What consumers want

Sometimes its so much better to get the research mumbo-jumbo out of the way. Like the way Sir David Tang said (video above) it. Consumers at the lower end of the moolah pie buy for value. Who's giving reliable quality at competitive prices, that's the sole consideration. But as consumers move up the money pie (read, increased incomes), they buy for status. Who's giving the best status value for money then becomes the question.

Consumers in transition (on their way up) are those that look for brands that can deliver on functional value with a dose of status. The trick here is to give that 'status' without too much of an increase in price. I saw this play out a few weeks ago. A colleague bought the Maruti-A Star because it was pretty decent on its pricing, and more importantly it had a strikingly 'different' look. Plus a bonus was there weren't too many A-Stars on the road.

The consumer story doesn't need to be complicated at at all times, for what they seek is value. Functional at times, status at others, and a combination when they're in 'transition'.