Indians possess quite well-defined brand preferences: Survey

This is "an uncommon ratio" when compared to the preferences of consumers in other countries, said the HSBC's 'Future of Consumer Demand' report.

India also stood second after Poland on the list of countries whose consumers care mostly about being able to try new products and services, it said. India had the highest levels of trust in both national and multinational business leaders, with around half of the respondents stating they trust both at least a little compared to their emerging market counterparts.

On the digital economy side of things, India still suffers from lower than average Internet penetration rate. However, this is changing rapidly, the report noted. As per the report, around a fifth of India-based respondents had bought goods or services online.

The activity Indians were most likely to do online was banking (73 per cent), while the activity least likely was buying groceries (45 per cent). Further, 17 per cent had made a purchase via a mobile device in the past month. 

The report said almost 9 in 10 Indians considered leisure important as a consumer, but this was surpassed by the nearly ubiquitous importance of work at 96 per cent. Further, three quarters Indians are happy with their jobs - among the highest job satisfaction in the survey. "Though not as happy or satisfied as Mexico, India's life satisfaction scores are very high indicating an optimistic outlook with regards to life," the report said. In addition, Indian consumers were also big holiday takers, averaging 3.35 short breaks and 2.35 long holidays per year.

India is also among the top prospective markets for luxury brands worldwide, with the country expected to see over two-fold growth in this segment in the next 10 years, says a report. According to the study by New World Wealth, India, along with Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Mauritius and China, offers strong opportunity for growth in luxury and wealth management space.

"These markets are not yet fully developed and still offer strong opportunities for growth, especially in the luxury and wealth management space," the report said. Regarding India, the report said large number of entrepreneurs, good educational system and a large English speaking population is a big positive for the growth of the luxury segment, adding that the 10-year growth forecast stands at 120 per cent.

Other major contributing factors include strong growth forecast in the local financial services, IT, business process outsourcing, real estate, healthcare and media sectors. Within India the cities to look out for include Pune, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Other promising cities in the region include Colombo (Sri Lanka), Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi (Vietnam), Port Louis and Grand Baie (Mauritius) and Hangzhou (China). India is among the 10 richest countries in the world with total individual wealth of $5,600 billion.