October 2026

1 · The national reading

A step down, and how to read it

India Buying Intent moved from 98.2 in Sep ’26 to 94.3 in Oct ’26. That is the largest monthly fall in the series and its lowest reading. The three dips before it were small: 99.4 in Jul ’26, 98.8 in Aug ’26, 98.2 in Sep ’26. Oct ’26 adds 3.9 points in one step. The index sits 2.8 points under its three-month trend of 97.1.

Read the level with care. From this month the interviews use a stricter rating scale: a full set of top marks is no longer accepted. Fewer top ratings pull every reading down together. So the whole index steps down, and the step says more about the ruler than about the market. Two things survive that change intact: how brands rank against each other, and how each brand moved against its own category. The rest of this summary leans on those two.

In Oct ’25 the reading was 100.2, the highest of the series, so the year-on-year gap of 5.8 points is the widest yet. Within the series the previous low was 94.9 in Jan ’26.

The quarter so far

Oct ’26 opens the quarter that ends in Dec ’26, so that quarter reads 94.3 with one month in. The quarter that closed in Sep ’26 stood at 98.8, +1.2 on the same quarter a year earlier. The quarter now open starts 4.9 points under the same quarter of ’25.

2 · Under the surface

Trust and Desire fell together

Trust is how sure people feel about a brand. Desire is how keen they are on it. In Oct ’26 both fell by about the same amount, Trust by 4.0 and Desire by 3.8. They now sit within a tenth of a point of each other. A fall this even on both sides is what a stricter rating scale looks like. A market losing its nerve would show on Desire first.

Brands still split down the middle

Share of brands measured in both Sep ’26 and Oct ’26 whose reading went up. The national level fell, yet about as many brands rose as fell on each: brands are read against the month’s own totals.

Desire above Trust, and the reverse

Among the hundred brands with the highest Buying Intent, these have the widest gap between the two. A brand with Desire well above its Trust has an appeal it has yet to turn into confidence. A brand with Trust well above its Desire is relied on more than it is sought.

Air India now has the widest gap of Desire over Trust, with Hyundai, Apple iPhone, Airtel and Daikin behind it. 7UP is the other way round after its jump this month: high confidence, little pull. Sony televisions, LG refrigerators, IKEA and the motorcycle makers Hero MotoCorp and TVS also carry Trust well above Desire.

How India decided

Close to two in three buying decisions were thought through rather than made on impulse. That share has barely changed: it has stayed between 62.6% and 62.7% in every month since Apr ’25. Decisions are weighed up most in Transportation (74.8%) and Consumer Electronics (74.6%). A brand in those sectors is judged on its case rather than picked on impulse.

3 · Categories

Food & Beverage turned up; the online and money sectors fell back

The national reading fell by 3.9 points. Underneath, the super-categories went both ways, and against a year ago the picture is different again.

Consumer Electronics is still the largest at 12.2, though it has now eased three months running from 14.1 in Jun ’26. FMCG has fallen four months running, from 9.5 in Jun ’26 to 7.3.

Food & Beverage broke its run. After three months down it rose from 8.7 to 9.8, above its Jul ’26 reading of 9.4, on soft drinks, chocolate and biscuits. Automobile held at 10.2, with cars up and motorcycles down.

The sectors that led in Sep ’26 gave it back. Digital fell from 7.9 to 7.0, below its Jul ’26 reading. BFSI fell from 6.4 to 5.8, and Retail had the largest fall among the larger super-categories.

Against Oct ’25 the split still runs between services people use online and goods they take home. Digital (4.5 → 7.0), Technology (5.8 → 7.1) and BFSI (4.9 → 5.8) are above where they stood a year ago, even after this month’s falls. Consumer Electronics (16.1 → 12.2), Automobile (13.1 → 10.2) and FMCG (8.8 → 7.3) are well below.

Rows marked small base sit under 1.0, where a change of a tenth of a point shows up as a large percentage.

What moved inside the large super-categories

Categories reading 0.5 or more in Sep ’26 or Oct ’26, on the category scale. Brands reading 100 or more in either month, on the brand scale, with the change in points.

4 · Brands

The brands that moved most

Twenty biggest gains and twenty biggest drops in Buying Intent from Sep ’26 to Oct ’26. Each brand is read within its own category.

Biggest gains

Biggest drops

^◦ Small base: the brand read under 100 in Sep ’26 or Oct ’26, so its percentage change looks larger than the move behind it.

What the lists say

Food brands gained. 7UP, Nestlé Munch, Nestlé KitKat, Parle G, Nestlé and Hindustan Unilever are among the twenty biggest gains. Lipton and Amul milk are among the drops.

Cars rose, two-wheelers fell. Tata Motors made the second-largest gain in the index, and Mahindra & Mahindra is among the gains too; Maruti Suzuki is among the drops. Yamaha and Bajaj, which rose in Sep ’26, both fell hard.

Electronics moved brand by brand. Samsung air conditioners, LG refrigerators and Redmi televisions gained. Sony and LG televisions, Voltas air conditioners and Samsung refrigerators fell.

Laptops fell below the leader. HP made the second-largest drop of any brand and Lenovo fell too; no laptop brand is among the gains. Dell, the category leader, is in neither list.

Payments changed hands. PhonePe and Flipkart gained while CRED fell. HDFC Bank gained while LIC fell.

The Sep ’26 risers gave it back. Zudio, CRED, Bajaj and Voltas were all among the Sep ’26 gains and are all among the Oct ’26 drops.

5 · Leadership

Categories that changed leader

A month can move the national number and still leave most category leaders in place. These are the categories where the brand with the highest Buying Intent in Oct ’26 differs from the one that led in Sep ’26.

Three of these are among the largest categories in the index, and two of them are reversals. In cars, Tata Motors rose and Maruti Suzuki fell, so the lead Maruti took in Sep ’26 went straight back. In air conditioners, Daikin rose and Voltas fell, undoing the change of the month before. In televisions, Sony gave up 398.2 points and Samsung fell by far less, so the lead passed to the brand that held up. In payments, tea, fans, lighting and metal the new leader rose while the old one fell. PhonePe, Tata Tea, Crompton, Surya and JSW Steel moved up as Google Pay, Lipton, Orient, Syska and Tata Steel moved down. In soft drinks and packaged snacks the old leader rose too and was still passed: 7UP went past Coca-Cola, and Haldiram’s past Balaji Wafers.

6 · Runs and the year

Brands on a three-month run

Most brands move up one month and down the next. A brand whose reading has moved the same way in each of the last three months is showing something steadier than a monthly swing. These are the brands reading 100 or more that have done that since Jul ’26, largest first.

More brands are on a rising run than a falling one, in a month when the national reading fell. HDFC Bank heads the rising list and has more than doubled since Jul ’26. Royal Enfield, TCS and KFC are behind it. The falling list is led by Apple iPhone, Maruti Suzuki, Samsung phones and Hero MotoCorp. Those four large brands have given up ground in each of the last three months.

Against Oct ’25

The year-on-year view rewards brands that have built rather than bounced. These are the brands that have added the most Buying Intent since Oct ’25, among brands reading 100 or more in both months.

HDFC Bank has more than doubled its reading in a year, in a month when the national index fell well below Oct ’25. Tata Motors is second. Apple MacBook, ACC Cement, PhonePe, Biba, Zudio, Bisleri and Air India make up most of the rest. That is a spread across laptops, cement, payments, clothing, water and airlines rather than one sector.

7 · Leaders

Leaders on Trust and Desire

Top ten, Oct ’26.

Dell leads on Buying Intent, Trust and Desire, and its 1,602.8 on Buying Intent is well ahead of Amazon at 1,009.1. HDFC Bank is third. Mobile phones take three of the ten Buying Intent places.

Hyundai and Daikin are in the Desire top ten but outside the Trust top ten. Sony and LG are in the Trust top ten but outside the Desire top ten.

Leaders inside the larger super-categories

Top three brands by Buying Intent in each, Oct ’26.

8 · For marketers

What to take from Oct ’26

1. Read the level against Sep ’26 with care. A stricter rating scale pulled every brand down together. Your rank in your category, and your move against your category, are the readings to act on this month.
2. Food & Beverage turned after three months down. It rose +12.4% on soft drinks, chocolate and biscuits while tea and milk fell. The gains went to brands with a product to point at: 7UP, Nestlé Munch, Parle G.
3. The Sep ’26 risers gave it back. Digital, BFSI and Retail fell as super-categories. Zudio, CRED, Bajaj and Voltas went from the gains list to the drops list in one month. A one-month jump is no run.
4. Three large categories changed leader, two of them straight back. Tata Motors retook cars, Daikin retook air conditioners, and Samsung took televisions as Sony fell. In a close category the lead can change on one month’s reading.
5. A run still tells you more than a jump. HDFC Bank, Royal Enfield, TCS and KFC have risen in each of the last three months. Apple iPhone, Maruti Suzuki, Samsung phones and Hero MotoCorp have fallen in each. Check which kind of month your brand just had.
6. Trust and Desire can part ways. Air India, Hyundai and Apple iPhone carry Desire well above Trust; Sony, LG refrigerators and IKEA carry Trust well above Desire. Know which of the two your brand is short on before you spend.