Market strategist and consultant Rama Bijapurkar wears her analyst’s hat in her book We Are Like That Only-Understanding the Logic of Consumer India, but without skipping the wit and common sense. The book was launched at a function organised by the Indian Express in Mumbai on Monday. Here, she tells Kavitha Iyer why the Indian market foxes the best marketing minds

• What drove you to write a book about consumers in India and their ‘schizophrenic’ buying choices?

Because I am sick and tired of everybody discussing the India opportunity and the Indian market from the lens of economics, or macro economics, or capacity, sales, industrial production — from the economics of the supply side basically. I’m saying that markets are made of consumers. I’m saying to companies that your topline is equal to how many people buy, how much they buy and at what price.

I want to put the focus on the fact that the Indian market opportunity is about people. So let’s look at people.

• What are the myths about Indian consumers that MNCs must tackle in order to win in the Indian marketplace?

The first assumption is that emerging markets like India and China are much like what developed markets were 20 years ago. Like what America was 20 yrs ago. And that they will follow exactly the same trajectory of development that the developed markets did once upon a time. I think that’s completely incorrect because never before in the history of humanity have you had so many poor people subjected to so much aspiration, so much communication, so much real time technology. Also, never before have you had such a big mass of people who have actually seen their incomes rise.

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