Independent, forward-thinking and tech-savvy. Knows exactly which brands and products best suit her and her family. Boss at home and at work. Can’t be easily flattered or fooled. That’s today’s woman; but do Indian brands know that as well? Sneha Ullal discovers how brands making the effort to directly reach out to this Indian woman, and how they need to continuously evolve with her
This writer asked a quick question to her team, dominated by young, boisterous women: ‘What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when someone asks you what you want?’. Pat came the replies: ‘Freedom’, ‘independence’, ‘the right to be heard’, ‘more stability’, ‘an honest life partner’.
This is enough to tell you what’s changed about women today, from what she was ten or so years ago. Today she knows the value of freedom and treasures it. But more importantly, she’s not afraid to share what’s going through her mind and she wants her voice and opinion to be heard and taken seriously.
Independent, forward-thinking and tech-savvy, today’s Indian woman does cut a happier picture from her predecessors. More often than not, she’s the one who knows exactly which brands and products best suit her and her family. She’s the boss at home and at work, and and can’t be easily flattered or fooled.
But are brands realizing this about her too? Especially since as consumers, women will make India 12% richer by 2015 and 25% richer by 2025, according to a report commissioned by PE Everstone Capital? With a little help from marketing, media and advertising experts, this extensive feature will attempt to understand key consumer behavioural patterns of Indian women; along with how brands are communicating with her today, with the help of various media and marketing tools and challenges. It’ll also suss out where brands need to improve (avoid stereotypes, make better use of social media, talk to her, don’t sell features, etc).
How should brands woo women better?
FIVE KEY TRAITS OF THE INDIAN WOMAN CONSUMER
1. She knows what she wants, and ensures she’s heard
Credit access to education, the Internet or the fact that she’s realized that her opinion matters, but there’s no doubt that today’s Indian woman, whether she lives in a geographically small town or big city, knows exactly what she wants and needs, and is not afraid to voice the same. Experts believe that her being more discerning than her predecessors could be a good thing for brands. “She likes to talk about brands and issues a lot more than men,” says Harshil Karia, Co - Founder and Online Strategist of FoxyMoron, who’s worked on many digital media campaigns for brands like L’Oreal and Maybelline New York. “And she’s also sharper in what she likes and dislikes.”
This makes it easier for brands to assess what works for their product. “Earlier, brands played a role in encouraging women to be open, but today, women are pretty much doing that themselves,” explains Shalini Raghavan, Marketing Manager, Beauty, Hindustan Unilever, who looks after the brand Lakme. “Women have stepped far away from the shadow of being someone’s wife or mother, and are finding a space for themselves in their life. And therefore, it is important for brands, to acknowledge that.”
2. She is financially independent, wants to be seen as equal to men
As women take on multiple roles including homemaker, office-goer, etc, women are more confident about theirpersonal finances. “Because her financial independence is far greater, there are more choices and she has definitely taken control of her own life,” says Meera Sharath Chandra, Founder CEO and CCO, Tigress Tigress, an integrated communication agency. “There are more women in leadership roles and more role models created in professional spheres inspiring gen-next.”
For a brand like TTK Prestige, that has been in the Indian kitchen appliance scene for decades, a key understanding of its target audience is that they contribute to the home in more ways than one. “Women want to be treated as equals increasingly,” says Chandru Kalro, COO, TTK Prestige. “She is educated and more aware that her predecessors 10 to 15 years ago. We ensure that our campaigns reflect and communicate these values.”
3. Family comes first, but she also wants to spend on herself
As compared to her predecessors of say 10 years ago, women are more comfortable in their own skin, especially when it comes to using personal-care products and services. In other words, she doesn’t mind being a little self indulgent.
While earlier women would use these sneakily and sparingly (also because there were limited choices then), today she’s much more aware of her own appearance, as her role has evolved from being the homemaker to the multi-tasker; from only offering her opinion to having the final say in a purchase decision.
“There is a deeper penetration in women using personal-care products now, as a result,” says Priti Sureka, Director, Emami Limited, which delves into skin-care and health-care. “Also women are looking for products that are more convenient products. She’s become more aware of personal-care rituals and natural ingredients. She’s aspiring to the use of best ingredients, but at the same time she’s averse to using anything that contains harsh chemicals.”
Rahul Bhalchandra, Founder and CEO, YLG Salons, who was responsible for building the retail store chain Health & Glow, adds that as women are more self-aware, the need to maintain their appearance isn’t reserved for weddings or festivals any longer. “This is true in both beauty and health services. While the methods may differ — one prefers gymming, the other botox — the focus is more on self. In fact, women use salon services as monthly rituals today.”
4. She prefers customizing to suit her personal needs
Experts believe that women tend to be more creative and hands-on than men. Arun Sirdeshmukh, Co-founder and CEO of e-commerce site Fashionara.com, makes an interesting observation: “In India, ethnic-wear sells a lot more than western-wear. Why? Because ethnic wear gives women the freedom to customize, mix and match. Plus salwar-suits, anarkalis, saris, etc suit most Indian figures.” Harshil Karia adds, “She likes co-creating with brands, as is evident in the ‘Made by You’ which we conceptualized and executed for Femina.” The magazine’s ‘Made By You’ issue was completely crowd sourced, where all articles were written by 75 selected readers.
5. She has ‘obstacle needs’
An appliance that performs multiple functions but saves power. A dish that’s tasty but doesn’t add calories. A scooter that looks good but is also packed with features. Women are increasingly demanding products that serve seemingly opposing, multiple purposes. “For example, taste and health showed a lot of importance in food categories, and earlier brands talked about either one or the other,” says Vivek Sharma, CMO, Philips India. “Of course, brands need to cater to both needs today, which is a challenge.”
WHY ACTIVATIONS ARE EFFECTIVE
Whether it’s mass brands or products specifically for both rural and urban women, TV is usually the base choice of first communication to establish reach to large numbers, followed by perhaps Print and Radio. For instance, jewellery brand Gitanjali uses a combination of Print, TV and Outdoor, along with establishing multiple e-commerce initiatives and web-based advertising like SEOs.
But for certain brands, especially skin-care and appliances, what has interestingly worked in both rural and urban towns, as a narrowcasting tool, is setting up demonstrations in malls, markets and similar places frequented by women. “Activations after TV ads are as a very effective medium to establish recall, especially since women don’t have enough time to watch TV,” explains Vivek Sharma. “To promote our new Air Fryer, we’ve been organizing a large number of activations to show how consumers can cook various dishes using this appliance.”
To promote its Malai Kesar cold cream in the villages of Uttar Pradesh, Emami launched a unique initiative. They sent out AV vans equipped with free stocks and reading material about the product, to organize games and quizzes about traditional skin-care and home remedies within these villages, to draw curious men and women. “Similarly, we also do weekly bazaars at rural haats, which are very popular,” explains Priti Sureka, Director, Emami Limited.
Kitchenware brand TTK Prestige, which recently launched a new ad campaign, too has relied mostly on ground activations, especially during festivals. “In Andhra, around Sankranti, we visited villages and ran cooking contests using our appliances,” says Chandru Kalro, CCO, TTK Prestige. “We organised a similar contest in the north of UP, along with a session on how to maintain your kitchen better.”
SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS UNTAPPED POTENTIAL
To reach out to women in urban towns though, experts believe that brands haven’t truly explored the potential of digital and social media. And with 60 million Internet users in India being women — most of them between the age group of 15 and 34 and who love to share, engage, comment on social media and shop for apparel, cosmetic, home articles on a variety of e-commerce sites — it’s no doubt that brands need to sit up and take notice. “While there’s no arguing that TV does have the impact, women use digital media a lot more than advertisers give them credit for,” explains Shubha George, CEO, RedFuse. Therefore, advertisers perhaps do not spend as much on digital for mass brands and brands targeting women. This is something that will change soon.”
There are many reasons why targeting women on social media might produce better results than targeting men. “Women tend to be a little more vocal than men, and in a smarter way if I may add,” says Karia. “If you combine the power of targeting women only along with the power of word-of-mouth unlocked due to this targeting, you have social media. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube allows all of this. What then happens is a loop with almost no wastage and the ability to build communication and communities around the things, thoughts and attitudes that women love.”
Meera Sharath Chandra believe that the online space enhances their social sharing propensity and allows them to provide their feedback on brands and categories, especially certain high-value, high-involvement ones. “Automotive, BFSI, realty and travel are areas where marketers need to take a lot more care in their conversations with women,” she adds “These sectors need to go the extra mile in making sure that they communicate their understanding, respect and recognition of today’s savvy woman consumer.”
IS GENDER-SPECIFIC MARKETING NECESSARY?
We’ve already drawn out two key observations about women as consumers: first, she’s very vocal about what she wants and secondly, she often makes important purchase decisions for her partner and her family. This essentially means that brands, especially those catered to men like garments and skin-care, marketing directly to women isn’t a bad idea. Remember Gillette’s Shave India movement? It got women to rally together and motivate their men to shave. Good idea, neat strategy, but will a similar idea work for other categories that usually cater to men, like auto and two–wheelers? “If your product caters to women it will always be a necessity,” says Karia. “In other cases where women become an increasingly important influencer or decision maker such as in home appliances, home care, in some cases even men’s grooming (look at Old Spice), automobiles, etc; marketing with different messages to women could prove to be a smart choice.”
According to Chandra, a brand’s differentiated communication to men and women might be more effective. “Marketing by gender allows consumers to appreciate that you understand their individual needs and barriers and are taking the trouble to address them,” she adds. “The challenge is in how to talk to the male and female customers in their own language without the communication becoming confusing.
The auto category, for example, has always been a bone of contention among women that they feel “not so respected” in their interactions in the car purchase cycle. While companies have recognized that, they still face a challenge because if they overtly target a female audience, the male buyer sees the brand as less male and less macho.”
In such cases, she believes using a digital platform might be easier and effective. “The tone and manner, the understanding of key selling features and the ‘de-jargonized’ approach will all make it a very pleasurable researching and buying experience online.”
CORE CHALLENGES FOR BRANDS
The Futures Company, a global strategic insight and innovation consultancy, in a comprehensive study titled ‘Women 2020’ on how women’s actions and expectations will shape the future, notes a few interesting recommendations for brands in order to reach out to women better. It says that brands need to be “smart about how men are portrayed in communications to avoid alienating women” and they also need to find “new identities for men as their traditional roles are eroded.”
Noticing how women the world-over are active on social media, the study also pointed out that they need to be given a reason to be “a part of their private spaces for conversations in the online world” and their use of social gaming can be leveraged to “develop new ways for them to play, learn and interact.”
Apart from these, a common trait with a few brands is usually tasteless stereotyping or using her to promote a brand that has nothing to do with her. “This is the unfortunate part. People do tend to use the idea of women as a sex symbol to anything else,” says Ravi Rao, Leader, South Asia, Mindshare.
“I recently saw a huge billboard for an ongoing construction exhibition with a stunning woman; and I had no idea why was she in the ad in the first place. This stereotyping needs to change and I think it is simply to do with the attitude.”
Priti Sureka adds that it’s no longer possible to go by the clichés of the stereotypical Indian woman. “As brands catering to her, we should track her mind and psychographics, each time we come up with new communications and new products. It’s a big challenge for us, but it’s crucial.”
However, Kartik Iyer, CEO, Happy Creative Services (India) Pvt Ltd, who worked on the very successful ‘Break Your Bra’ campaign for the lingerie brand Amanté , believes there’s really no secret formula for success. “At the end of the day, the brand must try to solve the need gap,” he says. “Talk about your product, rather than merely sell its features and bee brave about women’s emotions.”
HOW BRAND COMMUNICATION WILL EVOLVE WITH WOMEN
While brands are starting to realize the importance of reaching to women as individuals rather than as homemakers or career-oriented women, there’s room for growth and many untapped opportunities to explore. With that respect, The Futures Company’s study titled ‘Women 2020’ notes five key recommendations for brands.
1. Understanding multidimensionality
Expect successful brands to find ways to address women in their plural or multi-dimensional identities, rather than codified singular identities. Opportunity exists to do this much better.
Opportunity: Own the white space that currently exists between women’s singular roles/identities.
2. Convergence of roles in the family
Expect the gradual convergence of roles in the family, from ‘mother’ and ‘father’ to ‘parent’. Change here will be gradual, as women are still likely to shoulder the majority of the responsibility for caring functions in the family.
Opportunity: Develop products which include men in parenting (for example, men’s nappy changing bag).
3. New femininity
Expect the development of female identity away from male-gaze endorsed ideal of beauty, to real beauty and femininity-focused on personal goals, internal fulfillment, competency and admiration for the achievements of other women.
Opportunity: Respond to, reflect, support and shape a richer definition of femininity.
4. Trading in time and energy
Greater focus on products and services offering more time, energy and balance. Rather than weighing up the financial or material value, female consumers will tend towards making choices based on greater balance.
Opportunity: Develop products and services which allow women to better manage their time and energy levels.
5. Channeling/Filtering conversations
Expect improved understanding of women’s desire to engage in dialogue with brands, and greater transparency with online customer service and enquiries being handled publicly. Expect levels of access to such conversations being filtered by gender (for example, facial recognition billboards), to allow more controlled circles of conversation.
Opportunity: Take a lead in developing spaces which offer the possibility of creating private, safe spaces for female conversation.
Feedback: sneha.ullal@exchange4media.com
