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India has been an emerging market that is witnessing radical changes in the lifestyles and the spending patterns of customers. There has been a significant change (post-liberalization) in terms of the manner in which consumers look at their self-concept. Exposure to western ways and lifestyles through mass media, availability of discretionary income and the impact of reference group appeals are some of the important aspects that have created interest towards products and services associated with beauty care among consumers. Customers have become used to branded creams and lotions, and several of these offerings are being advertised with strong symbolic appeals associated with enhanced self-concepts. Kaya was a brand in the beauty care category. However, the brand's offerings dealt with medically anchored services intended to enhance the looks of the customers. The brand opened up a new facet of beauty care services that was associated more with up-market and state-of-the-art hospitals, where customers opted for these services under the supervision of doctors who had specialized in cosmetic surgeries/interventions. Would the differentiation between the first-time users of a beauty parlor and the loyal customers of a parlor offer insights that Kaya would find useful? Issues related to services management as well as customer value and customer loyalty were relevant to Kaya's competitive strategies. Although the customers of a beauty parlor could be demographically different from Kaya's customers, the commonality of the benefits related to the beauty services offered were the same. The case is about how a brand that had created a category would find it useful to draw insights on brand loyalty from a related category that does not compete with it directly. Such a dimension of competitive learning is perhaps unique to an emerging market such as India.

Kumar was curious to find out whether consumers were really loyal to the brands in the toothpaste category. He was interested in the toothpaste category, and Himalaya had herbal offerings in the retail and prescriptive segments. Were consumers loyal to a particular brand of toothpaste? Did they remember the functional brand benefits? Were consumers buying brands due to the social benefits reflected in the ads? Did consumers continue to buy particular brands without switching, due to inertia? Were consumers interested in herbal offerings? How should Himalaya be perceived by consumers? This medley of issues presented yet another opportunity to an academic to conceptualize consumer behaviour, one that was perhaps unique to the Indian context.<br><br>The concept of product involvement differentiated consumer segments based on the degrees of personal interest expressed by consumers with regard to specific products and services. High-involvement categories required consumers to be involved in extensive buying behavior that led to one or more of the following aspects: risk reduction, enhancement of self-image, and a greater degree of gratification in having achieved an optimal choice after examining the various alternatives in the category. Low-involvement categories were those that were bought in a routine manner by the consumer, with a degree of personal interest that was lower than that associated with the high-involvement categories. Marketers always had to face competitive challenges in enhancing the degree of involvement even in low-involvement categories through appropriate branding initiatives. The toothpaste category was one such category in the Indian context.

Ramesh Kumar was curious to determine whether consumers were loyal to toothpaste brands. Himalaya Herbal Toothpaste had herbal offerings in the retail and prescription segments, affording him the opportunity to conduct research. Were consumers loyal to a particular brand of toothpaste? Did they remember the functional brand benefits? Were consumers buying brands due to the social benefits reflected in ads? Did consumers continue to buy particular brands without switching? Were consumers interested in herbal toothpastes? How should Himalaya be perceived by consumers? This series of issues presented an opportunity to conceptualize consumer behaviour in the Indian context. <br><br>The concept of product involvement differentiates consumer segments based on the degrees of personal interest expressed by consumers with regard to products and services. High-involvement categories require consumers to be involved in extensive buying behaviour that leads to one or more of the following: risk reduction, enhancement of self-image, and gratification in having achieved an optimal choice after examining the alternatives. Low-involvement categories are those that are bought in a routine manner by consumers, with a lower degree of personal interest. Marketers always face competitive challenges in enhancing the degree of involvement even in low-involvement categories through appropriate branding initiatives, including in the toothpaste category.

Bannari Amman Group (BAG) was one of the largest industrial conglomerates in South India with manufacturing, trading, distribution and financing corporations in the group. This group had the legacy of conducting business ventures over the past 40 years. Starting as a group of related and unrelated businesses in a purely family-owned entity, now the group had three publicly listed companies and over 15 family-owned businesses in its fold. Following the tradition that the eldest in the family headed the group, the group performed under the leadership of the chairman. The chairman of BAG had a day long meeting with the unit heads of BAG on January 6, 2011 to review whether the business heads were capable of handling their units by themselves, what was the appropriate method of hand holding for the new generation of entrepreneurs and how would the unit heads act to optimize performance of their units. He observed that the business group's units emerged as independent entities, but the businesses were complementing each other to a certain extent. This was especially true for the logistics. Due to this, the group's businesses enjoyed an inherent advantage. As he looked at the challenges that the units would come across under new leadership in the forthcoming years, he was also aware of the need to develop the vision across the spectrum of units big and small, flagship companies and the smaller stragglers. The chairman looked for processes to keep the group synergies in place and identify the businesses that could be strengthened over time.

Nitya was preparing for a meeting with an Indian company that manufactured hair oil and fairness cream. She wanted to make use of past research in order to offer her client insights on consumer values. Were emerging markets significantly different from developed markets in terms of consumer values? Were existing brands connecting with Indian consumers? Could values become associated with different socio-economic classes of consumers? With radical changes in the lifestyles of consumers and the proliferation of categories and brands, the Indian context offers unique marketing challenges to marketers.

The liberalization of markets, the rising disposable income, the exposure to western lifestyles, and the need for the new generation to establish an identity for itself are some of the reasons for the growth of the luxury watch category in India. The market for luxury watches was estimated to be 3% of watch retail, and was growing at almost 20% annually, which was more than twice the growth rate of the entire market. Heritage, glamour and technology were a combination of factors that were associated with luxury watch brands universally.While there were several global watch brands being marketed in India at various price points, the challenge for a leading Indian company Titan Industries that had made rapid strides in the watch market over the last two decades was to successfully introduce a luxury watch brand. Manoj Chakravarti, Senior Advisor, Titan Industries reflected about his 28 years in the watch industry both in India and abroad, and contemplated about Xylys, Titan's premium watch brand, and its foray into the Indian market. He had formulated several aspects of marketing mix strategies in the past to face diverse kinds of challenges. Xylys was a premium watch brand launched by Titan a few years ago; the brand was aimed at creating a unique perception among consumers. There were several interesting possibilities for Chakravarti to consider. Would a conventional positioning approach be sufficient? Was it necessary to obtain some insights regarding the application of the uniqueness aspect to the self-perception of consumers? How were such aspects of uniqueness related to other established brands? How important was the "Swiss-made" label? Did the buyers and prospective buyers of premium watches hold any specific stereotypical images of such watches? How does the self-concept of consumers matter to luxury watch brands? The case delves into behavioral concepts that are important from the viewpoint of brand perception of luxury brands.

Bannari Amman Group (BAG) was one of the largest industrial conglomerates in South India, with manufacturing, trading, distribution, and financing corporations. Starting as a set of businesses in a family-owned entity, the group now had three publicly listed companies and over 15 family-owned businesses. <br><br>The chairman of BAG — the eldest in the family, according to tradition — held a meeting with the unit heads of BAG on January 6, 2011, to discuss their yearly performance and future plans. At the annual meeting, each unit head had to make a presentation on their unit’s performance and provide a detailed business plan. <br><br>The chairman wondered if the business heads were capable of handling their units by themselves. Until now, he and his brothers had always been ready to offer guidance. He wondered, “What is the appropriate method of guidance for the new generation of entrepreneurs?” How would the unit heads act to optimize performance of their units? He observed that while the group’s units were independent entities, the businesses complemented each other somewhat. Due to this, the group’s businesses enjoyed an inherent advantage. As he looked at the challenges that the units would face under new leadership in upcoming years, he was aware of the need to develop a common vision across all units. The chairman looked for processes to keep the group synergies in place and identify the businesses that could be strengthened.

Shamit Bagchi, owner of the online art company Dhonuk, recognized that art was a niche market in India. He wanted to utilize psychographics in order to better understand art buyers and properly position his company, so he undertook a survey of art consumers’ behaviour. He believed that through selecting the appropriate demographic segments, analyzing his competition, and using the behavioural insights of the survey, he could create the proper platform for his art company.

India as an emerging market offers tremendous opportunities to marketers. The marketing scenario is an upbeat one both for mundane products as well as luxury offerings. Marketing art was an unexplored area. www.dhonuk.com was an entrepreneurial company that was making an attempt to market art. This case study is about the attempt by the company to study the behaviour of the consumers interested in art. The case study delves into the nuances of segmentation and psychographics with information on the involvement levels of consumers. The challenge for www.dhonuk.com was to use consumer insights to formulate marketing strategies that would enable the company to target various segments and decide how these segments could be differentiated. Some of the interesting questions that the case reflects are (1) Would capturing the perception of consumers about art forms work? (2) What about their level of involvement in art forms? (3) Were art forms something that consumers used to reflect their personality? (4) Were consumers associated with art different from other consumers in terms of their lifestyle? The case has a blend of several aspects of consumer behaviour that will be useful to formulate a strategy for this unusual category in the Indian marketing context. The case can be used to illustrate how the various aspects of consumer behaviour can contribute to marketing strategy of a firm, especially with regard to a category that has not diffused widely among the consumers. The case also illustrates how consumer behaviour concepts can be combined to obtain consumer insights in a given scenario. The outcome of the case is reflected in how marketing mix elements can be formulated using behavioural concepts. This angle is different from formulating marketing mix using competitive data without the information on behavioural dimensions.

Emerging markets are being pursued by large multinational companies. With radical changes in the lifestyles of consumers and proliferation of categories and brands, the Indian context offers unique marketing challenges to marketers. The case deals with the perspective of how cultural values can provide the differentiation platform for brands in the categories of hair oil and fairness creams, the ritualistic categories used in the grooming habits of consumers in the country.

The case analyzes the response of the non-users of shampoo in an emerging environment, namely India. The non-users belong to the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum and they respond with their perceptions about the category of shampoo and well-known brands. The entrepreneur's challenge is to obtain the insights, analyze the attitude of the non-users towards the category and brands, and prepare a strategy to position a new brand of shampoo (Super brand) in the Indian mass market.

The case analyzes the response of the non-users of shampoo in an emerging environment, namely India. The non-users belong to the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum and they respond with their perceptions about the category of shampoo and well-known brands. The entrepreneur's challenge is to obtain the insights, analyze the attitude of the non-users towards the category and brands, and prepare a strategy to position a new brand of shampoo (Super brand) in the Indian mass market.

India has millions of kirana (small stores) but modern retail outlets are emerging. The case illustrates the challenges confronting the shop owner of Shiny Provision Store, a kirana in the suburbs of Bangalore, India. A customer, who is a market researcher, decides to explore how a small retailer in the food and groceries business can survive in an environment that is getting increasingly sophisticated in terms of professional techniques being applied to modern retailing. Data on retail images of small shops and modern outlets as well as lifestyle information on consumers is presented.

India has millions of kirana (small stores) but modern retail outlets are emerging. The case illustrates the challenges confronting the shop owner of Shiny Provision Store, a kirana in the suburbs of Bangalore, India. A customer, who is a market researcher, decides to explore how a small retailer in the food and groceries business can survive in an environment that is getting increasingly sophisticated in terms of professional techniques being applied to modern retailing. Data on retail images of small shops and modern outlets as well as lifestyle information on consumers is presented.

Tinplate Company of India is a leading manufacturer of tin packaging for food and beverage products and batteries. Changes in government policy on importing materials, new types of packaging products and customer dissatisfaction present challenges for the company. The company must decide whether to continue with its current market strategy, determine how it can compete with foreign companies or determine if they are missing other strategic opportunities based on organizational buying behaviours.

Tinplate Co. of India is a leading manufacturer of tin packaging for food and beverage products and batteries. Changes in government policy on importing materials, new types of packaging products, and customer dissatisfaction present challenges for the company. The company must decide whether to continue with its current market strategy, determine how it can compete with foreign companies, or determine whether they are missing other strategic opportunities based on organizational buying behaviors.