A Never-Before World

Five years after We Are Like That Onl y, her seminal and bestselling study on the logic of consumer India, Rama Bijapurkar takes stock of its evolution in her new book. She starts from the point that emerging markets-the queen of which is India-are a never-before world, and businesses approaching them need to understand the environment in which consumers live, how they think, how heterogeneous they are and how they are changing. All of these have key implications for correctly evaluating business opportunity and determining market strategy. India has entered the third decade after liberalization, buffeted by changes on all fronts. Consumption structures and consumer behaviour are changing, and consumer needs and desires are growing faster than incomes. The real war for the consumer rupee begins now-the trick is to understand, without prejudice or preconceived notions, the new world of consumer India. Setting consumerism in the context of society and people’s lives, looking not just at how much money people have, what they spend it on and how, but at how businesses can be relevant to consumers’ lives and life aspirations, A Never-Before World explores everything that businesses need to know and think about to win in the crucial Indian market.