Hi,
After decades of looking for spillage-safe solutions in Media to optimize the mileage of the marketing Rupee, the rigidity in the media space has maintained the polarization of popular generic products, or B2B products, which still elude the consumer. There are few products that have garnered a healthy bunch of enthusiasts, who are happy reading developments in the space of their interest.
If brands are able to decipher which are the products or services being used by their potential consumers, why aren't they reaching out to them through media vehicles designed only for those pointed audiences, which clearly have the need, the resources, interest and inclination in their product.
A lot of brand crafters will say, we do, we DM them!
But isn't DM an entirely different story again, the thorn-laden route of the "unsolicited material", not to mention that the sudden conversion of the middle class into lusty consumers of most things money can buy, has increased the volumes of each such niche segment. Not just geographic scatter, the sheer volumes don't make DM an effective medium anymore.
The future of media marketing, according to me shall be narrow casting to interested users, through media vehicles which take the pain to understand the psyche, needs, delights and pains of that audience, so that they can male a connect with those readers, and expect to sustain the periodic communication.
Only then can you start thinking on monetizing the vehicle, that reaches a very focussed and typical audience with common characteristics, buying needs and behaviour.
With DM losing it's cost-efficiency and it's appeal value, the future is narrow casting of specialised products for audiences with specific needs.
The distinctions need to also be revamped from the new-third-world perspective, the regular distinguishers need to give away to newer more incisive and accurate grade-breakers, which will functionally categorize the groups and cater to them.
Finally, an example, about fifteen auto magazines are in the marketplace, and all are difficult to distinguish from each other, unless the dateline of the page reads you the name, they are creating and publishing to be eligible in their peers. All have common sections, different names and packaging, common information, rendered in slightly different styling.
I have one simple question, "If you love automobiles, is it not understood that the road tripping will be a never-ending fantasy, and so is the need to be updated on motorsport." However, most Indian Auto products are generic with sections devoted to motorsport and a travelogue thrown in once every other month.
There are enough clubs mushrooming in various parts of India on road tripping, and the manufacturers themselves are initiating various social products for their customers from different segments (The C, D segments).
We see a future of products which will be focussed at magazines for each specific segment of buyers, woven into the ethos of their lifestyles and priorities, which also decide the periphery of their fantasies.
Without finding a niche, the auto space will also go the way other sectors have gone, multiplicity is good, but just how much multiplicity is the question before, niches are found and established.
The auto space like any other nascent media segment has a lot to offer to all products on and offline, only if they do not crowd a common space, cannabilising into a small promiscious space of readers, when there is room for all to find secure niches with more specific and loyal patronage.
This is where narrow casting becomes a mantra again, when catering to niches, publishers need to be more efficient and accurate, as low volumes do not allow a large margin for error, and thus profiling the ethos, lifestyles and buying behaviour of not just media products, but all else, wil help publishers understand the universe of advertisers they can tote along with their products much more definitively.
So the way to go in most eco-spaces today is "narrow".
Pl add value to this forum and let us take this to a more tangible space.
Thanks & Cheers,
Love Baronia.
9819015077
ideas27@gmail.com
