MUMBAI: The South is the driver for the growth in
television sets with a 33 per cent share in colour television sets. Marketers need to note that the rural share of durables growth is high. For television sets rural India has a share of 64 per cent.
Media Research Users Council (MRUC) and Hansa Research held a forum on Indian Readership Survey (IRS) Starcom MD Ravi Kiran made a presentation on the changing habits of consumers. He attempted to scratch the surface. Issues he addressed were - Has the market place changed? Has the consuming class changed? Has it
widened or narrowed? If so, what are the implications for marketers, media owners and planners?
The basic findings were -
- Rural socio economic structure improving and has driven growth for many consumer durable categories
- Housewives getting more educated CWE education on the rise
- 5 std - SSC is the key to the future
- There is an opportunity for growth of print; particularly special interest titles
Quoting data from Hansa Research he noted that any media reach for Urban areas is 89 per cent compared to 60 per cent in rural. The reach of TV in Urban India is 80 per cent. 54 per cent can be reached through Cable & Satellite (C&S) TV alone. In Rural India the penetration of c&s is 15 per cent. Non-C&S channels reach 29 per cent. V gets more fragmented - niche channels gain mass
In Urban India the print media has remained stagnant over the last 4-5 years. However, some language dailies register impressive growth that compensates the loss of readers of certain set of magazines. Radio has gathered some bit of mass, thanks to private FM
stations. Cinema loses overall patronage with reach drop from 38 per cent to 31 per cent since 1998. Awareness of Internet is up from 14 per cent to 23 per cent in last four years.
English language title readers have dropped by 67 lakhs since 1998. Magazines lose share. In terms of growth for dailies the North and South show the way. Kannada dailies have grown in penetration by 42 per cent. The consumption of Malayalam dailies have grown in Kerala by 30 per cent. By contrast Tamil dailies have grown by just two per cent since 1998. In Delhi, English dailies have grown by 99 per cent. The Hindi dailies have grown by 31 per cent. The Rural penetration growth for two wheelers is dramatically higher. In the refrigerator segment however it is Urban India that is driving growth.
The readership of daily publications has grown to a 48 per cent share from 33 per cent in 1998. The monthly publication i.e. magazine readership has dropped from 32 per cent to 27 per cent. The number of 12+ literates have grown by 45 MM. There are huge opportunities for the print medium to expand. Malayalam publications have made the biggest gains reaching 62 per cent of 12+ individuals versus 52 per cent in 1998. English publications have still a long way to go. Their reach has only slightly increased to 14 per cent from 13 per cent. Kannada publications have a 35 per cent penetration in 2005 versus 31 per cent in 1998.
For packaged goods Rural India has a 76 per cent share in hair oil goods. As far as all India is concerned the number of television households has grown from 55 mm in 1998 to 83 mm in 2005. The number of colour television sets has shot up from 131 lakhs in 1998 to 406 lakhs in 2005. More importantly is the fact that
two out of every three Television sets sold is happening in rural India.
One revealing statistic is that the number of homes earning between Rs. 10-40 lakhs has grown by 47 per cent since 1998. Rural India is also pumping iron. It is becoming more affluent. There has been a 32 per cent growth in the homes earning over Rs. 500,000. Full time employment has grown from 45 per cent in 1998 to 48 per cent in 2005. This reflects both rural and urban areas. The literacy level has also grown. 31 per cent more of housewives are more educated in terms of studying beyond the 5th standard.
What has not changed is the fact the number of homes that own a house (89 per cent), rented nine per cent. Also 60 per cent of housewives do not work. However Housewives' Education is growing. They are moving towards branded goods. When they buy products they consider health, hygiene and nutrition to be extremely important.
