10/18/2017 Empowered – not stereotyped - Marketing - Aurora

Empowered – not stereotyped

Published in Jul-Aug 2016

Photo: Online

But is the role of women really changing? Nah. There’s no revolution in the making here.

Take a step back and look at the programming schedule that commercials are slotted in.
Let’s watch the news. Religious political parties rallying against the Women’s Protection

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Bill or the Council for Islamic Ideology (CII) benevolently allowing women to be lightly
beaten by their husbands. Let’s watch the dramas. The heroine is always submissive,
emotionally (and in some cases physically) battered, a martyr. The con dent career
woman is always the villain; immoral and lacking in integrity. A far cry from Shehnaz
Sheikh’s heroic business executive in Tanhaiyan or Marina Khan’s fearless doctor in
Dhoop Kinarey. Who were bold, but not badchalan.

That is what our consumers register. Not the three seconds in a cooking oil TVC where a
girl is handing an airline ticket to her father. Not the father in the home appliance TVC
proudly extolling his daughter’s career success. The two commercials mentioned are a
step in the right direction, but they are not enough. There is no revolution in the making
here. And we are fooling ourselves if we think there is.

The truth is that the educated middle-class women we are talking to are discouraged from
pursuing a career even if they want to do so by their parents, in-laws, etc. Unless they are
doctors or teachers – that is acceptable. After all, log kya kehengay? This perception is
only further af rmed by what they see on TV and hear on the streets.

In a research of 20 consumers – women who regularly watch TV – not one remembered

the girl buying a plane ticket for her father. Many of them did remember and appreciate
the ad though, the jingle, the mnemonic gesture by the actors, the variety of food, and the
brand name. No one remembered the ad with the father proudly talking about the money
he invested in sending his daughter abroad for an education instead of a grand wedding
and her subsequent career success. On being shown the ad they loved the idea, but
couldn’t remember the brand or the product.

The palpable frisson of excitement at the sight of an emancipated woman in a television

commercial that we feel on viewing these small steps towards social progress is
deceptive. We sit at our desks and monitor every new ad online. That’s why we noticed
those three seconds. But the people watching it on TV, the ones who really mattered,
didn’t.

Talk to women, not at them. Start a real conversation. Find a

connection to your products and then watch your brands grow. Be
insightful. Be direct. Be brave.

We work in a funny old business. We are constantly unhappy with what we produce, but
don’t make any effort to change it. We crib about the target not being educated enough –
the ‘target’ in question being middle-class housewives, educated, urban, stay-at-home
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mothers. And we deride them because they are not like us. But we don’t make any effort to
get to know them. We view the commercials we make as trite and contrived, wholly untrue
to ground realities, citing the statistics showing the increasing numbers of women in the
workplace.

And when we are not blaming the consumer, the target, as we refer to her, we blame the
client. Snort. They want to talk about the product. Who does that? We want to be artists
and talk about feelings, not functionality. We want to win awards.

Here’s another reality check. The aforementioned appliance brand has certainly made
some brave, but misguided forays into inventive advertising – with no dents in the market
share of the four big brands in the category. Brave because any brand that dares give
women a voice that is very much their own deserves to be commended (even if that voice
is being channeled through their fathers). Misguided because they did not keep the
product at the centre. At the end of the day, we are in the business of selling.

The market leader in the category, on the other hand, keeps the product at the centre, with
the product bene ts clearly de ned. Also at the centre is the smart, independent career
woman deftly balancing work and home who con dently endorses her choice of
appliance. The brand in turns applauds her for ‘Making Pakistan Proud.’ All in 20 seconds.

Since we are so enamoured by our colleagues across the border, let’s look at what they are
up to in the same category. Remember the ad where the girl sweetly tells her prospective
in-laws that if the purpose of a daughter-in-law was to provide their son with a cup of
coffee, they would be better off getting him a coffee machine? Yes, it was an ad about a
coffee machine. The entire campaign cleverly draws focus to their products under the
self-explanatory campaign idea ‘Respect for Women’, lightly reminding us that women are
not appliances. The objective behind this campaign was not social change, but pure
business: achieve 20% growth. Six months after the new campaign, sales were up by 150%.
The brand was viewed as contemporary, its products innovative.

How about a detergent ad where a young woman is worried about

making a bad impression at work as opposed to her brother? Or an
insurance company that sells education plans to fathers for their
daughters?

The last reality check is that there is a difference between a television commercial and a
digital video. Huge. When Fawad Khan makes a cup of tea for his wife not because she is

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unwell or harassed with household chores, but because she is tired after a long day at
work, women swoon. But there is no compromise in communicating the superior aroma,
taste and hue of the tea. And there is a different digital campaign urging men to follow
Fawad’s example. Digital gives us freedom. But conventional TV pays the bills.

That is where advertising needs to go. Why are men cooking or washing dishes only when
their wives or mothers are not around to do it? How about a detergent ad where a young
woman is worried about making a bad impression at work as opposed to her brother? Or
an insurance company that sells education plans to fathers for their daughters?

Talk to women, not at them. Start a real conversation. Find a connection to your products
and then watch your brands grow.

Be insightful. Be direct. Be brave.

Rashna Abdi is Executive Creative Director, IAL Saatchi & Saatchi.

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