Female-oriented FMCG products may be flying off store shelves, but ad agencies and research houses are waking up to the cold, hard fact that female consumers don't necessarily like the way they're being marketed to.
For a Media commissioned study by Research International entitled 'Marketing to women', female consumers from Mumbai, Shanghai, Bangkok and Singapore were tapped to get a first-hand view of the manner in which they interacted with advertising on a daily basis. A total of 80 women provided the research framework, in addition to 15 'experts' -- educated women from fields including social psychology, sociology, journalism, advertising and marketing consultancy -- all bringing to the interview table their own collection of ads that they felt spoke to who they are as urban Asian females.
For a Media commissioned study by Research International entitled 'Marketing to women', female consumers from Mumbai, Shanghai, Bangkok and Singapore were tapped to get a first-hand view of the manner in which they interacted with advertising on a daily basis. A total of 80 women provided the research framework, in addition to 15 'experts' -- educated women from fields including social psychology, sociology, journalism, advertising and marketing consultancy -- all bringing to the interview table their own collection of ads that they felt spoke to who they are as urban Asian females.
The overriding aim, notes Research International's regional innovation director Gillem Lawson, was to uncover how advertising was connecting with Asian women, and what were the factors aiding this. "Seen on a day-to-day basis, qualitative research crystallised our thinking and ethnographic work. (By) following consumers around and getting them to bring advertising to us that they took note of, we weren't in any way trying to gauge stand-out," he says.
Explaining the complex socio-economic forces driving the changing status of women in the region, or surveying how women respond to specific communication across categories or different channels was not the aim, Lawson adds. The focus was, instead, on deriving a broad overview of what does or doesn't work with women today.
"What they did report on was that 'yes, we do pick up some stuff, but we do ignore a lot of advertising as well' -- this is partly executional -- many advertisers just don't understand women as they might."
Perhaps not surprisingly, Singaporean women led the way in terms of personal and professional success, as well as existing in a society relatively unfettered by traditional, hierarchical Asian values. Their Thai and Indian counterparts expressed similar views in terms of a strong desire for greater independence and individualistic expression. Interestingly, despite the leaps and bounds witnessed in China's overall development as a nation of switched-on consumers, women expressed much less a desire for independence, and notions of family and social responsibility still dominate, according to survey results.
Although young middle-to -upper middle class Chinese women living in first and second tier cities grew up consuming a broad diet of brands, categorising them in terms of Western values is a thorny process.
"The key thing about Chinese women is that, on the one hand, they're very ambitious and they're expected to contribute to society," notes JWT Northeast Asia area director Tom Doctoroff.
"So much of history sees them as the loving wife and mother and these are socially mandated roles. Now, for the first time, you have Western individualism coming in and, suddenly, it's about finding the balance -- this articulation is going to depend on socio-economic status, and the balance between someone who is proactive and the family protector -- there's a conflict."
Research International's Lawson cites communism's pervasive influence as vital to any in-depth comprehension of the motivational influencers behind Chinese women today. "In China, you get a strong urge for the collective good and social responsibility. People aren't just paying lip-service. (As a woman), you're putting your personal needs behind a wider good. In a different way, women there are independent and are much more dominated by family."
Marketers, he believes, need to "think a bit about where they're coming from".
In China local respondents made the distinction between the 20-to 25-year old "first only child generation" of females. These women were believed to think differently, be more self-dependent and value self-improvement to a greater degree.
"China (in the study) is viewed as one broad market but obviously in reality it's very segmented," says Dragonair assistant general manager, corporate communications, Laura Crampton. "You have very sophisticated women in Shanghai, and you obviously can't compare their expectations with (women in the) booming second tier cities." Crampton calls for slicing China down into "workable chunks".
Reflected in Research International's findings across all markets, respondents conveyed a primary desire to be financially independent from their male partners, whether or not this aim was, in fact, a realistic one.
While young women in Thailand referred to "the third wallet" in a relationship that covered shared expenses, their counterparts in India conveyed their attempts to save small amounts of money "for a rainy day". Spending by women, therefore, is no longer under the premise of family alone, but symbolises a need for independence and a greater sense of security. Women in Asia are also perceiving themselves as more individualistic, materialistic, selfishly-motivated and distanced from a 'poorer, simpler, and more basic rural past' (with the exception of Singapore) as reflected in the findings, so how are they viewing the advertising directed at them?
Overwhelmingly, results point to a backlash of significant proportions. Citing "low levels of connection/involvement and even rejection of communication" which women feel does not acknowledge how "things have changed" in their world, advertisers should be cautious not to patronise their target audience, tell them what to think, or depict women as frustrated and 'needy' of brand saviours. Encapsulating this, Indian consumers in the Research International study slammed commercials that showed housewives frustrated because household products were not working the way they should. Cited as chief, cringeworthy, culprits were portrayals of past values where a woman's identity and self-worth were linked to product efficacy.
Meanwhile women in Thailand rejected the suggestion that they will be losers if they don't participate in a particular product offer, with Cinderella-style plots where women are rescued by a brand viewed as trite and hackneyed.
DDB Hong Kong creative chief Christine Pong believes the findings do not accurately represent all Asian women, with Hong Kong females, for example, being a less reactionary bunch due to their inherent independence.
"We don't react as much (to ads), (although) we do have women's lib but don't see a problem with ads taking this approach -- it's far less annoying or offensive than is portrayed in the survey," she notes. "In India, women feel more pressure to actualise their new role in society -- for the last 10 years there, women have been the inferior sex."
Lawson adds: "In China, they've only been opened up for the last five years. In India, it's 10 years or more and in Thailand or Singapore, there's a very strong rise in perception of needs." In addition, with any research, personal opinions must be viewed realistically -- as aspirations are just aspirations -- not a reliably consistent barometer reflected by actual purchase decisions. "What women believe is true is also not always borne out in behaviour, and they'll respond to communications tapping the interest they need," says Lawson .
Despite survey respondents sounding the death-knell for superficial advertising directed at women, Pong points out "not every women wants to see her inner self reflected in product advertising, even if you say you want to".
Interestingly, female role models across the region reflect women's aspirational beliefs. Past icons were viewed as relatively superficial, beautiful but lacking depth and a real sense of character, deemed "less intelligent" than today's stars.
In Thailand, forensic pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunant -- known for her unconventional appearance, and success in a male-dominated environment -- was tagged alongside pop star Tata Young, who was seen as a new Thai icon encapsulating beauty, selfish femininity, freedom, individuality and success. In China, Maggie Cheung and Yang Lan were dubbed icons owing to their being "more intelligent", "stronger personalities" and possessing a femininity based less about softness, tenderness and dependence on men. In India, intelligent icons also dominated, such as former (and first Indian) Miss Universe Sushmita Sen -- unconventional for adopting an orphaned child, in contrast to more "superficial" stars; and former MP, actress and social activist Shabana Azmi.
Overall, it would appear that traditional marketing mindsets are falling dangerously short of fulfilment in Asia. Angela Koch, Leo Burnett planning director, Procter & Gamble China, believes the writing has been on the wall for some time, with women finding a voice that marketers -- and the agencies they work with -- largely choose to ignore: "It's not that women have had a great leap forward in terms of their development; marketers have just forgotten what makes people in general tick."
According to Koch, women in Asia are experiencing what their Western sisters were experiencing in the '50s and '60s, "not just in terms of rising income levels and freedom to buy goods and make purchasing decisions, (but) in terms of the corporations (they work for) and the marriages (they're in)".
Burnett's 2004 'Miss Understood' study examined advertisers' inability to connect with women globally, with Asia-specific findings launched in June. Here women viewed advertising aimed at them as patronising, boring and stereotypical. "We were really quite horrified, because when we started looking at marketing campaigns around the region targeted at women, we had difficulty finding good examples. We are advertisers too and we had to have a good, hard look at ourselves," Koch says.
Most damning of all, she adds, is the fact that communications to women reflect how men would want to see them -- not as women see themselves. Besides campaigns for diamond jewellery brands in Hong Kong and Singapore targeted squarely at financially empowered females, both in conventional beauty categories both creativity and appeal were sorely lacking.
While marketers have grown savvy at studying women to the 'nth' degree, what is missing is their ability to create new and non-formulaic campaigns.
"Marketers have done lots of research on women and their transformation -- they haven't spared a dollar -- but using these tools effectively beyond simply portraying women as a mirror of their research is another matter," says Pong.
With local market forces keeping popular marketing formulas alive via booming sales, shopping habits look set to eventually drive the sea change.
"If we really tapped into the (woman as a) person, we'd break the mould -- that's quite scary to marketers," adds Koch. "It will take a couple of brave souls to say 'let's take away the executional formula'."
