Catching the elusive customer’s attention

The second session at the Percept Business Conclave was curiously titled ‘Catch me if you can’. On the panel were the likes of Dr Bhaskar Das, Executive President, Bennett, Coleman, Company Ltd; Amit Madhan, Head of E-Channels, ICICI Lombard; LV Krishnan, CEO, TAM Media Research India; Prashant Panday, CEO, Entertaintment Network India; Sandip Tarkas, President - Customer Strategy, Future Group India; and Tarun Katial, COO, Big FM. Shivnath Thukral, Managing Editor, NDTV Profit, moderated the session.

Shivnath Thukral started off by noting, “Consumers today are more tech savvy and brand savvy. They know what they want and are willing to experiment.”

Adding to this, Dr Bhaskar Das said, “The consumer is becoming difficult. The big question is how to design consumer content. Marketers are getting tough. However, if you are fundamentally focused on your consumer, things will follow.”

Prashant Panday said here, “We should stick to the fundamentals. We have infrastructure problems in TV, print, etc. We need to see the convenience of the consumers.”

Citing some figures here, LV Krishnan said, “25 per cent of the consumers are under 25 years. Readership is declining. TV is fragile in nature. Surfing is highest among consumers. There is coincidental time of consumption happening in TV and radio at the same time.”

Amit Madhan added here, “I cater to the tech savvy generation. You have the radio and TV challenge for marketers as to what appeals to the consumers at that time.”

Sandip Tarkas pointed out, “Catching the consumer is not that tough. In retail, consumers come with the intention to spend. What we lack today is that though new mediums are born, there is no new currency for the mediums.”

Digitalisation and increasing media value

While pointing out that there were a lot of people who were tech savvy, Das noted, “We need to increase media value. In a linked economy, you can get other people to help you do value creation.”

Katial observed, “We are addicted to newness and customising novelty. We all want new TV soaps and new technology.”

Krishnan noted, “When there is some big news, the top three channels get the highest viewership. Experts are on that channel. You can catch the consumer. too.”

“When there is a tsunami of changes, we need to get ready and take action. The three pointers are consumer is still interested in news and interested in navigation. You can have multiple sources of revenue,” Das added.

Tarkas observed, “It is all about what the consumer takes over. Traditional media isn’t going anyway.”

Pandey said, “Every person needs his daily dose of news. Music will also never die. Through blogs or word of mouth, marketers can monetise video.” Agreeing with him, Katial said, “Though there will be Facebook, Orkut and Twitter, but 80 per cent of the eyeballs will go to conventional media like radio and newspaper. But at the same time, 30 per cent will go to other mediums.”

Krishnan remarked, “Our style and language content will keep changing. It is time for brands to get stronger. Pandey predicted that media consumption would change in the next five years. “Advertising will change, too. Consumers will want content and not advertising,” he added.

Katial asked, “The consumer is looking for information and entertainment. If a brand or content can’t provide him that info, then why would the consumer come?”

Thukral concluded by saying, “Just go out and act, and figure out ‘catch me if you can’.”