Muslim perceptions of beauty in Indonesia and Malaysia Neil Gains Warc Exclusive Institute on Asian Consumer Insight, February 2016

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1 Musim perceptions of beauty in Indonesia and Maaysia Nei Gains Warc Excusive Institute on Asian Consumer Insight, February 2016

2 Tite: Musim perceptions of beauty in Indonesia and Maaysia Author(s): Nei Gains Source: Warc Excusive Issue: Institute on Asian Consumer Insight, February 2016 Musim perceptions of beauty in Indonesia and Maaysia Nei Gains ACI The beauty every woman desires? Much has been written about the modernization of Musim vaues when it comes to women and how they present themseves. But many of these perspectives interpret these cutura shifts through the ens of Western vaues. Brands that want to market to Musim women must understand and adapt to oca cutura context beyond the more obvious abes and superficia symbos. Women in both countries embrace fashion and beauty products, though in different ways to their Western counterparts. So what is the truth about modern Musim women in South East Asia and how they fee about beauty? In a recent study of Musim women and beauty in Indonesia and Maaysia, researchers from ABN Impact and Zest Research Consutancy taked face-to-face with Indonesian and Maaysian women about "the beauty that they desire for themseves". The women were aged from 18 to 35 and at different ife stages (singe and married; working, students and housewives). Haf of them wore the hijab (known as the tudong in Maaysia) and haf did not. A framework for understanding emotiona goas The discussions were designed to provide rich insights into the emotiona goas of Musim women in both countries. Participants were asked to do some homework before coming, finding images that heped them to express "the beauty that I desire for mysef". The first part of each discussion reviewed these images and the different associations with each image. The second part of the interview focused on understanding participant's emotiona goas using TapestryWorks' proprietary StoryWorks framework and Visua Think cards, based around 12 core human goas and the positive and negative emotions triggered by them. 2

3 Participants were asked to seect 3-5 images that best refected "the beauty that I desire for mysef" and share stories about each image. Athough everyone had a choice of 96 cards, there was a striking consistency in many of the images chosen demonstrating the abiity of the approach to hep peope express their true feeings using an impicit and intuitive task. Indonesian take: naturay smart and rebeious? For Indonesian women, the feeing of beauty is associated with the goa of feeing confident and smart and the desire to fee authentic (to yoursef, to others and to your beiefs). Athough these goas often confict, they aso represent different personas of individua beauty reating to different times, paces and socia situations. The most frequenty chosen individua image was that of a goden egg standing out in a box of pain eggs and representing the desire to be different. This image represents the desire to stand out, but not too much. The most popuar emotiona goa is that of Knowedge, often represented by an image of a gir reading a book in a ibrary. Other goas chosen were associated with the need for confidence, for fun and pay, and for intimacy. Indonesian Musim women aso pace importance on the need to nurture beauty. Hijab wearers in particuar associated the idea of nurture with famiy ife, whie non-wearers more often associated this with the desire for a beautifu home. Both groups 3

4 saw beauty in very natura terms, inked to ideas of heath and weness, and not just beauty products. Maaysian take: a greater need for confidence? For Maaysian women, beauty is reated to many of the same goas as those described by Indonesians, incuding the desire for confidence and the need to fee free and be comfortabe with their own beauty. However, Maaysian Musims seected sighty different images. In particuar, many Maay women chose an image of an individua standing on top of a mountain, perhaps refecting a greater need for individuaity and ess of a need to beong to a group. Maaysian women focus very strongy on the importance of confidence, and tak about the desire for a itte magic in their reationships. Women who are working mention the competitive aspect of beauty and the desire to be ooked up to by work mates and those around them. This is refected in a reiance on accessories in everyday dress. For a women, especiay housewives, the focus is much more on the home and the reationship with their husband. Accordingy, they are more ikey than Indonesian women to choose imagery refecting the need for intimacy. This reveas a greater insecurity about this key reationship and a greater dependence on one person for many Maaysian Musim women. Beauty as nature intended vs beauty for status The most striking difference between Maaysian and Indonesian women is that Maaysian Musims fee a much greater need to "boost" their beauty across more situations. They expect to have to wear cosmetics, accessories and fashion items in order to be noticed and respected by their peers in many more socia contexts. Indonesian Musims tak much more about natura beauty, and the need to ook after your body. They see cosmetics as an enhancement required more for specia occasions, especiay when attending socia events with their husbands. The Bahasa term for cosmetics, "dandan" which iteray transates as "grooming", refects this difference, focusing on those things that are added to natura beauty. The difference between temporary and permanent changes was raised in both countries, refecting that haa cosmetic changes can be washed away for prayers, whie more permanent ones cannot. Most participants woud never countenance 4

5 cosmetic surgery, unike many North Asian women, and even hair cooring and nai varnish are considered quite risqué. In both countries inner beauty was considered equay or more important than outer beauty. Community vs famiy: A different cuture of beonging Indonesian women tak much more about having a sense of beonging to a wider community than those in Maaysia. For many, reigion provides this comfort and connection. Eizabeth Pisani, journaist and author writes in her book "Indonesia, Etc", "it (reigion) is a visibe badge of identity which suits the need to cump together, so very pronounced in cannish Indonesia". For Maaysian women, the need to beong is more focused on their reationship with their husband rather than a wider reigious group. This is true even of singe Maay women, who often tak about the future as it reates to their future reationships, e.g. "when I have a husband", especiay when referring to what beauty means to them in more intimate contexts. Maay women make a greater distinction between in-home and out-of-home appearance, and are ikey to differentiate between the two. Understanding cutura differences between Maaysian and Indonesian Musim women It is important to understand the history of the reigious, socia and ega environments of the two countries. They share much in common, incuding a arge part of their officia anguages, but there are differences in the stye of Isam and Isamic aw in shaping individua beiefs. 5

6 Athough Indonesia has the argest Musim popuation in the word at around 87% of the popuation, it is aso one of the most open and ibera Musim countries. Indonesia's toerance is based on a constitutiona framework introduced in 1945, party to resove conficts between Musims, Christians and nationaists. The Pancasia (the officia phiosophica foundation of Indonesia) paces great importance on the freedom to practice other reigions as we as ideas ike humanity and socia justice. By contrast, Isam is the officia reigion of Maaysia, though just 60% of the popuation practice it. Isam is enshrined in the ega framework of the country and has jurisdiction over marriage and divorce for Musims. A Pew Research study in 2013 found that Maaysia has some of the strictest views of any Musim country. More conservative Musim views aso hod sway over non-musim Maaysians in many parts of society. For exampe, ony 8% of Maaysian Musims agree that a wife shoud have the right to divorce her husband (men and women) compared with 32% in Indonesia. Likewise, ony 36% of Maaysian Musims agree that sons and daughters shoud have equa inheritance rights compared with 76% of those in Indonesia. Ceary the cutura and ega norms of a society infuence individua views of roes and responsibiities, and this appears to be echoed in the way in which Indonesian and Maaysian women understand beauty, and aso the concept of womenhood, in reation to their own persona goas and ife situation. For brands, a one size fits a brand strategy simpy cannot appy to Musim women in different parts of the region. Universa beauty myth or oca truths? Athough many internationa brands have caught on to the importance of oca context, especiay in terms of the wearing of the hijab, many are sti agging behind oca beauty and weness brands in connecting with the emotiona tone of oca cuture. Much internationa advertising refects a notion of beauty as a science rather than an art and as serious rather than payfu. Based on the findings of this research, we beieve this is the wrong positioning for Maaysia and even more so in Indonesia. A common thread across both markets is a atent ambiguity towards more sexua portrayas of beauty. Surprisingy, Maaysian Musims are more toerant of sexua imagery and some use it to express their desire for a simmer body - the major concern of this popuation (Maaysia has the highest prevaence of obesity of any Asian country). In contrast, sexua imagery is censored in Indonesia, is ess avaiabe and consequenty, Indonesian women are consideraby ess comfortabe with it. Both Indonesian and Maaysian women view the "Barbie do" image of beauty as reevant and appropriate when they are with their husbands, but emphaticay inappropriate in many other contexts. That is not to say that Musim women reject such images or perceive them as negative but rather that such images are not reevant to how they see themseves and their roe in society. The feeing of beauty To summarize, for Musim women beauty is a about success and happiness. In the workpace, that means feeing confident and authoritative, during eisure time, the need to fee reaxed and comfortabe, and in reationships, the need to fee sexy and appreciated. Wearing the hijab is considered to enhance beauty in both countries, even for those who do not currenty wear one. Athough this can be an important part of a Musim woman's identity, it is ony one symbo of being a Musim woman 6

7 in modern South East Asia. Here are five overa take-outs for those who want to market beauty brands in Indonesia and Maaysia: Beauty is about art as we as science Beauty shoud be ess serious and more fun Beauty is not just about "me" Beauty can be sexy, but keep it subte Beauty can be enhanced, but what ies beneath aso matters References Gains, N (2013) Brand essense: Using sense, symbo and story to design brand identity, Kogan Page, London Institute for Heath Metrics and Evauation (IHME) Overweight and Obesity ( Pew Research Centre (2013) The Word's Musims: Reigion, Poitics and Society ( Pisani, E (2014) Indonesia Etc.: Exporing the improbabe nation, Granta, London Ross, L and Nisbett R E (2011) The Person And The Situation: Perspectives of socia psychoogy, Pinter & Martin, London About the Author Dr Nei Gains is an ACI Feow and the owner and founder of TapestryWorks. He is an expert on human and cutura psychoogy, the author of Brand essense and a pioneer of sensory branding and the appication of emotions in branding. Nei set up TapestryWorks in 2010 to hep cients to decode peope and cuture to weave richer connections from brand strategy through to in-store activation. The Institute on Asian Consumer Insight (ACI) is a unique, word-cass institute dedicated to heping internationa brands respond to the needs of Asian consumers. By bridging the gap between academia and business, we provide our cients with the deep understanding required to break into diverse Asian markets. ACI funds and conducts research into the needs, motivations and aspirations of Asian consumers, as we as running educationa programs and hosting conferences, workshops and forums on Asian Consumer Insight. ACI is hosted by Nanyang Technoogica University (NTU) and is a joint initiative with the Singapore Economic Deveopment Board (EDB). Copyright Warc 2016 Warc Ltd. 85 Newman Street, London, United Kingdom, W1T 3EU Te: +44 (0) , Fax: +(0) A rights reserved incuding database rights. This eectronic fie is for the persona use of authorised users based at the subscribing company's office ocation. It may not be reproduced, posted on intranets, extranets or the internet, e-maied, archived or shared eectronicay either within the purchaser s organisation or externay without express written permission from Warc. 7

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