<p align=justify>With a luxury boom in India, there are over one million luxury consumers, which is only a fraction of eight million plus consumers who have the disposable incomes but are unfamiliar with the luxury segment. The growth rate is 14.6 per cent. Target audience is 22-55 year olds. India’s luxury goods market of Rs 717 billion is set to expand with a new firm to facilitate process by bringing together buyers and manufacturers. India’s total retail market has been estimated at $160 billion or Rs 7,170 billion, covering eight million consumers. Of them, one million are considered to be in the luxury brands segment.

exchange4media Staff May 12, 2006 12:00 AM

<p aligh=justify>"Hyundai Motors decided to set up an in-house agency that can take good care of the brand. In India, Hyundai wants to take its image to the next level so that it can sell its high-end products with a lot more ease than at present. The idea is also to consolidate the gains made by Hyundai so that we can strengthen, leverage, and add value to the brand’s presence in a very definitive manner."

exchange4media Staff May 6, 2006 12:00 AM

Our core proposition is simple. We offer two things to both job seekers and employers. First is the greatest aggregation – to the job seekers we offer the greatest aggregation of jobs and to recruiters we offer the greatest aggregation of job seekers. The searching capability of our site on the job side as well as on the resume side is superior.

exchange4media Staff May 4, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>Radio is the only medium that has a one-on-one relationship with listeners. Unlike watching movies or TV where we generally sit with friends and family, radio is something that we listen to and connect with music individually. Radio City is about music and songs that put you in a positive state of mind and we have mapped out songs in a particular way that will be played at different and suitable times during the day. This is the key thought behind our new campaign and brand identity.

exchange4media Staff May 2, 2006 12:00 AM

<align=justify>“Radio stations can cater to different audiences at different parts of the day by changing the programming. Also, what I can see that’s going to happen now is a lot of pushing and pulling. The passionate broadcasters would always be popular, they will always choose the radio jockeys that people like listening to. So, it’s always going to be the same band, the same music, the same words, but all those gimmicks will have to be supported by content. So, content will always be the big game.”

exchange4media Staff May 1, 2006 12:00 AM

<p aligh=justify>"Hyundai Motors decided to set up an in-house agency that can take good care of the brand. In India, Hyundai wants to take its image to the next level so that it can sell its high-end products with a lot more ease than at present. The idea is also to consolidate the gains made by Hyundai so that we can strengthen, leverage, and add value to the brand’s presence in a very definitive manner."

exchange4media Staff Apr 29, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>“I am appalled at the way creatives are researched. Most of the time the researchers go to consumers and ask them to become the judge of the creative! But consumers are not capable of being judges. Because, if they were, then they would be making great films or creating commercials. Consumers just want to be entertained.”

exchange4media Staff Apr 28, 2006 12:00 AM

We are constantly on the lookout for finding new ways and means to improve the current state of affairs. Thus, innovation is a very important aspect of our working strategy. The other very important philosophy is that of Indianness. All our concepts and formats as well as the way we go about things are very Indian. The way Big Bazaar is designed and the way the whole concept has developed reflects a sense of Indianness.

exchange4media Staff Apr 24, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>“The Asia Pacific region -- where we launched our Asia edition in 2003 -- over the last three years has become very important and it is growing very rapidly. And that’s really where India fits in, because clearly there is no barrier as far as language is concerned and we believe there is a huge amount of potential not only in terms of circulation numbers and readership, but following on from that, in terms of advertising sales.”

exchange4media Staff Apr 22, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>Earlier, when media was not as dynamic as it is today, you could get away with a lot of mediocrity. Even then, the ads that really stayed were ones with the big ideas, and it will always be that way. There were fewer of those then than what there is today. Another thing that has changed is that the need for the idea to be relevant is stronger today – it is not just about a good idea. Some people speak of global ideas today and I hate this word ‘global’. That can’t be your driving point. A good idea is one that is relevant to its market.

exchange4media Staff Apr 15, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>TV is competing with every other medium – we are competing for a lifestyle and that means many things for our programming. It means our programming has to be more interactive and involving, maybe even more than just programming. Who knows, in the next five years it may not even be a standard television show any more. I don’t want to predict the future here – Ridley Scott has done a good job of that few years ago – but I think that the whole dream of the Internet that started and died is back, and if the government of India can give us broadband a little quicker, it might even keep on living.

exchange4media Staff Apr 11, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>Retention is a problem across the board - any good company is facing it. I think what O&M instills into each individual is great sense of belonging and a great sense of pride. The brand name is very strong and if you are here with the best, monetary benefits really don’t mater. If you look at the attrition rates across the industry, we would be one of the lowest. So you have to motivate people. That said, if someone has to go, he would go any way. Fundamentally, because the team is so strong, we have never been dependent on any one person.

exchange4media Staff Apr 8, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>“FM is a local medium and it has to have a local flavor. It’s really not a good thing for the largest networks to go in for similar content across the country. It may sound like a cheaper option in the short run, but if you don’t address local issues in the local idiom, you can’t engage your listeners and you’ll lose their loyalty. You will end up with bland, mass-market cookie cutter programming, which turns people off FM altogether.”

exchange4media Staff Apr 3, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>Internet spends have already gone up in India in the last year, but people are still doing it without any data or research to base their decisions on. Advertising accelerates when there is measurement. Nielsen Media Research launched Hispanic panel in the US and advertising on the panel increased significantly following that. NetRatings launched in New Zealand and advertising almost doubled in one year of that. Clients, particularly in markets like India, are starved of some kind of information. Right now, they have to depend on company server logs, which can be inflated for any number of reasons. It’s not good to trust server logs.

exchange4media Staff Apr 1, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>Just on the face of it, it is difficult to isolate any one media. But when you look deeper, because of emergence of through the line or integrated marketing communication, the emphasis is shifting from the creative side of the business to the media side. The role of account or strategic planning, which was once an important component of an advertising agency, is now seen in a media agency and not a creative agency. Simply because media agencies have access to the small and big picture of media consumption habit, where the consumer is, and what are the different ways of reaching him. And in the process, even the remuneration or commission is getting closer between the media and creative agencies.

exchange4media Staff Mar 25, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>"I think that the whole media is in a crisis. It's a paradoxical situation. You have an exploding media, which is expanding in every segment – television, Internet and print. But I also think everybody is questioning their basic assumptions. Who is our target audience? How do people get information? When do they want this information? What are they willing to pay for information? Has news become a commodity? By information I mean news, opinions, analyses. These are the questions everybody is asking themselves because the consumer is getting information from many different sources in real time. There is no waiting any more."

exchange4media Staff Mar 17, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>Long live India Today, Long live Outlook! When we launched the magazine, we did not target India Today. If India Today wants to follow us, then it’s their problem. When we launched Outlook, we launched it as a weekly news magazine, they were a fortnightly at that time. When we launched Outlook Money, we launched it as a personal finance magazine, I did not ask them to start a personal finance column in Business Today or India Today. I started Outlook Traveller as a travel magazine, if they changed India Today Plus to Travel Plus, it’s not my problem. I have been identifying issues and going ahead with that. If they want to follow us, if they want to change the way they look at journalism, then God bless them. I think there is space for the two of us and maybe more.

exchange4media Staff Mar 11, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>The thing about TV is that it is all too dynamic! TV channels are not complacent any more – Sony and Zee were not bothered about STAR Plus and they didn’t take STAR One also seriously and we have seen what has happened in that case. With this kind of a history, we can’t take any one lightly until they have shut shop. As long as they are still active, they will keep trying to make good programming and we will have to better it.

exchange4media Staff Mar 7, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>"There will be some modifications along the way, but the business - at the end of the day - is still about ideas. It’s still about attracting and growing business with ideas. There is a great pressure on the individual’s ability to attract business."

exchange4media Staff Mar 4, 2006 12:00 AM

PR can always play a concrete role in communications solutions for brands whether it is 360 degree or as a part of integrated communications. That’s a matter of description, but PR can provide a very tangible, a very credible, and a very useful input into the overall communications solution for any brand/company.

exchange4media Staff Feb 27, 2006 12:00 AM