Independent and Individualistic

Published: Mint dated 19 th April 2010

This is the 18th in a 33part

series on distinct
consumer segments,
based on a categorization
of stage of life and
occupation, expenditure
and savings propensity,
family structure and
psychographics. This
weekwe look at the E3
segment -- young, single
chief wage earners, who
live alone and are school
educated businessmen.

Indicus Consumer Segment

With the same occupational and educational profile as the segment taken up in the past few weeks, this
time we look at E3, young, single chief wage earners, who live alone and are school educated
businessmen.
Population-wise this is the smallest segment, less than 70,000 people spread across the country fitting the
E3 consumer profile. This cluster/ segment E, that makes up households that would generally correspond
to SEC C/D of the the traditional SEC, in fact, has the highest number of segments within it, a reflection on
the peculiar characteristics that define each small segment. There is a high amount of heterogeneity within
this class, the expenditure and asset ownership characteristics differ significantly across the segments. For
instance, in the last two weeks, we pointed out that house ownership was much higher in the E1 segment
than E2. Our segment this week, E3 has a smaller share of house owners - 64% of these people live in
rented accommodation. If we want to see why there are such significant differences or if we want to see
where these segments are headed in the future, the key lies in their household profile.

E3 Indicus Consumer Segment

Think of the mindset of a person who is
school educated, a businessman and
living alone in the city, without any
family support and the E3 segment
comes to life. This segment has
extremely independent individualistic
people in it. At this young age - 37% are
less than 25 years of age - they have
struck out on their own in the city, and
unlike the previous two SEC E
segments dealt with in this column, do
not live with their families – in the Indian
context, where family plays an important
role in one’s life, this fact says a lot
about the people who make up this
segment. There is just one caveat,
though, that estimates of characteristics
of these households need to be seen in
the light of the small sample size of this
segment and the high individualistic
nature of the chief wage earners; there
is more heterogeneity within this
segment and outliers will therefore be
more than in other segments. Indicus Consumer Segment
While 88% of these people have not been married
ever, 12% have already been through a divorce or
been widowed. The largest occupation for these chief
wage earners is wholesale and retail trade, making up
29% of the total employment. These are therefore the
small traders selling on the footpath, through small
kiosks or roaming in the city with hand carts etc.
Some of them would even have larger businesses,
employing other people, these are not necessarily
single man enterprises. Manufacturing comes in the
second place at 21%, again low skilled work for these
school educated businessmen, while hotels and
restaurants rank third at 19% - here again we are
looking at a very diversified range of activity, but all
small in scale.

90% of these people earn less than Rs. 3 lakh per

year, low incomes with their low educational profile
and single status. However, there are some who have
already moved much higher up, almost 8% of the
segment have income more than Rs. 15 lakh a year,
a reflection of the high heterogeneity in this segment.
These would be those who have scaled up
operations, in trade, hotels, transport businesses etc.
Indicus Consumer Segment
 Another peculiar feature is the relatively
higher proportion of expenditure on
education, 4.6%, indicating that these
young people are also making some
investment in raising their skill sets, not
necessarily from the formal colleges, but
maybe through night schools, private
vocational institutes etc. Staying alone in
the city and making maximum use of their
time again shows the keen streak of
independence in this segment.
The states that have a higher concentration
of these households are Maharashtra -
Mumbai, Thane, Pune offering maximum
scope for small businesses, Tamil Nadu -
the most urbanised state with Coimbatore
ranking seventh amongst districts,
Karnataka - here again Bangalore is the
focus city, the only city from the state in the
top 50 districts in this segment, and
Gujarat, famed for its keen business
capabilities with Ahmedabad, Surat and
Rajkot in the top 20 districts. Delhi, with its
high rate of in-migration, ranks third
amongst the districts, behind Mumbai and
Indicus ConsumerBangalore
Segment in E3 households.