With women stepping out of the household a lot more, brands that help them outsource kitchen chores will emerge winners.
At the turn of the 21st century, Thomas Friedman wrote about the flatness of the world. “Bangalored” entered the lexicon and the task of outsourcing backend activities of Western businesses threw open a spanking new dollar-generating vertical — business process outsourcing.
Until the eighties, banks managed all banking activities themselves; advertising agencies handled all facets of their clients’ accounts; organisations had MIS, recruitment, payroll as departments. Increasing competition required organisations to focus on customer-facing activities and outsource backend operations. Organisations slowly standardised delivery formats and quality of backend activities and sourced them out to focus on the front end — that of serving and winning the consumer. These outsourced activities are not obvious to the consumer’s eyes as the brands retained indirect control so that the brand experience isn’t compromised.
Though less obvious, but mirroring a similar change are the events in our households. The housewife of yore has now emerged as the home manager, who has started to step out to focus on several priorities — career, family, social networking — and in the process has welcomed outsourcing in her kitchen yet manages “home-cooked food” as her own brand, much like banks and other corporations.
Guarding her bastion
Today she relies on an assortment of ready-cut fruits and vegetables, ready pastes, batters and so on, which are ready to use, either from the door to door (D2D) lady or the supermarket. While she guards her bastion, that is, the brand — home-cooked, tasty and healthy food to the family — with her personal touch, she acknowledges the contribution of the maid/D2D lady/supermarket for chipping in with product and service options in the pre-preparation stage.
She takes the responsibility of maintaining and continuously enhancing the brand experience of home-cooked food much like the bank or the telecom company which outsources the unseen customer interface — payroll, business infrastructure and so on — but maintains and continuously strives to enhance the end consumer’s brand experience.
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While earlier having a maid was a luxury only a few could afford, with the evolution of the nuclear family, working couples, and erratic travel and office schedules, maids are a necessity in metros. Like the corporation, the housewife realises that evolving front-facing activities like kids’ education, their upbringing, her own “me” time and so on have started becoming more important.
The home manager first outsourced mundane household work like sweeping and cleaning of utensils. With priorities changing, kitchen work started getting outsourced. But the reins of the finished product remain firmly in her hands as the cooking is customised according to her family’s tastes and needs — which she guides, monitors and audits from time to time so it remains food cooked in “her” kitchen.
Kitchen’s backbone
Currently, the help providers multitasking and thereby adds more value at a lower cost. The way undersea broadband cables became the backbone on which back office operations were built, low-cost mobile telephony is the equivalent of what shaped domestic work outsourcing.
Metro households are already experiencing a shortage of household helps — with high wages and frequent dropouts. The 9 per cent GDP growth, rising aspirations and prosperity will lead to consumers continuously upgrading their status. So drivers will want to be chauffeurs and maids butlers, and every household will not be able to afford them.
The housewife wants to outsource most functions leading up to the frying pan — which then should merge seamlessly so that the end consumer, her family, deals with just one brand, home-cooked food. Brands should not attempt to take away credit from the household — as the food served hot on the table is blessed by her love. Credit for that should go to the housewife alone, because that is her brand promise to her family — maa ke haath ka khana. The family never worries about what has gone in the backend, that is, in the kitchen, before the food is served. The situation is just like a customer call to a company helpline that lands in a BPO but the consumer believes she is dealing with the brand.
A few examples where the homemaker actively seeks pre-preparation help are powdered mustard and mustard paste (the Bengali housewife), tamarind concentrate (Tamilian household), pre-cooked sarson-da-saag awaiting the final tadka (for the Punjabi family). Then there is garlic paste, bhuna masalas, tomato puree… you name it.
In this ever-changing economic scenario, brands that help the housewife put back quality time in her family allowing her to pursue her priorities will find takers. One thing is for sure: If the housewife has stepped out of the kitchen to multi-task, live her dreams and aspirations, she’s not going back full time into the kitchen. Outsourcing kitchen chores is here to stay or rather increase; brands just need to start matching her pace.
The author is head, private brands, Future Group