MxMIndia

Tag: Vinay Bhatia

  • Continuing with our extracts from the second edition of the MxMIndia Annual, we present contributions by Vinay Bhatia and Mitrajit Bhattacharya

    What Ticks for Indian Consumers/Women: Vinay Bhatia and Mitrajit Bhattacharya

    Continuing with our extracts from the second edition of the MxMIndia Annual, we present contributions by Vinay Bhatia and Mitrajit Bhattacharya.

     

     

    Marketing driven analytics is the way forward

     

    By Vinay Bhatia

     

    In the past two years, we have seen a rise in the use of marketing driven analytics by brands in India in order to deliver a better retail experience at the consumer level.

     

    At Shoppers Stop, we have been investing in data driven marketing a lot and have created tailor-made programmes for our customers, through which we can then keep a track on their spends.

     

    While it is true that data driven marketing is the way forward for India’s retail industry, it is still in its nascent stages; it is probably just beginning to be recognised as an effective marketing tool in India. I guess, in the next five to seven years, we will see massive growth in this area – and I see that within retail – every aspect of investment will be much more data driven.

     

    To remain connected with the consumers at large, we undertake digital and social media campaigns. Gone are the days where brands rely on traditional modes of communication. Today word of mouth has become an important factor in decision making, and this is true of both men as well as women consumers.

     

    		  

    Don’t preach,  just build bonds that’ll last

     

    By Mitrajit Bhattacharya

     

    Magazine as a brand or magazine as a printed product? Most publishers are still struggling to figure out the transition from the latter to the former and the earlier they do it, the better it is for them. Readers particularly women, as we all know might be difficult to understand but when they profess their loyalty to something, they are quite rigid about the same. And this is where trusted brands should swiftly move in to become the friend, philosopher and guide to their readers rather than continue being printed magazines.

     

    There are many examples of great magazine brands, like Vanitha, Sananda, Grihashobha, Chitralekha etc where the relationship has evolved much beyond that of a magazine and a reader. We at Chitralekha do many things to keep our women readers engaged, and in a very entertaining manner. Our motto: never be preachy and change with times. We have a dedicated magazine within Chitralekha addressing the needs of women, named Priyadarshini.

     

    A magazine-withinmagazine, it was launched in 2001 as we felt we needed to create a different ambience for the women audience. During our 60th anniversary celebrations in 2010 we took 60 of our readers on a paid holiday to Thailand. It was not a favour we did to them but was an acknowledgement for the goodwill they have showered on us over the years by following every word published.

     
     
     

    They do ask their friends before buying a product or a service. Various mobile applications (such as WhatsApp) and social media networks have made it easier for consumers to share and review their purchase decisions with friends. Therefore, retailers have taken to digital and social media very seriously. And we’ve certainly taken it very seriously as well.

    We were among the first retailers in India to have leveraged the digital space effectively. On Facebook, we have more than 5 million fans – the 8th largest Facebook page in India across all brands and all categories. We are also very active on Twitter with more than 70,000 followers. As far as consumer and consumer spends are concerned, this year, we have seen a steady growth despite the economic slowdown.

     

    In the apparel category, we clearly see an upswing where consumers are spending more, they want better brands, and they want to own more brands. Women in particular. We have seen an increase in sales of women footwear and women bags in the premium category like never before. All we need to do moving forward is keep the buzz going in the social space and leverage that with tailor-made programmes made for consumers with the help of data analytics.

     

     

    		  

    They really know more than we do about our magazine. In fact, when we found a couple of issues missing from our archives and approached our readers, many came forward to provide them to us. One more recent example has been a massive consumer activation programme on recipes with stars of Colors’ TV shows and Everest Masala. The activity which ran for 15 weeks received an overwhelming 5000 original recipes from readers on the favourite food of the TV celebs.

    The lucky winners visited the sets of Colors to meet the stars and were showered with prizes too. A magazine brand connected with its audience, how can we not leverage the social media? We have a very active FB page with strong properties like Chhoti Si Mulakat, Wah Bhai Wah, Elchi etc which are very unique to us. We were able to build a very strong connect with the younger audience through FB within a very short period of two years.

     

     

     

     

    Tomorrow: Teens -Anupriya Acharya and Lavneesh Gupta

     

  • Monetization is the key for survival of any business and radio stations must find ways to do that for their social media activations, say media captains

    Need to monetize radio-social media connect (+Vdo)

    By Robin Thomas (Videos: Insiyah Rangwala)

     

    Social media has, more or less, become a necessity for every organization today because the consumers are out there and no brand can afford to not be interacting with them. Moreover, social media can also help  brands know their consumers’ thoughts, behaviour, likes and dislikes. It also allows brands to have a two-way communication with their consumers, and thus provides high level of interaction and engagement. And it is not just brands but other media like radio stations which are coming out with innovative ways to connect with their listeners through social media.

     

    At the sidelines of the India Radio Forum (IRF) 2012 industry veterans from the advertising fraternity discussed the importance of social media for radio.

     

    Mr Premjeet Sodhi, COO, Lintas Media Group said: “Social media is certainly important for not only the radio industry today, but also for every other medium. In the long run we will see more integration taking place between social media and radio.”

     

    Mr Raj Nayak, CEO, Colors- Viacom 18 explained: “Social media is growing by the day. Today almost 65 per cent of the people in India are below the age of 35 and 50 per cent are below 25 years of age. I believe this is the fastest growing medium, therefore, it is a very important medium and those that have not got onto social media, must get on before it is too late.”

     

    Mr Suman Srivastava, Founder and Innovation Artist, Marketing Unplugged said: “Social media is important for radio at two levels. One is to connect with the listeners and therefore, get much larger engagement which might even result in an increase in the reach. On the other hand, it is a fantastic medium for radio channels to build their own brands as well as the brands of their advertisers. In the future, I believe, we will see a lot more advertisers using radio and social media together along with, perhaps, ground activations to create events which could have a multiplier effect for those advertisers.”

     

    Speaking on the need for radio to partner with clients, Mr Vinay Bhatia, Customer Care Associate and Senior VP- Marketing, Shoppers Stop said: “The real big partnership for radio and their clients is in the digital space. Digital and radio have to come together and ally in such a way that they deliver joint value to the client, and I don’t think any of this is happening today. Radio is an out of home medium and we are increasingly seeing out of home consumption for digital. I think these two medium can go very well together and brands like ours which have large Facebook pages need content, we need engagement and I think radio channels that provide us that.”

     

    Mr Harshad Jain, Business Head – Radio and Entertainment, HT Media said: “Radio is a medium which is free of cost, it is the cheapest form of entertainment in the country, and if there are issues that can be interlinked with social media, it could call for a good integration. Having said that, it is still early days because radio as a medium still has to catch up big time before it starts integrating with social media.”

     

    While there are calls for integration between radio and social media, the radio industry must also find ways to monetize the radio-social media connect. Mr Sodhi pointed out that while social media can make radio activations richer, it is vital for radio stations to find newer ways to monetize this activation.

     

    Agreeing with Mr Sodhi, Mr Raj Nayak said that no business will work if there is no monetization. He added: “One of the biggest disservice broadcasters have done is that they have not woken up to the digital media.”

     

    So while radio and social media will see more integration in the long run, there is also another school of thought that believes that radio is still at a nascent stage and has a long way to go before it can get into integration with social media. However, monetization is the key for survival of any business and radio stations must find ways to monetize its social media activations.