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PROJECT REPORT

WOMEN IN ADVERTISEMENT USE OR


MISUSE
SUBMITTED TOWARDS PARTIAL
FULFILLMENT OF
POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS
MANAGEMENT
(Approved By AICTE, Government of India)
(Equivalent to MBA)
ACADEMIC SESSION 2006 - 2008

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF:


SUBMITTED TO:
Prof. Vijendra Dhyani
Faculty

SUBMITTED BY:
Abhijeet Judah(03)
Amit Sharma(13)
Anuradha Singh(19)
Devpriya Ratan(28)
Neha Sharma(58)
PGDBM IInd yr.

INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES


C-238, BULANDSHAHAR ROAD, LAL QUAN, P.B.
NO 57,
GHAZIABAD - 201009

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

No task whatever big or small can be completed without proper guidance


and encouragement. It gives us a great pleasure to our deep sense of
gratitude and reverence to every person who created a congenial
atmosphere for successful completion of this project.
We would very much like to express our gratitude and profoundest
thanks to

Prof. Vjendra Dhyani, Faculty, Institute of Management

Studies, Ghaziabad for her valuable sustained, guidance, invaluable


suggestions and constant encouragement without which it would not have
been possible for us to complete this project.

Abhijeet Judah
Amit Sharma
Anuradha Singh
Devpriya Ratan
Neha Sharma

PREFACE

In todays market scenario advertiser are led to think that advertising


reflects our way of life and of thinking. The way to represent women is a
good example of it. The advertising of the twentieth century shows
indeed the evolution of the womens status.

Moreover, most advertisements are aimed at women: for sociological


reasons, a big part of the daily economic decisions is up to women. The
advertisers as a whole are quiet prudent: they do not want to risk losing
such an essential part of their potential public.
This study is basically divided into four major parts. This first part of the
report includes the introduction of the study. The second part deals
history of womens in advertising industry . The third part is related to
survey and analysis of the data.. The last part deals with conclusions,
recommendations and limitations of the study

CONTENT
1) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2) OBJECTIVE OF STUDY

3) RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

4) DATA ANALYSIS

5) RECOMMENDATION

6) LIMITATION

7) CONCLUSION

8) BIBLIOGRAPHY
9) ANNEXURE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Understanding a customers needs and meeting them capably, in the


long term, is all that stands between us and some new form of
competitor.

Simply because this is not 80s seller market era. Today scenario is
totally different from the past. Now this is customer market.
Organization should commence every possible trick to attract
maximum number of prospective buyers towards their product.

Now in todays advertising world advertiser use magic of female


fantasies to attract the people for brand promotion of their product.
Endorsement of female celebrities is now become a famous trend. As
they carry huge mass appeal with themselves.

So now womens are also become active members of advertising


industry. And now we can say that womens are at par with mens
in this field also.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

To find whether womens in advertisements are use or


misused.

To find what kind of advertisements people like to watch.

To find what kind of advertisements attracts more viewers.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1) Type of research: Exploratory Research.
2)Time of research:

Research was conducted within a time

period one week from 28th November 2007 to 4th December 2007
3)Scope of research:

Research was done in Ghaziabad and

research was done through survey.


4)Sampling: Research was done under non probabilistic sampling
approach through convenient and judgmental sampling. Sample size
took was 50 respondents.
5)Questionnaire Design: Question were formed using various
scales like class interval and ordinal to collect data.
6)Data Collection: Primary data collected through personal
interview and data collection instrument was questionnaire.
Secondary data was collected through internets and books
7)Data Analysis: After collecting data through survey various
tools were used to analyze the data. These include frequency
distribution, Bar charts, Median and Mode.

Woman and advertising

Introduction
Nowadays, advertising is omnipresent in our lives, and has a really strong
influence in our decisions as consumers. The aim is no longer to inform
us of a new product and its use, it is more to create a wish to possess a
product. Moreover, advertising has become a centre of attraction.
Television shows are devoted to it, a museum was created in its honour
and we talk about it, as we would do with a movie. It can make us laugh;
it can shock us, which shows that advertising has a link with the customs
and the codes, which govern our society. For instance the Museum of
advertising in Paris presents at the moment a retrospective about Chinese
advertising from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present
day to show the impact of governments on advertising, the link between
advertising and communist society and reflects the Chinese history.
Therefore we are led to think that advertising reflects our way of life and
of thinking. The way to represent women is a good example of it. The
advertising of the twentieth century shows indeed the evolution of the
womens status.
How does advertising represent the woman from the end of the nineteenth
century? How does it produce these changes in her social status? Until the
end of the fifties, advertising gave us the image of a passive woman who
was a housewife, a devoted wife and mother, and a symbol of beauty but
was not allowed to speak.
From 1965 the womans image changed: she asserted herself more and
more and advertising presented a new independent woman. She was no

longer limited to the housekeeping and the childrens upbringing; from


now on she worked and gained her autonomy.
Nowadays advertising sells us a woman who has different personalities:
housewife, mother, and wife But what has changed in fact is that the
woman decides, she lives for herself above all and makes her own
choices: marriage, motherhood

1900-1965 : The beginning of advertisement and the


traditionnal role of women
Since the beginning of the XXth century and the first steps of advertising,
women have been used to sell : they are an object of desire for men, and
they represent by themselves a real market to take, because they are
potential buyers. The advertisers goal will be to conquer this market, and
to do so they will have to convince women that they need some goods
and they are able to buy them.
Advertisers show off nice women images to advantage : they are
everywhere on the posters to promote various products to eat, to travel or
to take care of oneself.
But the advertisers are careful : codes are made to be followed, and no
one will try to transgress them. A woman in advertising is a woman
shown to everyone ; it implies that she must always correspond to the
idea of woman.

Morals are still strong, so that a woman is not "lethal". Even if she can be
nice, or become seductive, thanks to the advertised product, advertisers
avoid being too bold.

The 1920s are the theatre of a real evolution on the vision of woman
in advertising: Paris welcomes a poster realised by Leonetto Capiello
for the "Dlices" pasta, which shows the first bare-legged pin-up. This
new representation has a direct link with the state of mind of the
"Annes folles".

Yet this evolution may not be progress : it marks the beginning of the
bodys exhibition for mercantilist aims.
In the 1950s, advertisers and manufacturers get aware that a woman has
an unemployed purchasing power ; the growth of this power incites them
to target some products to those specific needs.

A seductive woman is not enough to sell ; the buyer has to be seduced


too.
Another aspect of women is the housewife : many products for cooking
or cleaning are created and proposed during the century, with more or less
success.
Washing machines, food-processors, "minute soup", every product is a
help and time gained for a woman at home.
Advertisers frequently refer to this aspect : in 1886, "Maggi" claims its
soups can "lighten the burden" of women, because of the quickly-made
cooking. Fifty years later, Moulinex expects to "free women" with its
household electrical appliances, and it is true that those appliances have
been a revolution in the womans life.

1965 - 1990 : Advertising and the evolution of the woman


status
1965 marked a turning point in the French society. Until then the French
values had remained those of a rural and pre World War the Second
nation in spite of the economic growth. The French woman was already a
(young) voter, but in ten years, between 1965 and 1975, she obtained two
fundamental rights. In 1966, a law proposed by the deputy Lucien
Neuwirth allowed her to be on the pill and in 1975, a minister, Simone
Weil, defended bitterly her project in front of a French National
Assembly frankly hostile and obtained its vote thanks to the votes of the
opposition: abortion became legal. From now on, with these two rights,
the French woman was the owner of her body. It marked the beginning of
the Frenchwomens emancipation, which became total thanks to the
sexual liberation and her massive coming in the labour market.

In the eighties, a turning point was taken: advertising reflected the image
of a liberated woman who lived fully her love affairs as a movie realised
by L. Besson called "the intrepid" showed it. You could hear a voice
saying: "I didn't understand a thing, a new Dim, a dangerous one, fearless
and devilishly resistant, sheer Dim if ever there was one, sexy as ever"
Dim was crowned sexiest publicity campaign of the year. A new publicity
campaign was launched to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Dim
woman: the J-P Goude publicity campaign for the Diams, a new
shimmering tights, insisted on the relationship between the woman and
her Dim tights: she felt sexy with them, and even the tights became a
male with the slogan: "His embrace Diabolical". At last the Dim up
arrived: it is stay-up stockings without garter. B. Pivot vaunted it and its
commercial (" sexy underneath and great on top") in a national
newspaper. In 1988, the brand launched a new bra in lace and adopted a
firmly provocative tone with the picture of a young lady in bra and the
slogan: "Dim moi tout!" (Tell me everything).

Advertisers follow the trend. They repeat social behaviour and try to go a
little bit further. Indeed, an advertisement must be striking to be
distinguishable from the other ones by the consumers. That is the reason
why it can be aggressive or transgressor.
But, in reality, advertisers have not a completely free hand. They must be
careful not to arouse reject and obtain a decreasing of the sales.
Moreover, most advertisements are aimed at women: for sociological
reasons, a big part of the daily economic decisions is up to women. The
advertisers as a whole are quiet prudent : they do not want to risk losing
such an essential part of their potential public.
But, according to the feminist groups, this risk does not prevent the
advertisers from trivializing violent behaviours toward women (which is

denounced in the texts of the fourth world conference for women that
took place in Beijing in 1995).
The advertisers have understood that shocking was not the only way to
sell something. The transgression can be humorous. This worked very
well for the crme frache whose sales were up 35% between January
2000 and January 2001.
This is a proof that the women can appreciate this kind of humour.
Indeed, at the risk of repeating a stereotype, we can think that women buy
these products.
Do the advertisements reflect the evolution of women's place and role in
society? In a way, we can assert that the advertisers knew how to adjust to
the global evolution of the customs. Moreover, the way advertising treats
women nowadays is not only the reflection of the advertisers' misogyny.
It reflects as well the hippie and feminist movements' failure: They asked
for equality. As a matter of fact, women have not yet got it.

Therefore in India advertiser are led to think that advertising reflects our
way of life and of thinking. The way to represent women is a good
example of it. The advertising of the twentieth century shows indeed the
evolution of the womens status.
However transferring to the men's image, the degraded women's one is
certainly not the appropriate solution. Moreover, the so-called evolutions
of advertising are ambiguous to say the least, notably with regard to the
nudity of the men. A few years ago, the advertisers said the consumers
considered it repelling. Considering the increase of the commercials
showing naked male bodies, nudity does not repel anymore and is even

likely to be attractive. Male nudity, (as feminine one), is supposed to


increase the sales.

DATA ANALYSIS
Age

Valid

15 - 20
20 - 25
25 - 30
30 - 35
Above 35
Total

Frequency
10
25
5
5
5
50

Valid Percent
20.0
50.0
10.0
10.0
10.0
100.0

Age

25

Frequency

20

15
25
50.00%

10

10
20.00%
5
10.00%

5
10.00%

25 - 30

30 - 35

5
10.00%

0
15 - 20

20 - 25

Age

SEX

Above 35

Valid

Male
Female
Total

Frequency
35
15

Valid Percent
70.0
30.0

50

100.0

Sex

40

Frequency

30

20
35
70.00%

10
15
30.00%

0
Male

Female

Sex

Education background

Graduate
Post graduate
Total

Frequency
20
30

Valid Percent
40.0
60.0

50

100.0

53

Education background

30

Frequency

20

30
60.00%

10

20
40.00%

0
Graduate

Post graduate

Education background

Female models featuring in mens products advertisements


helps in attracting more viewers

Totally Agree
Agree
Neither Agree nor
Disagree
Disagree
Totally Disagree
Total

Frequency
5
25

Valid Percent
10.0
50.0

10.0

10

20.0

10.0

50

100.0

Female models featuring in mens products advertisements helps in attracting


more viewers
25

Frequency

20

15
25
50.00%

10

10
20.00%

5
5
10.00%

5
10.00%

5
10.00%

0
Totally Agree

Agree

Neither Agree nor


Disagree

Disagree

Totally Disagree

Female models featuring in mens products advertisements helps in attracting


more viewers

INTERPRETATION

ON CALCULATING MEDIAN = 2 ( AGREE )

After survey and statistical analyze we came to conclusion that female


models featuring in mens product advertisement helps in attracting more
viewers

Which product advertisement attract you most

Axe deospray
Amul Macho

Frequency
15
13

Valid Percent
30.0
26.0

11

22.0

8.0

7up
Minto fresh Green
Fast track goggles
Total

14.0

50

100.0

INTERPRETATION

ON CALCULATING MODE = 2

After survey and statistical analyze we came to conclusion that axe


deospray advertisement attract maximum number of viewers

Featuring

of

female

models

advertisement is right strategy


for brand promotion

in

mens

products

adopted by advertiser

Totally Agree
Agree

Frequency
11
25

Valid Percent
22.0
50.0

4.0

14.0

10.0

50

100.0

Neither Agree nor


Disagree
Disagree
Totally Disagree
Total

Featuring of female models in mens products advertisement is right strategy


adopted by advertiser for brand promotion
25

Frequency

20

15
25
50.00%

10

11
22.00%
7
14.00%

5
10.00%

2
4.00%

0
Totally Agree

Agree

Neither Agree nor


Disagree

Disagree

Totally Disagree

Featuring of female models in mens products advertisement is right strategy


adopted by advertiser for brand promotion

INTERPRETATION

ON CALCULATING MEDIAN = 2 (AGREE )

After survey and statistical analyze we came to conclusion that featuring


of female models in advertisement is right strategy adopted by advertiser
for brand promotion.

Advertisement cast by female models are more attractive


then those Advertisement in which men models are cast

Totally Agree
Agree
Neither Agree nor
Disagree
Disagree
Totally Disagree
Total

Frequency
5
20

Valid Percent
10.0
40.0

6.0

15

30.0

14.0

50

100.0

Advertisement cast by female models are more attractive then those


Advertisement in which men models are cast
20

Frequency

15

20
40.00%

10

15
30.00%

5
7
14.00%

5
10.00%

3
6.00%

0
Totally Agree

Agree

Neither Agree nor


Disagree

Disagree

Totally Disagree

Advertisement cast by female models are more attractive then those


Advertisement in which men models are cast

INTERPRETATION

ON CALCULATING MEDIAN = 2 (AGREE )

After survey and statistical analyze we came to conclusion that


advertisement in which female models are cast are more attractive than
those advertisement in which male models are cast.

Is womens featuring in mens products advertisements are


unnecessarily used

Yes
No
Can't say
Total

Frequency
29
17

Valid Percent
58.0
34.0

8.0

50

100.0

Is womens featuring in mens products advertisements are unnecessarily


used
30

Frequency

20

29
58.00%

10
17
34.00%

4
8.00%

0
Yes

No

Can't say

Is womens featuring in mens products advertisements are unnecessarily used

INTERPRETATION

ON CALCULATING MODE = 1 (YES )After survey and


statistical analyze we came to conclusion that women in mens
advertisement is unnecessarily used.

Which kind of advertisement would you like to


watch

Celebrities advertisement
Female models
advertisement
Family emotional
advertisement
Animated advertisement
Total

Frequency
24

Valid Percent
48.0

10

20.0

10

20.0

12.0

50

100.0

Which kind of advertisement would you like to watch

25

Frequency

20

15
24
48.00%

10

10
20.00%

10
20.00%
6
12.00%

0
Celebrities advertisement

Female models
advertisement

Family emotional
advertisement

Animated advertisement

Which kind of advertisement would you like to watch

INTERPRETATION

ON CALCULATING MODE = 1 (CELEBRITIES


ADVERTISEMENT
After survey and statistical analyze we came to conclusion that people
generally like to watch celebrities advertisement in which some celebrity
is cast.

Findings

Viewers generally like to see celebrities advertisements.

Female models advertisements attract more viewers which help in


brand promotion.

Generally people think that women are misuse in advertisements


even though they help in excellent brand promotion.

Female model advertisements are more attractive then male model


advertisement.

RECOMMENDATION

All things who glitters are not gold but in today market scenario all
things who glitter are costlier than gold.

Same in case with advertisement industry advertiser use different


tricks to attract the prospective buyers and endorsement of female
models and celebrities is one of them.

From the study and research which was done it is now quite clear that
advertisement in which female models are cast are more attractive
than male model advertisement.

Advertiser should go for female celebrities endorsement as


celebrities endorsements is now treated as hot cake in advertising
industry for example Shilpa Shetty and Romanov , Mallika Sherawat
and 7up , Rakhi Sawant and Minto Fresh Green etc.

Finally we would like to recommend that women in advertisement are


not misused and they are used to trap more viewer for brand
promotion.

LIMITATIONS

The followings were the hindrances, which came during the


commencement of the project:

Small Geographical Area.

Small sample size.

Limitation of time.

Casual attitude of some respondents.

CONCLUSION

At last we would like to say that women in advertisements are used by


advertiser to increase the brand promotion of the product. As it attract
more viewers which helps in brand awareness. Advertisers are doing
right thing to hit the right nerve of the prospective buyers.

ANNEXURE: QUESTIONNAIRE

AGE

15 20. , 20 25. , 25 30..

30 35. , ABOVE 35.

SEX

MALE. FEMALE..

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

10+2.

, GRADUATE.

POST GRADUATE ,

ANY OTHER (PLEASE SPECIFY)

FEMALE MODELS FEATURING IN MENS PRODUCTS


ADVERTISEMENT HELPS IN ATTRACTING MORE
VIEWERS

TOTALLY AGREE , AGREE

NEITHER AGREE NOR DISAGREE

DISAGREE. ,

TOTALLY DISAGREE..

WHICH PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENT ATTRACT YOU


MOST
1) AXE DEOSPRAY..
2) AMUL MACHO.
3) 7UP.
4) MINTO FRESH GREEN..
5) FAST TRACK GOGGLES.

FEATURING OF FEMALE MODELS IN MENS PRODUCTS


ADVERTISEMENTS IS RIGHT STRATEGY ADOPTED BY
ADVERTISER FOR BRAND PROMOTION

TOTALLY AGREE , AGREE

NEITHER AGREE NOR DISAGREE

DISAGREE. ,

TOTALLY DISAGREE..

ADVERTISEMENT CAST BY FEMALE MODELS ARE MORE


ATTRACTIVE THAN THOSE BY ADVERTISEMENT IN WHICH
MEN MODELS ARE CAST

TOTALLY AGREE , AGREE

NEITHER AGREE NOR DISAGREE

DISAGREE. ,

TOTALLY DISAGREE..

WHICH KIND OF ADVERTISEMENT WOULD YOU LIKE TO


WATCH

CELEBRITIES ADVERTISEMENTS .

FEMALE MODELS ADVERTISEMENTS..

FAMILY (EMOTIONAL APPEAL)


ADVERTISEMENTS

ANIMATED ADVERTISEMENTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS :

1) Beri , G.C., Marketing Research, New Delhi, Tata McGraw


Hill, 2006 (12th Edition)
2) Richard I Levin & David S. Rubin Statistics For
Management, Pearson education , 2005 (Fifth Indian Reprint)
JOURNALS AND MAGZINES:

1) Business today

WEBSITES:

1) www.google.co.in

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