Recently a television show hosted a debate between two groups of people. The subject of debate was, whether men or women as consumers nowadays buy more than what they actually need. The conclusion of the debate came as a no-brainer that everyone in their own ways buys more than one’s needs. During the debate many instances emerged where people buy products they never use or buy products in more quantities than what they actually need. Even when consumers buy food products, they often buy the routine stuff and along with that they also buy the new stuff to try out. Ladies buy sarees and salwars in good numbers often nowadays. Just an attitude to wear varieties as fashion changes or as movies would introduce new trends, may impact the enormity and frequency of purchases! After all, as we do not have a mind in India to throw away old stuff soon, our wardrobes always keep swelling and enlarging! An aunt of mine keeps balancing the number of sarees she has in stock as she gives away an old one for charity for every new one she buys - an exceptional case though!
It has always been a meticulous plan devised to increase consumption in India. Manufacturers have been good at it. Toothpaste used to be used in a miserly manner those days, as the aluminum nozzle of the tubes was so narrow that it would push out paste in less quantity. A little wider now, the nozzles apply more paste on the same length of toothbrush bristles, increasing consumption. The introduction of shampoos in sachets in India introduced the concept of shampooing the hair in our remotest villages as well. Broken into smaller pieces for easier consumption, the effort of innovatively selling every other product in a sachet has increased consumption in every corner of the vast geography of our country. When we talk of consumption, our customers need not face the situation of dearth that they faced a couple of decades ago. As products and services are available in abundance and as quite often the media tells us how to use them, we buy things in abundance. The once used small refrigerators in homes are no longer seen in households and we see only pretty large ones now that can facilitate more storage, proving the point that the more we buy the more we store and consume. Dr. G (as he is popularly known) a kaizen consultant in India recommends knocking off unnecessary storage bins in the production line as components or semi-finished products may pile up in a few sections choking the full throttled manufacturing flow. After knocking off unnecessary storage bins, the continuous manufacturing process needs to go on, in the required pace uninterrupted as nothing can be stored in-between! But that’s only to achieve manufacturing efficiencies. Dr. G may not be a welcome phenomenon in our households please!
Retailers are doing their part to increase consumption. Increased displays, free-access shelving that instantaneously provides an access to every product in store, bundled offers, cross promotions, up-selling (converting a burger order into a value meal), etc. are a few vivid efforts taken to increase consumption on the retail floors. A few retailers regularly announce schemes to turn in the old for new in order to help customers make space for additional items in their wardrobes! Retailers also go ahead with their multichannel efforts to reach out to customers while they try and expand quickly into smaller towns.
As the mid-segment grows in an incredible measure in India, can we expect this year’s budget to announce raising the taxable income slab to say, rupees 5 lakhs per annum?
- Dr. Gibson G. Vedamani
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