Why Brands Are Walking on Eggshells in India’s Culture Wars

In April, eyewear retailer Lenskart apologised publicly to quieten a furore over its internal grooming guidelines that appeared to frown on employees sporting Hindu religious symbols like bindis and tilaks.

Around the same time, software services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) was caught at the perilous intersection of religious identity, coercion and alleged sexual harassment in a scandal at its Nashik back office.

Lenskart’s leaked in-house grooming guide was outdated, responded the company, which clarified that it “unambiguously” welcomed all symbols of faith worn by employees. These include bindis, tilaks, mangalsutras (Hindu), hijabs (Muslim), turbans and kadas (Sikh).

Sure, Lenskart and TCS are entirely different kinds of companies. Lenskart is a fledgling consumer-facing business that sells eyewear to individuals online and in physical stores; TCS is a part of the giant Tata group, and sells software services to vast domestic and overseas clients.

The TCS case, which has led to the arrest of some employees, involves alleged sexual harassment and forced religious conversion of female staff, and is being probed by the police.

Controversies, especially those pertaining to religious identity, can be perilous. These cast a shadow over the very ethos of the brand besides hurting the sentiments of employees, who are as crucial a stakeholder in a brand’s life as consumers are.

Modern mandates

“The Lenskart and TCS Nashik incidents serve as a vital masterclass in how modern corporate mandates can collide with cultural and religious sensitivities,” says Sandeep Goyal, chairman of Rediffusion, one of the country’s oldest and largest full-service advertising and communication agencies.

The modern-day corporate mandates Goyal is referring to include practices such as a diverse workforce, equal opportunities, a transparent work culture and good governance, among others.

These are also factors integral to building a robust brand. Ajimon Francis, Managing Director of Brand Finance India, a brand valuation and strategy consultant, points out that for decades, the best brands have been those that not only ran successful marketing and branding campaigns but also demonstrated strong leadership built on ethics, integrity and governance.

The Lenskart and TCS controversies were by no means isolated incidents. As far back as in May 2023, US supermarket chain Target faced large scale calls for boycotts from anti-LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) groups after it released its Pride Month merchandise amid allegations that “tuck-friendly” products were being sold to children.

Target saw a decline in its online as well as offline revenues and lost nearly $10 billion in market cap within a few days of the controversy erupting.

Back home, Fabindia, which sells traditional products handcrafted by rural artisans, triggered a controversy with the launch of its Jashn-e-Riwaaz festive collection ahead of Diwali in 2021.

The Urdu tagline was intended to convey the idea of communal harmony in the celebration of festivals.

A year earlier, Tanishq found itself at the centre of a controversy around an advertisement for its newly launched Ekatvam (oneness) jewellery line that depicted an inter-faith marriage.

These instances were supposed to be examples of companies supporting fair social causes, or what many see as brand activism.

“Brand activism is a high stakes marketing strategy where a brand chooses to take a public stand on a contemporary issue in an attempt to project itself as a responsible corporate citizen, and also garner customers’ good will,” says Goyal of Rediffusion.

But in all the above cases, the brands in question received brickbats instead of the bouquets they may have expected.

Minding their business

“Brands are in the business of business and they should stick to minding their business,” says Saurabh Uboweja, strategist and managing partner at BOD Group, a New Delhi-based strategy and consulting firm. “Activism or wokeism are not part of a marketing communication or branding strategy syllabus.”

To be sure, brands operate in the larger macrocosm of society that includes cultural practices, religious beliefs, and also political ideologies of its people, who also happen to be consumers.

Since brands themselves are considered to be live entities, insulating them from the larger fabric of society may not be entirely possible, and there may be a temptation on the part of brand custodians to join the conversations their consumers are caught up in.

“Triggering emotions to make a connection with customers has long been the route brands of all kinds have taken since long,” says Francis of Brand Finance India.

Learning lessons

Identifying the right issue and devising a fool-proof communication plan around it has always been a challenge.

“It has become even more challenging now in today’s hyper-sensitive, highly polarised social-media dominated environment,” says Goyal. “Today, one small slip can flare up into a full-blown controversy in no time, throwing consumers, employees and investors, all into a tizzy.”

Tanishq, Fabindia and Lenskart learnt this the hard way. Tanishq, for instance, meant to celebrate the idea of communal harmony by showcasing a Muslim family organising a baby shower for their Hindu daughter-in-law.

The idea did not go down well with a set of customers who saw it as an effort to legitimise the alleged phenomenon of love jihad,and called for the brand’s boycott.

Love jihad is a controversial term used by some groups to allege a conspiracy that Muslim men target women from other faiths, especially Hindus, for marriage.

Likewise, in the case of FabIndia’s Jashn-e-Riwaaz campaign, critics said the use of an Urdu phrase for a Hindu festival was an attempt at the Abrahamisation of Indian traditions, or modification of Hindu tenets to incorporate characteristics of other faiths.

Target enraged a large section of conservative customers who saw it as an ideological overreach.

 

Reputational hit

Lenskart received intense criticism online and triggered protests in its physical stores. Its detractors saw the grooming guidelines as hypocrisy; its alleged discriminatory work culture showed that its carefully crafted image of a progressive brand was a sham, they said.

Company reputations are particularly vulnerable to controversies of the kind highlighted above.

Employer branding is an integral part of a brand’s vitality, says Harish Bijoor, founder of Harish Bijoor Consults, a brand strategy firm based in Bengaluru. “Good employer branding is not mere cosmetics, it has reputational as well as financial repercussions,” he adds.

Indeed, a sense of disengagement sets in if employees don’t feel heard or respected or their religious identity or personal safety is under attack. A dent in employer branding makes it difficult to attract fresh talent, too.

Doing it right

Of course, promoting a cause is not universally a bad idea. When the cause is in consonance with the brand’s personality, it becomes a strategy and when it is not, it’s a stretch that eventually gives way.

Detergent brand Ariel ran a successful campaign in which it urged men to “share the load” of household chores—such as washing clothes with women. The campaign resonated with its target customers, women, and didn’t have the other party—men—up in arms either because in modern households where women go to work, sharing household chores is a necessity.

Tata Tea’s Jaago Re campaign is another example of a cause compatible with the brand’s personal traits. Bijoor, who was part of the team that orchestrated the campaign, says it was an idea that went beyond the traditional route of advertising a product’s features or its goodness and tried to foster social awakening by taking up issues such as corruption, women empowerment, voting rights and climate change.

Jaago Re was a tagline with a natural connection with a tea brand as well as the rampant social issues of that time. “There is, however, a time and place for everything. What worked then may not work today,” cautions Bijoor.

Experts say that in today’s supercharged and sensitive environment, brands not only need to have a strong compliance framework but also contextual empathy towards external as well as internal stakeholders.

“Brand custodians need to master the art, science and philosophy of walking on eggshells,” says Bijoor.