Sundays are special for me because they are spent amidst music, books and television. But this last Sunday was made even more special since I was flitting channels and was pleasantly surprised to see the hour-long show ?Lakme Fashion House? on Star One.
The show apparently is a reality television show and had the inimitable Donatella Versace choose a designer from India who would train under her at the House of Versace in Milan. For someone from Patna to be selected by a jury that comprised the Bachchan household of Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla in addition to Donatella made for excellent television and what?s more, I believe Star One has created not just a reality television proposition but more importantly a fashion property out of Lakme Fashion House and this is where I think, television channels in India need to set their sights on.
It is a myth that consumers only get excited by the sloppy and the mushy. Star One in its programming, be it a cookery show or for that matter a comedy show, has injected a certain amount of branding in the world of television and for this it must be given its due share of credit. This is where television of the future is headed much like in the West. ?60 Minutes? on CBS is a brand by itself as is John Stewart on Comedy Central. In fact, the very manner in which the Pope?s illness and its aftermath were covered by most channels is an indication of the requirement of branding. Be it the entertainment space or the news domain.
Star One and channels such as these will need to constantly reinvent the programming since the television consumer, much like the average consumer, is no longer loyal. The fact that Indian Idol was such a great hit or the fact that Star Plus continues to rule the league in the genre of general entertainment are indicators of the importance of branding. Not the kind I have seen from Zee though. Logo changes do not a channel make and I guess Subhash Chandra should know that better than most.
By advertising a logo change, you are missing the woods for the trees because I can bet my last penny that consumers don?t watch logos: they watch programmes and the advertiser too doesn?t watch logos: he or she watches the programme on the channel and unless branding can become an integral part of the program design process, everything else you do around it is merely cosmetic in purpose and appeal.
Which is why the next bastion for marketing professionals must be the domain of television and in this paradigm shift the marketing team will necessarily need to work with the programming team in order to sift the programs they want to create and air based on the shifting sands which has become the hallmark of the Indian consumer.
The fact that you have powerful brands such as ?The Big Fight?, ?We the People?, ?Walk the Talk? on NDTV 24×7 and ?You Decide? and ?Money Mantra? on NDTV Profit as also ?Poll Khol? on Star News is a sign of the times to come. Marketers by nature have a preference for brands. That?s the way they are trained to think and create platforms for their brands. Hence, it only serves strategic purpose to build that into the programming for any television channel because gone are the days where one channel could have just one basic unalterable positioning. That is just not on.
On a business channel such as NDTV Profit I would get excited by seeing ?The Big Fish? or ?The Makeover Show? as I get by watching ?Night Out? on NDTV 24×7. The positioning is quaintly that of the consumer in the minds of those who create television programming and no longer the domain of one size fits all. It is this trend that I see becoming more and more critical as we march towards a mature television industry in our country.
The fact that the consumer is also changing in his acceptability patterns of the kind of entertainment he wishes to absorb is emergent from the choices that are available today which is why I guess the look and the feel of the channel is very critical.
The reason why channels are now investing in in-house graphic artists is a signal of the changing times. The advertiser too has smartened up which is why merely TRPs will not translate into advertising revenue. Increasingly advertisers will look at on-air and on-ground synergies, as they should. Hence, the sure-fire success of Lakme Fashion House on Star One. Here was an event that worked well both on-ground and on-air. Tomorrow the owners of Star One could well easily organise ground events around the preliminary contests and make them huge revenue-earners and who within a certain SEC type is not game for a fashion show?
It is this trend that will change, forever, the way television is marketed both to the viewer as also the advertiser. The sooner other channels adopt these simple steps to enduring brand-building, the better off they will be!
The writer is CEO, Equus Redcell