WHAT WOMEN REALLY WANT...?

Grocery brands attempting to attract female consumers are having a difficult time these days. Over 5,000 new grocery products were launched last year, but many of these items are now languishing on the shelf because they aren’t making a difference to busy women’s lives.
The problem? Australian FMCG companies are not innovating their products
WHAT WOMEN REALLY WANT
Tips for gaining attention in Australian grocery aisles.
enough to meet women’s evolving needs and the products aren’t enticing enough to make women change their shopping behaviour.
In a recent study of 500 homemakers, Research International found that women perceive the grocery aisles as a ‘jungle’ they must navigate. There’s too much choice at times and they aren’t about to buy unless they see a benefit for themselves in the product. Line extensions with new packaging/flavours, etc. were not enough to entice these women in many cases.
To be successful with a new product, businesses need greater insight into their consumers and should strive to make something that hasn’t been seen before.
To help its own clients gain insights into the minds of female consumers, Research International staff conducted in-person and online interviews with homemakers aged 25-45 to determine what innovations in various grocery categories had excited them over the past two years.
In the study women said they wanted:
Products that simplified their lives;
Products that offered genuine improvements;
Ingenious innovations;
Products that offered health and wellbeing support, and
Traditional products that offered contemporary twists.
Here are some innovation tips and standout products from the past two years that Research International gleaned from the respondents:
Make it better
If you’ve innovated a product, women will expect better quality. They love a genuine improvement product that can address their unmet needs or dissatisfaction levels. A winner in this category was NapiSan OxyAction Max which was lauded for its multipurpose qualities as a stain remover and soaking product for both colours and whites. Coke Zero was also highlighted as a genuine improvement product because it simply eliminates a problem: it offers the taste of a real cola without the sugar and calories.
Provide convenient solutions
Women say they want to reduce the complexity of their lives where they are always ‘on’ and multi-tasking. They are looking for products and services that make their life easier, and No part of these materials may be used, reproduced or adapted without the prior written consent of the copyright owner. All rights reserved
help them on the go. However, women are also seeking quick, easy to make products that that are healthier.
For example Philadelphia Lite Cream Cheese Mini Tubs were singled out for being healthier, easy to eat on the go, ideal for their convenient individual packed size and ‘no waste’ proposition.
Purchasing flour in paper bags is always a bit fraught in Australia with the ‘wildlife’ that lurks in the cupboards. Women praised Healthy Baker Flour for having the foresight to put their flour in a plastic container. Safcol Tuna stood out in the canned tuna category by simply offering a convenient ring top in a ‘category that is frustrating consumers with way too much choice.’
Make it ingenious
Here’s a tricky, but worthwhile one: provide groundbreaking innovation to reduce the complexity of women’s lives. Women know these innovations don’t come along every day and they appreciate it when they do. Often the new products that women liked in this category were simple innovations that made people go ‘a ha!’ or ‘why didn’t I think of it?’
The stand out in this category was Old El Paso Stand ‘n’ Stuff Shells because a busy cook can cram meat into the taco shell without the shell breaking apart, making for less kitchen stress. Another product they loved was the convenience of Nestle coffee and milk together in one toothpaste style pack or cup.
However, if you can’t make it ingenious, respondents suggested: “be acute or do a small thing really well.”
Satisfy multiple needs
Research International found that time has compressed women to think beyond the single-minded proposition when it comes to products. If you can offer women a product that offers many benefits in one, you’ll get their attention. For example, New Dettol Instant Hand Sanitizer was praised for being a good product to have on the go and for travelling when there’s no water around for hand washing. Respondents said this product offered a real insight: there’s never any water around when your hands are dirty!
Another product that they singled out was Johnson’s new Holiday Skin Body Lotion which gives consumers both softened skin and a gradual tan, providing more benefits than before and without losing anything from the original.
Nudie Juices were praised for offering both good taste and health benefits while being easy to consume ‘on the go.’
Offer contemporary twists on a traditional product
Time-honoured values survive, but the time to honour them in the traditional way hasn’t. The smart brand manager will be looking to innovate on long-established products that smack of old fashioned qualities, but can be made quickly in today’s time-pressed world.
Betty Crocker’s Just Add Milk cookies and muffin mixes fit the bill here for many women. Betty Crocker is an established name and the new cookie and muffin mixes promise treats that taste homemade in just minutes. Ditto Green’s The Original Pancake Shake whereby the consumer adds water to a pancake mix in a jug and has a traditional looking pancake mix ready to cook in one minute.
Keep it fun/sensory
But it’s not all about convenience and time pressures. Women enjoy a bit of fun, indulgence and exciting sensory experiences when it comes to grocery products. They crave real and pure ingredients and intense flavours. Two products that stood out for our respondents were Yulla Chocolate and Pods, highlighted for their real and delicious chocolate taste.
Give them health and wellbeing, but on their own terms
Women seek harmony, balance and to avoid stress. Today in food and beverage products, women are looking for authentic and pure products with specific added health benefits. It may be a question of going back to basic and pure ingredients, including the use of authentic materials or processes, to create a new sense of health. Holistic and spiritual benefits were a bonus, they said.
Balance Oxygen Enriched Water and Nudie Juices were singled out by the women for providing these health benefits.
What don’t they like?
Researchers gleaned that women were wary of new products and solutions that bring new problems. Worse were those products that get it half right, but lose the insight along the way. They also complained about too many products on the shelves, category confusion, copycat products, range extensions on range extensions and the over packaging and wasting of resources.
From the findings, researchers now believe that marketing and brand managers should adopt an innovation compass when working on new products targeted to women. The compass has three components: study Australian women’s fast evolving needs, look at the changing significance of the category and understand the cultural context that drive women’s expectations of innovations.
The conclusion? Australian FMCG companies need to be less introspective, take a few more risks and make more effective use of their innovation budgets so they can glean a better understanding of their female consumers.

INDIAN RUPEE HAS A NEW AVATAR

So our very own Indian rupee has a new avatar. Like the US dollar, pound, euro and the yen, the Indian rupee joins the elite group of countries which will now have its own unique symbol. It will now be recognized as the Hindi alphabet R with two lines running across it, setting us rightly apart from the Pakistan, Nepaland Sri Lanka rupee. Now this is something which China has not done and India has done!



And once again the elite engineering college of India has proved that it has some of the best brains in the country. The approved design, which will, hopefully, become a part of Indian history, immortalizes IIT post-graduate Udaya Kumar, whose design was finally chosen from the 5 shortlisted ones. Apart from a permanent name in history, he also gets a reward of Rs.2.5 lakhs.



Information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni said, “It is just a symbol". Is that what all this hullabaloo was all about, just being a symbol?



There are some who feel that giving this unique identification to the Indian rupee reiterates India’s footprints on the path of economic liberalization. The symbol is expected to get international recognition on the lines of other world currencies. Infact many are so optimistic that they feel the new symbol gives India a fair chance to establish itself as a currency of choice for the international community and enhance the image of the country.



Now that is being far fetched under any yardstick. A country’s currency can become the preferred choice in the international community only if economically it offers a scope for growth and makes trading in the currency a viable option. Why is the US dollar the preferred currency despite all the upheavals, which actually emerged from its very own Wall Street? It had nothing to do with the symbol, it was more about what the country offered – economically.



Yes, having a symbol enhances the image of the country. It gives more joy to know that keyboards on computers will now carry the rupee symbol, maybe in another six months. That is a huge image booster. And yes, also the fact that perceived strength of India, as a brand will go up but will add no value to the actual strength of the rupee.



The symbol is another roar, proclaiming India’s arrival on the international economic arena. Whether the symbol manages to give strength to the rupee or not, well, that a mere rebranding cannot do!

rail budget 2010

Dismissing suggestions that the Rail Budget
was West Bengal-centric, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Wednesday that those raising the issue are ‘humiliating’ the state and advised journalists not to ask ‘politically manipulative’ questions.

"Do not humiliate (West) Bengal" by parroting it," Banerjee said on being asked whether special attention has been given in the Budget for her home state with an eye on Assembly elections next year. "Your question is totally politically manipulative," she said in an outburst during her post-Budget media briefing.

Banerjee, who was repeatedly interrupted by MPs in the Lok Sabha during her speech, said she cannot “satisfy 800 people (MPs)... I have given wagon industry to Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Guwahati". The maximum number of projects have been given to other states, she said.

However, Banerjee said that West Bengal "cannot be left out from the development" and she has to take up the cause of the state like other ministers do for their home states. "Do you think Bengal should be left out from the development ?" she asked.

The major announcements relating to West Bengal are in regard to expansion of Kolkata Metro Network, port connectivity, proposed introduction of 'Sanskriti Express' to mark 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore as also 'Bharat Tirath' trains. More superfast non-stop 'Duronto' trains would be introduced from the state. Besides, West Bengal figures prominently in other plans like new lines and doublings of tracks.

womens are still pinky and sparkling

Most men also believe that women go for the pink and glittery gadget over the smarter gadget.

Shubhra Sinha, Managing Director, Marketing Globalization at Cisco says that although she may not necessarily go for pink and glittery gadgets, she definitely likes different colour and skin choices when it comes to gadgets.

Since gadget companies seem to find it difficult to design, produce and market products to women without resorting to stereotypes, their current strategy is that if they are making gadgets for women, it must be pink or sparkly. Vista, a California based company, which was started by two women, says that it has earphones and iPod cases that are available in colors such as Bubble Gum and Pomegranate Purple and studded with Swarovski crystals!

But according to most women, this is one the most ancient stereotypical description of women's interests. "Come on, the new metrosexual man also likes these things, don't they?" responded one gadget freak.

Sangeetha Phalgunan, Managing Director of Serena Software 'completely disagrees.' "I like sleek gadgets in basic black, and those which serve the purpose," says Sangeetha. Hemu Ramaiah, Founder and former CEO of Landmark when asked what she feels about companies coming out with specially designed products for women, replied that it is nothing but a "waste of time for people like her."

Pallavi Arora, Manager, Software Development at Cisco Systems reiterates this when she says, "Pink is a preferred colour for young children and not adults. I would instead like to see someone come up with more women friendly cell phones."

More interestingly, the connection between women and tech gadgets does not end here. Most of the women professionals that Siliconindia spoke to revealed that, not only do they discuss tech products with their colleagues, but they also follow the developments in this by reading reports about the latest releases.

Changing trends

According to a recent study by the NPD Group, women account for 40 percent of consumer-electronics spending. In fact, the Consumer Electronic Show this year featured more products wrapped in aesthetics meant to appeal to women.