Which is that one Indian city that has arrived? It is Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore or Hyderabad?

_ George V., Mumbai

George, interesting to see the city names you have picked. No Chennai and Kolkata there. I wonder why?

In any case, going by the tone and tenor of your question, I do believe the answer is an easy one. It really is Bangalore. Not because I live there. Not because its per capita income numbers have shown a tendency for rapid growth year-on-year. Not because it is a magnet city which houses mixed populations, and most certainly not because it houses the largest numbers of expatriates in India.

Bangalore is a big city brand today. The city gets listed, probed, featured and even battered in global city probes. This means just one thing. This means that the city has arrived. And how! The moment you start getting noticed, you have arrived. The moment you start getting referred to, either negatively or positively, you have arrived. By this standard, Bangalore as a city has arrived.

If a city is listed and probed and prodded as much as Bangalore is, it just means that it is a city that matters. Matters not only locally to you and I who possibly love or hate that city, but to literally everyone who ekes out a living there, and even to everyone who has never been to that city. That really is the power of a brand. This is a ‘power city’, as I would define it. Within India, there are just three big ‘power cities’, as per my definition. The first is Delhi, the second is Mumbai and the third most certainly is Bangalore.

Brand Bangalore remains the metaphor that it has become. A metaphor for action and development or the lack of it, for that matter. And equally a metaphor for a modern city with old infrastructure but a modern mindset of its own, grappling to find its feet in the big bad world.

Bangalore compares very favourably not only with other commercial centres in India, but with commercial centres across South-East Asia and the region at large as well. Therefore, if the question is which city has arrived, I do believe it is Bangalore.

In a typical market slowdown, which categories do you see really insulated and selling more than normal?

_ Balraj K., Tindivanam

Balraj, intelligent question. It has had me thinking and researching. Here is my probed answer.

The lipstick and nail polish category is a big one. When the chips are down, the one thing you can still buy is the lipstick and nail polish and small little items that don’t cost the earth. These are small splurges when you cannot really splurge on much else. To an extent, despite a slowdown, you still feel empowered. You don't want to let go of that feeling.

If that is true for women, in the case of men, it is slightly different. Thank God it’s not lipstick and nail polish in their case as well.

Men splurge similar small amounts of moneys at magazine stalls in a downturn. They buy reading material they may never even read. Add to it the humble coffee. In a recession, coffee consumption goes up. And now in India, you can add cinema. Movie tickets sell more during a recession, specifically movies that boast their entertainment quotient is high. This is recession-escapism at play.

Have women really changed in India in terms of consumer behaviour patterns exhibited? Or are we just kidding ourselves that there is radical change?

_ Nolan R. Matthan, Chennai

Nolan, change has been there all around us all this while. Over the years, your body has aged, just as has mine.

In terms of attitude and behaviour as well, consumer change is palpable. This is common across man, woman and child in the Indian context. It would be unfair to say that we are kidding ourselves in this space.

I do it simplistically. Study the advertising of a nation, and you understand its people. You understand usage, attitude and behaviour for sure.

I follow this diktat to the core when I study a nation, its culture, its peoples, and its brand and marketing formats. Advertising used by the marketers of a nation reveals more than it hides. While the reality is that consumers must define advertising, advertising often defines consumers as well. However, on more occasions than most, a nation’s advertising is a great barometer of its people and their resultant consumer behaviour patterns.

Consumer behaviour among women in India has changed radically and continually over the last nine decades and more. The earliest decade of it all saw literally no participation by women in what they bought. In the early Twenties, if you were to peek into the life of your grandmother or great-grandmother, for that matter, women just did not show themselves to be active buyers at all. The woman sat at home and consumed just about anything that the men of the house brought in. There was indeed a time when it was taboo for a woman in early India to go to the corner grocer even. Women just did not visit the retailer at large. Never mind that the retailer at the corner was related to you in some way of the other. Women expressed their choice to their husbands and brothers and fathers and the men bought. At times what was bought was tailored to the men’s own choice.

Women came into their own in terms of expressing choice and articulating it all in purchase behaviour of every kind much, much later. In many ways, the way marriages were and are conducted in India says it all. The women had little choice in the men they chose to marry. More often than not, “purchase behaviour” here was dictated as well.

Today, however, things are a bit different. Love marriages are in vogue, and a woman literally has the choice to marry anyone, just as long as they are of the opposite sex and are human. As this trend cascades, consumer behaviour among women gets more accentuated, articulated and driving in its motion. Therefore, if you ask me if there has been real palpable change, the answer is a loud and resounding yes.

What is the plight of luxury brands in these difficult times, especially with the arrival of so many foreign brands? Can people afford them now?

_ Simran Rudra, New Delhi

Simran, nothing happens to luxury brands. Luxury brands are recession-proof. The top end of the economy that buys into luxury brands is typically never touched by a downturn sentiment. It’s different in China, however, where luxury brands are bought by non-luxury-affording sets of people as well. India to that extent is a robust luxury market. Luxury is bought into by only those who can afford luxury. Every Tom, Dick and Harish does not buy into luxury. Touché!

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