I was reading Mint online and clicked on ‘travel.’ Under it was something called style. Now I wonder if travel and style really mix apart from at some obscenely priced places that you will find regularly mentioned in such publications. I think many of us consider travel a time to live in jeans and shirts and not even be bothered about ‘do I look presentable enough’?
Well, sometimes I end up reading such pieces. Well, whatever place they mentioned prices start at Rs. 5000. That reminds me of an incident where my two nephews went into a Nike shop, looked at a football shirt and a few accessories and came back and told me, “That costs Rs. 5000, that is more like our yearly budget, rather than to be spent in a day.” Even young teens are that sensible. Some dress costs Rs 12,000 plus, I wonder who are they targeting it at? Is that how they define their audience?
>> I wonder who are they targeting it at ?Mridula, i wonder this question is coming from a person who reads about branding so much.let me tell you few of my observations (not much gr8 they are).1 – Bangalore 3/4/5 star hotels – they all start at 6-7k per night and its very difficult to get accommodation there if you do not book well in advance2 – i went to Hongkong (once upon a time) and hotel i stayed in cost me (my office) JUST 12k Rs per night. there also hotel was fully booked and i had to wait for 30 minutes or so because they were cleaning up room i was allotted. same story when i visited Mumbai last month. it cost JUST 13.5k per night.3- i visited commercial street last evening. cloths/accessories in most of the shops in one lane were obscenely high priced. still there were people buying them and not one or two persons but shops were jam packed.4- one of higher up in my office used to pay 10k/month as rent for his house. and i was like, oh man how much money this guys has. now i myself paying 10k and i feel normal. 5 – i went to Mangalore (once upon a time) – there was this shopping mall and young kids (college going or about to enter college) were splurging money in 1000s on things they want. and guess what they were not accompanied by parents. i myself used to get princely sum of 100Rs (at max for my travel to college, stationary and other small expenses) a month when i was in engineeringso here we are. IT and real estate have made many new millionaires who would not blink before spending money on these items. and Indian philosophy of living has changed/changing in 21st century.
sorry for long comment, could not stop myself from writing so much. also there is not much correlation b/w my wondering and observations. only thing is they both converge at what you were wondering 🙂
Nilesh how many households in India do you think make that kind of money? Even among my students there are many who scoff at such prices! Try that book by Rama Bijapurkar “We are like that only” and see the income data. Some of it is on line too-http://www.ramabijapurkar.com/demanddrivers/dsds_incomepuzzle1.php
And how did I forget to say thank you Nilesh for providing so many different lines to pursue.
I suppose it’s folks who would like to let the rest of the world know that they’ve ‘arrived’…:D
Maybe that is the logic, Sidhu! But it is so blatantly elitist in a country like ours!
I wonder who are they targeting it at? People with a lot of money to spare?
But I know a lot of people who have money to spare. And believe me it does not speak to many of them at all!
I don’t know. I know a guy who buys “original” ManU jerseys for upwards of 5k. People like that do exist and considering the amount of profit they make on them, it probably is fine with them that very few people buy them.
To each his/her own Madhat? I am in a good mood today and would leave it here!
Lots of people traveling abroad, plus there are expats. Today you had a 1000 Rs pizza, tomorrow I might buy a 5000 Rs shirt. Come to think about it, I might never, but nevertheless there IS an audience 🙂
Priyank, I agree there is an audience but is that the target audience of Mint? I mean this was an article and not an ad. I thought newspapers were read by average Joe in a large numbers.