The Indian FMCG industry is expected to grow 16% during 2008-09 with rising disposable income, changing lifestyle and rapid urbanization.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) predicted that the Indian FMCG industry sales would grow 16% during 2008-09, reported Thaindian News.

FICCI also revealed that during 2007-08, the Indian FMCG industry sales are estimated to grow 14.5% to reach RS 854.7 Billion. Within the Indian FMCG industry, there are few sectors that will grow more than 20% during 2008-2009, like shaving cream at 23%, skin/fairness cream at 22%, shampoos at 21.3%, skin care & cosmetics at 20%, tooth powder at 22% and other care products.

The prediction of higher sales growth of FMCG products is based on strong economic fundamentals such as rising disposable income of people. Now people can afford to spend on quality FMCG products. Moreover, increasing salaries, along with rising trend of perks in the corporate sector at regular intervals, have increased people’s spending power on lifestyle products. Even government employees too are expending on lifestyle products helping FMCG sector to grow rapidly.

Apart from this, India is rapidly changing into an urban country and with that, people’s preference for lifestyle products is growing. Hence, the Indian FMCG industry is experiencing strong growth in some categories such as skin care, anti-aging solution, deodorants, fairness products and men’s products. In addition, the emergence of organized retail such as supermarkets, and shopping malls is also playing an important role in bringing boom in the Indian FMCG market.

The young generation of consumers is driving the demand for lifestyle products. Consumers are at the front seat changing and redefining the branding and marketing strategy and marketplace for the retail products that are ultimately boosting the retail sales in the country.

However, the fear of dissociation with earlier consumers still persists as they embrace and prefer to stick to established brands only. The main reason for this dissociation is weak distribution channels and marketing strategy in the country.

According to a Research Analyst at RNCOS, “The demand for lifestyle products is boosted by the rising aspiration and modern facilities. As the spending power of consumers is going up, the sales of FMCG products in India will rise too. Therefore, companies need to improve the quality of products and employ right marketing mix by implementing new technologies such as Customer Relationship Management.”

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