By Farheen Fayaz
SERVICES industry, as opposed to a goods industry, provides a deliverable, sometimes intangible but valuable to the customer. Noteworthy point about a service is that it should meet the benchmark for even being deemed a service from a customer’s perspective.
Kashmir has recently stepped up its game in the services industry, a thriving industry right now. All praises to the service providers, who took an extra mile to offer distinctive services to the people of Kashmir. One such service and a personal favourite of mine is the one associated with makeup. Makeup products were always accessible but no one would provide a professional makeup service until recently. This industry undoubtedly performed quite well within a closed community of people who had never had this luxury before. Well, the good news here is, it is not a luxury anymore. However, with the services came exploitation. Yes, that’s right, Exploitation!
How can a service probably manipulate its customers, you might think? Financial exploitation? Probably, something even worse. Let’s spool back a bit. It started off with a few artists launching their service on the market. How did they launch it? Social Media, probably? That is right, multiple platforms over social media were used to introduce a campaign or advertise the services provided by makeup professionals. This motivated other such professionals to go along and take the lead. Then came the growth in this industry, with plentiful options available at distinct price ranges and an assortment of fantastic styles of work by numerous makeup professionals.
Let us get back to the point where they promoted their work on social media. Makeup is a service that needs not a mannequin but a person, a human being to work on. Where did the professionals get these persons from? Did they hire someone, did they ask a friend for help? Certainly yes, how else would they do it, you might think? Let me tell you this, it is costly to hire someone or at least it is for start-up businesses. They work quite hard for marginal returns to start off with. As a result, many went for the easy solution, the brides themselves! Yes, hundreds of girls, if not more, get married every year. It is a treat to the eyes to see them on every social media platform. It is their red-carpet moment, isn’t it?
Why do I care or why should you care? Well, the brides love it, to be on a public platform, open to millions and billions of people. Oh yeah, and they certainly look remarkable, so why not? Sounds about right. What doesn’t sound right is when the makeup artists won’t deliver a service if a certain bride disagrees to be photographed and put on their social media page. What doesn’t sound right is, what used to be paid service, becomes a free modelling run for a service provider. If anything, the bride pays a hefty amount to get ready and then act as a prototype for which she isn’t paid. You see the irony there, don’t you?
During a personal encounter with one such Kashmiri makeup artist, mind you, a very talented one, I enquired about the makeup services and packages. However, the first and an extremely important personal restriction (customer perspective) I mentioned was, “NO PICTURES OF ME”. To my surprise, she replied, and I quote, “How else can we show our work, hopefully you will understand.” No miss, I do not understand. I do not understand the fact that you are using my personal pictures and violating my right to privacy for the sake of promoting your business. I also do not happen to understand if I paid for a service and I got the service, why not just stop there? I certainly fail to understand that I am a customer asking for a service just like we buy a product from a goods store, I am not your model used to promote your business. I am not the one you can use for advertisement. That is a service you need to avail for yourself. That is a service you need to pay for. Your services are not supposed to boom from the exploitation of your customers.
There are certain people who are happy to be on your social media and create content for you. That is totally a personal decision for them, but what everyone needs to understand is that it is customer’s decision, not the service providers (makeup artists). A service provider cannot exploit a basic right of a customer when they are entirely hostile to it. Any artist has a right to their work and what they do with it, but not the service availed by a customer for a price.
So, the real question here is; Is the makeup industry really a service industry or is it just another glorified business exploiting the customers, mentally and monetarily?
Views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial stance of Kashmir Observer
- The author is a Researcher
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