At the Beginning of their Careers

Published: Mint dated 29 th March 2010

This is the 15th in a 33-

part series on distinct
consumer segments,
based on a categorization
of stage of life and
occupation, expenditure
and savings propensity,
family structure and
psychographics. This
week we look at the D1
segment—young, single
or married without
children, living in a joint
family.

Indicus Consumer Segment

Last week we looked at D2 households, where the chief wage earner was married with grown-up
children, and was a graduate or postgraduate skilled worker. We move down the life stage this week
to the D1 segment, which involves the same educational and occupational profile but where the chief
wage earner is young, single or married without children, and lives in a joint family.
This is a very small segment, 27th in size among urban consumer segments, with just 300,000
households spread across India. As nearly three-quarters of the chief wage earners are below the
age of 35, the D1 segment represents those people who are on the first rungs of their career. Around
45% of them are married and 80% of the households have no minors, yet the household size is not
that small, and one-third of the households have four or more members.
The D1 segment does not include single people who are living alone or married couples in nuclear
families—this is a segment with a joint family set-up, households where the son is bringing in the
largest share of income, but either has not moved out of his father’s home yet or has brought his
parents to stay with him in the city. It is typically the son who is the chief wage earner in this case.

D1 Indicus Consumer Segment

Eighty-five per cent of the spouses are in fact
homemakers; this would reflect their lower
educational qualifications as in C1
households, in which they have a better
education profile and more are employed,
adding to the household kitty.

Note that though this segment has relatively

well-educated chief wage earners, as they
are not professionals, their incomes are well
below that of C1 households, where they are
at a similar life stage but are professionals.

Indicus Consumer Segment

As much as 69% of D1 households earn less than Rs3 lakh per year,
compared with 41% in the C1 segment. The median household income is
also relatively low at Rs1,65,900 per annum. There is a small proportion—
around 7% of the households—earning more than Rs10 lakh per annum;
these would be among those where the chief wage earners have
postgraduate qualifications or other adult earning members are also well
educated.
Half the D1 households own the home they live in; lower-income households
would in all probability be living in homes bought by the earlier generation.
One of the reasons the sons do not move out even after marriage is the cost
of purchasing another house. This changes over the course time as earnings
go up, of course, and children appear on the scene.

Indicus Consumer Segment

 The top ranking states in this segment are Maharashtra
(Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nagpur and Nashik rank in the
top 20 districts), Tamil Nadu (Chennai, Coimbatore and
Kancheepuram), West Bengal (Kolkata, North 24
Parganas and Bardhaman), Karnataka (Bangalore) and
Gujarat (Ahmedabad and Surat). While Delhi ranks
second among the districts, as a state it ranks just
below Gujarat in the concentration of households in the
D1 segment.

The sector garnering the largest share of employment

for the chief wage earner is education, health and social
work; followed by wholesale and retail trade;
manufacturing and public administration. These sectors
take up a sizeable chunk of those with basic college
education, while industries such as textiles, auto and
ancillaries (in Pune, Coimbatore, Kancheepuram, etc.)
employ those with suitable vocational training.

Indicus Consumer Segment