Exclusive | Woman is an epitome of determination: Groupon India's Sachin Kapur

International Women’s Day is celebrated globally on 8th March  of every calendar year. It is a day which is dedicated to the woman and her well- being. She has evolved from a home maker to a career woman and in today’s scenario is considered on par with her male counterpart. But for her to progress and be successful in life , good health is of paramount importance. Hence several organizations world over have come up with  various initiatives for the betterment of women. Now Groupon India too has taken up this cause and is making a difference in the lives of women . It is taking forward the ethos of Groupon Grassroots – an initiative aimed at supporting local causes. 

“On the occasion of Women’s Day, we are providing people with a platform to secure underprivileged women an opportunity to lead a healthy lifestyle. At Groupon, we believe in making a contribution to the society that we all are a part of. We are proud to partner with Johnson & Johnson and Samhita to support the initiative which provides support to women at a very nominal contribution,” said Ankur Warikoo, CEO, Groupon India.

Neeraj Goyal, General Marketing Manager, Johnson & Johnson said,  “Our Stayfree Women for Change campaign is an endeavour towards providing essential health and hygiene facilities to underprivileged women. We appreciate that Groupon has taken a step towards supporting our ongoing campaign and is taking it to a wider audience.” 

Commenting on this initiative Priya Naik, Founder & Joint MD, Samhita, said, "On the one hand, we know that women pay the least attention to their own health. On the other hand, a healthy woman ensures a healthy family and is capable of raising her children with the right knowledge and resources. The Support A Woman program does just that. It gives a woman the knowhow to lead a life of health and hygiene, and to pass on the knowledge to her friends and daughters. This is both empowering and liberating at the same time."

Groupon India recently conducted a pan-India survey to get under the skin of the new age Indian woman. The survey takes a close look at the characteristics and elements that define them, their style and their outlook towards various facets of life. 

Speaking to Adgully on this occasion, Sachin Kapur, CMO, Groupon India shared some insights with regard to their CSR initiative which brings a major transformation in the lives of underprivileged women and also about their presence on the social media and the importance of this medium.

This International Women’s Day Groupon India made a difference to the life of the underprivileged woman. In this regard Mr.Sachin Kapur said, “Taking forward the ethos of Groupon Grassroots – an initiative aimed at supporting local causes, on International Women’s day, Groupon India  collaborated with Samhita on “Support a Woman” Program which is championed by  Stayfree Women for Change to ensure that every girl and woman has a healthy and hygienic life, which is her right. Stayfree Women for Change is an initiative to improve the health & hygiene of marginalized girls and women through education and access to amenities.”

Sharing the  thought behind the campaign ‘Women for Change’ Mr. Kapur said that at Groupon they have built a platform which brings new experiences to their customers  every day. “We realized that a lot of working professionals do intend to do something good, donate to charities, and make their own contribution to the society. However, it is difficult for them to take time out of their busy schedules to look and find credible causes that they would genuinely like to support. We thought it would be great if people can discover these on our platform. When we met the team at Samhita and they informed us about this initiative the team seemed to quickly connect and wanted to contribute to it. Thus, the partnership started,” he said.

Groupon has taken a step towards supporting the ongoing campaign by Johnson & Johnson and is taking it to a wider audience. Elaborating further  about this collaboration and their tie-up with Samhita on ‘Support a woman’ programme he said, “ We introduced a special offer for Rs.330 to support this cause and the entire amount along with additional contribution from Groupon was donated towards conducting Health Camps by NGOs for women from low-income backgrounds. For every contribution made on the site, a girl/woman received:

• Two medical check-ups as well as counseling by a registered health care professional, in a span of six months
• Two Haemoglobin estimation tests, in a span of six months
• A 3-month course of Iron – Folic Acid tablets and Calcium Tablets to improve her health
• Counseling for better health and hygiene practices

In addition, Johnson & Johnson Ltd. will provide 6 months’ free supply of Stayfree sanitary napkins to cater to the needs of personal hygiene requirements of women and will also bear the operational and implementation cost of the program.

Today a major section of the underprivileged women in the country lack in hygienic facilities and are thus deprived of a healthy life which is their birthright. Totally agreeing with this fact he said, “There are some shocking facts that show how 1 out of 3 girls in India drop out of school due to lack of hygiene amenities, amongst other reasons. Also 1 out of 2 women in India is anaemic due to lack of nutrition. Many women in our country don’t get access to basic health amenities to lead a healthy life.”

Of late Groupon’s activities on social media too has been making waves. Throughout the day, interesting findings from the survey were shared on Groupon’s official Facebook page and Twitter handle. In addition to this initiative, Groupon also  offered women-centric deals across multiple offerings such as fashion & accessories, F&B etc. on their website www.groupon.co.in throughout the day to cheer and celebrate the spirit of womanhood.

Speaking about the importance of social media he said, “Social media for us is much more than a broadcast / grievance handling medium. We treat it as a performance medium and measure every activity very closely. We have been fairly active on platforms like FB & Twitter and to some extent on Pinterest and Foursquare.

Adding further he said, “We work on a monthly calendar, where every month has a theme. If there are any important days like Valentine’s Day, Women’s Day etc we tend to share the joy with our fans and followers by uploading exclusive deals and coming up with contests that have some awesome prizes like Ipads and even Free Movie & Event Tickets. Our most recent campaign on women’s day generated crazy engagement with our #Tag #BreakTheStereotype trended nationally on Twitter for three days. Last year we had 10% of our total traffic coming in from Social Media. We have more than 200K fans on FB and more than 4K followers on Twitter.” These campaigns not only work for brand engagement but also drive a lot of traffic and conversions on the site.

With regard to the pan India survey on the New Age India woman conducted by Groupon we elicited his views as to  how the modern woman has evolved over the years. In reply to this he said, “As part of the Women’s Day celebrations, an info graphic was released after surveying more than  350 women across the country. The insights were very interesting and also broke a lot of myths. For us the modern woman has come a long way and in fact has overtaken men in many aspects. She is an epitome of determination and resolve and is much better at playing multiple roles simultaneously. The more important aspect being that the modern woman spends both time and money in indulging in her own set of luxuries and pampering herself which is a true indication of empowerment.”

The survey takes a close look at the characteristics and elements that define them, their style and their outlook towards various facets of life.

• Women have now evolved and have adopted online shopping. Findings show that 50 % of women in non-metro cities and 40% of women in metro cities have migrated to online shopping.
• Fashion is not only about dressing up, make up and accessories. Women of this century prove that Fashion is about lifestyle.
• 80% of the women think that fashion applies to home décor too, the way they choose to deck up their home with trendy and quirky stuff.
• While 43% women think fashion applies to kitchen ware too.
• Refer  to  Info graphic which substantiates the above survey

When asked how this initiative is empowering and liberating for women today and how it will make a difference in terms of educating her with the right knowledge and resources to pass on the baton of good health to other women of her generation, Mr. Kapur said, “The initiative involves counseling by registered health care professionals which imparts the right kind of knowledge and guidance. Instead of providing cash incentives which might be utilized by them or their family for other reasons, the initiative actually provides medical checkups, haemoglobin tests, folic acid and calcium tablets that help women overcome deficiencies and live a healthier life.”

Thus Groupon India’s CSR initiative has now equipped women  with the right knowledge and resources which assures them of a  healthier and hygienic lifestyle while also ensuring  a healthy family life .