Mahmood Nanji Story of Success

Mahmood Nanji is one of the marketing gurus of Pakistan’s branded world, having served at the forefront of many company’s marketing department, including the coveted position of CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) at Tapal.

He was the force behind the TVOne program Brand Power, a one-of-a-kind program on the Pakistani electronic medium. Although it generated a lot of interest, for some reason it was discontinued. He has now moved to Indus News and started a new program Story of Success.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb2f2lALqPY

Tycoon on Express News is quite similar to Story of Success but the host doesn’t have the same aura as Mahmood Nanji to make an everlasting impact.

The lack of interest by the media in this breed of people is probably due to the fact that these people don’t have an onscreen persona which the local media rates as the wow factor in wooing the audience toward their channel. The quality of content especially the wisdom these people can communicate to the audience is not given preference by our local channels. In this sense, Indus News has done a tremendous job in breaking away from the status quo and trying something fresh.

So, going by the famous BCG matrix, will Story of Success go on to become a star or end up a dog?

For starters, Indus News itself is not the strongest of brand in the world of News Channel brands. Geo and Dawn News rule the roost while Aaj, Dunya, Express and Samaa follow close behind. In this cut-throat competition, Indus News has its work cut out. Amazingly, not a single channel from this lot is willing to differentiate itself in some way, not having the guts to break out from the brand clutter. Everyone wants to follow the same red ocean strategy which the market leader has set out and no one is venturing forward to come up with a blue ocean strategy.

Does that mean any program which is on a channel that is not popular itself is doomed for failure? Not necessarily. But it does help tremendously, especially if your media reach goes beyond just the electronic medium.

Take the market leaders. Any program they produce they promote aggressively not only on their own sub-brand channels, but also in their print publications. Geo for instance promotes a new program on all its sub-brand Geo Entertainment, News, Super and Aag, as well as Jang and The News newspaper. Think of the enormous reach of all these communication vehicles combined together and compare it to what Indus can do. If Indus is to use all these modes of communication, it would cost a fortune to it whereas on the other side Geo and even Dawn News can do it literally for free owing to belonging to powerful media conglomerate which is omnipresent in all modes of communication.

Indus News cannot compete with the likes of these giant brands. And any program aired on it faces the same dilemma. So what can ‘IN’ do about this?

For starters, it has to upload all the aired episodes on the internet, preferably Youtube. This was what was done with the program Brand Power whose episodes were uploaded on the website brandsynario.com. This is the most basic requirement in today’s age of media proliferation. With a plethora of channels to choose from, chances are your program is going to be missed by majority of the target market who may be viewing something else at the time the program is aired.

But would that be enough? No. At the very least the program needs to have a strong brand presence on the internet. Ideally it needs to be promoted 360º but since that’s going to cost a fortune, internet seems to be the most viable option.

On the internet, it needs to have a brand identity on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube and Slideshare. It can take a leaf out of Naveen Naqvi’s book who has done a tremendous job positioning her program on Dawn News on the internet. Then there’s Ayesha Alam and Faisal Qureshi both who have done a good job themselves promoting themselves and their talk shows online. They even maintain a blog, which wouldn’t be a bad idea for Mr. Nanji himself.

Although they have come up with the facebook profile, it needs to be constantly updated and spiced up with a few attractions as well. For instance you can offer prizes for winning a quiz which is based on the contents of a particular episode. This would certainly pique the interest of the audience.

There’s a small clip of one of the episodes with Citizen Foundaton’s creator Mushtaq Khapra’s but that’s uploaded by one of the viewers rather than a deliberate ploy by the producers or promoters of the program. Finally Mahmood Nanji’s personal account at Twitter has tried to promote the program but the program needs to have its very own Twitter profile.

That’s the promotion part. What about the program itself? Is it great? Or does it need to improve? Yes it does. While making it glamorous wouldn’t be a good idea, adding some other elements would definitely spruce up the proceedings. This could include pictures from the interviewee’s past highlighting his achievement. A brief look at the business in action during the course of the interview would add further depth to the program. Although this format was followed in the Liberty Books program, it isn’t made the standard format which is a pity.

Story of Success could go on to become a renowned program which inspires millions of people. All it needs is a few tweaks of the format coupled with a healthy dose of some shrewd marketing.

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Instead of trying to be all things to all people, it kept its focus narrow by staying true to its initial positioning. In fact it boosted that image by coming up with unique and innovative programs like News Weakly by Sami Shah, For the love of Food by Aida Khan, Open Frequency, Late Swing, Cutting it,  Techie Watch,  First Blast, Breakfast at Dawn, No reservations, TalkBack by Wajahat S. Khan and a host of other programs all in English. It hired newscasters who spewed out fluent English in foreign accent so much so that sometimes when you weren’t looking at the screen, you were fooled into believing that it was CNN or BBC. And the person spearheading this stew of foreign accents was Saima Mohsin.

Being part of a large media empire that encompasses all media, it promoted itself aggressively whether it be through the parent company’s radion channel CityFm89, newspaper, magazines Herald and Spider or even through Aurora in which only a couple of months ago the interview of DawnNews CEO Shakeel Masud was published in which he claimed that DawnNews had broken the shackles and had audiences now from even the SEC C and D when initially it had from only SEC A and B. The launch of DawnNews in USA and GCC countries had received overwhelming response and plans were underway to launch in Canada and Europe.  It seemed that the channel could do no wrong.

Then one fine day, it was gone. Just like that. Half of Dawn News’ airing time was suddenly relegated to Urdu language news and programs. In fact the prime time from 7 to 9pm was exclusively devoted to Urdu language. And the justification given for this topsy turvy change was some market research which Dawn claims has shown that there’s more demand for Urdu news channels with creditable news and reporting.

Something’s not right here. If what this market research is inferring is true, then there’s a dearth of good Urdu channels with authentic reporting and the consumer is rejecting them and wanting something credible. In reality the converse is true. Urdu news channels are a dime a dozen and the consumer is hooked on to them with no regard for whether they are reporting right or wrong. In fact people love to devour even the talk shows which are proven to be the least credible with hosts and even guests of dubious standing.

For the sake of argument, let’s say Dawn’s market research was authentic and people are really craving for a spank clean Urdu news channel. Even in that case, what would you do if you were a successful English news channel? Common sense dictates you would come up with another channel as a sub-brand with Urdu programming. Why on earth would you slash your successful programming to make room for something which may or may not succeed? You won’t. Unless you were out of your mind. Or your supposedly successful programs weren’t as successful and this was really what the market research unearthed.

But why weren’t they successful? What was wrong with them? Only those with access to the insights of the market research would know that. One reason could be that a very high barometer for success was set for them, probably benchmarking the Urdu programs for them. If this was the case, then it was a sure recipe for disaster, because going by the sheer size of the Urdu-speaking market, the English one can never even come close to it. Even if you take the Dawn Newspaper, no matter how successful it becomes, it can never be at par with the Urdu newspapers. So that could be one reason.

Another could be the fact that the channel is still in its infancy and is comparing its success rate with that of the market leader GEO. If more time was given to these programs with fewer expectations, maybe they would have pulled through as well. In Malcolm Gladwell’s words, these programs were not allowed to reach their ‘Tipping Point’. How do you determine when the tipping point of a tv programs is going to be reached if at all. There’s no research done to estimate a trend. Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers: The Story of Success says the tipping point for a person to make it is 10,000 hours. After he has spent 10,000 hours practicing whatever it is that he does whether it be sports or software programming, a single small opportunity can tip the fate in his favor big time.

But how much for a tv program to reach the same level of success is not known. To get an idea of how much time and effort may be required to attain the pinnacle of success, here’s an example of a local success story. If you are into listening morning show programs on the FM channels on your way to work or study, then you are probably familiar with the Taza Dum program hosted by Adeel Azhar on FM107. If you haven’t heard, ask around. He has become something of a rock star of radio drive shows, popular even amongst the school-going tweens.

But how did he reach this coveted status? In his own words, he had been doing this show for three and a half years with no luck, he was receiving criticism from all quarters and was just on the verge of quitting when all of a sudden the show shot to success overnight. It’s tipping point had been reached. How much time has Dawn given to its English programs to try to reach the elusive tipping point? Marketing Research can help with a lot of things. This is not one of them. It’s purely a matter of gut instinct of a veteran.

Even those few programs that are still in English are getting affected by the Urdu onslaught. Have you seen No Reservations lately? Ayesha Alam who was doing a good job of presenting in English is having quite a few awkward moments trying to express herself in Urdu. The forced transformation appears to be painful for her.

If you closely look at the day-wise schedule of Dawn’s week, not a single English program is on air from 6pm to 11pm at any day of the week except Sunday which three programs are aired on prime time: No Reservations, Fusion and Beautiful People.

And what’s the story behind Beautiful People? It’s an Indian program with Bollywood celebrity interviews. What was the need for that? Let’s just say that the market research showed that people wanted to see Indian celebrity interviews on a Pakistani channel, wouldn’t it have been better to air something new? The last interview shown was of Deepika Padukone and it was from the time her first movie was released, more than two years old! What’s wrong with Dawn?

The bottom-line is that Dawn’s brand essence is slowly receding. A brand is a single idea in the mind of the consumer. Dawn followed that rule religiously until now. It was following a blue ocean strategy which all brands should aspire to follow, but now it is back to the red ocean strategy, which in layman terms is called the rat race.

“The problem with rat race is that even if you win, you are still a rat.”

DawnNews would do well to take a leaf out of its sister concern CityFM89′s notebook which has carved out a wonderful niche for itself purely by being true to its roots. It recognized that it was a niche brand and worked with respect to that positioning instead of competing head on with the Urdu FM channels like DawnNews is trying to do now.

If you want to know more about what went wrong behind the scenes other than the branding failure, check out these poignant posts on a blog called the Cafe Piyala which has the inside scoop on how Wajahat Khan resigned from Dawn News, how people were either shown the door or pays drastically cut. All that is not discussed here because this site is confined to purely branding issues and not workplace politics.

Dawn News started out as a great brand and it ought to revert to its original brand essence if it is to prosper instead of trying to be something which it is not. Dawn already has had a bitter experience with two failed Urdu projects in the form of Hurriyat and Zulfiqar. If Dawn continues its Urdu transmission, history would simply repeat itself.

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And so car rallies, which were just an obscure sporting event in this part of the world are now becoming the ‘in’ thing to do.

Bird's eye-view- Car Rally

Car rally events have been taking place in Pakistan for ages, but they were mostly held outside the cities and only the die-hard fans participated in them with spectators only a pipedream. Then came Fast & the Furious at the start of the millennium and 10-second races gained popularity in the cities with people tweaking their cars and stuff. The fan following grew as well but even then it was a low-key event shunned by the mainstream media.

But now with all these channels struggling to come up with original content, these car related events have become a lucrative possibility. Their popularity has been further spurred by the sponsoring of major brands that are ever so eager to participate in a BTL activity. The result – while in the past hardly a single car related event occurred in a year, 3-4 events are now held every year.

Dreamworld Car Rally is one of those rare events that are being held every year for the last ten years. Although geared primarily towards the members of the Dreamworld Resort, the event is open to non-members as well albeit at a higher cost. In the last couple of years, the marketing department of Dreamworld is increasingly making efforts to make the event a prominent feature of the city, by not only purchasing air time on TV channels, but also approaching companies for a sponsorship opportunity.

Although the event hasn’t attained the pinnacle of success in terms of fame and popularity, it is an ideal branding opportunity. How?

If you go by the acceptable local standards of what makes a branded event successful, then Dreamworld Car Rally can be deemed a partial failure. The local standard entails that the event ought to be covered by one of the giants of the electronic medium, GEO, Dawn News etc. Then it needs to have a prominent personality as host, and then it ought to be sponsored by a plethora of giant brands like Unilever, P&G and Reckitt Benckiser. Anything short of this and the event is rated below par. And now, you need to invite bloggers as well to adjudge the event and buzz about it in the social media.

So what makes an event ideal for branding endeavor? First and foremost, the event should be a memorably pleasant experience for all the participants. This is the single most important factor for any branded event. You take this out of the picture, and nothing, no matter how big, could make either the event or the brands associated with it favorably placed in the consumer’s mind.

Secondly, it ought to be sponsored by major brands, but not so many as to induce brand clutter, something which is witnessed with regularity at Dawn’s Lifestyle Exhibition. Dawn’s Lifestyle Exhibition is a classic example of frills without the thrills. There are so many brands participating in the event that unless you have the capacity to dish out a couple of million rupees to highlight your brand at the event, it’s better to stay away from it. So many brands make the mistake of jumping on the Lifestyle bandwagon as if there’s a gold rush, and end up just throwing their money away with negligible enhancement to their brand equity.

They do have a plausible reason for participation. There’s this principle of consumer behavior that if you place your brand in the presence of popular brands, some of their popularity will rub off on your brand. And it does work. But not when you have a gazillion brands good and bad vying for the same thing.

The second major reason the Dawn Lifestyle exhibition has ceased to be a great branding opportunity is the sheer size of the traffic it generates.  With such a huge crowd cramming the once spacious halls, it becomes a struggle even to breathe properly let alone walk or shop around. Most of the time you spend getting nudged from all directions which may be a memorable experience alright, but for all the wrong reasons, especially the female visitors. In fact this time around the rush spilled onto the main road as well just outside the entrance to the site. The entire flyover over Hasan Square got choked because of the cars trying to enter or leave the premises, so much so that there was an accident as well between a car exiting and one going straight on the main road. What can be more unpleasant than that?

Coming back to the Dreamworld Car Rally, it is as near to a perfect branding opportunity as you can get in this part of the world. The biggest reason for that is the format of the event. It is designed in such a way that every member of the family participating has a rollicking time throughout the day filled with adventure, excitement and of course food and drinks for a very reasonable amount.

The format is that each participating family is given an initial set of clues at the starting point which they have to make sense of to discover the next check point where they receive the next set of clues and so on until the end. While the head of the family drives, the rest of the family solves the clues so that everyone stays riveted to the game. The checkpoints are distributed throughout the city while the finishing line is at Dreamworld Resort.

In that sense it is not a car rally per se since the emphasis is not on speed but brainpower.

This alone is reason enough for any brand to sponsor this event. But it is not the only reason. PSO, Pepsi, Dominos, Nelson, AGS, Red Bull, TV One, City FM89 and Shezan. Sound like big brands? Sure does.

Therefore it has got the big brand factor covered perfectly to the hilt because although big brands are sponsoring, but there aren’t that many as to cause brand clutter.

PSO, it has to be mentioned, has been the main sponsor of this event for the last seven or eight years. They must be attaining some substantial ROBI (Return on Brand Investment) so as to be sponsoring this event every year.

All this raving review of Dreamworld’s Car Rally doesn’t mean it was a picture perfect event. It had its share of follies, but these were more to do with the coverage of the event rather than the event itself. For instance, the event was to receive substantial coverage in the social media via Facebook as well as traditional media via billboards and mobile vans. In fact these tactics were to be applied prior to the event to create some hype. Dreamworld didn’t implement this strategy properly. Secondly, although the coverage of the event was comprehensive enough, something went terribly wrong in the editing room so that the final production was below par. For starters, the entire two episodes aired on the tv channels had majority of the focus on just three families selected before the event on God knows what criteria. 90% of the air time was allotted to the treasure hunt foibles and antics of these three families, 8% of the time was given to the starting point activities and a measly 2% was given to the closing and prize distribution ceremony.

What should have been done was to allocate at least 40% of the time to the starting and ending activities, 20% of time on other contestants and then 40% of the time could have been given to those three families. 

Even if  Dreamworld wanted to give as much coverage to these families as it did, it should have at least ensured that they had some on-screen presence. The families were not comfortable before the camera, having no idea how to behave, whether to act naturally or dramatically. If Dreamworld had planned to bank so much on these families for the success of the program, they should at least have picked those who could carry themselves gracefully in front of the camera.

The bottom-line is that the brands that not only spent big money on the sponsorship but invested considerably in the activities on ground as well (like Shezan and Red Bull provided the participants with Red Bull, Atlas Battery’s AGS conducted free battery check-up) should have been given sufficient time on air as opposed to less than 30 seconds they received. Was giving a minute or two to these brands such a hard task? And the incredible thing was, the main sponsor PSO didn’t even get a single second!

If Dreamworld is to popularize this concept with the brands so that they invest more for it, they need to provide better coverage for them. No doubt Dreamworld has come up with a unique event unparalleled in this part of the world, and if they can just rectify the fallacies of this year’s event, it has the potential to become a mega event of the country.

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Mind you, the jingle itself isn’t that bad. It was the context in which it was used that made it excruciatingly irritating.  Even when the Lankans hit a single, the Geo jingle would erupt, drowning any comments from the commentators.

In other circumstances, it would even be likable and motivational. In fact when it was used as a complete song with the video of Pakistan team’s heroics, it was the perfect amalgamation. On its own, it’s a brilliant marketing tactic, composing a song with your brand name as its centerpiece. Equally brilliant was the swiftness with which the video of the song was changed to reflect the Pakistani team’s heroics with the bat and bowl in a particular match immediately after the match. This level of flexibility is unheard of in the Pakistani brandscape.

Unfortunately for Geo Super, that’s the only core competency they have. Their excessive advertising is getting on the nerves of their consumers as well. Why? Because sometimes it encroaches upon the live action, making the consumer miss watching some of the bowls bowled. For instance, in the third last over of the T20 Cup Final, the last ball by Udhana was a no-ball. But for some inexplicable reason, the overzealous GEO controller launched a flurry of ads, making the audience all but miss the last ball.

The erosion process is deceptively slow, and by the time, Geo realizes what has happened, all would have been lost. It’s akin to frog-killing technique. Put a frog into hot water and it will instantly jump out. Put the frog in cold water and boil, and the frog would boil to death without a whimper.

While all this is happening, there’s a remarkable opportunity arising for a niche. A channel that can provide uninterrupted programming, especially a sports channel like the South African Super Sports channels. Most of the cable operators for some inexplicable reason block that particular Super Sports channel which is showing an important Pakistan match. The channel Super Sports 2 was broadcasting the T20 Cup but the cable operators  either set that channel at a frequency which was hard to catch or changed the channel altogether.  Whether they are in cahoots with the Geo management is not known. But it appears most likely since Super Sports 2 is back on the cable immediately after the T20 Cup.

Of course a channel with no or minimal ads would require to generate revenue from other sources like subscription-based viewing. Die-hard fans would certainly opt for this option.

Geo’s strategy has always been to inundate its broadcast with ads, so much so that 10 minutes of programming would be accompanied by 5 minutes of TVCs.

This strategy not only imparts negative brand preference to the brands being shown in the ad break, (provided if anyone is watching the ads at all) but also erodes the brand equity of the channel itself. But when it comes to Pakistan cricket matches, this strategy is criminal as far as the Pakistani consumer is concerned.

And this strategy is not going to change anytime soon, unless there’s a furious backlash from the consumer. Reason being because of the herd mentality, brands are not going to back off from placing their ad on a spot which is ultra prime, and Geo is not going to reduce the frequency or the length of the ads for obvious financial reasons. Everyone is focused on the short-term; no one gives two hoots about the long-term consequences. If all these hot-shots revise their branding basics, they would realize that brand awareness does not equal brand preference.

Does anyone remember Tele-Fun? Does it still exist? I can still remember almost the entire number sung in a jingle- ‘0900-78601’. Did I get it right? Even if it is still hanging on, has it been able to recover even 10% of the fortune it spent on the launch?

So, did I try it? Nope. Was I even tempted to have a go at it? No. But I do remember the jingle and the visuals and what it was all about. How many consumers were there like me? Can’t say. All I know is not a single acquaintance of mine tried it out. Do you know anyone who did?

So, what happened to it? Did it make it? Where is it now?  Was all the investment for raising brand awareness worth it? Did it convert into brand preference?

Any brand aiming to get a foot-hold in the mind of the consumer for the long-term should seriously ask itself these questions.  A brand is not built in a day. But it can go down the drain pretty soon. 

Related posts:

1. Aaj Groping For ‘The’ Brand Power To Dethrone Geo TV I : THE DILEMMA ‘Don’t you think that people today are more program loyal...
2. Aaj Groping For ‘The’ Brand Power To Dethrone Geo TV II: FLASHBACK Let’s see how the television industry in Pakistan has evolved...
3. Aaj TV Groping For ‘The’ Brand Power To Dethrone Geo TV III: BRANDING STRATEGIES The questions that arise are, why can’t Aaj compete with...

Play is a pretty neat branding effort. It has got a great name in line with the relevant laws of branding. It’s short, its’ simple, it’s memorable. Play TV has the power to own the word Play in the mind of the consumer.

What I personally like about Play TV is the fact that whenever I tune to it, it’s almost always playing music unlike the other music channels where some VJ bozo is ranting on and on and doesn’t know jack about music. Nadeem Farooq Paracha wrote an entire article dedicated to these tiny crusaders of music who act as if pop music was born along with them and do not have a thorough knowledge  about the Pakistani music scene, let alone the international one.

In short I want the music channels to be playing music 24/7. Period. But then that’s me. Has any of these channels actually carried out a proper marketing survey to determine what the people really want to see on these channels? I bet not.

Unfortunately, even Play TV is gradually being taken over by the Bozo phenomenon. In fact what I thought was a brilliant strategy of airing more music than VJ bombast was in fact because of being new and not having enough VJ to host the shows. But with time they are getting abreast of the other music channels in this mindless rat race

More unfortunate for Play TV has been the fact that it has been unable to create the sort of impact that its creators intended. That’s because it has been trying to compete head-on with two giants- the ARY Music and MTV Pakistan which was formerly Indus Music. It is essentially pursuing a Red Ocean Strategy which means that it is trying to compete in a cutthroat business environment where you have to fight dearly for even a crumb of the market share.

It would do well to come up with a Blue Ocean Strategy. That is, going for a battleground where the other warring parties haven’t arrived as yet. In other words identifying and then targeting a market niche which no one has focused upon. Eventually, the competitors are going to flock to Play TV’s newly discovered niche as well but by then it would have the first mover advantage and with it the largest piece of the pie.

The Blue Ocean Strategy is in line with the Ries’ laws of branding and marketing. In the US, the music scene is so varied with each genre having a sizeable portion of the population adhering to it that their music channels have the luxury to cater to just a single music genre and still be successful. So they even have channels strictly focused on R&B like KISS is on 80s R&B and still pretty successful.

Our local music channels may not have that luxury as yet but they still have got plenty to help them differentiate themselves from the competition.

So what can Play TV do to stand out from the rest of the pack?  There’s a very distinct segment of the Pakistani society which although gets the attention of the music channels occasionally but is largely ignored and itching to be heard. And that is the underground musicicans. I don’t think any survey has been done to gauge its size and especially its demographics. However, judging from competitions like Pepsi Battle of the Bands and the songs collection on Apniisp, I would say it’s pretty big and has got people from pretty much all the social-strata.

Play TV can position itself as Pakistan First/No.1/Leading Underground Music Channel and then focus entirely on this market niche. It should then limit itself to giving coverage to the undergrounds bands in Pakistan; giving them a platform to showcase their talent, and guiding them in moving from the underground to the mainstream. It can also highlight the efforts of those big names that were once on the underground scene and how they went about transforming themselves. For instance, Junoon which went from being a bunch of wedding singers to concertising in colleges and universities (Indus Valley School of Arts being their favorite hunting ground). And it was their live performances in those seats of learning that became their launch pad to stardom. All the while they were living from hand to mouth. It was a colorful journey, and would make a great story not only for the upcoming artists but for the general public as well.

That’s all well and good, the Play TV team may say, but what guarantees are there that this risky expedition would work out? None. But the absence of a guarantee hasn’t held anyone back in any sphere of life to go for greatness, least of which in marketing. The world of marketing has seen innumerable grandeur efforts, many of which have ended up in the Marketing Hall of Shame just because marketing history was ignored in the strategy. The laws of branding and marketing are nothing but the marketing history condensed into a couple of powerful statements. And they are well-backed up by some concrete statistics.

Marketers anywhere in the world would do well to read Matt Haig’s thought-provoking Brand Failures which is a soul-searching book of the 100 biggest marketing blunders in the world. The book doesn’t mention the laws, but it gives a crystal clear picture of why things went wrong. Even ‘What were they thinking?’ by Robert McMath, a former Procter & Gamble marketing executive and president of New Product Works, is a must read for all the aspiring marketers as well as the delusional veterans.

Coming back to Play, concentrating solely on the underground music scene would certainly be narrowing the scope, but it will be in line with the Law of Contraction which says that a brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus. But how’s that possible? The thing is, when you limit your target market, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the rest of the market is excluded. It only means that you are going to give a persona to your brand which appeals to the target market and in a way projects their identity. You never know, the rest of the market may well be attracted towards that identity and want to be a part of it, like it happened in the case of Pepsi. Pepsi in order to compete with Coke followed the Law of Sacrifice and positioned itself as a drink solely for the young generation personifying all the qualities and characteristics of the young lot. And yet even 50 or 60 year olds drink Pepsi although they are not the target market. Why? Because they want to feel young and be a part of that spirited freedom which they had decades ago.

You just never know what  good things happen to your brand and from where when you narrow down the focus.

If Play  do decide to go for this category, it would be enticing those people to watch it who never would have even so much as glanced at it in a million years. Namely the old generation. How? Well, since our society still comprises of closely-knit families and being on TV is still a big deal in this part of the world, whenever an aspiring musician gets a chance to be on Play, his or her presence is going to ensure that all the Nana,Nani, Dada, Dadi, maamies, maamoes, Tayas, Tayies in short the whole khandaan is going to be glued to Play to catch a glimpse of the rising star in their family.  And that’s in addition to all the friends and the friends of the friends. And if you can give coverage to musical concert of a university, well, you can just multiply this number by let’s say, infinity. That’s because every Tom, Dick and Harry who’s present in that concert is going to see its broadcast along with his family members.

Every year IBA holds at least two battle of the bands concerts in which the performers are either IBA people or bands from the other universities like Fast and CBM. And every year the VP of the student council has to go begging to all and sundry for a bit of sponsorship. Play can play a big part in ending this ordeal, even if it cannot sponsor the event itself, it can certainly find other companies that would.

Likewise I’m sure other universities do conduct these low-key concerts. That’s what Play has to target. Go for the grassroots marketing. And this is only for Karachi. The same effort can be directed in other cities as well.

 Then a lot of underground bands play at those new crop of Cafes especially on Zamzama. Give coverage to them as well. To an extent yes, coverage has been given to these café concerts by the two music giants but these efforts have largely been sporadic. Play will have to focus the spotlight steadily on them.

The general perception is that the underground music scene is uniform. It’s not. It is composed of many different tiers. The coverage that is given to the performance of the afore-mentioned cafes is mostly to those bands which are in the first tier, the channel being afraid of airing a quality that is not going to attract the audience. And then the chance of discovering a star in the other tiers is pretty slim. Hence they don’t get to be shown on TV. A relevant example is that of Amina Sarfaraz, a promising young musician of IBA who along with her band performed at one of these M cafes to a glowing acclaim from many critics including the Dawn Images who covered the event, and yet she didn’t get the attention of the music channels simply because she’s not a seasoned musician on the underground scene.

Play would do well to follow a strategy opposite to this. It should have the motto that anyone with an ability to sing and play an instrument without jarring the eardrums of the majority of the people should be given a fair chance, irrespective of his or her past accomplishments. If Play wants to create some sort of mini-revolution, this is the only way to go, facilitating as many people as possible to jump on to the bandwagon.

 Once Play TV has positioned itself firmly in this market niche and more importantly in the mind of the consumer, it can then go global. Who says you can’t go global with a narrow scope or a persona for a specific market niche? In fact the only way to go global is to stand for something very distinct lest your brand be gobbled up by the local big brands. Just remember how Pepsi did it. Pepsi positioned itself just for the young lot, the new generation, and then kept on harping about this persona wherever it went in the world. The result needs no mentioning.

 So once Play TV has developed a strong brand essence, it can give coverage to the underground bands anywhere in the world. The most obvious and lucrative market is India’s underground music scene. Although to me, pop and rock music in India is nowhere near Pakistan’s quality (although they have a very big upper hand in the cinematic and classical category), it doesn’t mean that the market there is going to be smaller than Pakistan’s. Judging from the sheer size of India, it has got to be gargantuan. It has also to be kept in mind what is the language of the target audience, which is Urdu and maybe even English. So from that count as well, India is a must. Then how about the Indian and Pakistani expatriates in the Middle East? With such a large population of the subcontinent settled there, surely there must be a few of them around with musical inclinations?

Then we have Uncle Sam and Canada as well. Josh is a Pakistani cum Indian group from Canada, and I’m sure there must be a few of them around there. However, it doesn’t always have to be about musicians with sub continental descent. New York is supposed to have the biggest underground music scene in the world, and it wouldn’t hurt to give coverage to that as well. Get the Gora’s take on what it means to be an underground music artist.

All the brand laws aside, what’s the biggest advantage of setting up a new category and having a short and simple name? You get the chance to earn the biggest compliment the world can offer you. And that compliment is: the usage of your brand name as a generic name for the entire category. Confused? Let me give you a few examples.

What is Jeep? It’s a class of vehicle which uses the four-wheel drive system, right? Wrong. You are right about the four-wheel drive, but it’s not a type of vehicle, it is the name of a brand by General Motors. And yet people in this part of the world use the word Jeep or even Pajero to denote an SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle). Pajero like Jeep is also just a brand.

How about Scotch Tape? A type of tape? Again, it’s the name of a brand of tape. The name Xerox may not be that popular in our part of the world, but in the West the word Xerox is synonymous with a photocopy. While we say, get me a photocopy (or even powder copy of this document), they say get a xerox of this document. The only thing Xerox Corporation did to deserve this respect was being the first in that category.

More recently, we have the example of Google. Already people are referring to online searching as Googling. I did a google on that topic, I googled for my term report, and so on. The brand name is not only used as a generic name, it is being used as a verb! What more could you ask for?

In all of these cases and more, the perception in the consumers’ minds was that the brand was the category itself, which can only yield rich dividends for your brand and in turn for your firm. That’s why it’s crucial to break away from competition and do your own thing; of course keeping the audience’s needs and wants in mind.

And Play TV already has a great name with verbal consequences. It can easily be used as a verb when the need arises. But the creators of Play TV have to give a reason to the audience to do that. Can you Play the rehashed stuff?  Now that doesn’t sound likely to happen, but that’s the only option Play TV is giving to the audience right now.

What’s Play TV doing these days? Everything that it’s giant rivals are doing. That is, coming up with a lot of different shows hosted by a different VJ who goes on a ranting spree along with reading smses and taking calls. And then if there is some time left, play a few songs as wells. In short, its following William Duggan’s strategy of What Works. William Duggan’s strategy is good when what you are following is really worth following. Has any research been done to assess whether the audience actually like this format followed by just about every music channel?

Will Play TV fade into oblivion because of it? Probably not. Not because it’s a brilliant strategy but because there aren’t many choices available to Pakistani audience, at least not as yet. It will continue to nibble on the remaining crumbs of the market share left by the two giants.

When I told Hamid Kashan, the marketing manager of Aaj TV how Aaj TV itself should be broken down into different brands with distinct personas, he replied, ‘Do you know how much it costs to come up with a new channel?’

And that’s precisely my point. If it takes such huge amount of effort and money to launch a new channel, then why would you want to throw it all away just for the sake of playing it safe and following the competitors’ formula of success? Why would you want to be creatively complacent when you are oozing with creativity?

Maybe there’s a fear that the huge branding effort would be replicated by a competitor at a fraction of the cost and he would run away with your success. Yes, that’s a possibility, but a bleak one at that. Unless you do something incredibly stupid, you should be able to retain the first mover advantage. But you shouldn’t dread competition in the first place but welcome it, because only the competition has the license to authenticate the category as well as expand the boundaries of the market. Remember the Polaroid camera? Why didn’t it take off the way it should have? Why didn’t it get the popularity it deserved? No, it didn’t get obsolete because of the digital camera; its demise was way before the digital revolution. The reason it didn’t become one of the hottest commodities which it should have was because the company was hell-bent on guarding the category. It even sued Kodak for millions for dollars for trying to enter into that category.

On the other end of the spectrum, consider Hollywood, specifically the teen slash genre that was introduced by Wes Craven’s Scream in 1996. It was just a phenomenon until the competing brands like I Know What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legend transformed it into a full-fledged trend, which not only propelled the weak category into a proper genre but also helped the creators of Scream complete a successful trilogy of it. It’s a classic example of a symbiotic relationship, or what Stephen Covey calls a Win-Win Strategy in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

It’s a simple strategy. Don’t try to be better, try to be different; different in the sense that you’re fulfilling a need that the competitor isn’t. The consumers don’t give two hoots about a better product or service. The history is replete with such examples. Sega’s Saturn was a superior gaming console to Sony’s Playstation I. Microsoft’s Xbox was technically superior to Playstation II by a marked difference. Even Sony’s own BetaMax video cassette system was far more superior to JVC’s VHS system. We all know what happened to these battles and who the winners were. Why did the lesser product win? Simply because the marketing brains behind them had the common sense to know that marketing is a battle of perceptions, not the actual products or services.

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 The main content of the blog is to showcase the thought-process of the current entrepreneur- his ambitions, goals, aspirations, fears, problems etc. And people would be able to comment on that, even offer suggestions. That’s one point of interaction.

 One other aim of the blog is to woo those Pakistani bloggers who seldom watch Pakistani television to get interested in the program and then do some unsolicited word-of-mouth advertising in the blogosphere, that is, if they like the TV show.

Is there any clear-cut advantage of this strategy? There is. A study conducted by Dieringer Research Group, a market research firm, 40 million consumers have changed their opinions about shopping brands because of information available online. About 50% of the adults on the internet have changed their opinions about a brand because of their online interactions. This study may not be completely relevant here, but it does show the power of the internet in swaying opinion. And when you trying to nurture a brand into a leader, which the Entrepreneur will be, you need the Web and its populace on your side.

 But in order to make it 360° interactive, the TV audience would be encouraged to post video questions,comments,suggestions and queries on Youtube which would be shown  on the show and the queries would be answered by one of the experts. Maybe if a suggestion is good enough, it would be acted upon. This is what CNN has done with its presidential debate where people post questions on Youtube which are answered by the presidential candidates during a special program on CNN by Andersen Cooper. This strategy has generated tremendous publicity for them. I have no reason to believe it won’t work in this case as well.

There is one other thing that can be done to add not only a spice to the proceedings but also a guarantee that the business would continue to work once we are through the season and the business started in it is no more under the spotlight. And that is, include a group of people who are specialist in different aspects of running a business. For instance there can be a CEO, a CFO (Chief Financial Officer), an entrepreneur, a typical seth businessman, a chartered accountant, a brand manager, a marketing executive, an HR manager and so on. These people would collectively make up the BOM – Board of Mentors. This board would be a cross between a board of directors (as in a corporation) and a board of judges that you see on all those ‘Idol’ programs. These people can be either retired or still working in an organization, it doesn’t matter. What matters is their function, which is to advise the entrepreneur on different aspects of the business. But it has to be ensured that these people don’t take over the decision making ability of the star of the show and as such they won’t be given any veto powers and would be advised to keep their participation in the whole affair to a certain limit.

The format of the program is that the people are going to be encouraged to apply to the program for a chance to become the entrepreneur on the show, stating why they want to start a business and what sort of business and why should they be picked amongst the thousand others who have applied (hopefully).

 Each couple of episodes are going to be focused on a distinct business process, that is, it’s not going to have a haphazard way of doing things just to make the program more glamorous and exciting for the audience. Of course it has to be exciting to draw the crowds, but promoting a topsy-turvy way of setting, running and managing a business is not on the cards.

The most important part is that each season is going to focus on only one business. I know this is a risky strategy. Just one business per season means that much less number of people get to be on the show which can translate into less viewer-ship, but  not necessarily. The aim of the program is help people to do the big things they always wanted to do on their own. It’s to help people realize that help is all around them if they are willing to take the first step and then ask for it. Even if people don’t get a chance to become an entrepreneur on the show, which many won’t if the proposed format is followed, at least they’ll learn how to go about it on their own, whom to turn for help, what are the pitfalls to avoid etc.

I don’t have an iota of doubt that this show is going to be a runaway success if done right. My only concern is that the show organizers may opt for those business ideas that are outlandish and attractive for publicity but not viable in the long run, and that once the season is finished and the program moves on to another business, the previous business may collapse. I don’t want this to happen. I want it to be a genuine effort to help people realize their entrepreneurial dreams and not a publicity gimmick.

The big question is: can a mere TV show achieve something on such a grandeur scale? And to what end? What did I envisage to come up with such a show?

If my wildest dream is to come true, this show should ignite an entrepreneurial revolution in Pakistan akin to the IT revolution of 90s when every other person wanted to be an IT specialist.

SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises) are the fuel of an economy. In the developed nations, SMEs make up 96% of their industry while a mere 4% comprise large-scale manufacturing which largely depends upon huge bank funding and foreign technology to make it work. SMEs on the other hand develop and grow on indigenous skills and methods. If that’s not enough, SMEs provide 80% of the jobs and contribute 38% to the GDP on an average all over the world. In Pakistan, they are an endangered species. It will be the goal of The Entrepreneur to prevent that.

An entrepreneur revolution where every other person wants to become an entrepreneur just like they want to become an engineer, doctor, or an MBA right now. Wasn’t this what the American dream was all about? I want it to become the Pakistani dream. Bus itna sa khwab hai.

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1. The Entrepreneur I : THE VISION Maybe it’s an ultra wild idea that’s never going to...

The Entrepreneur

The premise is simple enough. It’s a reality show which follows the trials and tribulations of a person setting up and running a business on his own. In a way it’s similar to The Apprentice in that it is a business educational program and a reality show. But that’s where the similarities end. There’s going to be no Donald Trump like entity who’s going to make you live in a tent if you lose and no ‘You’re Fired!’. Each and every mistake the entrepreneur-in-the-making makes is going to cost him in the real world. So it’s not a game for him where he can have some fun and if he loses he can walk away from it. That’s the scary part. The business is going to be damn real and if he messes it all up, it’s going to be tough for him to get back on track for the rest of his or her life. This is as real as it gets and this is what a real reality show should be. In life if you make a mistake you pay a heavy price, the same rule applies here.

This is the point where any channel worth its salt is going to go ballistic over this idea as to how the hell is this going to work? To begin with, who’s going to provide the funding for the business? Then who’s going to provide the expertise for the business. The guy who approaches the program producers to become the entrepreneur won’t be having either of the two otherwise why would he turn to them for help? The channel itself doesn’t have these things to start up a business, let alone a number of businesses. Who’s going to help this guy?

The answer is – everyone.

That’s the charm of the whole concept. The idea is to get everyone involved. The team (the budding entrepreneur, the host and the camera crew) is going to go to the movers and shakers of the business world and ask for their help, and they probably would be willing to help out with resources and expertise in return for some free publicity. For instance for the financing part they’re are going to go to Shell Tameer. Shell Tameer is a non-profit organization, an offshoot of Shell, which helps out budding entrepreneurs. Even SMEDA or the government’s SME can help out. The possibilities are endless. Then for the acquisition of property for running the business, the help of the top dogs in real estate in Pakistan can be sought. For the rest of the business processes, to whom they turn to for help will depend upon the type of business being built. For instance if it’s a restaurant and an upscale one at that; the expertise of restaurant owners on Zamzama or in other posh localities can be sought.

One of the elements crucial to the success of the program is the choice of the host. With so many major aspects to tend to, this element I’m afraid could be overlooked to the extent that anyone with a bit of hosting experience maybe hired. I foresee that as a recipe for disaster, especially considering the fact that the only other person under the limelight is going to be the entrepreneur candidate. The probability of this person  having the on-screen charisma to make the program work by attracting the audience is pretty slim, especially if you’re going to choose an average Joe (or Jane) from the lot on the basis of just his passion for his idea or his plan for the business. This guy probably is going to be appearing on television for the first time in his life and as such is going to be pretty conscious or even scared shit in the worst case scenario.

In the case of Apprentice it works because there are more than a dozen average Joes and Janes. A few of them are bound to have some sort of charisma or even some controversial inclinations. And even if not a single one of them has it, the volatile interactions between these people, the bickering and back-stabbing stir a drama that more than makes up for the lack of charismatic personalities. We don’t have that luxury in the case of the Entrepreneur. It may work in the case when a group of people want to start a business together because in that case you can give coverage to their arguments and fights as they try to converge on common ground, otherwise not.

So what sort of host do we need? A guy who’s bubbling with enthusiasm, is lively irrespective of the circumstances and knows his shit. A good sense of humor won’t hurt either. In short we need someone like CNN’s Richard Quest or the guy who hosts Massive Speed on Discovery.

How its going to work is that a team comprising of the budding entrepreneur, the host and the camera crew are going to go to the offices of the organization or the businessman whose help is required, and then the whole discussion that ensues there is going to be filmed to be shown on the show. That way, they get the help; the expert gets the publicity- everyone wins.

But if worse comes to worse, and no one is willing to help out with the resources part, I believe that Pakistan is brimming with mighty wealthy philanthropists who can be persuaded to help out. In any case, I don’t see the idea bombing because of this reason. The only problem it faces is in its implementation.

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