DNA
September 15, 2006

New Delhi: Delhi-based Indicus Analytics’ City Skyline of India 2006 report sets out a Youthfulness Index, which finds smaller cities more youthful than the metros. Youthfulness, in that index, is measured by the share of the 15-24 age group in the total population.

But the ‘cool’ quotient of the smaller cities seems to be rather low. Surat, supposedly the most youthful of the top ten cities, has only two malls as does Coimbatore.

Eating out places also appear to be woefully inadequate in the Tier 2 cities Interestingly, though Bangalore is perceived as the hub of glitzy malls, it has only nine malls against 32 in Delhi and 28 in Mumbai.

No wonder, then that in a dwellers’ perception surveys, the percentage of people who felt the number of malls, bars/nightclubs and movie halls in their city was adequate is higher in the larger metros than in Surat, Coimbatore or even Kolkata (see table 2).

That’s why not everyone agrees with the Indicus definition of youthfulness. The youthfulness quotient of a city, says Preeti Reddy, vice-president of KSA Technopak, has less to do with the numbers or shares of the youth.

The mindset would be a better measure, she argues, reflected as it is in attitudes to spending, consumption and change.

By that token, she says, Mumbai would win hands down, followed closely by Delhi and Bangalore.

“Though marketers are looking at Tier 2 cities more seriously for marketing to the youth, the specific cities that they focus on depends on a combination of demographics, attitudes and purchasing power,” said Reddy.

Much of it, Reddy says, has to do with exposure and the economic power of the youth. Bangalore is on par with Mumbai and Delhi on this score because the youth in the 21-24 age group are more likely to be earning and to have travelled abroad or be conversant with latest trends abroad because of the nature of the IT-ITES industry.

Chennai’s ‘cool’ quotient has taken a knock thanks to moral policing of discotheques and haphazard excise rules, though R Chandrasekaran, president and managing director of Cognizant, feels the perception of Chennai as a conservative place does not hold any more. “It’s getting cosmopolitan in every sense,” he asserts.

The northeast, however, puts conventional marketing theories to test. Cutting edge fashion and westernised culture have resulted in the region as a whole being recognised as one where the youthfulness quotient is high, Reddy acknowledges. But low spending power, disdain for `Indian’ goods and poor connectivity makes the region a less attractive market than other more conservative cities.

Earning power also tends to be higher in the metros. A TeamLease Services survey shows that entry level salaries for the same job tend to be lower in Ahmedabad and Lucknow than in the metros.

It’s not just money in their hands; it’s also about what Reddy calls discretionary spending power. A 15-year-old in the big metros, notes Harish Bijoor, CEO of Harish

Bijoor Consults, would consider it infra dig to go shopping with their parents, something that would be quite the normal thing for their counterparts in the Tier 2 cities.

But this age group is beginning to influence parental attitude even in the smaller cities.

“The youth here have the same set of aspirations as their counterparts in the metros,” Bijoor points out.

It’s just that the availability of lifestyle goods and amenities is not as high as the demand, though marketers are making it happen. That’s when these cities will really move up the youthfulness quotient, perhaps.

(Seetha with inputs from Arun Ram in Chennai)