We were mildly taken aback by the cool folk adoring iconic brands and yet being alright with not owning them even if they had the means to buy them. And we use the expression ‘mild' after having being sensitised to buying behaviour patterns that have been consistently defying prevailing wisdom. We learnt early in our voyage of Cool Hunt (mapping people in the age-bracket of 14-34 years) that this set of people operates at either end of the spectrum without a bother.

This generation of cool folk is making the life of the modern-day marketer really tough. Take ‘price’, for instance. It featured as a response in two of our probes. It first came up when we mapped disposition towards iconic brands. We discovered that a substantial number of our respondents (62 per cent) were not too perturbed not owning some of the brands they worshipped despite having the means to possess them and having listed iconic status as one of the relevant factors in wanting to own a brand. On the other extreme, we had in yet another probe ‘price' featuring significantly below ‘relevance’, ‘desire’ and even ‘functionality and utility’. So where is ‘price’ today and how much does it matter?

Our mapping this time only goes to add newer dimensions to price. First things first: We discovered in our formative research that it is not price but ‘affordability' that comes into play.

And that ‘affordability’ is a decision. It is based on several factors and topping them all is ‘the need to own’, with as many as 37 per cent of the respondents stating this as a factor that makes them choose a product or a service at a given price. This means there is an elastic price band that a marketer can play within and more compulsive reasons that he or she provides, leading to a stronger ‘need to own' — the more affordable the brand becomes irrespective of the price (relatively speaking).

This is a complete departure from long-held beliefs and makes pricing a task that’s subservient to the intangibles that come loaded with brand value and appeal.

Look around and you will see manifestations of this behaviour — people taking holidays that not long ago were only meant for the elite or extremely rich, fancy cars on streets, those designer clothes we see on everybody in those lavish farmhouse weddings or those pent-houses we are building with fancier gadgets and fittings in kitchens, bathrooms and basements!

Stuff that would be termed as indulgence or sheer opulence not long ago is now commonplace. Yes, there are means available thanks to a growing economy, but there is also a shift in the behaviour of cool folk. Housing finance, car loans, credit card swipes, everything on EMIs, DINK consumers and increased awareness — the catalysts are many, but this is where they have arrived.

These findings throw in a lot on the marketer’s table. How does one generate the factors that make the offering slide into ‘the need to own’ bracket? How does one make those reasons compulsive? The cool folk, apparently, are throwing a challenge to the marketing fraternity. They seem to be saying: Give me reasons and we will generate the means to buy.

Like we said, we have our job cut out and we shall probe what these reasons could be. Happy cool-hunting!

(Giraj Sharma is an independent brand consultant whose also a compulsive cool-hunter)

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