2. I spent the better part of a Friday evening two weeks ago
in the back of a Tata taking me from downtown Mumbai
to the airport. The upside of the traffic was that it allowed
me to hear the life-story of my charming cab driver:
His father had come to the city with his family in 1950 as a
young man and put down initial roots. His dad married
below his caste, to the great disapproval of his family; but
he didn’t care. He had a desire to do things differently,
and he had brought up his son - my driver – with a certain
radical mentality. He was a thoughtful soul my driver... He
managed to get some education and at the age of 28,
went to live and work in Yorkshire for the BBC for a couple
of years where he had worked as a camera technician.
He returned to Maharashtra state after a couple of years
(didn’t like the cold much) and took up work as a taxi
driver. He married soon after and his wife bore him six
children over the years, the oldest of whom is now at
University reading engineering. He lives with his family in a
one room dwelling in the city. He works 14 hours a day, 7
days a week and hopes to put them all through university.
“It’s not much, but it’s much better than nothing”, he kept
saying, laughing raucously.
One of the most interesting things about him was his
intense disliking of the caste system. Now, if you live in a
culture where many of the major religions tell you that
where you’re born and the economic status you’re born
into is your lot and that that’s the way it should be, it
doesn’t come all that naturally to want to get ahead.

3. The Gautam Buddha tells us:
“All Living Beings have actions (karma) as
their own, their inheritance, their congenital
cause, their kinsman, their refuge, it is
karma that differentiates beings into low
and high states.”
In other words, your karma is what you get in this life...
And yet my taxi driver, and millions of others, are
saying ‘no... what I’ve got in life is not quite enough...’
Following his father’s example, my cab driver felt he
was entitled to aspire to a little more than what his
karma suggested was his lot. And he was a Buddhist!
Now, we’re seeing this kind of argument with destiny
an awful lot in India as my colleague Akshay Mathur
from Flamingo Singapore discusses in this edition of FYI.

4. When we parted, we exchanged e-mail addresses –
because, yes, these people are wired too – and he
promised to take me on a tour of the Dharavi slums next
time.
The Dharavi slums is the Arrival City of Slumdog Millionaire
fame. It is on the outskirts of Mumbai, population – 5 million.
Despite appearances to the contrary from our
perspective, places like Dharavi, which receive rural
migrants, actually improve all of the key measures of
quality of life for the people who arrive there.
Now, what is going on here? What is it
about migration that gives people this
springboard to more…?

5. …The world impoverishes itself much more through blocking international
migration than any other single class of international policy. A modest
relaxation of barriers to human mobility between countries would bring
more global economic prosperity than the total elimination of all remaining
policy barriers to goods trade - every tariff, every quota - plus the elimination
of every last restriction on the free movement of capital.
The reason migration packs such an economic punch is both simple and
mysterious: a worker's economic productivity depends much more on
location than skill. A taxi driver in Ethiopia's capital, no matter how talented
and industrious, cannot earn more than a few thousand dollars a year.

6. “The same person doing the same
job in New York City can easily earn
$35,000 a year. The reason people
will pay him that much is that his
driving adds more than $35,000 of
value to the New York economy,
more value than his actions can add
to the Ethiopian economy.” (Michael
A Clemens, Centre for Global
Development)
Migration, allowing the changing of
locations, adds value for individuals
and for economies. It provides
people the opportunity to join the
middle class.

7. THIS IS MY CABBIE’S HERO
1 Research Overview Anna Hazare is a 73 year old Ghandian-
he started his hunger strike on August
Contextual Understanding – Skincare 16th
2 category in China & Japan
He demanded that the Indian
3 TVC – Overarching Themes government pass strong legislation to
crack down on corruption. He came off
the strike on August 27th
4 Evaluation of TVCs
5 Evaluation of Print / Outdoor / Online
His hunger strike has caught the
imagination of a whole generation of
6 Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations are not prepared to
people who
accept their karmic destiny – who want
7 Appendix – full stimulus a piece of India’s boom action, who are
sick of the huge corruption scandals
that are now common.

8. AND THIS ACTION OF THE ‘MIDDLE
CLASS’ ISN’T ONLY IN INDIA
1
Last month, a demonstration in China – the
biggest since Tiananmen Square, in the
northern city of Dallan
Middle class people demonstrating against
continued operation of a factory believed to
be leaking toxic chemicals.
RESEARCH OVERVIEW

9. MIDDLE CLASS REVOLT IS
HAPPENING ALL OVER CHINA
1
When this train crash happened and the
Government tried to bury the evidence, the
state-owned news channel protested – live on
air!
RESEARCH OVERVIEW

10. New President of Brazil, Dilma
Rousseff, has since June, fired
various of her most senior
ministers, including her chief of
staff. Some were arrested.
1
She had to respond to the
growing middle class that
demands that things be done
properly. The middle class has no
patience for corruption and
incompetence.
These are the people
changing the complexion
RESEARCH OVERVIEW of the world.
So who are these middle
class people?

11. 11
One definition of “The middle
class” is those earning between
$2 and $20 a day. Often these
are people only just out of
poverty.
According to the Economist, hey
account for ⅓ of Africa’s
population in 2008, ¾ of Latin
America’s, and 90% of China’s.

12. As growth in the US
and Europe falters,
there’s increasingly
more interest in the
middle class of Africa
and Asia and the
daily couple of
dollars they have to
spend.
That’s 2 billion people
to target.
So how are brands
talking to them?

13. Cycle film For sure, there’s a little poetic licence
going on here...
But it’s a story that has caught the
imagination of middle class Indian TV
audiences and has achieved
tremendous tracking numbers
The hero of the ad is confident he
can get ahead – going places on his
bike.
The city holds all the possibility that
this boy’s story alludes to; the ad taps
into the new urban Zeitgeist.
The question, as the narrative so
cleverly exploits, is not about
where he’s come from it’s about
where he’s going.

14. Cycle film

15. Getting around town easily is highly important
to the new emergent city dweller. Cycle film
You need easy transport in order to take
advantage of opportunities, to utilise your skills
where they are needed.
Now this one here only costs $675. The genius
of the Italika is not just that it’s cheaper
because it uses Chinese parts and is
assembled in Mexico to avoid import tariffs.
The really clever thing is that the whole sales
model is geared towards making it readily
available to the new urbanites.
Now, in our business, here in the West, we tend
to set a lot of store by imagery. But if we’re to
understand these people, we need to
understand far more than just their aspirations
and their views and their aesthetics... we need
to be a bit clever about their circumstances...

16. These bikes can be purchased with weekly Cycle film
payments of 100 pesos – that’s 5 quid!
New migrants have plans, aspirations, and
a desire to put talents to work – but
they’re not cash rich.
Italika offers weakly payments spread over
two years. Simple, yet brilliant. Here’s a
company that has understood the
particular circumstances of this emergent
class of people.
The really clever part: if you can’t get
credit because you have no proof of
income (which is common with the large
informal sector) the finance company will
visit your home to set up the deal.
There is a competitor in Mexico – the
Indian Bajaj – considered to be a better
product, but it’s harder to get the finance.
There’ve been a million Italikas sold in
Mexico, and with expansion into
Argentina, Peru and Central America
already underway, Brazil is the next prize.

17. To China, where the life assurance
category has grown from $10 billion to
Cycle film $88 billion in the space of 12 years...
Most of those new to urban life were
working class only a generation ago –
they are only just becoming affluent
enough to invest.
For these people, insurance products -
which offer a guaranteed 2.5% return –
are attractive but what makes them
compelling is that they are sold face-
to-face by agents countrywide.
(China life has over 700,000!)
Neighbourhood salespeople who
develop face to face relationships of
trust with customers and their families
and the referrals that follow.
In a country where state social
insurance is nowhere near as all-
embracing as it once was, this means
a huge new emerging market. Some
are predicting annual growth of 20%.
Getting into these communities and
selling face to face, building
relationships of trust, may be where
brands are doing best.

18. Only three examples, from three corners of the
world. Connecting with the new urbans by
building imagery that taps into their needs and
aspirations. Connecting by providing products
that fit their needs at the right price. And
connecting by finding channels for selling that
suit their customers’ circumstances.
Examples like these can be found all over the
emergent world. We are seeing Body Lotion
users in rapidly growing Jakarta coming face to
face with a whole array of ethnicities and
influences becoming much much more
demanding of the efficacy of the products
they use. We are seeing the growth of anti-
bacterial personal care categories as
consumers become increasingly aware of the
need for hygiene in overcrowded urban
environments. We are seeing the rapidly
growing numbers of diabetics around the world
taking control of their condition with cheap
and accurate blood glucose monitors, not
having to rely on dodgy clinics, sent by the
local quack, who takes a cut for the privilege
As growth falters in the developed world,
marketers must be talking to these people –
capturing their aspirations, understanding their
roots, and learning where they are heading.
What are the key rules for the road?

19. 1. The transit from rural to urban "Arrival
Cities" (the first stepping stones into urban
life) will, for the most part, result in slowly
rising living standards. It may not happen
overnight but all the trends are there –
there's huge growth potential for providers
of goods and services who can meet their
needs
2. "Emerging middle class" doesn’t necessarily
mean 2 cars, dishwasher and holidays in
Tuscany. There are millions whose transit to
arrival cities around the world has lifted
them just out of poverty such that they can
aspire to various goods and services that
their rural lives didn't permit them
3. Mobile phones and network providers are
those who have made the best early
successes in tapping into the market for
these people
4. But the success of the Life Asssurance
industry in China and brands like Italika in
Latin America, who know how to get up
close and personal with these targets, and
find products and sales models that fit their
needs give us clues as to success stories to
come
5. One example: As more women enter the
workforce, there is likely to be a growth in
fast food solutions and convenience foods

20. About the Author
James Parsons is Managing Director of Flamingo in Asia and is based
in Singapore. He joined Flamingo in 1993 and in that time has led
research projects and developed our offer in categories as diverse as
automotive, IT, foods, personal care, alcoholic beverages and
medical devices.
In 2007, James set up Flamingo Tokyo from scratch and grew it to a
thriving business. In 2009 he took on the Asian regional role and this
year moved to Singapore closer to be closer to the epicentre of the
world's most dynamic region. He has a deep personal and
professional interest in the people and cultures of the great emerging
economies and the growing opportunities for brands there.
James.parsons@flamingo-international.com

21. Thank you
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