Building an Independent Thesis on Indian Consumer Premiumization
Identified a cross-category premiumization pattern in tier one and tier two India through independent research, connecting data signals to macro consumer behavior
Pranjal Gujral
Analyst at Redseer Strategy Consultants
From their time as
Analyst
Redseer Strategy Consultants • 2026
Overview
The television analysis was the starting point, but Pranjal did not stop there. After completing that project, he began checking adjacent categories on his own: IT peripherals, projectors, gaming laptops, and other consumer electronics. The same pattern kept appearing. **Premiumization was not a television story. It was a tier one and tier two India story.**
The Story
The television analysis was the starting point, but Pranjal did not stop there. After completing that project, he began checking adjacent categories on his own: IT peripherals, projectors, gaming laptops, and other consumer electronics. The same pattern kept appearing. Premiumization was not a television story. It was a tier one and tier two India story.
His hypothesis: metro demand for these categories had matured. Penetration had plateaued, leaving only replacement cycles. Meanwhile, tier one and tier two consumers were entering these categories for the first time, and they were not starting at the entry level. Rising component prices were pushing ASPs up structurally, and brand behavior was reinforcing the trend.
Pranjal documented this as an independent conviction, separate from any client brief. He is still working to understand the macro drivers.
Separately, he applied the same why-and-so-what methodology to the pet products category. He found that pet ownership growth in India was being driven by demographic and lifestyle shifts: declining fertility rates, more stressful work environments, and rising urban ambition. The data validated the thesis. He flagged this to his managers when a related query came in, providing supporting analysis that led to a revision of the firm's numbers in that category.