A light-hearted scene in the recently released Bollywood movie Dunki shows one of the characters feeling ashamed and willing to leave the country just because his mother wears a ‘pant-shirt’ to her job. The scene further shows men ogling at his mother as she steps out for her shift as a ‘watchman’. A simple scene that highlights a basic struggle that millions of working women, especially from smaller cities, face while getting into the formal workforce. They are made to feel uncomfortable in Western attire either by society or by their apprehensions about culture. This Women’s Day, Zomato tried to solve this problem by giving their women delivery partners the choice to opt for a kurta as their uniform.
While it seems like a welcome move, it has divided the internet wherein one section is lauding the initiative and the other is calling it a token move to mark the Women’s Day celebrations. Some people are also suggesting that it is ‘too little done too late’ and the brand should be more honest about making the workplace safe and inclusive for all workers. Impact talks to branding experts to know
their stand.
A Good Branding Exercise
Vidya Damani, Principal Consultant, Brand Strategy at Chlorophyll Brand & Communications Consultancy thinks that the initiative is not only empowering for women but also sits excellently well with Zomato’s brand purpose. She says, “Zomato’s mission statement is ‘better food for more people’, which is all about inclusivity and taking people along. With that in mind, this is a great campaign for internal stakeholders, in this case, the delivery partners.”
However, she questions if the impact of the campaign could be large enough, considering there are possibly only a handful of women delivery partners employed with Zomato. “While the insight is excellent, there are many women in our country who are uncomfortable wearing Western clothes, I don’t see it panning out on ground. The simple reason is that I have never seen any women delivery partners in Mumbai or other metro cities. I think it will be even more impactful if we get to see the brand in action.”
As per a Zomato blog post made in 2021, the brand had only 0.5% of their delivery partners as women. In the same post, they had mentioned about increasing the fleet by 10%. IMPACT’s query to Zomato about the current size of their women’s fleet remained unanswered by the time of filing of this story.
Shradha Agarwal, Founder and CEO of Grapes notes that the campaign takes a positive step towards respecting the ideologies of women. “Rather than romanticising the concept of independence and pushing women to go beyond their comfort level to achieve their goals, the Zomato campaign fosters an inclusive environment where women can achieve the extraordinary, even while keeping faith in their beliefs. This progressive thought-provoking campaign immensely helped the brand in breaking the clutter and standing out from the remaining campaigns released on the occasion of International Women’s Day.”
But Why on Women’s Day?
Atishi Pradhan, Brand & Communication Strategist, like many others on social media, is skeptical of this announcement being made on Women’s Day and not earlier. To her, this action only highlights how unmindful the brand was till this point. “Why do brands feel compelled to be part of every ‘fixed moment’ on social media? I would suggest that if the brand cannot find something appropriate, then silence is the better option. Given the crores they generate in revenue, they could have put their money where their mouth is and done something genuine to help women delivery persons.”
Nisha Sampath, Managing Partner, Bright Angles Consulting LLP, however, thinks that it is important for big brands like Zomato to announce such initiatives on a day when the focus is right on the matter. “I think days like these are much more for conversation than action by most brands. In such a scenario, Zomato coming out with a campaign that also creates some ground impact can be inspiring. I think it will push more brands to take such steps. Obviously, a lot more is required to safeguard women delivery partners, but small actions are as good as any big action. Most of these women delivery partners come from Tier II, and Tier III cities and the choice of uniform is quite important for them. I feel affirmative actions like these have the potential to create a cascading effect.”
Overall, acknowledging the needs of their diverse workforce on a micro level is a promising effort shown by Zomato. However, it will all be futile if they don’t create a better, inclusive, and growth-oriented work environment for all of their internal stakeholders, the industry opines.
