Abstract:

Asia today has a population of more than 4 billion people, a market size which very few marketers can afford to ignore. As the region grows and the markets mature further, understanding and accommodating the various tastes, culture and the vast regional expanse is critical. Marketers need to understand the countries and their shoppers to pick the right entry strategy to capture a share in the pie to review and refine their proposition to stay competitive. However, there have been very few attempts to look at Asiaas a market comprehensively. This study tries to understand Asian shoppers in the overall global context, and tries to look at the various shopper segments within the key major Asian markets. In this paper, shoppers in the key markets of Asia (e.g. India, China, Thailand, Phillipines, etc..) are segmented and compared with the Global scenario (25+ countries across continents) to draw strategic conclusions. This study will serve as a reference for any business planning to succeed in the competitive market of Asia.