Indians have well defined brand preferences: Survey

MUMBAI: Indian consumers have well defined expectations and preferences when it comes to choosing brands, considering fashionable attributes equally important to reliability and ethical sourcing, according to a survey.

This is "an uncommon ratio" when compared to the preferences of consumers in other countries, said the HSBC's 'Future of Consumer Demand' report.

India also stood second after Poland on the list of countries whose consumers care mostly about being able to try new products and services, it said.

India had the highest levels of trust in both national and multinational business leaders, with around half of the respondents stating they trust both at least a little compared to their emerging market counterparts.

On the digital economy side of things, India still suffers from lower than average Internet penetration rate. However, this is changing rapidly, the report noted.

As per the report, around a fifth of India-based respondents had bought goods or services online.

The activity Indians were most likely to do online was banking (73 per cent), while the activity least likely was buying groceries (45 per cent).

Further, 17 per cent had made a purchase via a mobile device in the past month.

The report said almost 9 in 10 Indians considered leisure important as a consumer, but this was surpassed by the nearly ubiquitous importance of work at 96 per cent.

Further, three quarters Indians are happy with their jobs - among the highest job satisfaction in the survey.

"Though not as happy or satisfied as Mexico, India's life satisfaction scores are very high indicating an optimistic outlook with regards to life," the report said.

In addition, Indian consumers were also big holiday takers, averaging 3.35 short breaks and 2.35 long holidays per year.