What are companies doing to target consumers in the 18-25 age group, in order to ensure their loyalty for the next 30 years or so
Case in point- banks: each college campus has atleast one on-campus bank branch, which serves the students and staff and perhaps a few local residents in the neighbourhood. For many students, the account they open with the college branch is their first bank account, and their first close encounter with banking. However, I have seen no bank trying to ensure that they retain the student as a customer after his college years. there is no support in terms of transferring the account to another town (how many students will, after all, stay on in the same city for jobs or higher studies?), preferential T&C for educational loans etc. the opportunity to build a lasting relationship with a college educated youth, guide him through the first years of financial independence etc are lost forever. I had an SBI account in my engg college campus branch, which I closed after I left college, and a Corporation bank account in my B-School campus branch. i transferred the account to my hometown, but with no help from the bank, and its more or less dormant.
Similarly, retailers like Reliance Fresh or Spencer’s daily etc never offer those huge discounts on items that I, a bachelor ever need. There are discounts on mega packs of fruit juice or basmati rice… and the loyalty points are pathetic enough to make me lose interest in them. Already, I owe my retail loyalty to no one, and this feeling of apathy will continue into the future, even after I move on to being a householder and actually shop for 10kg packs of rice and atta. The four retailers within easy walking distance of my house have squandered their chance of winning my loyalty.
Companies have lost out on the bachelor phase of life. almost every one of my friends is a college grad, living single or in a bachelor pad, earning 30k plus a month working hard and partying harder. Yet, no company or brand targets them exclusively. We need instant solutions for washing our clothes, but HUL is only interested in selling Surf to housewives with sweet kids. We crave for home cooked food, but Whirlpool has never suggested a microwave oven to us. MTRs ready to eat packs are my staple diet, but I have yet to see an ad targeted at me.
I have a washing machine, a 3kg capacity one, with just a tub with the propeller like thing to swirl the water (I’m sure agitator is not the correct word). Washes three to four shirts or pants at a time. Ideal for me, since it takes the drudgery of the weekly wash off me. And it doesn’t come from any of the bigger companies. This is a small local company. And in my engineering hostel days there came this guy selling washing machines that were submersible in a bucket. Essentially, there was that prop thingy in a plastic shroud, driven by a belt, and powered by an electric motor. The whole thing sat on the edge of the bucket and swirled the water and the dirty clothes around. Unfortunately he didn’t sell too many in my hostel……and I wonder what happened to him finally.
Being single is a lifestyle; by choice or by design. And the style of life need not end with marriage. When two people committed to the lifestyle marry (or live in, or otherwise cohabit, if you insist), they merely attain economies of scale.
I have heard they have started growing very small varieties of vegetables in Japan, that suffice for just one serving, that a bachelor can cook and eat with no leftovers. Is anyone attempting anything similar in India?
