| Brands
therefore should seek to envelope women with their campaign as opposed to being
too direct. Marketers should take a hint from the fact that women pick up cues
from peripherals like shopping bags, school, buses and movie tickets. Therefore
brands would do well to use these mediums as well along with of course traditional
ways like television. Purohit gave the example of Starbucks in the US, which does
association with music CDs, mugs, magnets etc. It also sells the Oprah Book club
Selection in its outlets. The fourth truth is that size matters less than
the product experience. How a woman feels when she interacts with a brand is more
important than the brand's attributes. "Treat her like a lady. She wants
to be treated like a diva even though in behaviour she may not be one. Any brand
that is able to make a woman feel good and special will have her loyalty forever.
At the same marketers must remember that all Eves are not the same. It would help
to run the sales pitch by your mother, wife and daughter. If they are happy with
it then the chances are that it will work." D'sa pointed out that,
different women play different roles. So a marketer can use the role of a woman
to connect. Merely going by demographics is not enough to capture the different
aspects of Eve. The Eve that fits a company's brand profile is elusive and difficult
to locate. Hence role connection can be a solution. D'sa gave the example of the
woman in the role of a mother. There are different kinds of mothers. The mothers
needs evolve as her child gets older. If it is a single mother then she
might wonder if the child needs a father or whether just a toy will do. If the
child is say three years concerns about which school to put him in arise. Therefore
the marketing plan should be flexible. Huggies for instance, does a lot of initiatives
abroad, including prenatal workshops, pre school programmes, parenting newsletters.
If a brand targets the mother then it can also leverage pester power. That is
because often mothers are influenced by their kids' choices. Mothers and kids
can be two pillars of the marketing strategy. Kapoor spoke about the four
archetypes of urban women. Interestingly the fourth one is a new gradually emerging
one, which she called Eve 3.1 This woman goes from belonging, which is Eve 3.0,
to controlling the immediate environment. An example is the women applying to
join the army, women pilots. They live life by their own rules. Their role models
are women who dare and they are moving in male bastions. This includes taking
up adventure sports, weight training, anchoring television shows that are usually
done by men. In terms of lifestyle they like SUVs, smoking, drinking and dark
glasses. These women, Kapoor notes, are getting in touch with their masculinity.
Hence there is an Adam in Eve. This is something marketers of cars, SUVs, alcohol
could remember. However, it is important that they do not like a stimulus that
is gender specific. She wouldn't be attracted to an ad for alcohol or a SUV that
was specifically designed for women. They want to consume the same products as
men in these categories. Holidays are another category that Eve 3.1 can be marketed
to. Eve 3.0 is the woman working out of home. They take decision in their
corporate lives which affect their personal lives. They spend 24 per cent of their
earnings on themselves and do not feel guilty when they splurge. The financial
investment category which is a traditionally male advertising category will work
here. The financial investment comes in because a survey done shows that they
will look after their parents when they get old. Cell phones and credit cards
are the kinds of products that will work for them in terms of marketing besides
the traditional women's categories. This was quite different from 20 years ago
when only the archetypical housewife Eve 1.0 was addressed to. Eve 2.0 looked
at the expanding influence she had with her husband. The message in targetting
them is that of shared joys like cars, real estate. All four archetypes hold good
but depending on the product one can choose the approach. Madhvani dwelt
on the shortcomings of efforts being made by marketers to address women. Marketers,
she says, often make women feel guilty. They also bluff. A prime example of this
would be a 27-year-old selling anti wrinkle cream. "Often they ignore women.
A single woman who wants to buy a car must wonder why car manufacturers do not
talk to her. They also use celebrities to fool women. Often they do ad campaigns
for women that do not make sense." She gave the instance of company offering
five litres of soya sauce at a 50 per cent discount. The expiry date is one month.
The woman will then feel that the advertiser is under some strange impression
that she runs a restaurant. The reaction is now wow but U Huh. She reiterated
the point made earlier about not pushing a product too hard. It is important for
brands to communicate in a manner that is relevant. Women should not be treated
as stereotypes. It will certainly help if researchers do segmentation work on
women based on their needs, roles and desires. One can then see if the product
fits the target better. | 
