What's A Mangalsutra?

PICTURE the archetypal woman of the Eighties. She stared at you from every second commercial on TV. A harassed housewife, wiping her brow as she slaved to puff up a puri or take that stubborn stain off the white shirt. Her worth was directly proportional to her ability to please husband, children and mother-in-law. But, the Nineties. A plethora of ads sells everything from branded atta to Bikaneri bhujia to washing machines. Ads of frozen vegetables and masalas treat the housewife as smart enough to opt for quickfix solutions. "Convenience was a no-no five years ago. Women were expected to sweat. But convenience works today," says Kersy Katrak, executive creative director, Ammirati Puris Lintas.

If ads are to be believed, the urban Indian woman is undergoing a metamorphosis. "Her relationship with her husband is more egalitarian," says Katrak. Take for instance the Continental Coffee ad. Both wife and husband return from work. Wife plonks herself on sofa while husband fixes coffee. Wife asks why they need a new brand of coffee while husband looks at her for approval. Feels Deepa Kakkar, senior creative director, HTA: "The mother/ housewife is no longer the mangalsutra-wearing, hair-in-tight-bun self-effacing woman. Advertising is using more and more working women—often in western clothes—as the model housewife and mother who cares as much for her home and family as her counterpart of earlier years. She has mentally, figuratively and literally let her hair down."

So should ads be believed? Market research agency Path-finders recently conducted the largest-ever survey on the attitudes, interests and aspirations of the Indian woman. P-SNAP 97, conducted in 38 urban centres among 10,650 respondents, is an update on two studies on the woman consumer done in '87 and '93. "The eight clusters have remained the same, signalling that the broad set of values corresponding to income levels are similar but some values and nuances are emerging so fast and others declining so dramatically that a few clusters may become archaic by the time of the next survey," says Anand Varadarajan, president. Some of the changes:

TROUBLED HOMEBODY

She has neither the time nor the money or aspiration, education and confidence to better her lot. Caught in the rigmarole of making meals, packing lunch, sending off children to school and washing, cleaning and mopping, she doesn't identify with the good-looking, well-turned-out, smiling 'mommy' on the black and white TV screen and, therefore, doesn't buy or aspire to buy branded goods. She is more likely to buy toothpowder than toothpaste, washing soap than detergent, loose tea, loose oil and probably uses only soap and hair oil by way of personal care. Impulse buying: no-no. Fashion trends: irrelevant.

The good news, however, is that more and more women are getting out of this mould. In fact, the proportion of women in this cluster has halved from 16 per cent in 1987 to 8 per cent in 1997. Even among them, attitudes are changing. She would now rather invest in her daughter's education today than save for her tomorrow. She insists that boys should learn and share some household work.

TIGHTFISTED TRADITIONALIST

Very like the first group. She buys not because of ads or brands but is influenced somewhat by her children's advice. By and large, her basket of needs stays constant and she never splurges on non-necessities. But she is older than the troubled homebody and so is more set in her ideas and habits. But since the last survey four years ago, she has done a remarkable turnaround on issues like whether the man and the woman should know each other before marriage. She now wholeheartedly supports the idea. Together with the troubled homebody, she makes up one-third to one-fourth of India's woman population. The change: some 5 million women have shifted out of these two clusters in the lower income group.

CONTENTED CONSERVATIVE

She used to be found in North India but is now showing up in the rest of the country too. More housewives are joining this cluster both from below—the homebody and the traditionalist—as well as from the "provider" group above it. From a mere 7 per cent in 1987, she now comprises an astonishing 36 per cent in the 1997 survey. She might aspire for a job, but is mostly happy looking after the needs of the family. She exercises her choice in all household purchases and while she may not be very adventurous in trying out new brands, she asserts herself aggressively. She socialises more than before, has meals with the family and believes in enjoying life. She generally reports greater success in meeting objectives.

ARCHETYPAL PROVIDER

She was the southern sister of the North Indian conservative but is in real danger of getting extinct. This is the woman who believes in putting everybody before self. Her needs are secondary and she spends heavily, often overshooting practical needs, but it's all for the family. She invests a lot of time and money on non-traditional food and is perhaps more prone to experimental purchases than any other woman. However, already in 10 years time, her proportion in the population is down to less than 5 per cent. "More and more women are asserting themselves in household purchase decisions; more of them are defying the contention that a woman's main role in life is to have a good family and bring up children or that the needs of family members come before my own and more of them are doing things which are different from everyday routine," says Varadarajan.

ANXIOUS REBEL

She is in the ascendant. Caught between two worlds, her buying habits and values of sacrifice are like that of the conservative or provider but her exposure to lifestyles and attitudes of the higher strata create a conflict. Result: pessimism and frustration. Her personality type in the population has increased marginally from 14 per cent in 1987 to 16 per cent in 1993 and now 17 per cent.

CONTEMPORARY HOUSEWIFE

She was the largest cluster a decade back. She is the smallest now. She probably has a job and some help with domestic work. She is better educated and informed and exposed to a wide variety of media. She shops avidly and likes to stay in touch with changing products and fashion trends. She is iconoclastic and perhaps even less religious than the income strata higher than her. However, given the multiplicity of fashion trends, proliferation of brands, cultural invasion through the various media, she is becoming rarer to find. The cluster strength has come down from 22 per cent in 1993 to 5 in 1997.

GREGARIOUS HEDONIST

She is young, liberal with money, successful and confident. She is self-indulgent and squirms at the image of the self-sacrificing bharatiya nari. Adventurous with brands, she spends more than she saves, and uses all categories of personal care products. She is a great one for buying what her friends buy, the designers they patronise and the trends they endorse. In that sense, she is a follower: often depending on the advice of the shopowner for purchases. Her cluster has reduced marginally from 9 per cent in the Eighties to 7 per cent in the Nineties.

AFFLUENT SOPHISTICATE

She is more leader than follower: a highly educated, self-assured and successful working woman. Her choice of products and services is almost never influenced by extraneous factors. She values quality at a price and is confident of shopping alone. She is the one who raises a storm when products don't match up to expectations. Her position remains stationary at 7 per cent.

How well do these findings reflect reality? Well, one thing's for sure, as Kakkar puts it: "The Indian woman is no longer a statistic. She has gone far beyond that. She can no longer be classified by income, age etc, she is now a thinking individual with greater awareness and rising new aspirations."