Category: MEDIA

Regional publications must have a unique identity of their own
By Vijay Bobby

In my opinion, there are three very important factors by which regional publications can be relevant to the 18+male and female readers.

First, regional publications must take all efforts to speak to the TG in their language.By this I mean that, rather than trying to emulate English dailies in editorial delivery,choice of content including selection of headlines and even presentation of news,regional dailies must communicate in a way that is most comfortable to the readers. After all, regional publications have the advantage of communicating in the readers’ mother tongue through an Indian language and this advantage must be fully taken advantage of.

Concept of relevant disruption could do it for ads
By Avik Chattopadhyay

Advertising is a means and not an end. It has a purpose and therefore a deliverable. The more measurable the deliverable, the more potent is the advertising. Therefore if any piece of advertising does not deliver, it is a waste and cannot be termed ‘innovative’ in anyway. For an innovation, by its very nature, presupposes a positive impact.

Regional publications must have a unique identity of their own and change with the times in all aspects and not look like translated versions of English publications. In fact, going one step further, one can even try different editorial and layout presentation styles depending on the editorial content. The language used to convey film news can be different from that used to convey business news and so on.The best example one can think of to substantiate this observation is the film industry. Over the years, English movies have remained the same (except in use of technology) in terms of dialogue delivery, body language, vocabulary and continue to run successfully whereas if one looks at the regional language movies, the difference between movies released a few decades back and the ones being released now is striking.Can you imagine today’s movies being made like the ones that were made even about ten years back?.

Secondly, in today’s context when updatedheadlines are made available round the clockthrough mobiles, tablets and other devices,regional publications must do much morethan just report news. Analysis, statistics, expert opinions, graphic illustrations, photographs capturing vital event-related moments and lot more should be included in the editorial content. The reader must feel that he is getting a lot more than he has already learnt through TV or other updates.

Last but not least, engaging the reader in interactive exercises is very important.Applications like Augmented Reality can be effectively used to create a good rapport with readers and such exercises will increase reader loyalty as well as create goodwill. Just imagine news coverage of a one-day match wherein a reader can scan the article and watch a video of all the wickets that fell! Orthink of a recipe in the weekend cookerycolumn wherein one can scan and see theactual dish being prepared. Such featureswill especially be attractive to the youth andwomen readers.

An innovation, in the context of advertising, is a deliberate communication intervention that overturns convention. It could very well be called a ‘disruption’. In fact, I prefer the term disruption. Or better, relevant disruption. One that makes the target sit up, take notice and react positively.The concept applies to all target groups – be it men, women or the youth of India.

 

Brands cannot target men the way they target women

By Rohan Bhansali

In India, women have conventionally been the Chief Purchase Officers of the household. However, over the last few years, the men in the families have successfully stepped up to this role. Meet Rahul, your quintessential Indian male consumer. He is more aware about products and brands, for him shopping is no more than a dreaded activity he must not undertake unless absolutely necessary. Men, generally, are inclined towards online shopping and exhibit consistency in adopting online shopping. In addition to that, their range is not limited to low ticket categories. The trend extends to high involvement categories like technology, real estate, etc.

Men’s role in family affairs
has evolved

By Devendra Chawla

The fabric of the society has been changing, and it has made men evolve from just being bread earners to a more family centric role. As more and more women are stepping out of home, men are getting more involved in household sphere – from attending parent-teacher meetings to shopping – they are doing it all. Some men are even taking up cooking as a hobby inspired by cooking shows like MasterChef. Weekend cooking by men is gaining in popularity.

A key change one witnesses is that more and more men are now accompanying their spouse/family on shopping trips. Modern retail is acting as a catalyst for men to include shopping in their schedule. They are more impulsive shoppers than women, and a lot of experimentation is taking place.

Ever since, marketers have ignored men and focused on targeting women for their campaigns. However, in the last two decades, rapid globalisation has completely changed the way brands target their consumers. For instance, the marketing strategy used for condoms focuses on sensuality, while lingerie is marketed primarily as a gift item. This basically points at how brands are interlinking TGs and creating new channels to sell. However, there always remains a core TG for brands to survive on. Men, as a group, show great potential to be a gateway to reach the complete family.

While men live more in the moment and believe in finishing the task they have taken in hand, they simply act as a receptive target group. On the other hand, with impulsiveness, the interest in power and the need to look good, well-embedded in their DNA, brands cannot target men the way they target women.

Getting to the root of the consumer behavior of the Indian Male – The DNA

Patience
Men simply hate waiting. Being a part of those long queues would never interest them. Their idea of shopping can be simplified into the Neanderthal-like instinct – ‘Go. Seek. Buy!’ Ample instances show men bouncing off as confused if the checkout process is complicated. Forcing men to register on your website to gain access to the product he is looking for will simply put him off. So keep it simple. And make it fast.

Trust
Men like transparency. Nobody wants to take risks with his hard-earned money and men are no exceptions. All they want is trust and a transparent experience. You could gain their trust by not asking them for unnecessary personal information. That’s the way to being in their good books.

Impulsive
The stir of impulsiveness and accessibility is a huge drive for men. If they feel it, they want it. They are not hugely turned off by delivery charges if they want a product the next day. And no, they won’t mind spending extra on delivery if the product is what they fancy.

Good at Research
Men research intensely and excessively. They are quick and thoughtful while looking for what they want. I personally know of a few men who will do all their research online, zero in on the product they want, find out where they will get it and go offline and buy it – a great example of ‘Go. Seek. Buy’.

Loyalty
If you provide them with what they want in the most efficient way, they WILL come back. They believe in brand loyalty and are more often than not, brand loyalists.

Coming back to the quintessential Rahul, who we spoke about earlier, he can be categorised into the following groups, and brands can engage him accordingly:

The Simpleton – Driven by family values and tradition. He loves his family and believes in value for money. He wouldn’t mind paying a little extra for value.

How do you engage the simpleton?
:: Showing him the value that your brand can add
:: Surprise him with offers and better deals
:: Making it funny, as humor is a great way to reach out to his kind

The Alpha – Driven by need and hunger for status and pleasure, this metropolitan dweller has been exposed to the best of facilities around him. He identifies value with how much a concept appeals to his elitist instincts. For him, appearance of the product is of as much value as the usefulness, if not more. Status and social recognition are important too.

We can engage the Alphas by:
:: Focusing on ‘Me’. Alpha males are heavily self-driven. Give them content that satisfies their ego and put them a step ahead of other males
:: Give them exclusive content that is not for the masses
:: Talk about pride and the status symbol associated with your brand
:: Create an elitist appeal

The Progressive – Similar to ‘The Simpleton’, he is hugely involved in his family life. He thinks about his wife and kids as well. He is educated, progressive in outlook, not overly simpleton nor overly an alpha male. Such males take purchase decision by collaborating and are driven by rationality than impulse.

Such men can be engaged by:
:: Giving content that increases productivity adding value in their lives
:: Packaging family in your conversations
:: Using more of testimonials and product reviews

The next time you happen to deal with a Rahul, know that he has evolved from the Neanderthal, but is still very much the man at heart. He is well informed, brand conscious, wants status and at the same time believes in value for money. And even though he is impatient, he enjoys research and likes to spend quality time in the process of information gathering. Thus, brands need to ensure that the selling points and product details are available easily. Positive reviews and testimonials will also add more value when dealing with men.

A positive, strong and active presence on social media has also become a lethal tool in this direction. A lot of men look at these platforms for insights on brands and products. Another important aspect is the ranks of the brands on search engines. Men don’t tend to go beyond page 1 of the results page on search engines. So, it is important for brands to rank high and if possible, appear in the top 3 results of the searches.

Brands must also incorporate entertaining and engaging videos into content as men react a lot to such content. While they’re a tough combination of expectations to live up to, the challenge can be exciting. Identifying the right segment is key to applying the right strategy. Keep in mind the above categories and somewhere you’ll know which Rahul fits your brand and embodies your target group.

A quick tip: Colors like blue, red, black and green tones catch the male eye better than others. Men stay away from shades like purple and brown.

An added attraction for them while shopping is explosion in men’s categories in super markets, for instance male grooming. Men’s grooming is growing nearly double the rate of overall personal care category given its smaller base.

This brings us to yet another change in men’s behaviour: personal grooming. Looking good is important for men now, leading to them visiting spas more frequently. Centuries ago, women would choose their grooms in swayamvar, which put pressure on men to be at their best in all forms of skills and looks. With women increasingly choosing their partners and no longer just being well dressed dolls for men to see and select, men are again under pressure to look good.

That, though, is not the only reason for being better groomed. Good grooming makes one more presentable and confident at work. Besides, women in 30’s, 40’s and 50’s are very well groomed and they want their men to be well groomed as well. Older men, are hence, under pressure to keep pace with their better halves who use age defying cosmetics and don’t want their partners to look old revealing their age.

Modern man, thus has changed a lot – he is more involved in household activities, is better groomed, and an avid shopper. Credit for this change, to a very large extent goes to the sea change the Indian woman has gone through – she is much better groomed now, and is no longer confined to the four walls of the house.

Death of gender ahead

By Harish Bijoor

Study the advertising of a nation, and you understand its people. I follow this diktat to the core when I study a nation, its culture, its peoples, and its brand and marketing formats. Advertising used by the marketers of a nation reveals more than hides. While the reality is that consumers must define advertising, advertising often defines consumers as well. However, on more occasions than most, advertising of a nation is a great barometer of its people and their resultant consumer behaviour patterns.

The current topic at hand is the changing consumer behaviour patterns we see and what we will witness in the coming years right up to 2020. The focus is women. As complex as it gets!

Consumer behaviour patterns among women in India have changed radically and continually over the last nine decades and more. The earliest decade of it all saw literally no participation by women in what they bought. In the early twenties, if you were to peek into the life of your grandmother or great grandmother for that matter, women just did not show themselves to be active buyers at all. The woman sat at home, and consumed just about anything that the man and men of the house brought in. There was indeed a time when it was taboo for a woman in early India to go to the corner grocer even. Women just did not expose themselves to the retailer at large. Never mind that the retailer at the corner was related to you in some way of the other. Women expressed their choice to their husbands and brothers and fathers and the men bought. At times bought tailoring everything to their own choice even.

Women came into their own in terms of expressing choice and articulating it all in purchase behaviour of every kind much, much later. In many ways, the way marriages were and are conducted in India says it all. The women had little choice in the men they chose to marry. More often than not, “purchase behaviour” here was dictated as well.

The dark ages of social media in India

By Lynn de Souza

Run a Google search for ‘Women in India’. It will throw up the following links: ‘the status of Indian women’; ‘safety of Indian women in cities’; ‘freedom from gender bias’; ‘harassment of Indian women’, ‘Women in India: Goddesses or sluts?’

All of these links will lead to contributions by men, sadly reflective of a malaise that is still very prevalent even in the rapidly growing and highly contemporary digital universe. Two facts are evident. One, that the Indian woman’s voice in popular media is still muffled, and two, when spoken about, the content pertains to her protection rather than her progress.

India has nearly 60 million women internet users. This is more than the entire populations of Spain or South Africa! Yet, women account only for 40 per cent of India’s internet users, a far lower ratio than seen in most other countries. A recent IAMAI study does show a healthy trend however – that housewives and college girls do account for the maximum growth in the digital universe in the past one year.

On an average, women speak 13,000 words more than men a day, says a research conducted by University of Maryland School of Medicine. By this statistic, the woman’s voice should be better heard on social media platforms. We are after all natural networkers, gatherers of information and builders of communities. Yet, our representation and influence in social media isn’t anything to speak of. A recent Pinstorm survey revealed that there are just four women among the top 20 social media influencers today, and all of them are from Bollywood. Women are more ‘seen’ than ‘heard’ on social media. To have social media influence therefore in India, a glamorous persona seems to be a prerequisite.

Today however, things are a bit different. Love marriages are in vogue, and a woman literally has the choice to marry anyone, just as long as they are of the opposite sex and are human. As this trend cascades, consumer behaviour among women gets more accentuated, articulated and driving in its motion. Marketers today study consumer behaviour patterns among women differently as opposed to that among men and children.

The years ahead in the tenure 2014-20 will see dramatic changes in the consumer behaviour patterns as articulated by women. Expect lots. Expect the woman to be getting more and more ‘I, me and myself ” centric than she is today. Today she is the benign mother, wife, daughter and daughter-in-law, overseeing everyone’s happiness. Expect this trend to shift more to the “I”. This will have women looking to buy products and services that are leveraged to their personal choices more than aggregated family choices.

Expect women to destroy and decimate the paradigm think of many a marketers. Expect the woman to stop thinking the same old pinks and bright-yellows in colour choices, whether it is clothes, auto, microwaves or fans. Expect women to exhibit consumer behaviour that is that much more “non-womanly”. Expect radical shifts here. Expect lots!

Expect the woman to be making many more decisions on her own as well. She will decide on which mini-skirt to buy, just as she will decide on how short or long it must be. She will decide as well on which car to buy, which Insurance product to latch onto and which bank to operate an account out of.

However, expect 2020 to erase much of this gender divide as well.

Man today is seen to be the calculative one, and women are seen to be the impulsive ones. Marketers and advertisers don’t want to break this imagery up, as it divides the sexes and their dominant appeals clearly. Any attempt to bring fuzziness here, will result in confusion. Marketers and advertisers are in many ways postponing the inevitable, one ad at a time! The death of the differentiator between the genders is going to happen, later than sooner. But till it exists, reap it to your advantage. And guess what, both the genders love it. As of now.

Touche!

– The author is a brand expert & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. You can follow him on Twitter: @harishbijoor

One key reason for our inconspicuous social media presence could be that Indian women as a collective have traditionally been more socially reserved than their western counterparts. Modesty has been a desired quality. Women today are breaking out of this mould and adopting a different world view. We have entered every sphere of male dominance, and rightly seek a place in the forefront at par with men. This is especially true in urban India. But as all change, this too is facing resistance. As a result, unfortunately, there have been many jarring, disruptive aberrations in our society, with dire consequences.And, fittingly, our pitch is rising in social media, and must continue to. What better platform to reach out to millions and billions of people keen to watch our every move? Social media lends itself very well to activism.

In the wake of the recent brutal gang rapes both in New Delhi and Mumbai, a lot of opinion, action, and support were mobilized for women’s safety through social media platforms. One of the pioneering social media campaigns in India on violence against women, the ‘Pink Chaddi’ campaign, was started by a woman in 2009, which received an overwhelming response. It went viral and how! The Pink Breast Cancer movement is also one of the most successful pitches in social media.

There is yet another unexpected breed of social media users that easily escapes public attention. They, in fact, top the list of users. Women homemakers are using social media’s reach and power to make a mark as entrepreneurs, bloggers and tutors among other things. There are more Indian women using LinkedIn, than their global counterparts. While most of the internet users in India are under 35, among women the 35-44 years age group has indicated heavy usage points out digital analytics firm, comScore. This has always been an excellent target audience for advertisers, and there is no limit to how they can influence views if they raise their voice on social media. In general, research shows that Indians tend to spend their time online on Facebook games, apps and viewing photographs.

This can hamper meaningful social engagement online. It could well be because more than 70 per cent of internet users in India are under the age of 35, compared to just over half, worldwide. This gives even more credence to encourage the voice of the significant, yet overlooked women users. It would take one far, to pay attention to the women. In an era of social media and global connection, there is only more opportunity to have a voice and reach out to people with a global perspective and make a difference.

– With inputs from Deepa Krishnan.