Go 92.5, Radio City, Radio Mirchi and Red FM - They’re battling for your ears!

The ‘Bombay Battle’ of print media barely just became a blind spot before the radio stations decided to make a splash all over the country with their announcements of re-vamping, new programming and a score of other things. Why, one would wonder, would radio stations waste so much on ad-spends when for starters, Mumbai has only four private stations (the other cities less) so what is the need for such aggressive marketing and screaming? And secondly, apart from GO 92.5 — which plays 50 per cent each of English and Hindi — there seems to be absolutely no differentiating factor between the other three. So we decided to speak with all four radio channels present in Mumbai and found out that all of them are in fact, very different; from their positioning to their programming. Interestingly, each of them has a different objective and their marketing strategies very evidently reflect all this.

We first knocked on Radio Mirchi's door and spoke with A. P. Parigi, Managing Director, Entertainment Network India Ltd. "I think, first of all, we need to step back before we dive into marketing or the relevance of marketing concepts or how to go about marketing. I think the first challenge that seems to daunt all, if not some of the players — who may not be in the leadership position like us — is the development of a category called 'Private FM Radio'. That itself is one of the basic foundations of a marketing plan, and a marketing communications plan. I daresay that radio was an almost forgotten medium, but by building it into a category in this country we have given radio its true place. Having assumed leadership position — which Radio Mirchi assumed from day 1 — the challenge was about how we could share global experiences of Private FM Radio in the context of providing super-value to advertisers," says Parigi. 'Radio Works', which Radio Mirchi conducts annually, is a workshop that covers the various ways radio can be approached and used in the context of advertising and marketing. Mirchi has conducted three such workshops in the last three years.

Another Mirchi initiative is the institution of the Kaan Awards. This year, for the first time, 'Radio' was a category at the Cannes Advertising Awards, so Radio Mirchi is, in a sense, literally ahead of the international set by recognising it as category where creativity certainly has the space to shine. "How can we communicate with, motivate, excite and challenge the creative fraternity? Why should someone who is 22-25 years old at O&M or Leo Burnett or any of these large organisations say, 'why should I ask my clients to go towards radio?' So we instituted the awards show and I think we have, in no small measure, gained acceptance," explains Parigi.

Category building is completely on the awareness and Continued from Page 3 access dimension. Radio, fortunately, can be accessed both anywhere and everywhere; and being a free-to-air medium, it doesn't take a degree in rocket science to figure that when the awareness level of radio increases, the access levels are exponential. You don't need to pay a subscription fee of several hundreds every month and the equipment is available for well under a hundred rupees for anyone to afford. Parigi goes on to explain how, when Radio Mirchi was conceived four years ago, they were literally exploiting a fabulous opportunity in a then infant market. "If you were a resident of Mumbai then and walked around the Fort area, you'd have someone come up to you asking if 'you wanted a 'Radio Mirchi', when in actuality, he was selling you a receiver. So we got that first-mover advantage, and we put in a lot of effort."

Speaking of the branding and positioning of Radio Mirchi, Parigi talks about how radio is yet another domain where the vertical line between programming and sales and marketing is completely blurred. "So when you're talking about programming in radio, you're actually talking about marketing, and when you're talking about marketing, you're talking about programming. They're two sides to the same coin; that's been our experience and its given us a lot of width and depth into the markets,” he adds.

“The marketing challenge was initially category development; secondly, it was awareness and access to Private FM Radio. We invested a huge amount of resources into the brand-building exercise, and after you invest like that, you have to live up to build brand salience. How you connect with your listeners is the most important thing; we do research on a weekly basis because we have to find out the preferences of the consumer", he explains.

Parigi reminisces on the birth of Radio Mirchi: "The kind of marketing that we've done for Radio Mirchi makes a great case study on how to make a forgotten medium absolutely dynamic and create stickiness with listeners. So how did we market Radio Mirchi? I was very reluctant to bring an English word 'Radio' together with 'Mirchi', a Hindi word. But thanks to Vineet Jain's polite stubbornness, we accepted the brand name, and launched it in Indore first. In fact, the internal joke in the company was that if it didn't do well in Indore, we'd quietly wrap it up. It was a phenomenal success in Indore; way beyond our expectations. And we found that we were eating into the time people spent viewing television — which is sunset viewing essentially. Then we moved to Ahmedabad, Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai; we did all the rounds."

Parigi then goes on to give a very interesting example of how Motorola and Bell Labs have far more Nobel Laureates, who've discovered mobile telephony and who claim ownership to most of the patents; but yet if you think of mobile telephones, the first word that comes to mind is Nokia. So in essence, the brand value of Nokia is way above the inventor and innovator. "I'm not trying to understate and wish away the role of R&D and innovation", stresses Parigi, "but in today's world, that's a fact. When we talk about brand innovation and brand positioning, there have been many uncharitable remarks made — and maybe rightly so — that all radio stations in Mumbai sound the same, but the reality is far removed from this comment. You have a one-day series on Doordarshan, and on ESPN-STAR Sports; which one would you watch it on? It's the same cricket match, but loyalty and branding play a huge role in it. I bet you won't go in for Doordarshan. And why? The way an ESPN-STAR shows certain close-ups, give you a story-lin, and an insight into the food served; they innovate, make it fun and they make it entertaining; they give you a solid connect, and that's what branding is all about."

To read the entire story, buy a copy of Impact Advertising and Marketing magazine dated October 24-30