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	<title>Brandasy-Branded World &#187; Aaj Tv</title>
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		<title>PLAY TV HAS THE POTENTIAL TO MAKE PAKISTAN PLAY TO ITS TUNES</title>
		<link>http://www.brandasy.com/2008/01/07/play-tv-has-the-potential-to-make-pakistan-play-to-its-tunes/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=play-tv-has-the-potential-to-make-pakistan-play-to-its-tunes</link>
		<comments>http://www.brandasy.com/2008/01/07/play-tv-has-the-potential-to-make-pakistan-play-to-its-tunes/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:46:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SK</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Brand Power]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Branded Tube]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TV Branding]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aaj Tv]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[channel branding]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GEO TV]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nadeem farooq paracha]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Play TV]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Aaj TV may not be inclined to follow the Ries’ school of thought for its marketing strategies, but inadvertently they seem to be following their laws of branding for their new channel Play.   Play is a pretty neat branding effort. It has got a great name in line with the relevant laws of branding. 


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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.yougottaplay.tv/" target="_blank">Aaj TV</a> may not be inclined to follow the <a href="http://www.ries.com/aboutus-alries.php" target="_blank">Ries’ </a>school of thought for its marketing strategies, but inadvertently they seem to be following their laws of branding for their new channel Play.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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. <a href="http://www.playtv.tv/" target="_blank">Play TV</a> has the power to own the word Play in the mind of the consumer.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">What I personally like about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayTV" target="_blank">Play TV</a> 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. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadeem_F._Paracha" target="_blank">Nadeem Farooq Paracha</a> 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 <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>about the Pakistani music scene, let alone the international one.<span id="more-55"></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">Unfortunately, even <a href="http://hotspots.pk/pakistan-tv-channel-links-t222.html" target="_blank">Play TV</a> 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</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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 <a href="http://www.themusik.tv/" target="_blank">ARY Music </a>and <a href="http://www.mtvpakistan.com" target="_blank">MTV Pakistan</a> 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.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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&amp;B like KISS is on 80s R&amp;B and still pretty successful.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">So what can Play TV do to stand out from the rest of the pack?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>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 <a href="http://www.wcck.net/forums/showthread.php?t=5147" target="_blank">Pepsi Battle of the Bands</a> and the songs collection on <a href="http://www.apniisp.com">Apniisp</a>, I would say it’s pretty big and has got people from pretty much all the social-strata. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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, <a href="http://www.pakpositive.com/2004/11/13/junoon-pakistani-band-continues-to-rock-for-peace/" target="_blank">Junoon</a> which went from being a bunch of wedding singers to concertising in colleges and universities (<a href="http://www.indusvalley.edu.pk/" target="_blank">Indus Valley School of Arts</a> 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.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">Marketers anywhere in the world would do well to read <a href="http://www.matthaig.com/" target="_blank">Matt Haig’s </a>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 &amp; Gamble marketing executive and president of New Product Works, is a must read for all the aspiring marketers as well as the delusional veterans.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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 <a href="http://www.refresheverything.com/" target="_blank">Pepsi</a>. <a href="http://holycoast.blogspot.com/2009/02/no-pepsi-coke.html" target="_blank">Pepsi </a>in order to compete with <a href="http://www.coca-cola.com/" target="_blank">Coke</a> 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 <a href="http://www.pepsiworld.com/" target="_blank">Pepsi</a> 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. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">You just never know what <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>good things happen to your brand and from where when you narrow down the focus. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">If Play<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>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. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">Every year <a href="http://www.iba.edu.pk/" target="_blank">IBA</a> holds at least two battle of the bands concerts in which the performers are either <a href="http://www.interface.edu.pk/students/Feb-09/IBA-ranked-best-university.asp" target="_blank">IBA</a> people or bands from the other universities like <a href="http://www.nu.edu.pk/" target="_blank">Fast</a> and <a href="http://www.cbm.edu.pk/" target="_blank">CBM</a>. 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. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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 <a href="http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C02%5C19%5Cstory_19-2-2009_pg12_8" target="_blank">IBA</a> 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.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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 <a href="http://www.pepsiworld.com" target="_blank">Pepsi</a> 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.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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?</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">Then we have Uncle Sam and Canada as well. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JoSH_(band)" target="_blank">Josh </a>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. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">More recently, we have the example of <a href="http://www.google.com" target="_blank">Google</a>. Already people are referring to online searching as Googling. I did a <a href="http://www.google.org/" target="_blank">google</a> 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?</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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. <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Can you Play the rehashed stuff?</em><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Now that doesn’t sound likely to happen, but that’s the only option Play TV is giving to the audience right now.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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 <a href="http://ubereye.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/william-duggan-on-strategic-intuition/" target="_blank">William Duggan’s </a>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?</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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?’</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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?</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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 <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I Know What You Did Last Summer</em> and <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Urban Legend </em>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.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;">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. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
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		<title>Aaj TV Groping For ‘The’ Brand Power To Dethrone Geo TV III: BRANDING STRATEGIES</title>
		<link>http://www.brandasy.com/2007/08/21/aaj-tv-groping-for-%e2%80%98the%e2%80%99-brand-power-to-dethrone-geo-tv-iii-branding-strategies/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=aaj-tv-groping-for-%25e2%2580%2598the%25e2%2580%2599-brand-power-to-dethrone-geo-tv-iii-branding-strategies</link>
		<comments>http://www.brandasy.com/2007/08/21/aaj-tv-groping-for-%e2%80%98the%e2%80%99-brand-power-to-dethrone-geo-tv-iii-branding-strategies/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:43:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SK</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Media Brand]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aaj Tv]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Electronic media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GEO TV]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TV Branding]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://brandaid.freehostia.com/?p=19</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The questions that arise are, why can’t Aaj compete with Geo in the conventional way, and why should it go after Geo in the first place? Can’t they co-exist peacefully as it is?   For the first question, no. Marketing is nothing short of full-fledged warfare. In a battle, one party avoids going head-to-head with 


Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.brandasy.com/2007/08/20/aaj-groping-for-%e2%80%98the%e2%80%99-brand-power-to-dethrone-geo-tv-i-the-dilemma/' rel='bookmark' title='Aaj Groping For ‘The’ Brand Power To Dethrone Geo TV I : THE DILEMMA'>Aaj Groping For ‘The’ Brand Power To Dethrone Geo TV I : THE DILEMMA</a> <small>‘Don’t you think that people today are more program loyal...</small></li>
<li><a href='http://www.brandasy.com/2007/08/19/aaj-groping-for-%e2%80%98the%e2%80%99-brand-power-to-dethrone-geo-tv-ii-flashback/' rel='bookmark' title='Aaj Groping For ‘The’ Brand Power To Dethrone Geo TV II: FLASHBACK'>Aaj Groping For ‘The’ Brand Power To Dethrone Geo TV II: FLASHBACK</a> <small>Let’s see how the television industry in Pakistan has evolved...</small></li>
<li><a href='http://www.brandasy.com/2007/08/20/aaj-tv-groping-for-%e2%80%98the%e2%80%99-brand-power-to-dethrone-geo-tv-iv-guerrilla-warfare/' rel='bookmark' title='Aaj TV Groping For ‘The’ Brand Power To Dethrone Geo TV  IV: GUERRILLA WARFARE'>Aaj TV Groping For ‘The’ Brand Power To Dethrone Geo TV  IV: GUERRILLA WARFARE</a> <small>Up till now we have been discussing the niceties of...</small></li>
</ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">The questions that arise are, why can’t Aaj compete with Geo in the conventional way, and why should it go after Geo in the first place? Can’t they co-exist peacefully as it is?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">For the first question, no. Marketing is nothing short of full-fledged warfare. In a battle, one party avoids going head-to-head with its rival even if it has matching resources simply because it’s going to suffer considerable losses. Both the parties look for an element of surprise. They try to come up with a strategy that catches the other off-guard.<span id="more-19"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">The same holds true for marketing. And here Aaj TV has resources nowhere near to that of Geo. According to a report published in the August 5 edition of Dawn newspaper, the Jang Group which owns Geo TV was one of the top 3 leading business houses in Pakistan. The Business Recorder Group which owns Aaj wasn’t even in the top 25. That’s how wide a gulf is between them. Aaj would be dead and buried in no time if it tries to pull off that stunt with a frontal attack strategy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">Secondly, does it even need to make that effort? Why can’t it be as it is? Two reasons. One, because Geo TV already has made some serious efforts to tackle Aaj, which I already <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>mentioned, and secondly because of the Law of Duality which states that in the long run, every market becomes a two-horse race. Even if it doesn’t come to that, the rule of thumb is that the leader in any category holds twice the market share of the runner-up who in turn holds twice the market share of the second runner-up. The rest make do with leftover crumbs from the three leaders.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">Aaj has to ensure that it’s at least in the second place and to hold on to that place. And to hold on to that place, it has to make the leader uncomfortable as frequently as possible.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">So what can Aaj do to compete with Geo TV?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">First of all, it has to do away with mindless positioning statements, like Pakistan’s Premiere TV channel. For one, the majority don’t know the difference between Premier and Premium. And secondly, it is not the premier TV channel of Pakistan by any stretch of the imagination. It’s an utter waste of opportunity to come up with a statement that does you no good.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Secondly, whenever they are showcasing their abilities and achievements, they invariably stress upon the point that they are the first digital channel in Pakistan with an Earth station and that it is directly broadcast by the AsiaSat satellite with a footprint spanning over 60 countries.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have no idea what that means, and neither will the majority of the people. So what’s the use of stressing this point? So it is technically superior to the other channels including Geo, good for them. But what advantage does that convey to the end-user? Is there a marked difference in the quality of the pictures and sound broadcasted? There isn’t, or at least it doesn’t appear to be. If they are beaming out superior quality broadcast, then that advantage is probably lost courtesy the cable walas. In any way it doesn’t make sense to harp about something that doesn’t mean a thing to the intended audience. It’s just like what KFC used to brag about that its staff can assemble or dismantle a fryer in five minutes. Duh! Why should the consumer care about the fryer and its assembling time? It’s utterly stupid. Tell the target market about a feature of your brand that impacts them directly. And it better be good.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">Thirdly, Aaj should puff away all crash-and-burn thoughts of beating Geo at its own game. It should come up with a game plan of its own, then a ploy of convincing Geo that this is what the industry is going to be like in the future, and when Geo TV falls for it, weave a web around it or do anything you deem necessary at that point.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">So how to do it? Simply follow the laws of branding faithfully and consistently for a considerable period of time. Unbeknownst to it, Aaj TV already is following some of the laws of branding namely, the law of the name and the law of the word, which more or less stress the point that a brand should have a name that is short, simple and memorable. Aaj has it. Unfortunately, so does Geo. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">First they need to come up with a flanking strategy, and for that they need to conduct a comprehensive marketing research. To be more precise, they need to have a ‘brand picture’. Of course they need to have a brand vision first, but since they have already been running for a couple of years I assume they already have a brand vision, and if there is a need to change it, that would depend upon the brand picture. Brand picture comprises of the brand image, brand contract (what the brand promises to the consumer) and the brand-based customer model. Without delving into any more branding mumbo-jumbo, the most important element is the brand image which reveals the brand persona and the brand association, in short what the brand stands for. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">And no, this survey cannot be conducted by Aaj TV itself. Only an expert can decipher the brand essence. The best there is in Pakistan is A.C Nielsen, which costs you a whopping Rs. 3 lac for just your brand picture! Like I said, branding is not cheap. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">Whatever this survey reveals will dictate the branding strategies. Being a member of the audience myself, let’s come up with a few strategies based on what I perceive to be the brand essence of Aaj. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">Aaj for me is synonymous with mind-blowing images of the state of the state, bodies lying in a pool of blood in the aftermath of violence, the severed head of a suicide bomber, and the attack on the offices of Aaj TV which their TV crew filmed at the risk of their lives. The stark reality, that’s what I get to see on Aaj.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">Remember that marketing is a battle of perceptions, not product or services. It means Geo TV may have given a lot more of those sort of daring coverages than Aaj, but Aaj has been able to highlight itself more in that department, and if it can etch that perception in the psyche of the audience <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>then no matter how hard Geo TV tries, it won’t be able to reverse that perception because the audience is always right, at least according to them, and they don’t like to entertain the thought that what they thought was right wasn’t. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">So how can Aaj TV take advantage of this? The first thing is to come up with a new sub-category within the news category like High-Risk TV, Pure or Unadulterated Reality or Uncensored TV.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Then position itself as the leading brand in that category like maybe Pakistan’s 1<sup>st</sup> or leading provider of uncensored coverage or bold coverage provider. Come up with a believable positioning statement in line with that category. Then gradually start creating the hype that this new category is the best thing to happen since sliced bread.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">Now if Geo or any other channel makes a beeline for this category, well and good. Don’t fight it, welcome it. Aaj will always have the first mover advantage and any other channel that ventures into this territory, be it Geo or any other is only going to authenticate it and prove that Aaj was right all along. It’s nothing new; happens all the time in all sorts of industries. Before the advent of the Beetle, people had scoffed at the idea of a tiny car catching people’s fancy, and yet it happened. The category took off and with it the Beetle, grabbing a massive 67% of the market share for that category.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">So coming up with a new category is going to put the competitors in a Catch-22 situation. Should they ignore it and risk losing out on a lucrative opportunity if the category takes off, or do they go for it and in the process validate Aaj’s strategy?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">Coming up with a new category may not be as hard as conforming to it. If Aaj does what I propose and comes up with the high-risk category, then it would have to revamp its channel structure. It would have to do away with all those programs that do not add to that brand essence, which pretty much includes all the entertainment shows. Then it would have to come up with more programs that do add to the brand essence, programs that reflect the stark reality of our society. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">That’s pretty expensive, but with a little bit of shrewd thinking, Aaj can reduce the burden on itself, for instance by putting the onus on the audience itself. It can encourage them to make videos or even take pictures of anything that mirrors our society and would be interesting to show. For instance a mobile or car snatching, bribing of the traffic or even the mainstream police wala etc. With almost everyone having video and photo-enabled cellphones, it’s not hard to imagine people would gladly indulge in it. I mean they have been doing it for making kinky videos and unleashing on the net just for the heck for it where most of the time they don’t get credit for it. Just imagine how much they would be motivated if they are going to be given credit. People who make these videos and take picture would instantly be drawn to watch Aaj just to see their handiwork and that automatically increases the market share. The best thing to do would be not to have a separate program to show these audience-made reality clips, but to show them intermittently between programs just to keep people hooked on to your channel for the maximum possible time.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">Of course there’s a downside as well. A considerable manpower would be required to sift through all these videos and pictures to find those which are really worth showing on TV and also to detect whether a person with directorial aspirations hasn’t come up with a staged drama. The storage part would be no problem. Just ask people to post these clips on YouTube with a tag you prescribe beforehand so that you can find them easily.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">Now coming to those entertainment programs that have been axed to save the brand essence, they can be switched over to a new channel Aaj starts which has a brand essence specifically attuned to these shows. The new channel would have a different name of course, being a different brand, but to add credibility to the new brand and to reduce the promotional and advertising budget that is normally associated with launching a new brand, Aaj should use its name initially along with the brand’s name to endorse it. Then as the brand nurtures and develops, the Aaj name should gradually reduce in size until it disappears altogether once the brand is strong enough to stand on its own feet.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">But how the audience is going to know that their favorite programs have migrated to some other channel? Use the hosts of the remaining as well as the new programs to occasionally mention during their programs about the new channel and the programs that are on it. Don’t make them gush over it, just a sort of reminder that Aaj is doing something new and exciting to make it more appealing to the audience and that’s why the programs have been shifted to a new channel. In short, use Aaj, the parent channel to advertise for the other channel brands it starts.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">It’s going to be a tough (and an unpopular) decision for Aaj TV to remove all its other programs and focus solely on depicting the stark reality and delivering the news. However, it would be aligning itself with many laws of branding as well as those of marketing such as the Law of Contraction which states that a brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">Aaj TV only has to look around to see that this works in the television industry. The biggest examples are that of CNN and BBC. These world class channels rarely sidetrack from their brand essence. Both of them have limited themselves to just news and yet they have the whole world at their feet. One other thing Aaj can learn from CNN is that although it positioned itself as the leading news channel in the cable category, it has moved far ahead than just being a cable channel. The claim to be first in a category works only as far as building credibility is concerned. People don’t like a better service, because just about everyone claims to be better in this and that. What brands don’t claim as much is a claim to authenticity. Once the brand becomes larger than life, the claim is no longer needed. Coke was the first in the cola category, and yet have you seen it harping about that fact at all? It doesn’t need to now.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">Closer to home, Aaj can learn a thing or two from the Dawn News Channel. From the looks of it, it appears to be a good branding effort. They have positioned themselves as a suave news channel which only delivers news in English. Notice how all of its newscasters speak impeccable English. So not only have they done the branding, they are delivering on the brand contract as well. Which shows that your branding should be backed up by an effort in the physical realm if it is to work.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">TO BE CONTINUED……………</span></p>
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<p>Related posts:</p><ol><li><a href='http://www.brandasy.com/2007/08/20/aaj-groping-for-%e2%80%98the%e2%80%99-brand-power-to-dethrone-geo-tv-i-the-dilemma/' rel='bookmark' title='Aaj Groping For ‘The’ Brand Power To Dethrone Geo TV I : THE DILEMMA'>Aaj Groping For ‘The’ Brand Power To Dethrone Geo TV I : THE DILEMMA</a> <small>‘Don’t you think that people today are more program loyal...</small></li>
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		<title>Aaj Groping For ‘The’ Brand Power To Dethrone Geo TV I : THE DILEMMA</title>
		<link>http://www.brandasy.com/2007/08/20/aaj-groping-for-%e2%80%98the%e2%80%99-brand-power-to-dethrone-geo-tv-i-the-dilemma/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=aaj-groping-for-%25e2%2580%2598the%25e2%2580%2599-brand-power-to-dethrone-geo-tv-i-the-dilemma</link>
		<comments>http://www.brandasy.com/2007/08/20/aaj-groping-for-%e2%80%98the%e2%80%99-brand-power-to-dethrone-geo-tv-i-the-dilemma/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:01:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SK</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Media Brand]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aaj Tv]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[branding]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GEO TV]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://brandaid.freehostia.com/?p=15</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[‘Don’t you think that people today are more program loyal rather than channel loyal?’ Hameed Kashan, the marketing manager for Aaj TV replied in response to my branding scenario for their channel. In other words he was saying that the laws of branding don’t apply to the television industry, which for some inexplicable reason he 


Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.brandasy.com/2007/08/19/aaj-groping-for-%e2%80%98the%e2%80%99-brand-power-to-dethrone-geo-tv-ii-flashback/' rel='bookmark' title='Aaj Groping For ‘The’ Brand Power To Dethrone Geo TV II: FLASHBACK'>Aaj Groping For ‘The’ Brand Power To Dethrone Geo TV II: FLASHBACK</a> <small>Let’s see how the television industry in Pakistan has evolved...</small></li>
</ol>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">‘Don’t you think that people today are more program loyal rather than channel loyal?’ Hameed Kashan, the marketing manager for Aaj TV replied in response to my branding scenario for their channel. In other words he was saying that the laws of branding don’t apply to the television industry, which for some inexplicable reason he emphasized as the new media. <span id="more-15"></span>He was trying to give the impression that the laws of branding are centuries old and don’t apply to today’s marketplace, or at least in his field. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Brand management is a field still in its infancy, hence the reason most marketers with a background in sales fail to comprehend it. They just don’t know how to translate the mammoth sales data the company gathers into a viable branding strategy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Back to the offices of Aaj TV, Mr. Kashan then goes on to give me a brief history of what glorious programs Aaj TV has come up with and how successful they have been. It’s true that Aaj has come a long way since its inception just a couple of years ago, and its programs have played a pivotal role in that achievement. But the million dollar question is, where to from now? And more importantly, how to reach it?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In spite of all the pride Aaj TV’s marketing department feels about its efforts, theirs is a troubled and I might add, dwindling group, courtesy Geo TV. Geo TV has been on the case of Aaj TV for a while, whether that’s because it considers it as its arch rival or it metes out the same treatment to all the players in the field is not known. Especially in the wake of May 12 carnage in Karachi in which the offices of Aaj TV were made a target for a healthy shower of bullets, a big chunk of its marketing team has switched jobs, mostly to GEO TV, Mr. Kashan confided.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Hence Aaj TV is on a recruitment spree especially for its marketing division. If you believe you have the guts to work for an exciting but hectic job in a dangerous location, then shoot your resumes to <a href="mailto:marketing@aaj.tv">marketing@aaj.tv</a>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">But more than that, what they are really looking for is for someone to show them the way, what their marketing strategy should be from this point on. Right now they are basically groping in the dark, though they don’t want to admit it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Aaj TV may have quite a few TV shows that have been runaway successes, but beneath all that there is a confused positioning. During the ongoing recruitment drive, the Aaj team had to endure quite a few disappointing feedbacks on their channel. Most of the people didn’t know many of the popular TV shows of Aaj. One candidate when asked to name a few Aaj program quipped ‘Aaj ke bhaau’, which interestingly is a GEO TV program. Another said that Begum Nawazish Ali Show was aired on GEO TV. Most of them could name only a handful of their programs, sometimes missing the big names altogether.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Just like a little knowledge is dangerous, a little bit of success is dangerous as well. And this adage couldn’t be truer in the case of Aaj TV. I got the impression that the creators of Aaj TV don’t consider it as a brand. They consider it just as a TV channel like the others and are trying to compete with other TV channels on their turf. This is a classic blunder that most of the companies not only in Pakistan but all over the world and in every conceivable industry make. They meet the rival head-on by playing in the existing competitive framework, pitting their resources against the far more resourceful rival and inevitably they wind up in trouble. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What do they expect by playing on his field, by his rules, and with fewer resources? A miracle? Sadly, miracles don’t happen in the realm of marketing to those who play by the rules, that is, the rules of the competition. And hard work may pay rich dividends in all the other areas of life, but trying harder is not the secret of marketing success.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What you’ve got to do is change the ground rules of competition. To what end? At best you can nullify a competitor’s strength; at worst you force him to move from his natural strengths and compete in a field he’s not familiar with or even comfortable. So even in the worst case scenario you have a chance to catch him off-guard. This is the true essence of marketing creativity.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">TO BE CONTINUED……………</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
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<p>Related posts:</p><ol><li><a href='http://www.brandasy.com/2007/08/19/aaj-groping-for-%e2%80%98the%e2%80%99-brand-power-to-dethrone-geo-tv-ii-flashback/' rel='bookmark' title='Aaj Groping For ‘The’ Brand Power To Dethrone Geo TV II: FLASHBACK'>Aaj Groping For ‘The’ Brand Power To Dethrone Geo TV II: FLASHBACK</a> <small>Let’s see how the television industry in Pakistan has evolved...</small></li>
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