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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After some struggle we make it to the inner maze of alleys and factories. But where to now?

After even more struggle and khuari of asking around (most of the people working there declare such a place doesn’t even exist!), we are directed to our Manzil-e-Maqsood: Amir Adnan’s Factory.

But what were we doing there? Were we suppliers? Distributors? Retailers?

Nop.

We were the customers! Or at least my friend Sami was. I was just there for moral support. But the point is, what were we the customers doing at the factory? Isn’t the customer supposed to be the King? Why were we subjected to such a tormenting journey? Why were we directed to a small non-descript alley in Korangi Industrial Area and that also in the month of Ramadan?

We were there because Sami had bought a Sherwnai for his wedding. Now he had  given the order at the Park Towers outlet of Amir Adnan, so why was he called for a trial at the factory located on the outskirts of Karachi?

 That’s the issue here.

IBA’s director Danishmand has a habit of stopping where a group of students are chatting in the main corridor and inquiring about them, but more importantly narrating some experience of his. The other day he chatted with a few of my friends. The topic of interest was marketing. According to him, the customer is considered the King in Japan; the King if he tips, in the US; and never a King even if he gives tip in the UK. We are still under the imperialistic influences of our former masters even when it comes to business, hence such a callous attitude towards our source of bread and butter: the Customer.

Coming back to Danishmand’s experience, he narrated that once when he went to Japan, he had to buy a pair of spikes for his son. To the best of his ability he chose them at a store. The money was in his hands and he just about to complete the transaction when the sales girl dealing with him engaged him in a conversation about his son: was it the first time he was going to wear spikes? Why did he need spikes? How much he worked at his fitness and so on.

Now the sales girl could easily make out that this was a foreigner who most probably is not going to turn up at this shop ever, but her training and attitude is such that she still wants to leave a good impression as well as make the customer happy.

Danishmand compares this attitude with a typical shop in Punjab where the shopkeeper has a Chahiyay-Ya-Nahin? attitude.

No doubt we look down upon the customer, consider him a moron who’s going to bear it no matter how low the quality or high the price. And then when we ourselves are the customer and meted with the same treatment we dish out ourselves, we blame the society and our fellow countrymen.

Amir Adnan’s business seems to have developed this my-way-or-the-highway attitude of late. If you want to buy my product, fine, these are the arduous tasks that you’ll have to go through before you can own one of my creations. That’s what he seems to be saying.

It’s akin to Rolls Royce motto that we sell only to upscale customers. Only Rolls Royce is dead serious about the type of customers who own their product. You got to have a truckload of millions or belong to some royal family before you can own a Rolls Royce.

I vaguely remember a case where Rolls Royce demanded back its car from a customer (I think he was an Indian) because he had deceived them about his stature or was embroiled in some controversy. The man, pissed off by this attitude sent back the car crushed and crumpled with a note saying in no uncertain terms that this was how he saw their brand.

However, the difference between RR and Amir Adnan ( if they can be compared by any stretch of the imagination) is once RR sells its product, it goes to extraordinary lengths to make sure the customer remains satisfied.

Once a business tycoon’s RR broke down on a highway in the middle of the desert. To be precise, the axle broke off. He called the customer service and at once a helicopter was dispatched to transport the man wherever he wanted to go. However, the company spokesperson was adamant that a Rolls Royce’s axle just doesn’t break.

I doubt Amir Adnan can provide any sort of after-sales service, let alone the RR royal treatment. I can bet on this after having seen what my friend went through. You already know the details of the arduous journey to the factory. Here’s the remaining part.

Once we reached there, there was a brief waiting period before the sherwani arrived. To sami’s horror it wasn’t the same one he had chosen at the outlet. You can imagine the gravity of his horror when I tell you the sherwani cost a whopping Rs.46,000! To be exact, the one he had chosen was a dull green; this one was a shiny golden. The design, however, was the same. And to rub salt on his wounds, the man in charge was adamant that this was the same one he had chosen.

 How low can you stoop? First you call your customer to that God-forsaken place for a trial, and then you try to sell him something other than what he had chosen at the same exorbitant rate.

The matter was resolved finally when the same sherwnai displayed at the outlet was brought in and compared with this one. There was a definite difference between the two. This was explained by the craftsman as unavoidable since it is impossible to get exactly the same colour combination because a human mixed the colours and not a machine. Fair enough, I guess. But at least this inherent shortcoming should have been explained by the salesman at the outlet in advance so that matters didn’t come to a head like they did now.

Sami was lucky in that the display sherwani fitted him and only minor alteration would be required. So he gave up the one made for him and chose the older one.

However, not every customer will be that lucky and mannered, and if a short-tempered customer got pissed off by this, they would have a tough time controlling the situation.

After this matter was resolved, I asked the man dealing with us the rationale of calling the customer at the factory for trial.

He said that the trials used to be conducted at the outlet in the past but when they didn’t work out, they had to call the customer at the factory. He gave two reasons for this change of venue and I couldn’t digest either of them. At least they were not so serious as to inconvenience your customer so much.

One reason was that during trials you have to match the size and the material of the accessories ( khossay, turban etc) with the participant’s size and choice. At a factory you had all the things you need at your disposal but it was difficult to stock all of it at each outlet. Ok. Difficult, yes. Impossible. No.

The second justification that he gave was mind-boggling. He said that there are two types of masters ( the term used for tailor in this part of the world). One type was the one who took the initial measurements at the outlets. The other type was the one who conducted the trial and undertook the actual cutting of the fabric himself, after which the other craftsmen took care of the stitching.

The masters they had for the measurement part were unskilled at conducting the trial since they were trained for the actual cutting. And they had only one master capable of cutting who needed to see the person and get an idea of his shape in order to make the right fit. This master, he proudly announced, was the one who was sent to General Sahib’s crib for the trial whenever he needed a sherwani.

Isn’t it baffling? I mean, why don’t you make a serious effort at training other people for this job? The ace master is not going to last forever – he may even switch sides if a competitive designer offers him a lucrative offer.

How can you base your entire operation on a single man? What sort of a business plan was this? And what about the customers residing in other cities or even countries?( Amir Adnan has expanded to UAE and the US). By the look of things – Mrs. Amir Adnan was ordering some packages to be sent to Lahore ( There was this lady bossing around who people were calling Bhabi so I presumed she must be the lady of the house) while we were there – it seems that the whole manufacturing is being done in Karachi alone. Does that mean that non-Karachiite customers also have to come all the way to the Karachi factory for the trial? And if not, doesn’t it mean they get deprived of the skilled craftsmanship of their ace master? It doesn’t make sense. The point is if the non-karachiites can live with an Amir Adnan product that is not the work of this master that means you have trained those masters in the other cities to do the core work. SO why not do the same here instead of inconveniencing your customers.

It all boils down to this: you have to absorb the setbacks and accept the shortcomings of your business yourself instead of passing the burden on to your customer. Unfortunately, most of the businesses here follow this modus operandi, and even the MNCs that come here to do business resort to such unhealthy practices. The fault lies partly with the Pakistani consumer who becomes a moron when it comes to buying decisions and not taking a stand against unfair treatment meted out to him.

As thing stand, Amir Adnan’s  brand image is certainly not diminishing but growing strong. However it’s a dangerous growth since he doesn’t seem to have expanded his resources in proportion with his expanding operation. And now competing in the international market, it won’t take long for him to get embroiled in a lawsuit or something because consumers there take you to court if they so much as find a button missing from the clothes. If that happens, the repercussions may snowball right down to his own city. 

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