Much before Mel Gibson made that statement famous in the film about an advertising professional, who could read women's minds, Sigmund Freud had famously asked: 'What do women want?' As did many men before him. But that's taking an impassioned point of view.
That question has bothered many a marketer and advertiser alike, who are still coming to terms with a newly empowered female Indian consumer — who is financially independent and articulate and is increasingly calling all the shots around the house and outside it. She is savvy about her investments and is capable of buying whatever she wants for herself or her family without having to ask her husband for the money. She is the one who makes informed choices on what real estate investments the family makes for the future or what car they drive.
In India, answering that question is an even tougher task where you have different market segments to cater to and different regional tastes. You have various demographics, psychographics and geographics to worry about as a marketer. How has the Indian woman evolved over the years? What are her prime concerns? What does she desire? What kind of a person is she? What does she like and dislike? What motivates her? What influences her decisions at home and at the workplace?
Freud couldn't answer that question in his lifetime. So we won't pretend to know the answers either. But what we could do was hope to get some answers from those whose business it is, to understand the urban Indian woman as she exists today.
We spoke to editors and publishers of three of the country's leading English women's magazines, which cater to the modern Indian woman and found out from them, an inside view of a woman's inner space and her relationship with the media that she interacts with. We spoke to Archana Pillai, Group Publisher, Ogaan; Mala Sekhri, Publishing Director-Lifestyle Division, India Today group; and Amy Fernandes, Editor, Femina (Worldwide Media)...
What has been Elle's positioning and who is your core audience?
Because we say we are the world's number one fashion magazine, it's a broader sense of fashion than most people assume. I think the larger audience often assumes fashion is only about clothes and while that's certainly true; its really an aspect of lifestyle where if you are interested in fashion, its across your entire lifestyle. It is in the way you do up your home, the movies you see, the places you eat out, the books you read… so when we say we are a fashion magazine, we address fashion across a woman's lifestyle rather than only about her clothes.
As for our target audience, if we are talking about demographics, it is usually women in their 20s to mid 30s. What we have seen is that in the Elle network, in countries were Elle has been around longer, the age demographic goes a little older sometimes. It is not so much a young women's magazine except in Asian countries where it has been around for less time. If you talk to a Simone Tata, who at her age, is an avid reader of Elle because she started Elle when she was younger and it has just remained a habit so I think the magazine grows with you. If you look at Elle France, you will see a much older demographic than in the newer countries. It is always when you are younger that you are more open to a newer magazine. We have ourselves seen a shift in the readers when earlier the biggest band was the 20 to 28. And now it is bigger in the 25 to 35 age band. Geographically, it is obviously the top ten towns, which are our core audience, Mumbai, Delhi having the biggest chunk of our readers. You can go by the traditional typical SECs but I think its more lifestyle factors, which determine whether someone reads a magazine like this rather than income. You could be a bureaucrat with a high SEC rating but maybe that's not your lifestyle. So it is very much about people who are out there, doing things, experiencing life much more. The one unique thing about an Elle reader would be the fact that they spend a lot. Spending pattern would be very different. She spends a lot on clothing, accessory, home products, beauty products, which enhance her environment. That's what sets her part a bit; the willingness to spend on indulgence.
What has been the philosophy at Elle?
The magazine was founded in post war Europe. At the time, people wondered how someone could start a magazine which was so consumerist in an environment where women didn't even have the bare essentials. Elle's founder had this to say- 'Our purpose is to open appetite. We need to create an environment for a woman to dream.' It is not always about the harsh realities of life and that has always been key to Elle. We don't focus on the negatives. We believe that a woman needs her own quiet space where she can be self-indulgent. It may all be in her mind. I may look at the most expensive watches or luxury products and though I may not go out and buy them, I like to feel that I am comfortable with the environment. And it is not about feeling guilty about wanting to indulge yourself. Even when we do stories on issues, we do it in a positive way. Recently, in the aftermath of the Marine Drive rape case, we did address the issue but not in a 'Oh my god, women are being raped and its so terrible' way but more like what you can do as a woman to empower yourself. We don't do a lot of stuff about children as well because the whole idea of the magazine is to make a woman feel good about herself and again, we come from an environment (in our country) where it is always implied to the woman to put her own needs last. Typically, if you are a non-vegetarian family and you cook chicken at home, the best pieces like the leg etc will go to the husband or the son or the rest of the family whereas the wife will generally eat the wings or the neck. It's a stupid analogy but it is exactly reflective of how women position themselves in their surroundings; that their needs come last. So we consciously don't do a lot of things about children, like we wont do school admissions etc. We are trying to create an environment where she feels good about herself. Imagine, you create this wonderful feeling where she is thinking of buying the perfume featured there or the latest lipstick. She turns the page and sees a story on school admissions and thinks, 'Oh my god, I will have to spend the money here…' So we consciously create an environment where the woman is focused on herself and we believe this makes a woman oriented rather than self-centered. Its not about always putting your needs last.
Elle has gone in for a number of brand extensions, like Elle Décor, Indiawali Brides, Indiawali.com etc pretty early in its journey. Do you feel it could have been given more time? In what way has that association helped the brand?
Elle Décor is an international brand extension and it comes from our thinking that fashion is not just about how you look but about how your environment looks as well. We found that the Elle reader wanted to live in a home, which was equally stylish, which would provide the right setting for her. Elle Décor was a natural choice. Internationally, they also have food magazines. Elle sells in 37 countries worldwide while Elle Décor in about 20 now. They also have Elle A La Carte, which is a food magazine and we don't do that yet because that's a very niche market here. Basically the idea of the extension is to figure out what are the areas of a woman's life which are appropriate to our kind of magazine. Indiawali Brides is not really an extension of Elle. We are a part of Ogaan Publications and like all publication companies we do like to have a diverse range of products. We do believe we are fairly strong in the women segment. We are a small company compared to some of the other larger and older groups but I think in terms of quality of magazines that we bring out, we are certainly up there with everyone else. So we thought lets approach women in all their stages of life. Indiawali is more about younger women who are planning to get married. Elle straddles the middle path and Elle Décor is for people who already have their own home. Through these three magazines, we address similar women at different stages of their life. Elle existed for four years in India before we came up with Elle Décor. So I don't think it was premature. We did believe that we needed to firmly establish Elle before we got into a second magazine. Indiawali Brides came about a year later but since both Elle Décor and Indiawali were started as quarterlies, it worked for us. It gave us the time to get a footing in the market without rushing in with a monthly and then having problems.
To read the entire story, buy a copy of Impact Advertising and Marketing magazine dated Nov 7-13
