Research backed right decision at the right time has helped vitamin supplement brand revital to control 90% market share in the particular category

At the night of April 2, 2011, when the whole country was out on streets celebrating the Cricket World Cup victory, there were a few men at Ranbaxy Global Consumer Healthcare, working relentlessly to enact a hastily yet carefully crafted plan. Taking advantage of the affinity of Ranbaxy’s flagship product Revital with the Man of the World Cup Series Yuvraj Singh, an elaborate plan to have full page advertisements in next day’s leading dailies was keeping the people at RGCH away from the celebrations. Having made the decision late in the evening to release such advertisements, there was a mad rush to make it to the morning newspaper’s midnight deadline in time. But it was all worth it when the advertisement came out the following day congratulating the Indian team and Yuvraj. Revital even went on to double it’s ad spend to capitalise on the development. In effect, Yuvraj revitalised the 20-year old Revital brand that had seen enough ups and downs.

Starting out in 1980s as a vitamin supplement, it took the drug ten years to become an OTC (over-the-counter) brand when it was shifted from the pharmaceutical division to the current Consumer Healthcare arm. Since then Revital’s brand consciousness and awareness has seen a hyperbolic rise – from 22% in the 90s to 98% as per the latest dipstick checks. “The reason for success is varied. Health parameters of the brand continue to be on the rise and how you progressively move the health parameters to where it is today are all based on research and database diagnostics. We have various ideation sessions after which we come out with some hypothesis which we then test in the market. If the hypothesis is successful then we move forward with it,” said a satisfied Brijesh Kapil, VP, RGCH.

The brand today stands among the fastest growing brands in the Indian pharma market having touched the third position among all Indian pharma products. Moreover, its revenue has more than tripled from Rs.58 crore in 2005 to Rs.190 crore this year. But the rapid growth wasn’t fraught without it’s challenges. Owing to the nature of the product, and particularly the need that it caters to, maintaining sales and retaining customers wasn’t an easy task. Since Vitamin mineral supplement is one such OTC category where the consumer does not realise the need for the product nor can he visually see the effect of the same, the stimulus required to get consumer to use the product and then to reduce the post purchase diffidence levels is what hampers the category’s growth. Despite this, the brand grew backing on the innovative, out of the box techniques and marketing tactics adopted by the group. The unique money-back challenge offered on the product – wherein the consumer was given the flexibility of returning the product in case it did not completely satisfy him – was one such campaign that did wonders for the product. Above this, a sampling campaign in which a total of 20 million samples were distributed in six months time further strengthened the brand’s position considerably increasing its customer base.
 
So why then was there a need to rope in a celebrity cricketer, Yuvraj Singh, as their brand ambassador? The explanation was quick to follow. “If you already have 90% of the market share, then what do you do to grow the category? It’s a desperate situation requiring desperate measures. We had to do something which was non product related whereon we need to use some external aura other than the usual. And knowing the impact cricket has on the male genre in India, roping in a cricketer as the brand ambassador seemed like a good decision”, said Kapil.

Backed by such decisions the brand continues to grow in leaps and bounds and to be more specific by 20% per year. Basing the growth on the unofficial but strongly adhered to marketing motto – research, ideate, hypothesize, check the hypothesis and execute the successful hypothesis that continues to work strongly in favor of the brand. The journey that counts 21 years stands out among most of it’s peers and can safely be called one of the most successful stories in the pharmaceutical industries.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Kalyanmoy Chatterjee defends the Indian MR Industry’s Growth and elaborates on its future progression in this discussion

Market research methodologies have evolved globally. What are the major changes you have observed in the past few years?
The biggest challenge in India is our diversity. We have 22 official languages and 399 dialects. To do a pan-India study, the physical effort to reach various people is difficult. So until and unless you have a large infrastructure, you can’t do that. Globally, what has happened is that primary data collection by face to face interviews has been replaced by online and telephonic interviews. In most western countries, the data is collected from the web where they have large internet panels. In India, the internet penetration is high in terms of having the 3rd largest number of users but the normal consumers don’t use the internet as much. However, it is growing slowly. Today, we have 650 million plus mobile phone users, many of them are smartphone users. In the next 3 years, you will see many interviews being taken from mobile phones as well as online. It has started happening in India and has happened in many other countries. For example, in Japan, no one takes a face to face interview anymore.

To what extent have Indian companies adapted to research techniques that leverage online media in the era of smartphones and social media? How has it evolved for GfK-MODE?
In India, the market research industry in terms of technology is at par with global industry. It’s not as if we are doing a older generation market research. Online is picking up slowly and therefore the Indian market is now adapting to the online methodology. So whether it is an Indian company or an MNC; in India, they are using the same technology. Online is basically the method of collecting data. The basic research techniques and the statistical tools, which are used remain the same. For an example, earlier I used to go to you and take the interview; but today, I will contact you online. Because they are not face to face, there are certain constraints that remain. For instance, I can’t show you a sample, but you can see a visual online.
 
As businesses face greater uncertainty, how have their expectations from MR firms changed?
If you look at global uncertainty, in 2008-09, the west was bleeding. Business declined and people stopped recruiting. However, India was not that badly affected as Indian growth is led by our own consumption. And therefore, even if there is a slowdown in Europe or America, the impact on India would be much less. However having said that, there are global companies whose budgets were slashed by 10% in 2009-2010. Such things will happen but won’t affect the Indian MR industry in any major way. When it comes to client expectations nowadays, everyone wants things to be fast. Earlier they used to give us 6 month time spans to do a study and today, we get one month for the same. There are times when they want the answers in three days. People are looking at value addition to market research. MR actually started during the 1970s, when statisticians collected data scientifically. When we started in 1981, our positioning was that we are information scientists and not data collectors. So from the data, you need to take out the meaning, which will help clients take the right decision. That has become far more relevant today.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Shashank Srivastava points out that the company’s ability to keep launching products in line with consumer aspirations will remain a major plus

Maruti Suzuki has been the leader in the small car segment for decades now. However, in light of the rising competition, how are you planning to protect your market share? How critical is the 50% mark for you?
When many new players entered the Indian market in the mid-90s with the belief that the Indian consumer will gradually move towards bigger cars and launched sedans, we continued to invest in the small car segment. And the result is evident from the strong position that we hold in this segment. Today, the small car segment accounts for around 55-60% of the Indian automotive market and we believe that it will continue to hold a huge chunk till 2015-16 even after the industry will double up in terms of overall volumes. As far as our plans are concerned, we will continue to invest in this segment as we have been doing so far. Even after the competition started to increase in this segment with the launch of products like Santro and Matiz, it helped the overall volumes but we were able to hold a strong position in this segment and we have maintained it till date. In many major markets, the leader holds on an average a market share of 20-25% and the strong position of Maruti Suzuki in India is a result of our constant efforts to drive the growth of the industry. The 50% market share is important to keep the team on its toes and being able to sell half of the overall volumes surely gives a sense of pride to the employees. But from a company standpoint, it isn’t very important.

The small car segment is different in many ways today as compared to what it used to be in the 1990s. How have you adapted with the times and do you believe that it has delivered the desired results?
The biggest difference today is the number of choices that the consumers have. From the days when there were just a handful of options, there are more than 12 cars available in the premium hatchback segment alone to choose from. In short, the small car market is fragmented and there is a different car available for a different set of consumer. For instance, even after the success of Swift, we launched the Ritz, which is more of a family car and the TG is different as compared to the Swift buyer. While there were many doubts that were raised at the time of the launch, the fact is that Ritz grew at a faster pace compared to Swift in terms of overall volumes. In our portfolio, A-Star is for the young modern consumer but Alto is a car for consumers who are looking at value and fuel efficiency. Alto K10 is for a set of consumers who demand style apart from fuel efficiency in the product and the list goes on.

Apart from launching new products in the small car segment, what are your plans to stay ahead of the competition in the coming times?
Product is definitely going to be a major factor along with the brand. Maruti Suzuki has been a brand known for providing unmatched value. We will continue to invest in our brand. Over the past few years, apart from developing product-centric campaigns, we have also come up with campaigns for the brand, like the K-Series engine. One should not forget that apart from the price-point of the product, the ownership cost of the product also makes a lot of difference. We will be coming up with a brand campaign shortly that will talk about our wide service and sales network and we believe that these efforts will help us maintain our share amidst rising competition. We have been listening very carefully to our consumer and are always ready to tweak things accordingly.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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North america has for long been considered the epicenter of the mobile multimedia revolution. fair enough. But there are other geographies to be considered too. Besides, the launch of 4G and the explosion in mobile music, mobile TV, mobile gaming apps in recent years, have made this an arena where the outcome is no longer easy to predict – It’s a battle of markets and categories. understandable, when you’re talking about a $32 billion market turning into a $52.8 billion one by 2015. marketers, grab the chance.

Mobile tv’s bright future
According to a recent report released by IE Market Research, the market for mobile entertainment, including mobile gaming, mobile music and mobile TV, is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 9.5% to reach $52.8 billion in 2015, with revenues from mobile music rising to $15.7 billion. However, among the different categories of mobile multimedia, Mobile TV is expected to script the biggest percentage growth in revenues over the next five years. As per forecasts, global mobile TV revenues (broadcast and unicast revenues) will increase from $2.52 billion in 2009 to $6.6 billion in 2015.
 
A strong case for user base
In terms of adding users, Mobile TV is expected to be the key driver for the mobile multimedia market. The category’s subscriber base is expected to swell at a CAGR of 21.7%, to 226 million users by 2015. However, the average spend per user is expected to decline at a CAGR of 5.2% during the period – this, given the competition amongst content and service providers. Nevertheless, the industry will see the mobile gaming arena gather storm in the years to follow, with as many as 633.9 million users by 2015. But the largest chunk of users will belong to mobile music, with 857 million users.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Time to build brand Rahul Gandhi now

Congress, because of its bad handling of massive scams and its arrogant behaviour towards the Lokpal Bill, has very little credibility left with the people. The only hope left for the Congress now is Rahul Gandhi. To revive its image, it needs to build brand Rahul. And to build that, they need to stop giving him written scripts to read and rather let him write his own speech – a speech that comes from his conscience, and is both sincere and well meaning. Rahul is an intelligent, well read personality who knows the difference between right and wrong, and it is well known that whenever he spoke from his heart, he gained tremendous accolades and popularity. For him to become a brand and connect with the public, he needs to be allowed to speak freely and not be given any manufactured speeches.

The key now for any advertisement to work for Congress is to not sound like an advertisement. Their advertising should aim for the grassroots level and should both be accessible to the public and speak the truth. In fact, their approach should be of humility and honesty, for humility is the opening line of a love affair and for Congress to have a love affair with its people, it needs to be humble with them, not arrogant.

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An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Technological disruptions and the rise of consumerism have created an unprecedented fragmentation in the market. As a result, the job of a media buying agency has become extremely challenging. 4Ps B&M’s amir moin writes on what the future might hold for indian media agencies and why they could well be wiped out if they don’t come up to the ask most urgently

Media Buying System for Placement on Digital Messaging Devices, 2007; United States Patent Application 20070203729. Methods and Systems for Interactive Data Finder (for Media Buying Opportunities), 2011; United States Patent Application 20110258019. System for Optimizing Media Buying for Online Display Advertising, 2010; United States Patent Application 12/780,845....

Troll through the patents repositories in the United States, and you can’t escape the burgeoning number of recent patents that relate to highly quantitative, statistical and complex algorithms that scientists and researchers are churning up, tools which assist media buyers in understanding which media vehicles to buy space in. Move over you human, from now on those will be highly complicated software programs that will sift through bludgeoning amounts of data and then decide which media vehicles to choose and when. And then, more algorithms to find out whether the ads placed in the chosen media spots are effective or not. Oh, so placid and tramp now seems the formula of “reach x frequency = GRP” that authors like H. E. Katz used to propagate in the previous decade (and still do!). Now, much akin to how weather models forecast typhoons using stochastic formulations, media buying internationally – and especially in the Americas – is being decided by factoring in hundreds of events and issues through decision support systems that handle complexities which even a number of highly experienced media buying professionals would not be able to calibrate as a team. This massive move to computerized decision support systems had already started in the US in the mid 90s.

Are you machining yet?

Thus walk in three nattily suited media buying professionals in their pin-striped suits into the client’s office, throw down on the table three laptops that are rabidly analyzing trenches of mined data, matching client requirements and media availability! And voila! The resulting graph on the screen immediately shows up the media purchase options that the client can choose. That’s the US of today. Is that the Indian media buying landscape of the current times? Is that a description that comes even miles close to how an Indian media buying agency works? Honestly speaking, today’s typical Indian media buying agency is leagues away from understanding this gigantic change in the global media buying scenario – leave alone even have quantitatively educated and equipped employees. In fact, the human resource gap for media buying agencies is more critical now than ever.
 
Where are the ‘right’ employees?
The hallowed Ad:tech Advertising Technology Conference would have already started in New York by the time you’re reading this. Tanzina Vega of New York Times wrote on October 30, 2011 (Advertising Companies Fret Over a Digital Talent Gap; NY Times report) how, this year, the conference would be less about the speakers and more about media buyers hunting for talent. “The dilemma, one familiar to many industries across the country, is particularly acute for jobs that require hard-core quantitative, mathematical and technical skills. The digital talent gap is driven in part by the enormous amount of user data that ad tech companies are collecting for agencies and marketers – data that is instrumental in directing ads to consumers and analyzing trends. New hires are needed for a variety of tasks, including writing code, creating digital advertisements, Web site development and statistical analysis,” Tanzina mentions.

Similar was the tenor held by George John, when he wrote in Forbes in early October 2011, “Change has come to the $30 billion digital advertising industry. The ‘Mad Men’ days are over In the old days, agencies used to place an ad in relatively few places. ‘Give me the back cover of Life magazine and a TV spot at the beginning of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom,’ a media director could say.” And now, George mentions, it’s all about “online ad networks, real-time bidding, inventory exchanges, data exchanges, and offline metrics studies... a shift toward rational, computational, and algorithmic media buying.”

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Brio is Honda’s first venture into the crowded Indian small car segment. And Inaba seems determined to pull it off well.

As an automobile manufacturer, Honda has always enjoyed a top-of-the-mind recall the world over, and India is no exception. The reason is simple – the unmatched features that the company delivers to its customers through its high-quality products. But, now that it has stood up against rivals like Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen, et al, by launching the Brio in the small car segment, it has a big task in hand – of overpowering it rivals while keeping the brand image intact. Well, Seki Inaba, Director – Marketing, Honda SIEL Cars India is the man in charge. Inaba, who took over from Tatsuya Natsume in April this year, has been associated with Honda for more than two decades and brings with him the excellent sales & marketing experience with an in depth understanding of consumer trends in different markets including CIS, Middle East and Africa. But the question remains: Can he deliver what Honda’s top management is expecting from one of their most ambitious projects in India – Brio? While the first episode with the Jazz has nothing spectacular to talk about, the aggressive pricing of the Brio gives Inaba the right weapon to fight its rivals in an already crowded Indian hatchback market. In an exclusive conversation with Pawan Chabra, Inaba discusses the market strategy for the Brio going forward.

Honda has a reputation for manufacturing technologically advanced vehicles. Do you think it will help the company gain high initial volumes for Brio?
With products like City, Civic, Accord, et al, in its portfolio Honda already enjoys a very strong connect with its Indian consumers. However, with the existing product line-up, Honda was only present in the top 20% of the Indian market, but Brio will take us straight where the maximum action is. It was one of the most-awaited products of 2011 and we are confident that we will be able to sell enough numbers of the Brio in the Indian market. Now that the product is out in the market, we have expanded our presence in the segment which accounts for the highest volumes in the Indian passenger car market. In fact, this is one of the main reasons why we have kept such an aggressive price for this hatchback in the Indian market. We expect India to be one of the largest markets for automobiles (globally) in the future and Brio is certainly the first step towards a shifting growth trajectory for us in India.

So, what kind of media mix will you be using to promote Brio and what results are you expecting?
We will be launching a 360-degree campaign for Brio. It will have a healthy mix of all popular media vehicles. The idea is to make consumers aware of the product. The focus is very clear as far as Brio is concerned – we expect to gain a lot of consumers through Brio. Although I cannot share the exact figures that we are looking at, roughly we will be producing around 10,000 units of the product within this year. With over 80% localisation of the product (soon expected to reach 90%), we expect Brio to join City when it comes to the best selling model for Honda SIEL in India.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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In a Cluttered Market, where Real Estate Buyers have to be Drawn into a Purchase, Riding The Social Media bus is Extremely Important.

Coming up with a solid action plan can become challenging when you have to evaluate what works, what doesn’t, and what to maximise to get the best results in the real estate business. Creating a powerful, consistent brand presence allows you to step out from the ordinary and differentiate yourself from your competitors. Brands are under increasing pressure to perform. Yes. Tougher demand for greater returns on marketing spend, structural changes in the marketplace, tougher regulatory constraints and increasing count of competitive brands also force companies to build the right positioning.

In today’s cluttered real estate marketing environment, consumers are trained to tune-out messages that don’t seem to address their real and unfulfilled wants. In other words, if your message doesn’t clearly deliver a solution to exactly what your prospect is looking for – if it doesn’t slot into an open position in your prospect’s mind – then your efforts and money and time will go down the drain. Real estate companies have realised that the best positioning strategy to communicate to break the cluttered real estate market is to touch down on the selling propositions that your projects possess, keeping in mind the overall brand image.

Supreme focus should be on developing a communication plan that develops & reinstalls trust & faith of the consumer in our brand. “Positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect” – keeping this thought in mind, it is very important to understand how you want your brand to be positioned. All companies need to have a strong corporate positioning strategy besides various product positioning strategies.

Social media marketing is the new way to promote a brand. With all the social media available, it has became a lot easier to advertise/promote your brand. Using social media for business-to-business marketing can be integral to promoting the brand and forging industry contacts.
 
Research also reinforces the value of PR. PR is a vital component for building brand value, maintaining brand vitality, and establishing brand credibility. Most of the companies establish a strong bond with their customers through branding. Each company creates a brand identity that connects it with its target audience through a shared ideology or system of beliefs. And for the brands to have longevity, the companies need to consistently deliver on the promises made through the brand. One has to understand the value of establishing a cohesive, consistent and unique company identity that portrays what the company has to offer.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Click Asia MasterClasses — the training and conference on Affiliate Marketing and PPC — was recently held in Delhi. The enriching sessions were conducted by the leading experts in the field, who graced the occasion by sharing their experiences, tips and opportunities with the delegates from around the world. Click Asia MasterClasses aims to address the training needs of digital marketers in India with the latest digital tools and techniques. Speakers who attended the Click Asia MasterClasses included Eric J. Gerritsen, Vice President of Neverblue (Canada), Kapil Juneja, CEO of Walla Media (USA), Sandeep Amar, Head, Marketing of Times Internet Limited, Vivek Bhargava, Managing Director of Communicate2, Sunil Abraham, CEO of Leadcola & Clove Network (Canada), Chris Clark and Chief Marketing Officer of Walla Media (USA). The event was supported by media bigwigs Indiatimes.com, Afaqs, eVentures, Adgully, TradeBriefs, Alootechie, the DMAI, and yours truly, 4PsB&M!

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An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
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IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
Planman Technologies

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Euro RSCG’s Ashok Lalla believes in delivering TO The Consumer Whatever He Wants, Whenever He Wants it and Wherever He Is. And that’s what, as per him, is going to really drive Media Consumption in India

He leads the Digital business arm of Euro RSCG in India, and focuses on delivering next-gen digital marketing solutions to an array of leading global and Indian brands. He also sits on the Euro RSCG APAC Digital Council. In a career spanning over 18 years, both at the client as well as the agency side, he has marketed brands that cut across the spectrum from one cent candies to million dollar hotel stays. In an exclusive interaction with 4Ps B&M, Ashok Lalla, President – Digital, Euro RSCG talks about the key elements that are driving media consumption in the country. Excerpts:

From a digital perspective, do you think 3G is really over-rated when it comes to influencing media consumption in India?
As a matter of fact, I do. Because 3G is not just about 3G, it’s about the quality of the content you provide, its value and its context. For instance, 3G has scored big time in retail marketing in Singapore and Japan, where people are using a phone which is a GPS device. You know where your consumer is, you know his location, and using that bit of information you provide him with engaging content. That’s how you set one brand apart from the other and in the end make it meaningful for the consumer. That’s where you are talking about relevance & context, and really tailoring it differently every time for a same guy, rather than creating 130 seconds or 60 seconds commercial. Till that’s done in India, I think it’s overrated. Further, there are fewer devices and connections in India. I think the big play in India will only come when 4G happens. In fact, India is going to skip a generation really, just like it skipped the generation of pagers and went straight onto using mobiles, unlike America which had a complete phase of pagers before it leaped on to mobile communication. Similarly, I think we are going to skip a generation with 3G as well, though people seem to be a little rattled when I say that, but, time will tell.

What, according to you, are the trends that are shaping media consumption in India?
It essentially has to be the quality and relevance of content. If it is in tandem with what I want and if it’s in context with when I want it, how I want it, that would really draw people to shape that content. So you can go ahead and create a lot of apps, you can create a lot of content on, say, DTH, but is it relevant? There’s too much of overkill of information where today everyone can be an author. So precisely the barriers are not there any more. In order to keep the people glued to your content, the quality needs to improve and the meaning needs to improve a lot more. Also, I feel that the ‘www’ phenomenon, popularly known as the world wide web, is dead already. The future of content and media consumption is defined by ‘whatever, whenever, and wherever’. That’s the new ‘www’ according to me. So you give the person whatever he wants, whenever he wants it and wherever he is. That’s what’s going to really drive media consumption. It’s not about building by destination and worrying about driving people to it. The idea is to have many islands of connectivity and that’s what will trigger media consumption. Even large portals are realising it, you can sign into YouTube, blogger through gmail which wasn’t possible earlier. Now there’s an aggregation and de-intermediation at the same time. Thus, at one point you are aggregating the content and at the same time you are putting it out in a fragmented form asking the consumer to take his pick. It’s almost like a Lego Block model of media consumption.
 
Do you think there’s any media platform that is either dead or is about to go extinct?
Interestingly, a lot of media convergence is happening nowadays. So when I am watching a TV video online, am I really consuming TV content or should it be considered a web content? Because of this convergence, it’s getting a bit hazy. What is www? Or for that matter, what is a video blog? Is it a video or is it a text? If it’s a video, you might say that text is dead. Also at one level Twitter, which is by and large text communication, brings out videos as well. So, it would be safe to say that what is really dead is a uni-dimensional media delivery. If a radio channel is not able to integrate, it will be dead. I think unidimensional media delivery is a recipe for disaster. Every medium needs to be a lot more integrated and interactive. And if you can have it somehow user generated as well, even better. You can actually mark them into different levels, so there is integration at the first level, then the next level is interaction, the third is user generated, more like the citizen journalism activity initiated by TV channels.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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