Changing terms of engagement

Women in Asia represent over half of the region’s population.They are the primary purchase decision-makers in the majority of households.

Their disposable income is higher than ever before and, perhaps most importantly,they show a growing willingness to accept brands into their lives. On the face of it, a perfect match for marketers. And yet much of the communication efforts in the region, even those campaigns specifically aimed at women, are still missing the target.

“Despite huge female purchasing power, the majority of marketers are failing to appeal to the female audience,” says Craig Mapleston, managing director of integrated agency iris.

“This means they are losing out on the opportunity to build brand loyalty among an audience who, if engaged, would form a very loyal base.”

Economics alone should be enough to persuade brands to switch tactics. According to Georgette Tan, vicepresident, communications, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa at MasterCard Worldwide,Asian women will have an estimated US$516 billion of discretionary spending power at their command by 2014 — $335 billion in affluent Asia and $181 billion in emerging Asia. “The 21st century Asian woman is confident and empowered,” says Tan. “She is part of a consumer market to be reckoned with.”

But the new Asian woman is about more than just spending power.Most significantly, compared with even a decade ago, she now has a much more developed relationship with brands, which offers marketers a great opportunity to get women involved in their story.
" Women are now much quicker to expect brands to truly involve and engage them,”says Jeff Bradley,director of operations at Leo Burnett Southern China. 

“There is less base cynicism about brands. Women are more willing to allow brands to be part of their lives. In China, for example, the passion for brands is huge and women are emotionally involved.

However, the expectation level is rising very fast.The Asian woman knows that brands can and should be engaging
her on her terms.” 

Despite this, though, most brands in the region are still failing to engage at a mutually effective level. “Research into food marketing, health care marketing, automotive marketing and investment marketing shows that more than 50 per cent of women feel that their needs and aspirations are not understood and not met by these categories,” says Mapleston.

Creating empathy 

So how can brands leverage the growing presence and awareness of the new Asian woman? The starting point is to attempt to define just who she is and how she has changed in a relatively short amount of time.Generalisations across such a large and diverse region are difficult, yet there are still a number of broad strokes that apply.

“The Asian female consumer is better educated and more sophisticated than ever before,”says Guy Hearn, director of communications insights for Asia-Pacific at OMG.“Given that,she is becoming ever more critical, demanding and hard to please. She can be characterised as being smarter,better connected, more questioning, more choice-rich, more empowered and see herself as ever more time poor than ever before.”

While accepting that there is no umbrella marketing strategy that will reach women in both a developed country like Singapore and a country with a less developed consumption culture such as Vietnam,Hearn argues that building a longer-term relationship with women will give the best returns.

“Engagement is the key to developing a profitable relationship with women,and in starting and maintaining a conversation with Asian women it is a must to recognise the importance of communication, community and convenience,”he says.

Bradley also points to the importance of recognising the fundamental biological differences betwen men and women.When processing information men use only their left brain — the analytical component — which leads to quick decision making.

Women, however, make use of both the intuitive and analytical sides of the brain and as such need to be approached in a different manner.

“We call this the empathy effect,” says Bradley.“Brands need to use this and they need to focus on people,relationships and feelings. They need to engage women in a broader dialogue, move beyond facts and analytics alone.”

Doing this, however, means that a brand needs to work much harder than before at building relationships.

A traditional 30-second television commercial, for instance, may still work for some categories, but brands should more often than not be looking beyond such impulse advertising and instead be developing strategies that better engage with the typical female’s decision-making process.

“Brands must intrinsically understand this to appeal to the female psyche,” agrees Mapleston, adding that marketers should be focusing on her inclination for empathy and her stronger sense of moral order.

“The simplistic answer is not to just tell her about your brand but involve her in your brand,”he continues.“The enormous choice of brands can be overwhelming, so assist her to discover the substance behind your claims, show that you understand her concerns, empathise with her, and help.

Females have an interest in people rather than things so marketers need to create a personable brand that females can engage with and relate to — put a human face onto their brand.”

One way of doing this is to create value outside of the brand function.

MasterCard, for example, which launched its first women’s card programme in Asia-Pacific in 1989, has recognised that the appeal to women has to be more than product design or retail convenience. As such it has put its weight behind various CSR initiatives in the region, including helping disadvantaged women in developing markets and raising awareness of female heart disease in Singapore, in what Tan calls a “holistic”approach to reaching out to women.

Online engagement
Advances in technology are also lending a hand, in particular the growth of social media, which is an ideal platform for creating empathy.

“Technology has allowed us to act on that human imperative; what it is that she needs in that category,” says Bradley. “For example, social networking.
Sources suggest that women engage these in a more involved way.

This means there are now a wealth of opportunities for brands to engage ‘her’ as a woman.” 

The importance that women place on a sense of belonging and collaboration — in particular having others to talk to and sympathise with — means that the interactive,community feel of much online media is a great place for brands to forge meaningful, two-way relationships.

“Given that women are enthusiastic adopters of social media, this presents a great opportunity to engage them,”says Hearn.“Social connection is very important for Asian women and they have enthusiastically embraced social media and technology that lets them stay in touch.”

Hearn points to the example of Johnson & Johnson’s Huggies.com portal which gives mothers and mothers- to-be access to information, as well as a platform to communicate about matters of interest.

Similarly,the Singapore Health Promotion Board’s ‘Fresh air for women’ campaign included a website on which women could share their stories about their efforts to quit smoking.“It recognised the importance of community and brought together a support community of young women who had successfully quit to support quitters,”says Hearn.

Whether through social media or more traditional communications platforms, brands need to emphasise less on the hard sell and begin building relationships, what Bradley calls “tend and befriend”. By allowing Asian women to become involved in the brand experience, and by being transparent and straight talking, marketers will be creating a loyal and socially active consumer base.

“Greater social awareness, more connected lifestyles, greater choice, mean that today’s female consumer is more questioning of brands,” concludes Mapleston. “She will not automatically accept what a brand tells her. She will do her own research, speak to others and make her own decisions.

Brands that are honest and facilitate these conversations will do well with today’s women.”

BRANDS THAT GOT IT RIGHT



1. Nissan Pino A car targeted exclusively at women that uses the availability of hubcaps that sparkle and pink, bearshaped cushions as its major selling point may seem a little outdated for the modern Asian woman, but the Nissan Pino, launched in Japan in 2007, got its research spot on.While Western women may run a mile from marketing that emphasises anything overtly ‘girly’, the Asian woman is more likely to embrace this kind of communications, with the Hello Kitty brand the most obvious example. For the Pino launch, the real draw was the cute accessories, sold in collaboration with Sony Plaza, that the female 18 to 30 target consumer could buy to customise their vehicle.There was also a dedicated website where women could accessorise a virtual car and add the items to their shopping basket.



2. adidas The adidas ‘Me, myself’ campaign, rolled out in early 2009 to promote the brand’s latest women’s collection was build around the concept that women needed to spend more time on themselves. For the Asia launch in Singapore, the usual outdoor and retail communications were complemented by the creation of an interactive calendar application on Facebook that allowed women to plan “me time” activities for themselves and share this schedule with friends. By tapping into the real concerns of the modern, time-poor Asian woman, adidas was able to build a community that connected directly with the brand.



3. Johnson & Johnson In the build-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Johnson & Johnson combined the Chinese Olympic spirit with the bond between mother and child for its ‘Golden touch, golden mom’ platform. Emphasising the importance of caring in society and positioning the Chinese mother as a winner, the campaign engaged with Chinese women’s attitudes towards both family and country. Digital communications included a blog by badminton star Ge Fei, who wrote about her experiences as both an Olympian and a mother.