Cultural Norms, Fair & Lovely and Advertising !

1.1 ETHICS IN MARKETING

Ethical marketing is less of a marketing strategy and more of a philosophy that informs all marketing efforts. It seeks to promote honesty, fairness, and responsibility in all advertising (Marketing-Schools.org, n.d.). Most ethics discussions revolve around moral values of good and bad, right and wrong, which can vary significantly depending on your spiritual, religious, and cultural backgrounds. (Penn, 2016). In today’s marketplace, ethical practice is regarded as one of the most valuable traits that a company must have to survive and to do sustainable business. According to Christopher S. Penn, behaving in an ethical manner is the cornerstone of long-term profitability. Historically, many products failed, many marketing communication failed due to ethical practices.

1.2. ETHICAL POINT OF VIEW REGARDING FAIRNESS PRODUCTS

It is commonly known that fairness creams that are available in the market are only bleach products and have a very insignificant effect on human skins. It is proven by the dermatologists and acknowledged by the doctors as well. Now here lies the question of whether it is ethical to sell these products as a marketer knowing all the facts.

There is a huge intellectual dilemma of whether fairness products and their marketing policies are ethical or unethical. As mentioned earlier, the concept of right or wrong varies from culture to culture, person to person. People often tend to create their own sets of ethical perceptions and justifies their actions. Companies that sell these products will guard themselves by stating that the product is effective (skipping the degree of effectiveness of the product). From an ethical point of view, they will defend themselves by mentioning that these products are not creating any damage to the consumers. They rather call it a marketing success that they are doing such an enormous business. All they are doing is placing their product in marketing where there is a massive demand for this product.

In contrast with the above ideology, some people say it unethical to sell and market these types of products highly because of their marketing communication. First, companies deceive customers by mentioning a bleach product as a fairness product, which rarely has any impact on skin tone. Secondly, the company’s use of communications is discriminatory in terms of gender, race & physical attributes. A significant portion of the marketing communication of these products portrays discrimination. Countries with strong consumer rights bodies are already raising voice against such communications and eventually initiating a positive change in the mindset of consumers.

Today’s marketers are very concerned about their ethics and social responsibilities. Marketers are reconsidering their relationships with social values and responsibilities in the direction of consumerism and environmentalism. Consumers are hoping for marketer’s products when marketers retain their ethics positively; customers are more loyal and develop a positive attitude to those marketers.

Good marketing practices carry on society's acceptance is a more effective marketing practice. In any kind of marketing will success depends on advertising success.

In this case, study HLL had maintained its market leadership after launched a series of advertising where they displayed a woman with fair skin is more attractive, confident, skilled, and higher social class. In India, skin color is a more powerful thing. Asian people believe that fair-skinned woman is beautiful and they are the perfect candidate for the groom. In India Brahmins, caste people have fair skin and a lower class person has two dark skin because they work outside.

Therefore, HLL strategy ‘Fair and lovely is a miracle worker’ is manipulating to demeaning cultural practice and executed advertisement is an unethical and racist way.

As to address that the issue is selling a product that is, at best, only mildly effective is not a good business practice.

As a consumer point of view a consumer buys any product based on advertisement influence, that time they are not buying the product, they are buying their latent dream.

For HLL fair and lovely selling a dream to the customer is ‘ Use Fair and Lovely Get Fair Skin’ and based on that consumer purchased 25 gm tube of fair and lovely cream in 25 rupees to get her fair skin so that she can be more attractive and more presentable to society.

On the other hand, in the case study mentioned an Indian dermatologist pointed out that fairness products do not work truly as they reach the upper layers of the skin and so do not affect melanin production. This type of fairness cream gives them short-term fairness. The main reason is most of these contain a certain amount of bleaching agent, which whitens facial fair and not the skin, which leads people to believe that the cream works.

Therefore, fair and lovely cream can be mildly effective for external beautification for short-term purposes.

Over time customers complained that it does not work as they promoted in advertisements and they lost customer trust. Most important thing HLL fair and lovely advertisement demented woman and exploitation cultural norms by misleading message about society and divided by social class and promoting son preference to represent dark women are not skilled or capabilities to get a job.

In the end, we can sell a product that is mildly effective is unethical, it will give short time profit benefits, but in a long run, it will not sustain because of losing customer trust and loyalty.

2. CULTURAL NORMS AND VALUES TO PROMOTE A PRODUCT

2.1 Culture:

Culture is defined from the way of speaking, dressing styles, believes, norms, values, and thinking level of a particular group of people. Examining the culture of a particular country means analysis of a countries lifestyle, living standard, way in which they do each activity from morning to evening. Even in a particular country because of geographical and religious differences, the culture of various groups of people is different from another. Believes, values, judgment, and norms are also included in identifying the terms of culture.

According to some specialists, culture can be defined as follows:

? Culture is a continuously changing totality of learned and shared meanings, rituals, norms, and traditions among the members of an organization or society.

? Set of commonly held values, a way of life of a group of people includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and habits.

? Everything that people have, think, and do as members of their society.

? An integrated system of learned behavior patterns that are characteristic of the members of any given society. Svend Hollensen (2011) has explained in a delightful manner that culture usually includes every religion, caste, education group. Along with this, it is also affected by different forces mainly like political technological legal and economic staff. Therefore vitality of culture of the intense necessity for the multinational shareholders while managing the customers who communicate in numerous languages or believe in different religions the investors can plan about how to go with their plan on the points where the consumers are differentiated. However, the problem, which investors need to identify, is the attitude and values of consumers in various countries across the globe.

2.2 Cultural Norms:

Cultural norms give people a sense of order and control in their lives as well as a sense of safety and belonging. Cultural norms may encompass communication style, whom to marry and how, child-rearing practices, or interaction between generations.

2.3 Cultural Values: 

Commonly held standards of what is acceptable or unacceptable, important or unimportant, right or wrong, workable or unworkable, etc., in a community or society.

In the culture of India and many other Asian countries, fair skin represents a higher status. Girls with white skin get priority in getting jobs, marriage, and all other social benefits. On the other hand, dark-skinned girls get obstacles in all aspects of their life. They are humiliated and mortified from their own family. Their relatives, siblings, even parents badly treated for their skin, a fact over which they have no control. HLL took these cultural norms and values (situation) as an opportunity. They highlighted this “skin color” theme in their advertisement. The advertisement highlighted “Dark Skinned Girl” will not get any job and establish in their life. They can’t help their parents. Eventually, they offered a fairness cream that will make skin white and let the girls get rid of social misery. However, HLL’s approach to exploiting this cultural norm to promote its product was highly criticized by activists and associations. Because this approach is not ethical. Skin color can’t justify one’s value, intelligence, and dignity. According to Wikipedia: “An ad, which demonstrates ethical features, is truthful, it doesn’t make false claims, and it provides sufficient information for the buyer to make informed choices. Exhibiting a level of respect and dignity for its buyers is important while demonstrating decency.” Based on the above quote, we can say that HLL violated two ethical features of advertisement. They didn’t exhibit respect and dignity for their buyers. They humiliated dark-skinned girls. Secondly, their claims were false. Because, Indian dermatologists state that, fairness products can’t truly work as they reach only the upper layers of the skin and so don’t affect melanin production. Fairness obtained with the help of creams is short-lived. The main reason being, most of these creams contain a certain amount of bleaching agent, which whitens facial hair and not the skin. It let people believe that the cream worked. Thus HLL’s approach to exploiting cultural norms and values is unethical. 

3.0 ADVERTISING PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY FOR FAIR AND LOVELY VS OTHER COSMETICS BRAND

Advertising the public medium of a product, service, or event is very important for promoting and launching a product. Marketers should be careful about the cultural norms and values while planning for an advertisement. In this case, the advertisement of Fair & Lovely is a little controversial. The desire for beauty seems to be an ongoing issue, in any part of the world. And also every culture has a certain way to obtain. The ads presented from this company should be perceived as offensive to many women. As their advertisement shows fairness will bring beauty and performance. Fair & Lovely is demeaning women by this ad. Fair & Lovely shows only the light color of her skin brings success in her life but character, ability, opportunity are not defined by color. As a result, when Hindustan Lever Ltd. release the advertisement they received an initial complaint from AIWDA (All India Democratic Women's Association) because HLL failed to understand the dynamics of cultural effectiveness of the ad as they gave a message to young girls with the idea that if their skin was dark, they would not be loved as much which is not imperative at all. These tend to demean average Indian women who are dark-skinned. So the implication is that if a woman is dark-skinned and does not use Fair & Lovely that such a woman is not beautiful, confident, and will not have a good career. That is demeaning because the product is incapable of significantly enhances the physical appearance of a woman.

Although I believe good massage will come out from these adds that women will begin speaking to each other and standing up and showing young girls are how beautiful as they are. They will succeed in their life with their abilities, opportunities, and fortune.