In the latest marketing craze, companies are launching products especially targeting women who have money to spend and are most likely insecure about themselves–that’s why they may be unhealthy in the first place and aren’t interested in proper nutrition.
If food companies in India were looking for a fair deal, they seem to have found one. While women have been a preferred consumer constituency for beauty and fashion majors, now food majors such as Kellogg’s, Amul and GlaxoSmithKline have begun to target them in the right earnest.
Leveraging on the growing concern about health & nutrition among Indian women, FMCG companies are aggressively pushing niche products to address specific needs of this consumer segment.
While the intentions sound good, do not be fooled–mind you, the companies are pushing aggressively. While I am a total proponent of eating healthfully, I do not think this requires new and improved variations of what nature provides. Rather, the problem of poor nutrition is more than likely (excluding for the moment the case of women who can’t afford to eat well) the rise of processed foods and other poor eating and lifestyle habits. So the solution offered by the same companies that cause the problem in the first place is more manufactured junk! Ok, while they might add extra vitamins and minerals like calcium, etc, they also add tons of preservatives and sugar which customers certainly don’t need. If you really want extra vitamins, eat extra fruit and veg!
“For the 12 crore obese urban women, Special K will be a tasty solution to keep a check on their weight.â€
According to Shubhajit Sen, vice-president, marketing, GSK, it is an appropriate time to come out with products for women since their role is dramatically changing and nothing specific is available in market to address their ever-changing demands. “We see a huge opportunity in coming out with ‘women only’ products in food and beverage segment,†he says.
“We are positioning the drink for health-conscious women across socio-economic classes who face similar problems.â€
Hm, something tells me they don’t really mean ‘across socio-economic classes’, unless they are talking about middle and upper classes. I’m pretty sure they’re the only ones who could afford the stuff, which brings me to the other aspect of women’s malnutrition–that which is due to poverty and gender discrimination.
Basically the rhetoric is that they’re trying to fulfill the unmet need for health-conscious women, but all they really care about is the ‘huge opportunity’ of money these women will spend. Also interesting is the reference to how women’s role is changing ‘dramatically’, which automatically insinuates that they need special processed products to address their ‘ever-changing demands’.
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