Socio Economic Classification SEC Print Audience Research National Readership Survey Indian Reasership Survey NRS IRS

Urban Socio Economic Classification in India by Ravi Dixit

All persons are puzzles until at last we find in some words or act the key to the man, to the women; straightway all their past works and actions lie before us.

R W Emerson

Though he did not use these words for market segmentation but the essense is the same that a marketer uses to understand the actions (read purchase action and/ or intent) of his prospective consumer. In India it is done through a Socio Economic Classification (SEC) GRID given below. It is important to understand the following:

SEC is a demographic indicator designed by the Market Research Society of India to reflect purchase behaviour of urban Indians. It is based on 2 parameters - Education and Occupation of the Chief Wage Earner (CWE) of the Household as given in rows and columns in the SEC GRID.

The SEC of the CWE determines the SEC of the family members.

SEC A1+ is the only classification which also has an income filter (MHI Rs 10,000 + per month).

Socio Economic Classification of Consumers in Urban India: Education and Occupation is of the chief wage earner in the Household
	Education of Chief Wage Earner / Main Income Earner (MIE)
OCCUPATION	Illiterate	Lit. no sch/school upto 4 years	Sch 5-9 yrs	SSC/HSC	Some College but not Grad.	Grad./ Post-Grad. General	Grad./ Post-Grad. Professional
Unskilled Workers	E2	E2	E1	D	D	D	D
Skilled Workers	E2	E1	D	C	C	B2	B2
Petty Traders	E2	D	D	C	C	B2	B2
Shop Owners	D	D	C	B2	B1	A2	A2
Businessmen/ Industrialists with no of employees
: None	D	C	B2	B1	A2	A2	A1
1 - 9	C	B2	B2	B1	A2	A1	A1
10 +	B1	B1	A2	A2	A1	A1	A1
Self employed Professional	D	D	D	B2	B1	A2	A1
Clerical / Salesman	D	D	D	C	B2	B1	B1
Supervisory level	D	D	C	C	B2	B1	A2
Officers/ Executives Junior	C	C	C	B2	B1	A2	A2
Officers/Executives Middle/ Senior	B1	B1	B1	B1	A2	A1	A1

This SEC grid is followed by all media measurement in India including but not restricted to National Readership Survey - NRS, Indian Readership Survey NRS, Television Audience Measurement TAM, Audience Measurement and Analytics aMap, Target Group Index TGI.