Consuming class, constitutes only 14% of Indian population.

They are upper middle class and most of customers have substantial disposable income.

Initial focus of Big Bazaar.

India Two

Serving class which includes people like drivers, house-hold helps, office peons, washer-men, etc.

For every India One, there are at least India Two and have around 55% of Indian population.

India Three

Struggling class, remaining population of India.

Cannot afford to inspire for better living, have hand-to-mouth existence.

Needs cannot be addressed by current business models.

The potential customers of Big Bazaar are India One and India Two. The customer insights were developed by close observation of the target set. The insights that came out were: -

The clean and shiny environment of modern retail stores creates the perception that such store are too expensive and exclusive, and are not meant for India Two.

India Two finds moves and find a lot of comfort in crowds, they are not individualistic. They prefer to be in queues.

Indian-ness is not about swadeshi, it’s about believing in Indian ways of doing things.

Indian customers prefer to purchase grains, grams, etc., after touching them, so it’s better not to sell in polythene packs. Big Bazaar has counters where you can touch wheat, rice, sugar, etc., before purchasing.

Advertisements about schemes and offers through local newspapers, radio in local languages, inspires customer more than the traditional ways.

The guards, salesman at the Big Bazaar outlets should not look smarter than customer, so they prefer not to have tie, etc., in their uniform.

Hypermarkets in India should be situated in city unlike western countries where they are located away from city.

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* Contributed by: -
Ravi Bhatia is a second year student of PGDM at IIM Calcutta. He is an Engineer with honors degree from IIIT Allahabad. He has worked for India's number one private life insurance provider and leading communication software provider, and has authored several articles and press-releases.
Article posted on January 25, 2009.