“Families” as consumers in India

Our guest author explores the intricate web of Indian family dynamics, dissecting consumption patterns based on composition and lifecycle stages.

The term ‘Indian Family’ carries a very generic, idealised and stereotypical image in the minds of most Indians – a cosy and lively family of a happily married couple with children and ageing parents - possibly romanticised and popularised over the years by the Indian 'Cinemawood.'

However, when it comes to the Indian consumer world, marketers and market researchers have stayed stuck and not looked at the Indian Family beyond a very bland, lifeless and technical definition and understanding of what they call a ‘household’, with a ‘chief wage earner’ and some ‘dependents’. 

However, even as consumers, we live our lives as ‘families’ and not ‘households’ and the consumption of goods and services in a family gets driven by ‘all the people’ living in it and not just by the ‘chief wage earner’ of the house. Therefore, how a family consumes gets defined as much by the ‘composition’ of the family as by its ‘ability to spend’ (or how much it earns).

Further, families split or expand in a ‘natural’ cycle of time, moving in a dynamic ‘life cycle’ progression. A family’s ‘status’ and ‘needs’ change and evolve with time and the changing age and status of its members. This makes the consumption patterns of families also dependent on the ‘lifecycle stage’ it is in, apart from the size and composition of the family.

Accordingly, there is no ‘stereotypical’ or ‘average’ Indian family as a consumption entity out there in reality. A ‘single independent’ person consumes very differently from a ‘married couple without any child’, who in turn consumes very differently from a family that has a ‘small kid’ in the house, who in turn consumes very differently from a family that has a grown-up child in the house.

It is imperative in marketing therefore, that one segment, differentiates and focuses on Indian Families as a consumption unit by their ‘composition’ and ‘lifecycle stage and needs pattern’ rather than by its ‘chief wage earner’ and ‘number of dependents’.

Hence, as a consumption entity, (Indian) families need to be understood by their member composition’ and ‘lifecycle stage’ to target them appropriately.

Based on their ‘member composition’ and ‘lifecycle stage’ leading to their distinctive consumption need patterns, (Indian) families can be effectively, and highly meaningfully, classified into 7 distinct types:

Free Birds

Single Independent Adults (of any age) – they could be Single Unmarried Individuals living independently, Childless divorcees/widows, or Married Childless individuals living alone.

Nest Builders 

Young Married couples (below 40 years of age) without any children.

Baby Sitters 

Married couples (of any age) with the eldest child below 12 years.

Maturing Mentors 

Married couples (of any age) with the youngest child above 12 years.

Vintage Wines 

Middle-aged or elderly married couples (above 40 years of age) living alone.

Dynasties 

A 3-generation joint family (grandparent, parent and child all living together).

Lone Diggers 

Single parents (of any age) - widow/divorcee with a child.

Almost three out of four Indian families today happen to be ‘nuclear families with children’, with ‘Maturing Mentors’ being the single largest family group at about 45% and the ‘Babysitters’ accounting for another 25% of all Indian families. Only about one in five Indian families (about 20%) are ‘joint families’ or Dynasties. ‘Free Bird’ (only 1%) and ‘Nest Builder’ families (at about 4%) are found relatively more in the urban areas.

The economic status and consumption preferences of these family types show quite distinct patterns. A few examples are:

Free Birds

They tend to have the lowest monthly family incomes. They live in rented houses relatively more and show noticeably lower ownership levels of most household assets. In sum, they tend to spend more on ‘consumables’ and less on acquiring assets. However, they do tend to save-invest a noticeably higher proportion of their incomes than the other family types.

Nest Builders

They live in rented houses in urban areas relatively more and show the highest relative ownership of ‘electronic’ gadgets like TVs, Mobiles, etc. They tend to undertake recreational activities and go on leisure holidays relatively more. They also show the highest relative consumption level of personal care products like Face Creams and Deodorants.

Baby Sitters

Show the highest relative consumption levels of household consumables, especially baby and children food items like milk additives, noodles, chocolates, etc.

Maturing Mentors 

Show the most ‘average’ income, asset ownership and consumption profiles among all the family types.

Vintage Wines

They tend to have the highest dual-income families and the highest per capita monthly family incomes. They show relatively high ownership levels of Cars, Life Insurance and Household Appliances like Washing Machine, AC & Microwave. They are also the relatively heaviest watchers of TV.

Dynasties

They tend to have the highest monthly family incomes and show the highest ownership of various household assets like cars, bikes, computers, etc. They also show the highest relative consumption of Packaged Snacks as well as Personal Care products like Lipstick, Fairness cream, Body lotion, etc.

In conclusion, if one were to map the consumption patterns of these family types in time dynamics, it appears that as ‘Free Birds,’ the single independents live up to their present lifestyles and spend on ‘consumables’ more and less on acquiring assets. But as they move the family way, as ‘Nest Builders’ they start to spend more on ‘durables’ to set up their houses. 

With children coming in and increasing the family size and composition, as ‘Baby Sitters, Maturing Mentors, and Dynasties,’ the families try to balance between ‘spending’ to live the desired lifestyle as a household and ‘investing’ in taking care of the future of children/members in the family. 

Eventually, with children growing up and moving out of the house (and branching out as Free Birds to kickstart their own family journey), the ageing parents left in and as ‘Vintage Wines’ (or Vintage Dynasties to a limited extent), appear to spend their still relatively high household incomes in trying to ‘upgrade their lifestyles’ apart from ‘securing’ themselves for the needs in their twilight years. 

(Our guest author is Sanjay Tiwari, a branding and marketing communication advisor.)