Cultural Environment of Pakistan
The marketing strategy of any company should take into account the culture of the different markets in the target country. The strategy of market delivery should hence factor in the target market’s lifestyle, educational level, moral values and religious restrictions. If a business ignores the cultural needs of its audience then in addition to facing short-term declining profitability, the business will inevitably doom itself in the long run as well, by losing valuable social capital.
The culturally conservative landscape of Pakistan presents unique challenges to marketeers who wish to promote conventionally tabooed products. Pakistan constitutes a society where social taboos regrading mental health, divorce, sex, violence and abuse, menstruation, religion curiosity, trans gender community, and addiction continue to take a strong hold in modern dialogue and narrative. Hence channeling amongst these stereotypes and overcoming societal barriers is crucial in determining the success of a business that sells products such as female hygiene products contraceptives, or an organization that offers services in mental health and addiction rehabilitation. Approaches to sell every day, ‘void of condemnation’ items certainly will not work for the tabooed products. The cultural underpinnings of Pakistan demand a more strategic way to handle the branding of controversial items/brands. Through these strategies the companies can hope to a) make profits and b) and most importantly, gradually influence and positively change the consumer perceptions and behaviors regarding such products.
Why is Culture so Important?
Culture is formed by the people residing together, creating an integrated unit of a society. The cultural dogmas that define the society include rules and regulations along with other perceptions and practiced doctrines related to matters of religion, politics, lifestyle, educational system. These elements give essence to the very soul of the concept of culture in a society and they are hence viewed imperative, almost sacred, to binding the society together. These sets of rules and belief systems are formed only to be followed. No one living in that particular society and following its culture is expected to break or rebel against those cultural dogmas.
The Pakistani society, like others is subject to a variety of cultural dogmas. But unfortunately, unlike other civilizations, its deeply entrenched, largely orthodox mindset makes for a rather bleak comparison with neighboring societies. Some of the negative reactions to tabooed products come from a place of religious fundamentalism, but mostly are far more tempered. Products such as sanitary pads, condoms, lingerie are seen simply as religiously disrespectful or culturally insensitive by the majority of the population.
The topic of sex in general is still most arguably the most controversial and tabooed subject in the country. In a society where the marketing of contraceptives and sanitary pads was once prohibited, we have at least surmounted one psychological hurdle and realized that awareness about these products is important. However, we continue to see more advertisements for cigarettes than for female hygiene pads in the mass media .
“When you buy a female hygiene product, it immediately goes into a brown paper bag; the only other product sold in the same way is alcohol”.
How can Brands Market without being Culturally Insensitive?
Raising awareness about such products let alone marketing and promoting them requires a different approach than traditional marketing. Often times awareness and education of such products is seen as an attempt to anglicize and disrupt the culture and social thread of our society. One instance of this is the continued resistance and opposition of the rural public in Pakistan to polio vaccination. This attitude is reflective of the overall repulsion to any ideas that challenge the cultural norms even if they serve a positive function in the society.
Despite the fact that a global brand can benefit from a standard marketing strategy by lowering costs, there is also lost revenue due to lost sales if the strategy is not adapted as per the target market’s preferences and choices. “Success of a product’s consumer rate depends immensely on the liking and disliking of its customers. This criterion of liking and disliking is built and surged in its customers by the conventions they esteem and notions they practice in their surroundings. Cultural values if taken into account by the marketers have a faster impact on changing customer’s choices. The way in which a product is marketed has a factual power to create a separate parking space in the mind of customers”.
A product must hence be marketed in parallel to the behavior and opinion of the people of a target culture. Use of explicit language or graphic imagery is therefore a recipe of failure and will naturally be categorized as morally ill or tabooed or out of the target cultural context. Moreover, failure will also abound in the business sense since such a strategy will not possibly attract much of the customers to its side. One example of such an instance is when Hardees Pakistan started its first campaign “unbuckle your belt” featuring a pair of unzipped jeans. Ignoring social cues and continuing on the path of public disapproval, the brand instilled blatant sexual references in their new advertisement in which two buns were placed together with a woman hand firmly clutching one. The criticism was extreme, gracing every newspaper and social media platform which ultimately forced the brand’s hand and they ultimately discontinued their campaign. This was clearly an instance contrary to the marketing axiom that bad publicity is better than no publicity .
Strategies Brands can Safely Adopt
One way brands can circumvent the risk of bad publicity is by having a leading cleric, popular and reputable celebrity figure or even a religious scholar endorse their products or service. This strategy, though costly, will ensure that the message is deemed credible and worthy of a listen by the public. This is because the nation reveres and esteems the opinions and beliefs of its influencers, granted they are portrayed as constructive to the ideals on which the culture of the nation is based. We see the public often looking up to Ulamahs for spiritual guiding or to news channel personalities for taking a stand on political issues. This puts a subsection of people, capable of shifting public opinion, in a position of power. The brands can align their interests with such personalities and promote their products by utilizing the status of said personalities.
This strategy should be used with caution though. It worked when Lays landed into a controversy because a doctor claimed that one of the ingredients used in the product was haram and the brand’s reputation was salvaged by a tactical endorsement campaign by Junaid Jamshed. But this kind of ‘seal of approval’ approach by religious scholars can only be extended so far; it may as well work for contraceptives, especially given that a similar strategy is used to encourage polio vaccination but it might not be advisable for products such as lingerie.
In a society that seems to become more polarized day by day, it is important to understand that advertising of tabooed products is not a challenge limited to just Pakistan. Many South-East Asian economies including the likes of even India, which we often perceive as more accepting and open, are faced with a similar struggle. Luckily, our increasing reliance on social media to consume modern information allows for novel ways brands can utilize social platforms for advertising such products. Such information is consumed personally, on mobile phones or laptop screens and hence avoids the ‘save face’ argument that most critics give while watching adverts of such products with their families. Digital platforms can allow brands to restrict their communication and specifically target their audiences.
Finally, when marketing taboo products the focus needs to be put on informing and educating the audience rather than opting for creating hype and stirring controversy. Such a strategy will avoid marketing gimmicks and ensure that the message is centered around the product.
