BA1520: Interpreting Management and Markets and Consumption Assignment

BA1520: Interpreting Management and Markets and
Consumption
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Table of Content
Selection……………………………………………………..3
Description…………………………………………………..3
Analysis……………………………………………………...4
Conclusion…………………………………………………..5
References…………………………………………………..6
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Selection
Hindustan Unilever (HUL) that is a famous Indian manufacturing brand recently announced
that it will alter its product brand name of Fair and lovely to Glow and Lovely. This sudden
effort to change the name of the company’s famous product name was taken in order to
eradicate all forms of titles that point towards “skin lightening “, “whitening of skin”, “fair
skin” and all such racist references. The company stated that in the coming months Glow and
Lovely will take over market shelves and will work towards delivering a future oriented
innovation. When HUL announced the change of name for Fair and Lovely, its president
stated that the company has been striving towards bringing an evolution in the brand that
aims to celebrate and promote a skin that glows radiantly no matter what colour it is of.
The name changing marketing initiative taken by HUL for Fair and lovely was appreciated by
some while criticised by others. This initiative by the company stems from the increasing
protests against a social issue of racism, “Black Lives Matter”, which emerged in the United
States. Since these protests and riots the brand Fair and Lovely has been taken under a lot of
criticism for fuming the idealisation of fair or white skin tone. The company therefore
declared that the brand will change its name to demonstrate a more positive perspective of the
product that it is manufacturing and selling. The word fair was criticised to promote and
inflate discrimination against those who have a darker skin tone. This discrimination is
extremely common in the eastern societies especially in countries like India and Pakistan.
Keeping this aspect in view and in answer to the growing concern of the world against racism
the brand was renamed.
HUL has now endorsed a new marketing campaign under its brand Glow and Lovely which
is ‘Mere Glow Ko Na Roko’. A slogan that aims to specify that a glowing and radiant skin
can boost a woman’s confidence irrespective of her skin tone. This marketing campaign is
promoted through a digital advertisement. In the advertisement, a music artist named Deepa
Unnikrishnan reflects on her journey towards becoming a rapper. Despite facing terrible
norms of the society where women are judged for doing almost everything that is different or
not common in the culture. The campaign has hooked on the ideology of granting women
freedom and rights to choose what they believe is right for them, not for society. Their
campaign aims to celebrate the inclusivity and individuality of women which is an extremely
important aspect for societies in the East. The company’s owner stated that through such a
campaign under a highly recognised and used product grants the company a platform to
promote innovation within the society. They want to promote change and evolution so that
women are no more held by the shackles of irrelevant norms of the society. To serve this
purpose it was necessary to recreate the vision and standards of beauty that the society has
formulated. A vision that hails positivity and inclusivity was required and hence the brand
aimed to serve such parameters to bring a change. Also, this change was necessary for the
company to thrive as a brand as fairness creams were being greatly criticised. The brand had
to come with something that aligns with the changing perspective of the society.
Description
Fair and Lovely was introduced in India by HUL in 1975. Since then the brand continued
gaining market value by advertising a product that whitens women skin tone and makes them
look beautiful. This fed the ideology of the society that fair skin tone is a sign of beauty and
holds a higher virtue. However, with the emerging protests entitled by ‘Black Lives Matter’
the brand also came up with an act of responsibility towards the society to confer promoting
any sort of ideology that serves discrimination. Realising this responsibility it started making
advertisements that no longer included the famous shade card which showed the dark skin
tone changing to fair. It also changed the ritual of choosing a fair skin tone model as the
advertisements that followed after the brand changing initiative had models that were tan.
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This effort was regarded as manipulative since just by changing the name or eradicating the
word fair cannot change the fact that the brand has always promoted whitening of skin tone
be it any word they use, fair or glow.
To combat this and to make sure that the society understands the brand’s changing
perspective, the campaign, ‘Mere Glow ko na roko’, was launched via an advertisement. The
brand now holds to the integrity of portraying diverse beauty. The advertisement promoted
that freedom and inclusivity defines women not the conventional standards of beauty that the
society has formulated. The campaign has been regarded as compelling and credible since it
was successful to trigger the society with a different perspective. The content focuses on the
internal traits and beauty of a woman and not on the external appearance. An aspiration has
been evoked that defines reality, integrity and strength despite all differences and
divergences.
Analysis
The name changing initiative by HUL is a very smart marketing campaign. The change of
name followed by change of perspective through the advertising marketing campaign “Mere
Glow Ko Mat Roko” plays a very pivotal role in shifting the brand’s years of ideology to a
new philosophical perspective. The brand understood that in such a progressive society,
promoting a product based on norms of society would not serve them right. Therefore, Glow
and lovely targets the psychological mindset of the consumers as well as the retailers. The
following benefits can be analysed for the brand by taking initiating a campaign based on a
social concern:
Firstly, the marketing campaign as well the name change serves the critical mindsets of the
global market. Products like fairness creams have no value in the global market. Protests
against racism caused Fair and lovely to catch a lot of negative criticism from the well aware,
literate part of the society. The brand took a sensible approach to align themselves with the
changing perspective of the society. It feeds the psychological aspect of the society that the
brand stands with social concerns and feel responsible to promote them by whatever possible
means. This triggers the sentiments of society and aims to grant more competitive advantage.
Secondly, the responsible initiative by the brand shares a social message. Fair and lovely had
been one of those brands that almost every social strata has an access to. With a sudden
replacement of the word fair, the mindset of every consumer will definitely be triggered that
now when the global society is fighting to combat years of discriminatory norms. A social
message is served when consumers buy the product with the word “fair” replaced and when
they see the transition in the brand’s advertisement with no shade card and a tan model! All
this indirectly sends a message to the Indian and other Eastern societies where beauty has
always been associated with fair skin tone.
The brand now aims to promote a perspective that women should feel beautiful and
comfortable in whatever, skin, colour or size they have. Therefore, endorsing a brand
marketing campaign such as ‘Mere Glow ko Na Roko’ aims to eradicate and confer the fake
standards regardless beauty that society has developed.
The strategy that HUL has adopted is regarded as Marketing Consciousness. This attempt by
the company aims to satisfy not only the public that consumes their products but all the
general public. The concept of marketing consciousness has three divisions, C1, C2 and C3
respectively. The first division, Consciousness 1 or C1, defines marketing conventionally. It
states that marketing revolves only around buying or selling a product through monetary
exchange. The second marketing consciousness, C2, gives the suggestion that monetary
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exchange or payment is not a necessary part of product exchange. Marketing is wide platform
that deals with a particular group of consumer that can be related to any general concept like
family planning; to educate young couples about birth control and population control, and a
concept that HUL has initiated that is to promote an aspect of beauty which is real and
positive. Consciousness 3 is the division of marketing consciousness which proclaims that
marketing is not just a platform for the consumers but it also serves to actively take in part
with the activities and concerns of the government, key market suppliers, community,
banking sector so on and so forth. HUL has focused its strategic marketing campaign based
on consciousness 2. This is because the brand has taken an initiative to support the social
views regarding skin whitening and other irrelevant beauty standards. Women in countries
like India and Pakistan have faced discrimination due to having a dark skin for so many
years. This has been the cause of many suicidal attempts as well as psychological issues like
social anxiety, depression, stress etc.
HUL has aimed to apply the strategy of branding as well. This strategy makes the consumers
of the brand understand the aims and objectives of the company so that they know what
they’re buying. There are two major benefits that branding provides. Firstly it renders
functional benefits. These aims to highlight the components that consumer is receiving from
the brand and its utility. On the other hand, emotional benefits deals with the consumers
viewpoint regarding the product supply and what it has to offer. This aspect is extremely
necessary to consider for a company because people generally prefer to buy something that
aligns with their concepts and values. By promoting a different outlook for the society and
making an effort to make women know that every skin colour has the right to be radiant and
smooth and that they all have the right to feel beautiful inside out.
Another major concept that originates from HUL’s Glow and Lovely marketing campaign is
relationship marketing. This strategy is about developing a long term, trustworthy
relationship with consumers. Just like fair and lovely had been a part of majority of the
society the brand aims to make Glow and Lovely equally important since now it aims to
promote a positive perspective of beauty and to refine some toxic beauty standards of the
society. In general, changing a large step such as that of brand name changing to support a
social cause is extremely a positive step that HUL has taken and undoubtedly has been
successful to trigger a positive aspect of beauty standards within the Indian society and
culture.
Conclusion
When HUL announced the change of name for Fair and Lovely, its president stated that the
company has been striving towards bringing an evolution in the brand that aims to celebrate
and promote a skin that glows radiantly no matter what colour it is of. This initiative by the
company stems from the increasing protests against a social issue of racism, “Black Lives
Matter”, which emerged in the United States. The brand has launched a new slogan that aims
to specify that a glowing and radiant skin can boost a woman’s confidence irrespective of her
skin tone. The advertisement promoted that freedom and inclusivity defines women not the
conventional standards of beauty that the society has formulated. HUL has adopted is
regarded as Marketing Consciousness. It has aimed to apply the strategy of branding as well.
A third major concept that originates from HUL’s Glow and Lovely marketing campaign is
relationship marketing. The brand has taken an initiative to support the changing concepts of
the society and by doing so it has proven that it aims to stand with every progressive step that
Indian society strives to take.
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References
Gohar, S. (2020). Why Fair and Lovely Name Changed: What Is The New Name? [online]
XperimentalHamid. Available at: https://xperimentalhamid.com/news/trending/fair-and-
lovely-name-changed/ [Accessed 28 Jan. 2021].
Jones, L. (2020). Unilever drops “fair” from skin cream after backlash. BBC News. [online]
25 Jun. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53178088.
NBC News. (n.d.). Skin lightening cream “Fair & Lovely” to change name after backlash.
[online] Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/skin-lightening-cream-
fair-lovely-change-name-after-backlash-n1232124.
NPR.org. (n.d.). “Fair & Lovely” Skin Lightening Brand, Popular In South Asia, To Change
Name. [online] Available at: https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-
justice/2020/06/25/883322883/fair-lovely-skin-lightening-brand-popular-in-south-asia-to-
change-name.
The Indian Express. (2020). Explained: Why dropping the “Fair” from Fair & Lovely matters
– or does it? [online] Available at: https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/fair-and-
lovely-rebranding-hindustan-lever-racism-protests-6476480/.
Women’s Web: For Women Who Do. (2020). Fair & Lovely Changes Its Name, But What
Changes For Dark Skinned Women In India? [online] Available at:
https://www.womensweb.in/2020/07/fair-and-lovely-name-change-julywk1av/ [Accessed 28
Jan. 2021].
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