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By Meghna Sharma

In today’s world where there are plenty of brands for consumers to choose from, an in-depth knowledge about the target audience is as much as a necessity as breathing for any brand to become successful. Research now plays an increasingly important role in a brand’s lifeline.

Entertainment industry today is growing at a fast pace and with number of options available to the TG, the brands need to know what will make the TG choose them over others.

Ormax Media, a media & entertainment research and consulting firm, entered the industry four years ago (July 28, 2008) with a motto of helping brands understand and retain not only their target groups, but also help them grow in their respective fields.

As the firm celebrates its four years of existence, MxMIndia spoke to the founders to get an insight on how research has evolved over the years and how the journey has been for Ormax Media so far…

“Till a few years ago, the phrase ‘consumer knowledge’, which is our prime derivable, wasn’t a common phenomenon. When we went to media clients in the entertainment space, for many of them research was a new thought.  So, we had to explain how it could help them create better products which will help them grow,” recalled Vispy Doctor, founder and managing director, Ormax Media.

Over four years, Ormax Media has worked with 76 leading media and entertainment brands as business partners. In the first year, it focused on television, and GECs in particular. In the second year, the focus was expanded to other television genres as well as radio. In the third year, Bollywood became the priority. And now, at the end of the fourth year, the organization is set to offer unique and relevant offerings.

Elaborating on Ormax’s four years, Shailesh Kapoor, CEO said: “The first four years of Ormax Media have been very eventful and successful. We have received great support from the media & entertainment industry, especially in our endeavour to create unique research products and approach entertainment research in ways that are unconventional and challenging, but also result oriented.”

Growth matters

The entertainment industry has its pros and cons and one of the biggest ‘cons’ of the industry is that it comes with a fairly low success rate – as low as 15 per cent. Therefore, the organization hopes to help the industry increase its success rate, even if by a small percentage.

“Since we have been able to explain it to our clients, they have appreciated and accepted the concept of research. Hence, our growth has been fairly steep, and I can say that we are growing at a fairly high rate of 75-80 per cent, as we add more and more partners in our kitty,” said Mr Doctor.

According to Mr Kapoor, the television industry has its cyclical changes, but is in a fairly stable state, vis-a-vis what it would have been 5-6 years ago. However, he does add that the definition of “stable” in television is very different from that in packaged goods and other sectors.

As for the film industry, it is in an evolution stage, much like what the TV industry was in the late 90s and early 2000s. And one can see exciting times ahead for Bollywood, especially in research, where it has seen growing acceptance year-on-year.

As far as Radio is concerned, it hinges a lot on the Phase 3 licenses. “Media & entertainment is a growing business, and research will continue to become more and more important as the market matures. We are all set for the challenges ahead,” Mr Kapoor added.

Procedure: Easy or difficult?

The organization offers a number of research products for various sectors of the entertainment industry. The list includes broadcast television networks, radio networks, film studios, newspapers, media agencies, DTH service providers, digital entertainment companies and production houses.

So, when asked how difficult or easy the research procedure is for each variant, Mr Kapoor explained: “The larger GECs are the easier ones, as they are far more professional and they understand the value of research. Whereas in the more touchy-feely areas like films and creative companies, it becomes a little difficult as it is more about sentiments. However, it is difficult to rate them as it might be easier to work for a GEC, it might be more interesting for a film.”

He added: “As a good service company, it becomes our job to orient ourselves to the client’s needs, but without compromising on the research rigor and correctness. That’s the balance that may be easy or tough. But it’s a part of our job.”

A correct sample size plays is essential for any research to become successful and come out with results which will benefit the researcher. So how does the organization choose its sample?

“For every client, the TG might different so we have to be careful about what attributes are they looking for in a sample size. For example, for a serial, it might be cultural overtones. So, how that serial is perceived in a city like Mumbai will be very different from how it is perceived in a small town like Indore. And if we are able to find this difference and collate preferences, it will help the channels,” explained Mr Doctor.

Expansion plans

The organization’s focus is to consolidate through new clients and repeat business. It now has 21 products for various sectors and plans to entirely focus on these products and getting them to become bigger and better in their own right. Also, it plans to target media agencies and advertisers through products like Celebritix, which was launched on July 25.

“I’m often told that whichever channel you go to, Ormax gets mentioned in conversations consistently. We have a young team which made this happen. Four years ago, I would have bargained for much lesser. But again, this is only the start, and we know that we can achieve a lot more than what we have so far…” said Mr Kapoor.