Home Market

With all of us sitting at home during the lockdown, a new Home Market has emerged. Most people are at home, but consumption has not stopped. Marketeers need to see the emergence of a new Home Market. By adapting strategies and tactics towards the Home Market, marketers can build their brands effectively even during the lockdown.

The market is in the mind. If you think there is a market, then there is a market. If you do not think there is a market, then there is no market. I believe that the new emerging Home Market is a great opportunity for marketeers. If they utilise this opportunity, they would be able to serve the consumers, benefit the consumers, and also build their brands and businesses.

Right from school kids to post-graduate students, learning from home has been accepted and adopted by teachers, institutions, students, and learners. With various digital platforms, devices, and gadgets, Home Learning has become a way of life. There is no lockdown in Home Learning. This change in consumer and teacher behaviour will continue to last beyond the lockdown.

While the gyms are closed and restrictions on walking and jogging exist due to social distancing, Home Fitness has emerged as a popular way of exercising and remaining fit. Numerous apps and videos can be used for daily exercise regimes, whether in terms of normal exercise or yoga.

• Home Fitness as a market is gaining rapid popularity and is here to stay.
• One has discovered that if you have the time and inclination, staying fit is not a constraint.
• While working from home has caught on, which I will mention in my next section, working out at home has emerged as a great market opportunity.

As I have mentioned in my previous section, working from home has become the new norm. Telephones and mobiles were always there. Now, with digital video platforms, communication and meetings can happen easily, and emails and WhatsApp can help in written communication. Work has not stopped. Working from home has started. This opens up tremendous opportunities for the marketers.

Home Delivery had started emerging in India a few years ago and has now gathered momentum. Earlier, Home Delivery was used as an option by consumers by choice, and now during the lockdown, it is being used in many cases out of necessity.

• Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy, Zomato, Dunzo, Big Basket, Grofers, and many others have been able to build their brands and build the Home Delivery market very fast.
• Domino’s Pizza was already well-known in Home Delivery and has been appreciated by the consumer.
• Home Delivery has gone beyond just groceries and pick-up from restaurants to other goods and services, including medical care. For example, blood tests at home.
• This will expand further in other categories of products and services. Home Delivery as an element of the Home Market will continue to grow.

Interestingly, due to disruptions in the supply chain and the normal channel of wholesale and retail distribution being impacted, farmers have started supplying directly to residential societies. I call this Farm to Home Market.

• Societies consolidate orders from individual flats and inform farm organisations, which then deliver.
• Volunteers within societies help distribute products to individual homes.
• Mangoes have become a popular Farm to Home Market category, appreciated by consumers who place repeat orders.
• The same is happening with baskets of assorted fruits and vegetables.

Since the lockdown, the usage of banking services from home (both online and telephonic) has grown. This also gives rise to non-banking financial services for consultation via telephone or video.

• Home Banking is set to grow, whether for financial services or for consultancy services.
• Consultancy services could include medical or non-medical consultations.
• This is an emerging sector within the Home Market.

The ‘Home Market’ has started growing to a very large extent. The lockdown might not last, but the ‘Home Market’ will. Marketers must adapt their strategies to address this ‘Home Market’.