Zooming in on the market

Freeze Frame/ The media have to keep in mind the market they are addressing

Market segmentation is an axiom that all marketers swear by. This mantra is now being followed rigorously by the media and entertainment industry. There is a bit of a paradox in this.

From the invention of the motion picture to broadcasting (radio and television), the mass media have been all about reaching larger audiences. Yet market rationale talks of addressing specific segments of consumers for optimum profitability. In the case of broadcasting and films it has always been an exercise of one reaching out to many.

Yet in recent times technologies like satellite television have enabled the targeting of specific groups. The advent of digitalisation is for the first time opening several alternative means of communication "� one to one, one to many, many to many.

We are already seeing the first manifestations of this. The internet has shown us the immense reach, speed and power of the digital world even as it makes personalised segmentation a reality. Everything audio visual "� pan-global telecasts, video-on-demand, community FM stations, worldwide satellite radio, international blockbusters and the most self-indulgent art film "� has a distribution channel today.

Then you have the worldwide web, which opens a veritable Pandora's box of words, sounds and images. From streaming music and movies to the most arcane news or abstruse opinion, from the politically explosive to ancient wisdom "� almost all knowledge is a click away. The humble blog is the beginning of a new form of creative expression. As we move to an all IP (internet protocol) network in the near future, it will become possible to customise content to every individual's liking.

Anytime, anything, anywhere is a deliverable today "� the only problem is pricing. And that brings me to the crux of this fortnight's column. Is India ready for all this? We have seen the launch of several niche and differentiated channels recently.

Let's take Times TV's "Zoom," a lifestyle and entertainment channel. It has two problems. The first is distribution. For the first time "The Times" group is facing the kind of squeeze that its competitors experience when they try and launch a newspaper, say, in Mumbai.

Forget for a moment that it's a pay channel. The problem is that those who would like to watch it are not able to do so courtesy the non cooperation of the neighbourhood cable operator. The second problem is whether the Page 3 reader is really interested in watching the shenanigans of a small incestuous breed, interspersed with the MTV kind of trivia.

Similarly, the nth re-launch of Sahara (One) has no demographics in focus. The result is a curious mélange of Star Plus and Doordarshan. Star One, on the other hand, is talking of an upscale audience, which exists in pockets in a few metros. Yes there is an aspirational element which often grabs eyeballs. That will happen if there is a connect with the audience.

The plethora of news channels and forthcoming business news channels could face similar dilemmas, besides the overcrowded mind space. These are all examples of poorly focused target markets, both in terms of audiences as well as advertisers.

A recent spate of what are euphemistically referred to as 'multiplex films' have been released with disastrous results. It is a fallacy to presume that the audience in a multiplex in Jamnagar is similar to that in Mumbai or that multiplex viewers in Kolkata have anything in common with their counterparts in Nashik, except for the new plush seats and DTS sound.

There is of course a more homogenous non-resident Indian market in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia which is spawning not only fluffy screen romances but also many shoddy Indo-NRI films. The point is not whether there is a market for such films but how they are being distributed randomly. This is all the more pronounced in several shoddy Indian films in English. There has to be some study of what you are addressing. This does not require extensive market research or hi-tech gadgetry "� just common sense.

As far as TV and films are concerned, there is but a very small market for premium content. Within this small segment are further psychographic divisions (linguistic, ethnic and economic). A consumer buying a luxury car may be a Jain pizza eating, Gujarati speaking trader from Porbander.

When a swarthy coffee grower from Tamil Nadu buys a multi crore watch, it does not pre suppose any linguistic, cultural or social biases "� only money. However, a TV watcher or a movie goer is governed by all these sensitivities. This is what needs to be kept in mind by all creative professionals and media companies. There is a market for various genres and types of content "� but they only have their limitations in terms of their economic value.

While technology will in due course make it possible to reach out to an audience of one, the issue of the paying capacity of that audience will remain. Narrow casting, niche channels, fringe films and various on demand services are all viable if we understand the fundamental dynamics of affordability and the scope of the fragmentation of the market.

Amit Khanna is chairman of Reliance Entertainment. The views expressed here are his own