Diva Gold

n September 2002, Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance Co. launched the Kotak Preferred Term Plan offering benefits of lower premium rates to women over 25. The plan, claims managing director, Shivaji Dam, will help 8216;8216;women with financial responsibility to cover themselves at a lower cost8217;8217;.

8216;8216;t is the most visible symbol of emerging India,8217;8217; enthuses Gitanjali Ghate, Director, Third Eye Qualitative Research. 8216;8216;Everybody from a pin maker to an auto manufacturer is targeting the woman!8217;8217; And about time, one might say. After years of being lorded over by husbands, elders and children, the upwardly mobile Indian woman, flush with the advantages of education, greater purchasing power and independence, is finally taking her place in the marketer8217;s sun. The reasons are not hard to find. According to the latest National Readership Survey, a hefty three million women joined the urban work force between 1999 and 2002 alone. And though few women have broken into the top echelons of power, a casual look at the contemporary workplace would reveal a substantially large number matching strides with male colleagues in terms of salaries and decision-making powers.

But it is not just the working woman that is currently in the spotlight. One of the biggest transformations of recent times is the blurring of lines between the career woman and the housewife. A recent study by KSA Technopak found a mere 10 per cent difference in spending between the two. And in upper class households at least, there is a new appreciation of domestic responsibilities as 8216;8216;work,8217;8217; which has influenced the power equation in terms of finances.

Ramona Maheshwari, 36-year-old airhostess turned stay-at-home mom for instance, reflects changing attitudes when she says, 8216;8216;If I want something, I have it. I don8217;t feel guilty because I am looking after the number one priority 8212; the kids.8217;8217; As Ghate explains, 8216;8216;It does not matter whether it is an executive or a homemaker, the marketer is targeting the mindset of a new, free spirited, independent woman.8217;8217;

If contemporary advertising is the barometer, then the image that comes across is that of a confident, in-control person who knows what she wants. More importantly, it is the image of an individual with desires of her own. If recent advertisements for jewellery brands such as Platinum and Asmi portray young, self-assured, apparently single women, then the Whirlpool and Asian Paints ads, the latter with its Mera Wala Pink campaign, show homemakers swinging expensive household purchases. Clearly, the old nurturer stereotype is out. Sacrifice, self-denial and the disapproving mother-in-law no longer push the panic buttons. 8216;8216;Today8217;s woman,8217;8217; says Ghate, 8216;8216;wants to be admired. Even if she8217;s a homemaker she wants to be Biwi Number One!8217;8217;

The trend appears to be a widespread one. Though most visible in the upper middle class, the aspiration percolates to various socio-economic levels; even if a woman cannot be as independent as her emerging role model she seeks that freedom for her daughter. Market researchers point to the stupendous success of the new Fair 038; Lovely campaign as evidence. The advertisement, which has outraged many by reasserting old stereotypes about dark skin and beauty does, however, contain a dubiously progressive message. The commercial begins with an old man bemoaning the absence of a son who would have made it possible for him to enjoy indulgences such as an extra cup of coffee. It then cuts to the dark, unlovely daughter who, thanks to the fairness cream, lands an airhostess8217;s job and is able to treat her parents to coffee in an expensive restaurant. The spot ends with the old man thanking his beta.

From the marketer8217;s point of view, there are three factors that matter with regard to the fast growing women8217;s segment, claims Jagdeep Kapoor, Managing Director, Samsika Marketing. The rise in the woman8217;s purchasing power, which he estimates to be 200 per cent in the last five years, is of course one. But equally significant, according to him, are the desire for products and services and the increased availability of leisure time, which has sparked off a demand for lifestyle products such as books, health clubs, restaurants and so on. A KSA Technopak study of women8217;s shopping needs that lists books, music, savings, investments and vacations, along with more traditional items such as groceries and apparel, seem to bear out his thesis.

The phenomenon has understandably resulted in a scramble to unravel the mind of the female consumer. Manage Mentor, an online club for marketing professionals, for instance, after making the unremarkable revelation that ladies love to shop, elaborates interestingly on how women shop differently from men. Women, it claims, like to examine an entire product range across brands and price points before making a decision. Women also tend to pay attention to the signages, checking out the special discounts and bargains, for example, before making a purchase. Change in display and merchandise, convenience while shopping and customer service are surefire ways to the woman shopper8217;s heart, it maintains, adding that today8217;s female shopper wants value for time and not just value for money.

There are many, of course, who would argue that women have always been grist to the marketer8217;s mill. That women8217;s magazines, television soaps and even the explosion of women-oriented web sites with odd names such as Sitagita.Com and Smartbahu.com during the e-boom a couple of years ago have been part of a long standing effort to reach into the women8217;s handbag. What is new, however, is that today women are being perceived as customers for whom special efforts need to be made, particularly with regard to products or services that were traditionally designed around male requirements.

Two years ago, for instance, The Oberoi in Mumbai, in keeping with international trends, decided to reserve an entire 32-room floor exclusively for single women travellers. The decision, claims spokesperson Priya Da Cunha, was borne not so much out of a surge in women travellers as of a need to make them more comfortable with enhanced security, women butlers and subtle add-ons such as nail files and polish removers in vanity kits. Mikanos, an upmarket Mumbai nightclub similarly responding to a need to give women 8216;8216;their own space8217;8217; reserves its 1000-capacity club from 8 to 11 on Wednesday nights exclusively for women. Lochan Kothari, head of marketing, claims over 100 women have signed up for membership at an annual fee of Rs 2000.

Nothing, however, can be quite as telling of the new trend as the influence of women over that male bastion: the car. Though the number of women drivers has increased by leaps and bounds in Indian metros, advertising for a set of wheels has customarily been directed at the male. The last Wagon R 8216;Feel At Home8217; campaign, however, was based entirely on an interview with a lady doctor who claimed to have gone into a showroom to buy another model and come out with her heart set on a Wagon R. Indian Airlines recently advertised a 25 per cent discount for women executives in business class. And if any further evidence is required of the gender shift, one only has to look at Standard Chartered8217;s Diva credit card, released a few months ago. Aimed exclusively at women, the card is a rich purple with a strand of pearls rippling across. For the moment at least, the customer is queen.