An improving economy and the rapid opening-up of the Indian market has given rise to a group of affluent consumers who are more than eager to adopt the latest fashion trends.
According to the latest Nielsen Global Luxury Brands study, nearly 35 per cent Indians, who participated in the survey, confirmed buying luxury brands. This is the third highest percentage globally. Greece leads the pack with 46 per cent, followed by Hong Kong at 38 per cent.
Despite the prevalence of imitation designer goods, more than three-fourth of the Indians surveyed do not think that imitation products match up to the real ones.
The top brands that Indian consumers spend on are Calvin Klein (34 per cent), Gucci (25 per cent), Diesel (24 per cent), Christian Dior (16 per cent) and DKNY (10 per cent).
India has also made it to the top ten markets for some of the brands. India is the third highest purchaser of Gucci products. It is ranked at the sixth position for Calvin Klein, ninth for Diesel and tenth for Fendi.
"People are travelling overseas more frequently now and their interactions with foreign brands have increased considerably. Moreover, foreign brands are synonymous with status. Our survey shows that 57 per cent of Indians surveyed buy designer brands as a status symbol. The number of outlets opened by these brands in the country in recent times is a testimony of the increasing fashion consciousness among the Indians," said Vatsala Pant, associate director, client solutions, The Nielsen Company.
India (41 per cent), the Philippines (39 per cent) and Indonesia (37 per cent) top the Asia-Pacific region in terms of the most aspirants for Italian brand Gucci, if money was no consideration.
At 41 per cent, India actually tops the world for the largest number of people wishing to buy a Gucci product. The desire among Asian consumers to buy Chanel and Christian Dior has increased by six and four percentage points respectively from two years ago when the Nielsen survey was conducted.
Though 73 per cent of the Indians consider designer brands to be overpriced, 35 per cent believe that designer brands offer a significantly higher quality than standard brands.
Indians stand eighth globally for considering designer brands as quality products and opting for them. Nearly 45 per cent Indians think that only fashion-conscious people consider buying designer brands.
According to the survey, the Indian consumers approved the potential of a crossover product, which combines a designer fashion brand and a new technology gadget.
Nearly 56 per cent of the Indians surveyed would buy a mobile phone co-branded with a luxury brand - an area already tapped by fashion giants such as Prada.
Nearly 40 per cent said they would buy a co-branded designer laptop, 32 per cent a designer flat screen TV, 26 per cent a designer branded MP3 and 24 per cent would buy a designer kitchen appliance.
"There seems to be a huge market potential for luxury brand line extensions into every corner of the home and office and cross-over between brands and products is certainly an opportunity to drive the demand for these products," added Pant.
