Category: MEDIA

By Madan Sanglikar

By 2020, one thing is for sure that, internet access will become as good as a fundamental right. Just like electricity and water supply, availability of internet will be a key differentiator between a developed and a developing village/ town/ city/ country. Election manifestos will include it and governments will be formed or will fall based on how they deal with internet and it’s free usage.

Almost all devices will be connected and we will experience ‘always -on’ digital environment. So all home appliances and enterprise solutions will be based and connected via Internet. It will be normal to turn on/off, say, the household microwave oven at home, remotely via message or tweet. Consumer devices will be more and more portable while heavy duty fixed devices will be used for corporate enterprise requirements. In short IP addresses will not be restricted to computers or communication devices only.

By Alok Sanwal

The youth of India, which falls in the age bracket of 18-35 years is the largest such segment in the country. For iNext, this segment especially in the tier 2 cities forms our core TG. This consumer segment is hungry for knowledge, is extremely opinionated and technology savvy. So how do we as a newspaper organisation cater to this segment? We, in fact, have divided this TG into two groups: 18-25 years and the other segment being 18-35 years. Those who are below 25 years of age are not yet fully accomplished in their careers or they have just started out.

They want to know more, experience different things, and even take chances in the quest of fulfilling their needs. The consumer segment between 25-35 years are mature in nature; there is an automatic sense of responsibility towards family or career. They have a fixed schedule and pretty much follow the same practice on a daily basis. So their reading patterns will be different. Both these groups are highly active on social networks.

Education sector will see over dependence on the use of Internet via fixed and handheld devices. Technology solutions like scanning codes, augmented reality; gesture control would be a common feature. Individual/ entrepreneur run business, SMEs, traders would have evolved in their usage of Internet with physical last mile connectivity in remote locations. We will hopefully also see the emergence of digitally silent zones with different countries/ cultures coming up with their own rules/ best practices of disconnecting from digital devices for important occasions.

 

We achieve this on an ongoing basis by focusing on issues such as governance, healthcare, education, drive social causes and effect changes that brings harmony and welfare. For our TG, we’re not just a newspaper; we give them warmth and freedom as a friend, philosopher and a mentor. We don’t believe in taking a puritan moral ground where we would have to sermonize our readers over issues. To preach to today’s youth is to underestimate their wisdom and understanding.

We interact with them in their own language and within the local value system. iNext’s smart, easy to imbibe ensemble and bilingual persona resonates with the sensibilities of today’s youth, especially in the mini metros. Here, they want to break free from the customary mindset and also long for the lifestyle of the upmarket, urban and educated social strata. However, at the same time, they want to retain traditional values too. iNext provides an ideal mix by deftly combining youth centric fixtures, contests and activations with newsworthy and relevant content. Also we interact a lot with our readers to create that special bond so as to build a relationship with them.

‘News is a category which changes according to the prevailing conditions’

By Rajat Sharma

News happens to be the most dynamic category in the television industry. From being information driven, the news genre has come a long way to being open for some scope of infotainment as well. The news genre used to be almost men centric initially. The period when entertainment was introduced in the genre, the profile started becoming all adults but subjectively speaking, the involvement levels were always higher for male audiences.

With the transformational scenario prevailing in the country right now, serious news has again become the highpoint for news channels and thus profiling of men has again increased (though women also are taking good interest in news). Viewership data shows almost a 60:40 split in favour of men. Thus, news is a category which changes according to the prevailing conditions in the country at any given point of time.

Men’s changing role in family dynamics

By Harish Shriyan

Till about a decade or so ago, there was a clear demarcation between a man and woman’s role in the family. While the woman was essentially the caregiver and homemaker, man was the bread-earner of the family. However, these barriers are now being broken, with each entering into the other’s territory. There is a sharing of responsibilities too now. There are no straight jacketed roles that men and women are expected to play anymore. Earlier, men went to the market only to buy some high-end or technology products.

With the advent of malls and modern trade it has changed. It is quite common to spot couples shopping together in malls. They, together, make informed decisions and choose products based on careful deliberation. Men are far more involved now – they play a role even in purchase of household products. They, in fact, are very well informed about the brands. It is not only shopping, where men are playing a larger role now. With the number of working couples on the rise household work is a combined effort now. And that is the logical way to go.

Over the next year or two, definitely, serious news is going to keep the men more involved with elections coming up and the expected changes thereafter. After that it will be completely dependent on the mood of the country. It would be safe for me to say that no one can predict a long-term goal where the genre of news is concerned.

Even where women are not working, men are now more involved at home than they were some years back. With this, another interesting change has been that women are equally involved in decision making. It is no longer that a man takes a call, and rest of the family follows. The autocratic world is over. It was in a joint family that patriarch of the house took all the decisions. In a nuclear family, that concept is rapidly diminishing.

In fact, in urban areas more and more young women are emerging as the decision makers. The man-woman equality, and a more open society has also led to men being better groomed. Personal grooming is no longer a women-only domain. While most of these changes are more visible in urban India, things are changing in rural and semi-urban areas as well. Men are more involved in the family now, and it is just a matter of time when women begin emerging as decision makers there as well.

Reaching out to women is an imperative goal for brands

By Sandhya Sadananda

Whether you’re trying to market a product or service, reaching out to women is an imperative goal for a brand’s social media team. With an increasing number of women with reliable internet connectivity, marketers cannot afford to rely on one-way messages to build purchase intent and brand loyalty.

As social media’s use has shifted from broadcasting a brand’s message to engaging with potential and current women consumers, a social media company needs to employ tools to target the right women. These could range from influencers to current users to maturing audiences who are likely to connect with the brand.

The ways in which a social media company can target these women audiences are:

1. Facebook plug-ins

2. Twitter plug-ins

3. Site registrations

4. Email registrations

5. OpenID plug-in

PR and women consumers in India

By Jaideep Shergill

Marketers have a sense that women are a make-or-break audience, not only as consumers but also as influencers. And the data backs this instinct. A report by private equity firm Everstone Capital last year said that women consumers will make India richer by 12 per cent by 2015 and 25 per cent by 2025. Over the next 30 years, the report added, the number of women workers will grow 38 per cent, outstripping the 33 per cent growth of the male workforce. Women’s incomes too are rising, enabling them to purchase products and services that were once out of reach.

An IMRB survey last year said urban women’s average monthly income rose from Rs 4,492 in 2001 to Rs 9,457 in 2010. By now, that number would have crossed five figures. Globally, said a study last year by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), women controlled more than $20 trillion in consumer spending in 2011.That was higher than the total consumer spending of China and India combined. By 2016, that amount could expand to $28 trillion.

The BCG study found that women are dissatisfied with many product categories, led by investment, cars, banking, life insurance, physicians, car insurance and work clothes. It’s clear, then, that marketers don’t always get it right. When reaching out to women, BCG felt that marketers ignore factors like emotional appeal and the need for products that save time. Not surprisingly, brands across the spectrum are now thinking hard about how to change their marketing mindsets.

The above methods can be employed for women who have already landed on your website/ social media page or are repeat customers.

For the ones that are not in the above mentioned groups, search ads, sign up ads, interactive social media posts and blogger outreach can be employed.

The points a social media company or brand must always remember while trying to engage women are:

1. Be to the point, because of shortening attention spans and multitudes of content

2. Employ graphic content wherever possible

3. Be interactive. Never ignore a query or comment.

4. Be creative and engaging.

5. Provide value instead of rushing to update three posts a day per platform.

6. Direct the women to other resources (e.g. alternate social media platforms, microsites, etc. to ensure they have a choice of responding wherever they are comfortable).

7. Ensure privacy in correspondence, wherever possible.

New products are being introduced exclusively for women. For instance, banks are launching credit cards and investment products that cater specifically to women’s needs. Automobile companies have introduced two-wheelers for women commuters, especially teenagers. At least one insurance company offers cover for illnesses that are specific to women. The public relations (PR) scope will grow as the market for women’s products and services grows, and the opportunity lies in brand storytelling.

That’s because women respond better to emotional stimuli. PR is the art of telling the brand’s story in a manner that is relevant to various stakeholders, such as women. It is up to the industry to recognise this opportunity and build the requisite capabilities. It helps that the industry is staffed in such large numbers by women — simply because they are better communicators than men. Lastly, there is a great digital PR opportunity.

A recent report by Google said that 60 million of India’s 150 million internet users are women, who use the online medium to manage their day-to-day lives. The connected women are more affluent and younger, and the top categories they searched for were apparel and accessories, followed by food, baby care, haircare and skincare. Digital communications are growing to be PRled in India. The industry, wisely, invested early in digital competencies and has tasted great success in this area. If digital is the storytelling medium of the future, PR is the storyteller-in-chief.