The consumer isn’t stupid, she’s the boss

THE consumer is not stupid, she is your wife! were the famous lines of ad guru, David Ogilvy. Women have always controlled the purse-strings of household expenditure. It is no surprise that advertising sleuths have been trying to pry open their minds — digging deep into their thinking and feeling patterns — so that they can shape communication to achieve the desired behavioural response. As women evolve mentally, physically and socially, so does the society around them. Since advertising modulates itself to the society around it, a historical study of advertising could be an effective measure of how women have evolved over the years. Until the mid-1980s, women were expected to follow a narrow path in life. Marriage was the finite and defining goal; there were two lives — one before and the other after marriage. For young girls cooking, cleaning and house-caring skills were more important than academic. Good grooming was only important, as long as it helped them catch a good match. This ethos was reflected in the pre-1990 advertising. Fair & Lovely reflected stories around arranged marriage match-making sessions — starting with rejection, then advice (from an older sister or bhabi) and then ultimate success with the potential groom looking starry-eyed at the fair young maiden and: “Kitnee Fair & Lovely”. That’s how the brand used to sell “marriage in a tube.” Quality of laundry was a measure of how good she was at house-wifery. Rin advertising reflected this spirit of competition and jealousy with its famous “Bhala uski kameej meri kameej se safed kaise?” campaign. If her husband’s shirt was less white compared to someone else’s it was a matter of great concern! Surf ads of those times were preoccupied in getting “Ravi beta’s” clothes so clean and white that it “showed you cared” — meaning, if you love your child, better show it by giving him a good, clean laundry! If the quality of laundry was not great, then it was her failure. This was reflected in the Wheel ads where a distraught husband showing his unclean shirt to his wife says “kaise milegi naukri? yeh shirt dekhi hai?” The housewife felt guilty and helpless at this fate wondering how she can get that clean, and hey presto, New Wheel was the solution! The woman’s sense of joy and fulfilment came from providing her family with delicious meals that they consumed like gluttons, as reflected in the competition between father and son to finish up her puris even as they were being cooked with Dalda. She just shook her head in fake anger, “Bacche toh bacche, Baap re baap!” Turning Point — Rajni and Lalitaji on TV. Television freed Indian women from the shackles of society. Television democratised information like no other medium could. It increased the average viewer’s exposure to news, views and commercial messages by many multiples. Before TV, the print medium was accessible only to the educated and relatively affluent women. Cinema was a once-a-month indulgence. TV was their real window to the world. Initially, programmes based on cinema — like Hindi feature film and Chitrahaar — became popular. Then there was cricket — which was more in the male domain — followed by Ramayana and Mahabharata. Karamchand, a serial featuring a detective and his not-sosmart assistant Kitty, made waves in a world where women did not feel perturbed when depicted as dumb Kitty. Priya Tendulkar, as Rajni, was the one serial that started shifting power balance in favour of women. Rajni was this no-nonsense lady with a mission to change the world and put it back into order. This character gave a fillip to women as it carved out a significant feminine role in a man’s world. Much like Rajni was Surf’s Lalitaji, a smart housewife who knew the difference between buying cheap and buying value. Lalitaji was as popular as any film or TV star during her time and stayed on the box for over five years. Women just loved her because she, like Rajni, tilted the gender power balance in their favour. Brands gradually woke up to the new reality of the modern Indian woman no longer interested in taken for granted concept. With youths emerging as a segment with money, advertisers needed to accelerate their acceptance of this social change. This lead to themes like “I don’t care” played out by the young college girl in the Lifebuoy Plus TVC in the late 1990s. Today, women no longer feel guilty about indulging themselves. They have dreams and aspirations beyond just marriage. They freely express themselves and have emerged consumers for not only household goods but for products and services of all kinds. If David Ogilvy wrote his famous book today, he would perhaps have written, “The consumer is not stupid, she is your boss!”

Courtesy: EconomicTimes

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