Every human is different, not just in terms of appearance or fingerprints, but also in terms of what they want and how they see things. Food is no exclusion to this. The relative importance of a meal to every individual is dependent on so many factors and this makes it unique for every individual. This, combined with the importance of every product or service that an individual consumes over a period, makes a unique combination (we will denote this with C). Every combination consists of three categories of product or service.
- Primary essential products or services: These are mainly the products or services that fall at the bottom of Maslow’s need hierarchy pyramid. The unavailability can pose a serious threat to the existence of the individual. The Healthcare industry, the food & beverage along with health & hygiene category of the FMCG industry are the major contributors to primary essential products & services. For the sake of understanding, let’s call primary essentials as P.
- Secondary essential products or services: The products & the services that help in attaining social security and helps us to live with safety and security come under secondary essentials. The healthcare, finance, real estate, some categories of FMCG, and insurance industry are the major contributors to this category. For the sake of understanding let’s call Secondary essentials as S.
- Luxury products or services: The third category that comes into the basket of individuals consists of products & services that are not necessities but are consumed in order to improve the standard of living of the individual. The auto industry, entertainment industry, and some of the personal & home care categories in the FMCG industry are the biggest contributor to this category. For the sake of understanding let’s call Luxury L.
So, for any individual i, the basket combination over a period n will be
Ci = (P + S + L) n
While we do know that everyone needs or desires these products or services and hence Ci can be the same for two individuals at this point. But the perception and the importance that each product or service has for an individual is very different. This perception or the importance coefficient that we assign to every product or service defines the essential for an individual which cannot be the same for two individuals.
Ci = (αP + βS + µL) n
α = importance of Primary essential
β = importance of Secondary essential
µ = importance of luxury product or service