality, results, consistency and high standards to the external customer. Therefore, internal branding is that much more important.

The Diwali gifts market is ever-changing. What are marketers doing here? And how much of value lies here?

- Arun Sundaram, Chennai

Arun, the gifting market is undergoing a sea change in this country. If you were to track this market even five years ago, you would find the entire market largely congregated at Indian sweets and dry fruits. If you could manage the logistics of a gift with short shelf life, there was the ubiquitous laddu and peda. If you wanted longer shelf life, the answer lay in the box of dry fruit.

Today, things are different. The entire market is moving upwards and away from the lowest-common-denominator items of sweet and dry fruit. Marketers have stepped in here and are reaping rewards in terms of big sale volumes.

The chocolate companies, in many ways, were the first to do this. Nestle started with its Indian `Mithai' range and then got onto the bandwagon of its traditional chocolate packs. Cadbury has launched a range of exotic dry fruit chocolate collections. The soft drink companies are not to be left behind. They are here this season with six-packs that have the Diwali motif all about them.

As the years go by, more and more FMCG items will want to reap the wind for the rewards of the gifting season. Remember, the gifting season is an irrational season of purchase. People buy with a higher degree of irrationality when they are giving away gifts.

Don't be too surprised if you see the shampoo and soap and detergent entering the gifting mindset in years to come.

In Japan, for instance, gifting is big business. Gift packs at New Year and Christmas season gobble a lot of shelf-space and most certainly the attention space of consumers.

What's the value size of this market? I am afraid I will not join this estimation game. There is a report that the market for sweets and dry fruits during Diwali is all of Rs 250 crore. I do believe this is an underestimation.

Happy Diwali, then!

(The writer is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. )

E-mail your Bs to:askharishbijoor@thehindu.co.in

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