Rebels with a cause – Teenage years and small towns in emerging markets

With the emergence of small towns as future growth engines in markets like India, there is considerable interest in teenagers from these small towns.

Growing up in a vibrant economy, teenagers of middle class families in small towns have largely experienced an upbeat economic mood and the safety of increasing wealth. Indulgent Asian parents have showered their children with all the opportunities and commercial goods that money can buy.

19 y.o. Radhika from Aurangabad (population of 1.2 million) lives with her mother a nurse, an absentee father (a policeman) and a younger brother still in school. In her small 2 room house on the first floor she has a computer all to herself. Her mother paid 3 months salary to buy the computer for Radhika’s school work. On the table is a studio shot of Radhika and her friend, taken just for fun when they completed school. Two dressed up girls in their best clothes pose and smile gently at us from the photo frame. Radhika is impeccably groomed. Wearing jeans and a fashionable blouse she talks about going clothes shopping every fortnight as she wants to look her best at all times. She goes out often with her friends to restaurants, catch the latest movies and to get pedicures at the neighbourhood salon. Radhika does not have much to worry about.  She is now part of the new ‘consuming class’ in emerging markets.

Listening to a day in Radhika’s life you begin to think about a James Dean style Rebel without a cause kind of story.

Yet as Radhika begins to talk about her future and the life she wants, you begin to see her determination and focus emerge. She has decided she wants to be a successful entrepreneur in IT and first plans to get a job that will help her develop the contacts she will need later. Her job will also help her finance her higher education. Marriage is also part of this plan but with the right person and at the right time.

There are many Radhika’s in small towns in emerging markets. Living indulgent lives supported by parents yet with a drive and a purpose not just for a better life for themselves but for the betterment of their entire families.  That is the story behind the projected 23 trillion USD contribution emerging cities are likely to make in the future.

The city below: Perceptions and context

Talking to a Vietnamese consumer – Sway – in the course of an Ethnographic project in Central Vietnam, he queried “Do you come from Singapore? My teacher who has visited Singapore tells me that half the city lives underground?”

It took us a few seconds to decipher what Sway was referring to. He had heard about all the shopping malls and underground links in Singapore!

 As a Vietnamese, the idea of living underground is not unfamiliar to him. But it does come with images of war and hardship. And so the idea of underground living in current times immediately gets his attention.

Meanwhile to Singaporeans, the idea of underground ‘living’ brings to mind a relief from the heat, long walkways filled with attractive window displays, places to eat. Sway’s perspective made us think differently about city living and what that means in today’s world.

 Sway’s little comment reminded us of 2 important things when researching different markets:

1)      The importance of considering context and how it impacts perceptions

2)      The powerful potential of comparisons to think of what you already know in a different way 

When personal becomes universal (More on listening to consumer stories)

A while back we wrote about our belief in storytelling in Qualitative research and the art of listening to stories that impact brands. And now, another reason why listening to consumer stories is so important in Qualitative research.

The stories we hear from consumers are personal. But it is when the personal becomes universal that an insight emerges. Here is one such story from the Youth in small town India that has inspired brands.

 Our interviews in Aligarh (Northern India), brought us to Deepa’s home. A 17 y.o. fun loving girl, struggling to reconcile a repressive social environment with her own free spirit and modern view of the world. Her dream was to study, become a doctor and work in Delhi. She wanted to enjoy her life, hang out with friends (a mix of both boys and girls). She used modern tools like mobile phones, Internet to enable her. Her neighbours and relatives  looked upon this with criticism and judged it as inappropriate. Her mother supported her daughter whole heartedly but was incapacitated by the perplexing new world full of technology, communication and new age ways of life completely different from her world and time.

Our conversations led us to a bag check to see what a young girl considered her personal products within her own personal space (her bag). We discovered a bag full of newspaper clippings. ‘How to get fit’, ‘How to succeed in an interview’, ‘How to put on makeup’ and many more such clippings filled up Deepa’s bag.

 It turned out that being unable to get help from anyone else, Deepa turned to newspapers on ‘how to’ grow up in the modern world of today.

 As Deepa’s story unfolded, we could see how this related to a broader Youth segment growing up in small towns in India.

 An entire generation of ambitious Youth from small town India are embracing modern day life and lifestyles. However, they are unguided in this quest as parents are not familiar with the ways of the new world. Rather than being held behind the young generation has decided to ‘educate’ themselves in this.

 Deepa’s story became the story of millions of other Youth in boom towns in India and has since inspired our clients to develop their products to fit the self help needs of this young and ambitious generation in boom towns.