Women are the world’s most powerful influencers, and yet, marketers don’t represent them adequately, said Rutu Mody-Kamdar, Founder and Managing Director of Jigsaw Brand Consultants, on Tuesday.
Kamdar was speaking at the sixth edition of HT Brand Studio Live—a series that gets the brains behind India’s top brands to decode marketing innovations and more.
The event is co-hosted by HT Brand Studio and DMAasia.
This time, it was a special episode that sought to celebrate the success of the previous five chapters. The theme was ‘Marketing to the millennial woman in the age of the internet’ or how brands can take into account the needs and aspirations of the new-age woman while communicating with her.
“Today, women are increasingly breaking out of the grids that have been used to define them; the rise of social media has ensured that no woman feels alone while doing so. Unfortunately, advertisers and marketers continue to draw their caricatures,” Kamdar further said, adding that, “If women are represented properly, a new world order will be created.”
Going further into this discussion, Priyanka Gill, Founder & CEO of POPxo, said, “I think women, as a story, have been happening for a while. Brands have been slow in understanding them.”
Gill emphasized that there are huge opportunities of connecting with millennial women, and marketers should tap into this space right away.
“Marketing to the millennial woman is all about putting yourself in her shoes, even if it means you are a man,” said Pankaj Duhan, Chief Marketing Officer, Reckitt Benckiser-South Asia Health.
A good marketer in that case, Duhan said, would be the one who understands a woman’s “trials and tribulations, her joys and delights”. He is also the one who will put technology at her disposal, Duhan added.
Gulbahar Taurani, Marketing Director, Philips, however, stressed that more and more brands are embracing the rise of the modern Indian woman.
“I think marketers today are consciously taking efforts to understand women,” he said.
Shedding light on how brands can go about doing the same, Karan Kumar, Chief Brand & Marketing Officer, Fabindia, said, “Use story-driven conversations, especially in the form of videos. Millennials seek engaging content; they seek conversations that matter to them.”
Pushpanjali Banerji, Founder and Director at Taali Media and Brand Director at Kyndal Group, also had a word of advice for marketers.
“Women hate it when a product is engineered for them. Please don’t do that,” she said.
More tips on marketing to millennial women came from Rajiv Bansal, CEO, HT Digital Streams, who said, “We need to have more women in leadership teams, and use data to get insights from consumers.”
Alok Shankar, Country General Manager, Fitbit, spoke on how brands like Fitbit are catering to the fitness journeys of millennial women.
Aside from the aforementioned brand masters, speakers from the previous editions were present on the occasion.
To watch the previous five episodes of Brand Studio Live, please click here.