The Hindu Business Line : Brands must fulfil consumer needs

The National Human Rights Commission is expected to consider a representation made by the All India Democratic Women's Association regarding some TV ads that are demeaning to women and promote son-preference. They have cited Fair & Lovely, LIC and ICICI for their ads which suggest discrimination on the basis of skin colour, for implying that looks and appearances can land a woman a job, and for implying that daughters are a liability. Recently, Hutch ran an ad for its voice mail service, which said: "Same old story. She talks. You listen."

Aren't these companies in danger of angering and alienating their women customers. Do they not care? Or is this type of advertising really unintentional? Would stricter rules help remedy the situation? And don't ad agencies have self-governing standards in place, even if the Advertising Standards Council turns a blind eye? What's the solution?

- Roshini Manian, on e.mail

THE key to successful marketing lies in fulfilling consumer needs. Isolating and identifying unfulfilled needs and desires in its set of target consumers, and offering benefits to meet them so as to make their brands unique, relevant and preferred, is a continuous process (or at least should be) amongst marketers.

Advertising is one of the primary and most significant means for the marketer to communicate the consumer problem or desire and to convey how the brand delivers (through the product and/or service) relevant benefits to solve the problem / meet the desire. Indeed, once the brand has the product and distribution in place, companies spend an enormous amount of time, effort and money in creating and executing the advertising to build successful brands.

Having said that, it is difficult to imagine a company creating a campaign or commercial, which would entail the risk of alienating or angering its target consumers or even a part of it. Hence, hurting the sentiments of any section of society or alienating them in any manner is not what any company intends to do through any form of advertising, Of course, there do exist examples of brand advertising which have not been taken well or have created controversies in sections of the market - some of the Benetton communication being a case in point.

However, even in those cases, the advertising has tried to communicate what the brand stands for.

Ultimately, advertising is aimed at delivering, in the most effective manner, the brand promise (or the set of benefits which the brand promises to deliver to its target consumer, better than other brands) to the consumer and is therefore built on it.

The brand promise, in turn, is based on fulfilling the need / desire of the target consumer.

Hence, if there does exist, in a significant number of women, a strong desire to alter the colour of their skin, it offers an opportunity for marketers to fulfil that desire, just like any other desire, such as altering the colour of their hair or smelling good through the day. Products and brands to modify the colour of the skin based on preferences have existed amongst all kinds of consumers irrespective of the colour of skin. Any advertising aimed at communicating the same, hence, needs to be looked at from that perspective,

As far as some of the other observations based on different commercials are concerned, I have not seen all of them and therefore it is difficult to comment on each specifically. However, one must remember that advertising, as indeed all forms of communication, is open to interpretation in more ways than intended.

Hence, any communication depicting a father's concern over the prospective marriage of his daughter can be seen as that - the concern- which can be misconstrued to that "daughters are a liability".

However, if the advertising were to communicate parents' concern over the education of their children, and benefits which the brand offers to overcome that concern, is one to then conclude that children are a liability? Would that lead to an alienation of the brand or anger its prospective customers?

No set of rules or regulations can contain or regulate interpretations that might be construed based on a particular piece of communication.

Companies and agencies spend a significant amount of resources to ensure that the advertising is relevant and effective for its consumers and does not alienate them in any manner.

Finally, there is the aspect of humour in advertising, which is a very powerful tool for creating interest in the communication, aiding recall and facilitating understanding of the message intended to be conveyed by the advertiser.

In advertising, as in real life, humour is humour with respect to a certain context and the moment it is taken out of it, can start to mean many different things.

(The author is CEO, Quadra Advisory, a strategic marketing consultancy. Readers can send in their questions on marketing issues to The Editor, The Hindu Business Line, 859, Anna Salai, Chennai - 600 002, or e-mail them to bleditor@thehindu.co.in)

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