| MUMBAI: The third
day of Ficci Frames rounded up head honchos leading media brands that have tried
and tested the Indian media turf. Kicking off the opening session for the day
was president ad sales and distribution of the top GEC in the country Star India
Paritosh Joshi, who predicted a transformation of a space whereby television marketers
will shift their spends from a show, to the channel and ultimately to the network.
A notion that may be idealistic in today's scenario, Joshi however is optimistic
about and says that the equity of the network will take prominence to give birth
to a three tier brand architecture.
He also suggests that
the industry should shift from the concept of fragmentation, which reflects a
poor understanding of the consumer, to segmentation. Times Of India Group executive
president Bhaskar Das pointed to a rather over emphasised concept of 'Content
being King' as a dubious one, as in his opinion 'Intent is King' is more appropriate
as it finally determines content. Das also said that there must be a multi dimensional
approach to reaching the consumer as the consumer has now moved from the periphery
to the centre of the value chain. Therefore, how you engage reach is critical,
he concludes. Representing the two top kid's television brands
from the Turner stable was VP ad sales and networks India and South Asia Monica
Tata throwing light on the approach that is crucial to Cartoon Network and Pogo,
of building a friendship with the consumer. With this as the key, every other
line of business logically falls into place. Tata asserts, "Believe in the
power of partnerships and not think of it as a manifestation of weakness, and
be prepared to take on a long haul of existence in the market, as ultimately you
have to make the consumer feel the ownership of the brand." Future
Brands MD and CEO Santosh Desai brought a different angle to the discussion by
saying that the homogenization of media brands has made it into a generic term,
but what's important is for every media brand to display a unique point of view,
as this is the quality exhibited by the purest form of any brand. A
valid counter point raised by director and producer Shekar Kapur was whether the
whole concept of branding a good exercise at all? Infact moderator
for the session, CNBC TV18 Anuradha Sengupta was prompted to ask Kapur why he
conveniently shrugged off being a brand himself. However, in Kapur's opinion,
the notion of a brand connotates an abandonment of creativity and therefore he
claims to have drifted through life attempting to escape from being referred to
as a brand. As opposed to a common trend of thought among the panelists,
Kapur raised a valid point saying that the result of an increasingly cluttered
environment leads to the mis-representation of the claims of the brand.
As a closing statement Sengupta threw open the question, "When do
you design to kill a media brand." Joshi answered, "When
the dialogue becomes monologue." Das says, "When relevance is lost"
and Tata added, "It's a combination of the loss of commercial success and
connect." | 
