Working women become favourite customers

Working women need a family doctor, says a billboard advertisement of a healthcare service provider in Hyderabad.

And in just a few words you are made to realise that in the era of more number of women becoming bread-winners and not just income-supporters for their families, the advertising and marketing fraternity has astutely found a new consumer group to target.

Ranging from cosmetics and skincare companies to even hotels and banks "� working women have become the new target audience for all and sundry. So either new products and services are being developed for them or the old ones are being rehashed and rebranded as ones that can cater to them.

Says Michelle Perry, boutique manager of Mont Blanc in Hyderabad, "Earlier women comprised a minuscule portion of our total consumers considering that we were known only for luxury pens. But now we have diversified into many products ranging from wallets and bags to even watches and belts. Besides working women, who are willing to spend as hard as they work, are no longer rare to find. So we ourselves are surprised to find that they comprise 40 per cent of our total customers."

Banking on this front, Perry says that Mont Blanc will soon be coming out with a new range of products in October exclusively targeting the working women.

French cosmetics and skincare major, Clarins, has also come out with new treatments at their Beauty Studios for those who consider time a luxury. Called Express Face and Body Zone Treatments, these beauty massages are for those in a hurry.

"Working women can get treatments in 30 minutes for particular areas like face, eye contour or back, besides scalp, neck and shoulders," says Lina Ong, regional institute manager, Asia for Clarins. Any other beauty treatment at Clarins Beauty Studio would otherwise take a minimum of one hour, she adds.

Banks do not lag behind either. Recently, Andhra Bank signed a memorandum of understanding with Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) to co-finance projects related to the SME sector, service sector and infrastructure. While the interest rate for co-financing the projects was stated to be 10 per cent, women entrepreneurs have been given the advantage of a 0.5 per cent concession.

And in this race for wooing the earning female fraternity, another entity that has hopped in is the hospitality major ITC-Welcomgroup, which has actually reserved rooms for working women who are travelling single.

Called Eva Floor, the brand not only boasts of special traveller kits that include items like safety clips, nail file and entangling comb but also videophones in rooms to ensure that the single woman can check who's on the door before answering the bell. Besides, the section is manned at the entry/exit points and can be accessed only by swiping one's room keys.

Kuldeep Bhartee, general manager at ITC Hotel Kakatiya Sheraton and Towers, sums it up by saying, "Single lady executives are frequent visitors to our hotel. And although our ordinary rooms would have otherwise been safe and comfortable for them too, we just thought that this way we could make them feel special."