India’s obsession with white skin doesn’t seem
to be fading any sooner. Watching foreign models and actors dominating the
beauty segment ads and promotions for products being offered to Indian
consumers (who have a very different skin
complexion and skin type) has always been a little perplexing to me.
Perplexing not due to ‘exploitation’
of this trend by the cosmetics companies but because I wonder for how many more
decades we will be coaxed by the
myth- more fair is more beautiful. Nevertheless, as far as beauty products are
concerned the white-skin obsession
was always a legitimate excuse for empowering this trend, but do the same “rationale” works for segments outside
beauty and cosmetics? Looks like it does!
It is hard to miss the wave of home-grown Indian companies in segments like automobile, apparel, consumer durable using foreign models as part of their brand communication through advertisements.
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| Which companies' use of foreign models and location is baffling |
Before we go any further we must
distinguish between the companies on the basis of whether or not they are
home-grown and where do they ‘extensively’ generate their revenues from, Indian market
or foreign market (where is the major consumer base?).
We must also differentiate between the use of foreign models (not-known to the audience to whom ads are exposed) and foreign celebrities (Hollywood actors & actresses, sportsmen & sportswomen and other famous personalities).
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How having a celebrity in the ad a different ballgame than
having just a 'foreign' face and exotic location instead? |
There are multiple reasons for foreign MNCs
with target market as India as well as Indian MNCs with target markets in foreign countries to employ
foreign models and locations in their brand communication and promotion through
advertisements. Also using foreign celebrities as the face of certain brands in
India is also backed with some sound and logical arguments. Very briefly put, these could be -
- When an international brand
creates a single ad for multiple markets and hence saves on the cost of
creating multiple ads for multiple markets
- When an international brand
aims at a globalized marketing strategy which has to ensure the right and exact
communication spread into multiple markets across the globe
- A foreign brand specifically
wanting its genesis to be exposed, portrayed and made to be talked about in the
target market, thus helping its cause. Example – ‘German engineering’ for
automobiles, ‘From the coffee bowl of the world’,"Premium English chocolates" etc.
- Signing one very famous
celebrity helps the company to cut costs on signing multiple celebrities from
target markets thus saving cost and adding credibility and brand following to the
brand and the product
- Legal reasons to avoid
controversies in target markets. Eg. Ads from Jockey and Triumph in India
There are many other reasons which can be
looked into detail to understand how using foreign models or celebrities by international
brands help them build a credible image in a market like India.
However,
what is to be seen is why are home-grown companies who mostly sell their
products in India and hence have to largely communicate with Indian audience are giving more importance than ever to foreign models and locations in their ads.
Apparel
segment –
Madura Textile and Raymonds are two major homegrown companies that have built their apparel brand around relevant communication and effective advertisements that are based largely around foreign models and exotic lines. Some of Madura’s famous brands are – Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England etc. On the other hand, Raymond created Park Avenue, Parx and Color Plus etc. Have a look at the flyers of these brands which boasts foreign models showcasing the desi brands. Interestingly, even the locations picked are alien to the Indian consumers.
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| Van Heusen by Madura Garments |
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| Allen Solly by Madura Garments |
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| Peter Englnd by Madura Garments |
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| Parx by Raymonds |
Mobile
segment –
Some home-grown mobile phone players are
Micromax, Karbonn, Lava, Spice etc
When we look at some of the recent
advertisements by these companies for promoting their products and brand as a
whole, it’s difficult to miss an overall exotic and foreign feel that is tried
to be served to the audience watching these ads. It starts from the actors in the
ads who are mostly foreign models, the locations which look exotic and even the
central theme which tries hard to seal it as an exotic affair. Below are links to some video ads for these companies which are peculiar with their foreign cast and locations.
Why this trend?
There are
many arguments to justify this ever-growing trend. Indians are considered to be having a
chronic hang-up with the white skin syndrome which many blame on the British
colonial rule. Britishers ruled India for more than 200 years and that did something
more than just nurturing servitude as an acceptable behaviour evident in our
political and bureaucratic mechanism. India grew older under the sense of how
the white-skin was always more smart, more successful and dominating over the
dark-skin.
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| White is Might? |
This
ill-gotten belief automatically brewed some more erratic behavioural changes in
Indians who started to believe that everything that has a white-skin endorser
is a quality proposition. However, it might not be completely inaccurate to say
that local products due to substandard production techniques and lack of consumer-focused
marketing have let down Indian consumers over and over again and hence strengthened their belief about
the superiority of foreign products over their national counterparts.
Hence, international brands and products
promoted by foreign models became aspirational and soon consumers wanted to be
associated with these products and brands, not necessarily due to functional (& technical) but
emotional attributes.
How is this consumer behavior trait utilized by marketers?
With these starting points, it has become
an easy approach for local companies to add an international touch in their
communication which in turn heightens the brand image in eyes of its consumers, as the product will be seen accepted and endorsed by ‘smarter’ and ‘better-looking’
brigade of foreign models. Behaviourally, a consumer starts looking himself or
herself in place of the model of the ad who is shown to be the center of
attraction, and is ‘coincidentally’,
also white-skinned.
What does it actually do for the brand or
the product?
.jpg) |
| Is the color prejudice typical with Indians only? |
- Automatically induces a ‘quality
product’ belief in the consumer
- Make the product look being
accepted by higher evolved markets and more informed consumers hence rendering
credibility to the product and brand promise
- Increases the acceptability of
the brand and the product due to an international touch
- Makes the brand aspirational by
strengthening brand image
- Place the brand above some
other local brands helping it climb the value ladder without much real
technical innovation
- Such communications add a premium-ness
to the product allowing the manufacturers to command higher price which can be
invested to product improvement leading to actual ascent in the segment against
competitors (instead of difference in
communication level only)
- Changing fence-sitters into
consumers
- Reducing cognitive dissonance
The last point mentioned is important in
many senses. A marketing tactic for promotion can only take the product so far.
Beyond a point a product should speak for itself. Such a strategy if
systematically implemented may give a higher end to the brand at the start but
eventually a superior product is what is needed to take the brand further. An
ordinary product will soon be recognized and the gross mismatch between the
appeal created through brand promise for the product and actual product will
leave no option for revival. Koutons’ debacle is an example of such a mistake
though there were other major loopholes in its marketing strategy as well.
How long – Can & Will marketers use
this erratic and stereotypical behaviour of Indian consumers, answer to that
question lies in another question - How long the whit-skin syndrome will keep
its hold on Indian consumers?
Cheers,
Branding is everywhere. And hence, it has gone through what
everything that is everywhere has – for ever and ever. Overburdened! Cliched!Confused!
But how have they been able to do that while others either
failed or were not so successful?
