This has happened under pressure from consumer groups who have been lobbying hard for an independent regulator and a stricter advertising code. This development is expected to put an end to surrogate advertising by liquor companies and it is only a matter of time before the Ministry of Consumer Affairs extends the rule across all media and forces advertisers and advertising agencies to become more responsible.

In an interview to HBS Working Knowledge, Prof Trumbull credits comparative product tests launched by Consumer Reports in 1936, going on to Ralph Nader’s campaign for auto-engineering reforms for helping evolve stricter consumer laws. In India, very few consumer groups have the facilities to do comparative testing. And even when they publish reports with fairly startling findings, there is very little consumer interest in using them as a basis for purchase decisions (Insight magazine by the Consumer Education and Research Center publishes comparative product testing reports).

Prof Trumbull also credits the growth in retailing or changed shopping experience and says that government stepped in with regulation to make up for the loss of personal attention and recommendations lavished on customers by the local corner store or grocer. In India, the retail revolution has just begun and companies have yet to wake up to its implications.

In all probability, we will be able to skip one step in the evolution of better consumer protection, since large retailers will have the necessary marketing clout with manufacturers to demand minimum quality requirements or force them to replace sub-standard products without burdening consumers with the task. Indian consumers still pay very little attention to the price-quality trade off. When a dozen different brands of the same products are lined up in a supermarket, customers have to be educated not to focus merely on the price and free gift but make an informed decision on quality as well.

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