Marketers just can’t stop loving women

NEW DELHI: Women are a special lot. No wonder there is a day dedicated to her. And marketers realise their importance too. Hyundai Motor India, in partnership with ICICI Bank, has announced a special car loan scheme for women buyers.

As part of the limited period offer, women customers can avail of loans on Hyundai’s Santro and Getz at a 0.75% discount if they are ICICI customers and 1.25% discount if they become ICICI customers.

Not just that, prospective women buyers get a 0.5% discount of the loan-processing fee and some relief in the foreclosure charges as well. There’s another offer bundled into the scheme.

Which is, on availing the loan women get a discount on gold biscuits if they are tempted to buy them as well. The scheme runs till February 28, 2007.

Such a scheme suggests the growing economic power of women consumers. Arvind Saxena, vice-president, marketing & sales, Hyundai Motor India, says that about 11% of Santro and Getz buyers are women.

“That is a sizeable portion.” The company expects an incremental growth of 2-3% from the woman-scheme. However, even if the company is unable to clock the expected sales, Saxena says that the fact Hyundai has made the effort to communicate with its women clientele is gratifying.

Hyundai’s special scheme for women is yet an example among a string of others where marketers that traditionally did not target women have begun to do so. Max New York Life, for instance, has come up with a lucrative investment scheme for women where savings double after six years. The scheme is till March 31, 2007.

While on the other hand Harish Bijoor of Harish Bijoor Consults is not surprised by these offers. He says International Women’s Day is round the corner and marketers are waking up.

While that is one motivation, there is no denying the rise of the Indian working woman. In the BPO and ITES sector, women comprise over 40 per cent of the workforce compared to the trifle 8 per cent in other sectors. “BPOs have given women economic independence and it is natural women will spend as well as save money,” Bijoor says.

That explains the proliferation of investment schemes and exclusive credit cards for women. HDFC, for instance, offers an exclusive woman’s card, an International Women’s Gold Visa Credit Card with features such as five per cent cash back at select department stores etc.

Mobile phones, a long-time male bastion, are now coming in different shapes, sizes and colour to appeal women. Nokia’s L’Amour collection, Motorola’s exclusive Pink and Red Moto Razr, endorsed by the tennis player, Maria Sharapova, Nokia 7600 designed like a solitaire on a finger ring and Samsung’s SGH-T500 mobile phone studded with 32-cubic zirconium are some examples. Samsung’s SGH-T500 by the way has a health-monitoring device, biorhythms, which checks physical, emotional and intellectual well-being on a daily basis, gives a fat index, has a calorie counter etc.

“Today women love independence and a desire to compete with man in all spheres possible. This coupled with increased exposure to media, television and mall culture has helped evolve the tastes and preferences of the Indian women consumer,” says Salil Nair, customer care associate and head buying & merchandising, Shopper’s Stop.

As women have changed, so has the marketer’s outlook. Bijoor underscores that change. “In earlier days of marketing, a woman was confined to two rooms — the kitchen and the bathroom. So women came in the ads for toiletries, soaps, shampoos, washing powders and toothpaste or were seen in the kitchen selling appliances, cookers, food, beverages and detergents.”

Tara Prabhakar, associate director, Technopak Advisors, agrees that women will become an important segment for traditional male categories. However, the actual targeting of women for these products is usually an “after-thought”.

However, at the rate at which marketers are turning out women-special schemes the day is not far when Women’s day will be as besotted as the Valentine’s Day.