It’s time for more diversity

Does advertising in India cater to the diversity of people that inhabits the country? Not very often, if you were to look at the majority of the ads. There have been attempts, of course, in recent years. Beverage majors are a major example of brands signing on regional stars in the South to endorse their wares, hoping for a better connection to the audiences they target.

Watch brand Fastrack and online retail brand Anouk have been in the news for their ads portraying women in same-sex romantic relationships. A Tanishq ad made waves for choosing a dark-skinned model to act in a commercial that suggested that the protagonist was a mother getting remarried.

These ads are also an attempt to speak the language of the socially aware at a time when issues such as discrimination and LGBT rights are the topics of much discussion on social media and political correctness assumes much importance.

cat.a.lyst spoke to two ad men to explore how they view diversity in the world of marketing communication. Dheeraj Sinha, Chief Strategy Officer – South Asia, Leo Burnett, says the problem lies not in ads, but in targeting the right audience for the business. Segments beyond this have been ignored.

There are 27-29 million people in the three socio-economic classes. In the last two or three decades, though, the segment being wooed is largely the 25-45 SEC A and B customers. Senior citizens are ignored. The 15-25 year olds have no true blue icons, the youth icons are 45-50, he says.

Partha Sinha, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, McCann Worldgroup, says Indians always have a dual identity, one national, the other defined by language and ethnicity. The latter is stronger, and often people take huge pride in it. Even within that, there is a socio-religious identity.

“The most grassroots form of marketing is an election,” observes Sinha, adding that it entails having to get every single person to vote.

“It is never a national thing. Whoever can do a better tie-up with the local parties ends up forming the government.”

Sinha says that barring the national anthem, the defence forces and cricket, he has not seen any other entity for which people across the country share much passion and pride.

“Their national identity comes from their pride in and passion for the national anthem, the Army and cricket,” he says, adding that he cannot think of a truly diverse marketing effort other than the elections.

The only time companies look at marketing based on local insights is when they are not doing well in some markets, he says. “What passes for universal insight is mostly from the Hindi-speaking belt,” he adds. Wouldn't it be costly for marketers to make regional ads as well as Hindi and English ads? “It may be untenable but if you have to do justice to the market, you have to do it,” he says.

Dheeraj Sinha says that if the products are different, then different propositions are necessary, otherwise there is no sense in having different ads. Women are buying cars, but except for beauty products, very little advertising targets them.

“The moment we see business potential in niches, we should target them. There’s mainstream myopia,” he says, adding that no one is targeting niches as they are busy chasing the conventional markets.

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