Fair & Lovely Case

1.      Is it Ethical to sell a product that is, at best, only mildly effective? Discuss.

Answer:

There are different reasons behind this.   

First, when an organization behaves ethically, customers develop more positive attitudes about the firm, its products, and its services. When marketing practices depart from standards that society considers acceptable, the marketing process becomes less efficient—sometimes it is even interrupted.

Second, ethical abuses frequently lead to pressure (social or government) for institutions to assume greater responsibility for their actions. As a result, consumer interest groups, professional associations, and self-regulatory groups exert considerable influence on marketing. Calls for social responsibility have also subjected marketing practices to a wide range of federal and state regulations designed to either protect consumer rights or to stimulate trade.

There are issues regarding different marketing practices but there should not any ethical issue in selling of products which are mildly effective. Product can be mildly effective to the customers and if customers are not willing to buy it then it is all right for them. But for less effective products, selling those in the market is not ethical is not right.

Fair & Lovely is a product which can be mildly effective, because it is used externally for the beautification purpose. If someone did not use it then that person will not die, as it is not a lifesaving product. It is used to have brighter skin which can be an advantage to someone or can be a desire to someone. There are not any laws that only the lifesaving of most effective product are ethical to sell. Products have various purpose of use. So if someone wants to sell a product which is mildly effective then that should not be recognized as unethical. People are free to do different business. Only because of mildly effective make a business unethical is totally injustice to that business.      

2.      Is it ethical to exploit cultural norms and values to promote a product? Discuss.

Answer:

Culture:

Culture generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. Cultures can be "understood as systems of symbols and meanings that even their creators contest, that lack fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another.

Culture is manifested in music, literature, lifestyle, painting and sculpture, theater and film and similar things. Although some people identify culture in terms of consumption and consumer goods (as in high culture, low culture, folk culture, or popular culture), anthropologists understand "culture" to refer not only to consumption goods, but to the general processes which produce such goods and give them meaning, and to the social relationships and practices in which such objects and processes become embedded. For them, culture thus includes art, science, as well as moral systems.

Cultural Norms:

Passed from one generation to the next, cultural norms are the shared, sanctioned, and integrated systems of beliefs and practices that characterize a cultural group. These norms foster reliable guides for daily living and contribute to the health and well-being of the group. As prescriptions for correct and moral behavior, cultural norms lend meaning and coherence to life, as well as the means to achieve a sense of integrity, safety and belonging. Thus, normative beliefs, together with related values and rituals, confer a sense of order and control upon aspects of life that might otherwise appear chaotic or unpredictable.

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.

We have found that there are different values for different culture. In some culture white skin is preferable in some culture black kin is preferable, in some culture sons are preferable and in some culture daughters are preferable and so on. Marketers use these different preferences and try to attract customers by showing customers desire without considering norms and values of any culture. At that time marketers only intention is to earn profit so they try to exploit cultural norms and values.

There are some rules and regulation regarding marketing promotions. There are also some rules regarding advertising. That rules describes what a marketer can do in their advertisement and what a marketer cannot do in their advertisement. It is not ethical to exploit any cultural norms or values through any advertisement. Advertisement is important for marketing promotion but by exploiting any cultural norms and values, it will not be accepted to all.

So we have found that this is not ethical to show or use any kind of advertisement which exploits cultural norms, values and other things to promote any kind of products. If any company does this kind of acts then they will be in a risk of any legal action by any other people and that may also cause a very bad reputation for the company for the future business. 

3.      Is the advertising of Fair & Lovely demeaning to women or is it portraying a product not too dissimilar to cosmetics in general?

Answer:

The desire for beauty seems to be an ongoing issue, in any part of the world. Every culture has a certain "look" that woman try to obtain. It really is getting to be rediculous. Here in America, all woman are trying to be thin or blonde or something that men desire. Many different celebrities have tried to break this mold by showing you dont have to be thin to be considered beautiful. After the Fair and Lovely ads, it seems that woman in Indian are trying to promote self beauty as well. 
The ads presented from this company should be perceived as offensive to many woman. The company took it too far, with presently young girls with the idea that if their skin was dark, they would not be loved as much.
Although I do believe good will come from these banned ads in that women will begin speaking and standing up for eachother, showing that young girls are beautiful as they are.

4.      Will HLL’s Fair & Lovely Foundation be enough to counter charges made by AIDWA? Discuss.

Answer:

Through its advertising Hindustand Lever Ltd. stated, in lament terms, the product is formulated to lighten skin by only one to three shades depending on the person. In marketing, however, there is a hidden message in everything- always something the advertisers and marketing agents don’t want you to know. If you read between the lines and try and make sense of things, you would know that a cream can’t penetrate deeper than the first few layers of skin, which ultimately cannot touch the levels where melanin rests to create skin pigmentation. Their marketing is ethical because they don’t false advertise.

The people of India look past all of the above justifications because they are so engulfed in the media hype and cultural norms. Society tells them its more socially acceptable to have fair skin, and their peers haunt and criticize those who don’t making them mental slaves to the concept of using skin creams and bleaches to lighten their complexions. 

It isn’t completely ethical to exploit such cultural norms and values to promote a product, but it’s still fair game in the business world. As long the advertisers and marketers comply with government regulations and as long as there is marketshare that is able to reap profits, marketers are going to try and fill the voids in their industry.

After concerns were raised by the AIDWA, HLL took appropriate steps to counter act the negative image burned into the minds of many Indian women. Their efforts to raise awareness and promote success and confidence among Indian women, however sincere, through the Fair and Lovely Foundation generated a more positive buzz around the company. It gave jobs to many unemployed women, and provided training to those women who wanted to increase or build skills as beauticians. Their response to the AIDWA’s accusations of racism, demeaning, and sexist resulted in economist boost for India. 

5.      In light of AIDWA’s charges, how would you suggest Fair & Lovely promote its product? Discuss. Would your response be different if Fairever continued to use “fairness” as a theme of its promotion? Discuss. 

Answer:

In the case Cultural Norms, Fair & Lovely, and Advertising, I do believe that selling a product that is only mildly effective is ethical because some products such as beauty creams take differently depending on the person and their skin. I do not think that Fair & Lovely was exploiting cultural norms and values because having lighter skin in Asia is wanted just like being tanner in America is wanted. If having fair skin is part of your culture than so be it and if you choose to use a product that lightens your skin use it.

The way that Fair & Lovely advertised their product could be demeaning to some people by the fair skin girl has a boyfriend and the darker skinned girl does not have a boyfriend. Although I do not think love is based on skin color. I can't say it enough advertising is a business and everyone wants to make their money. Is it wrong to promote what the company sells? No! I don't Fair& Lovely is trying to denigrate dark skin they are just making a product to conform to a certain culture. If Fair & Lovely wants to help their brand by selling more products they could have a different approach to their advertising strategy. They could make different commercials without comparing two different skin tones, maybe making a commercial with the products results. A before and after commercial might be better so the people buying the product would know what they are buying. "Fairness" is Fair & Lovely's theme I don't think it could be changed. If you want lighter skin you want to be fair. If you want whiter teeth you buy whitening gel, to me it's the same thing,

6.      Propose a promotion/marketing program that will counter all the arguments and charges against Fair & Lovely and be an effective program. 

Answer:

The Fair & Lovely case is a good example on how companies can expand its market share through fixing a mistake. The company used advertising and marketing practices that degraded the women’s figure. With a little research it is possible to understand why this approach failure. Due to historical issues, India is one of the countries where women are fighting harder than the westerns to achieve a space in the marketplace, as well as in society.

After all the charges made by the AIWA’S, the company changed its marketing strategy, for another one related directly to the Indians women’s issues. For me, it was a great twist! Because, they have changed the message sent in their ads, portraying a confident and happy woman. A Foundation was created offering training, counseling and scholarship for low-income women. Different sizes of the product were created, making it available for the mass. In addition, entrepreneur training was available, through the Project Shakti, giving women the possibility of making profit from selling the product.

In addition, to the practices already created by the company I would suggest, a TV program where the average women would tell about their experiences with the product. Moreover, I would develop a campaign exploring the different types of women, demystifying the beauty stereotype reigned in India.

7.      Based on CavinKare's statement of values beliefs, how would you evaluate CavinKare's advertising /marketing programs?

Answer:

In this case, it was ethical to sell a product that is mildly effective, because despite it only working “mildly”, consumers still responded to the product in a positive manner and even launched job opportunities.

Though my initial reaction to the case study was to say that exploiting cultural norms and values to promote a product is unethical, I changed my mind as I later compared it to similar products marketed in America. The truth is that every country has a norm of what is considered “superior/standard” and in India (much like many other countries), it just so happens that being fair skinned is considered beautiful. What I would be opposed to is the advertising strategy of Fair & Lovely. I don’t think it was ethical for the company to imply that a woman could be more successful financially by having lighter skin. The advertisement wasn’t necessarily demeaning, but rather favoring a certain type of light-skinned woman and that in turn causes image-conscious discomfort for a darker-skinned woman. Again, I’d like to point out the fact that this commercial is no different than a StriVectin cream product that “at best, is only mildly effective” on women in preventing stretch marks caused by pregnancy as stretch marks are considered unattractive. How is this any different from Fair & Lovely, or other beauty campaigns such as anti-aging products in our country where youth is considered beautiful?

As a result of complaints filed against Fair & Lovely by AIDWA, HLL’s Fair & Lovely Foundation was launched and had a positive impact on the Indian economy. It created Shakti Ammas to bring the product to the masses, and gave the opportunity for young women possessing no entry-level skills to work and empower themselves in addition to scholarships funded by the Fair & lovely Foundation.