WRITE-UP
On
How globalization is affecting the Indian Consumer.

Submitted to:
Prof. Nitin Gupta

Submitted by:
Amy Mathew

1) What have I understood from the research papers?
Are Indians more materialistic or spiritual?
Do Indians emphasize more on the brand of the product we buy rather than the product itself?
Does materialism have anything to do with the income of a person?
Does this emphasis on brands differ from person to person or does the environment that they are subjected to play a greater role in their materialistic tendencies?
Do Indians have a predisposition towards foreign brands and how much does this predisposition have to do with age, income and educational qualifications?
The three research papers have tried to find answers to the above questions and what I have understood from it is as follows:
A couple of the findings are slightly biased due to the preconceived notion among the people in the world that Indians are supposed to be spiritual and do not have materialistic tendencies. Just because we gave the world a Lord Buddha and seem to believe a great deal in building temples does not make us any less materialistic than any other person on this globe. This preconceived notion I believe, is among the major reasons why the researchers are unable to agree on the findings. What I have understood is that Indians can be just as materialistic as any other person on the globe.
Today’s youth in India have been found most susceptible to the need to acquire a branded good. India being a developing country tries to emulate the lifestyle pattern of already developed countries. The majority population of India falls in the 18-25 bracket. In this age of advanced technology and easy availability of information, our youth has been more susceptible to the lifestyle of people from developed countries, thus more attuned to the need for a branded good rather than the good itself.
What I have understood from the research is that materialism has nothing to do with how much a person earns. The desire to possess something is materialism and desire doesn’t need to be bought. Every income group has materialistic tendencies, and their income is only directly proportion to their ability to buy a product and not the desire to have it.
Need, want and a desire to have something is what fuels materialism. Man always wants what he doesn’t have and believes others to have. Research findings suggest that among demographics only age seems to play a major role in our predisposition towards foreign brands. Indian youth have greater inclination towards foreign brands than the older generation. Segments based on Income and educational qualification do not seem to share this inclination.

2) What more could have been done?
It is said that an Indian can be found in every nook and corner of the world that hosts a civilization. A question that arises in my mind is whether globalization has a direct impact on the migratory tendencies of Indians? Can these tendencies be attributed to a particular demographic segment or is it a behavior irrespective of segmentation.
3) How can it be done? We can conduct surveys among various demographic segments, i.e. age, income and educational qualifications of non resident Indians to figure out whether globalization had a hand in them leaving behind their country of origin and settling in various parts of the world. This survey can also be broadened to the people who though still live in India have migrated from their birth state and settled down in other states of the nation.