In the latest in Croud’s series of Market Insights, we take a look at marketing in India; exploring the use of digital marketing and sharing key dates for your diary. This insights report was collated with direction from our Indian Croudies on the network.
Languages spoken
The official languages in India are Hindi, Telugu, Gujarati, Tamil and English. The most spoken language is Hindi at 44.5%, followed by English at 10.1% and Bengali at 7.4%.
Working Schedule
A normal working week is usually Monday to Friday, with weekend work classed as overtime. In terms of working hours, as per the Factories Act 1948, adults cannot work for more than 48 hours in a week and no more than nine hours in a day.
Digital Marketing: India
The majority of digital marketing in India comes in the form of PPC ads. With so many festivals and important dates across the year, digital marketing is centred around targeting these dates through specific PPC campaigns. Therefore to successfully create PPC campaigns for the Indian audience there are three areas to consider.
PPC budget
Marketers should strategically plan their PPC spend across different festival dates. For example, if a festival is occurring in Bangalore, you should proactively cap spend for these campaigns and instead invest the remaining budget into campaigns in Mumbai.
Localisation
Ad copy should be tailored to the views and business culture of the region, ensuring that the ad aligns to the business ethics and mindset of the person searching.
Seasonality
Aim to theme campaigns based on the times of the year and relevant events (such as New Years) to engage with the user. This will not only help keep the ad fresh but also ensure that it stands out from the others on the search engine results page (SERP).
The predominantly used search engines are:
- Bing
- Yahoo!
- DuckDuckGo
- Yandex RU
- Baidu
Business in: India
Relationships
Business relationships are very important within India and it is common for employees to remain loyal to a company depending on their personal considerations. Therefore if the relationship is lost, there is a risk that people will move on to better offers.
Titles
Titles of people are really important. How you address someone is a very important factor in building professional relationships within this market.
Religion
The main religious group in India is Hinduism with 79.8% of the population following this religion. Other religious groups include; Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism. Within each city in India, the popularity of each religion varies, for example, Islam has the highest percentage (30%) of followers in Hyderabad, compared to New Delhi where only 4.5% practice the religion.
India is considered a very religious country, where everyone respects each other’s religion. There currently aren’t any restrictions for online activity due to religion. But working cultures and business hours can commonly be affected by important religious festivals.
Demographics
- The average life expectancy for males is 67.4 years
- The average life expectancy for females is 70 years
- India is the second most populated country in the world, with nearly a fifth of the world’s population currently living there
Important Dates
Dates for special religious festivals may vary depending on each year and many are specific to particular cities.
Interesting facts
- In Indian culture, if you are invited to a family home for a meal, then it is customary to bring something for the host and to leave your footwear outside.
- The elderly in India are generally obeyed, revered and considered to be fountains of knowledge and wisdom, and are therefore treated with respect and dignity by family and community members.
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