Charu is puzzled by the questions being asked in the DNA survey. For those who are puzzled, DNA is the new newspaper being launched in Mumbai. It stands for – get this – Daily News and Analysis. They are making much of the fact that we, i.e the readers will create the newspaper, presumably by answering their questions and telling them what kind of newspaper we want.
Now I am not the marketing guy (Charu is) but my understanding is that the “survey” is basically fake, more of a brand-building exercise. I mean, if I were launching a newspaper or any other consumer product, I would certainly do a lot of surveys and focus group discussions. But I wouldn’t create a hoopla about doing those surveys. I can think of many, many ways in which such hoopla can bias the results. So I am inclined to think that what they are doing is not the real survey. But then, to repeat, I am not the marketing guy.
Methinks the entire DNA survey is an exercise in building a database of prospective customers and to bolster their USP.
Why would a newspaper require a database of individual customers?
methinx it is just a publicity gimmick…. there is a war going on out there – DNA about to be launched and HT coming to Bombay – and ToI of course lording it lover here in any case… so DNA must be doing this to come across as a ‘different’ newspaper…. you are right, compnies rarely talk about the research that they do – they treat it as some kind of ‘secret weapon’ 🙂
had linked to a post on this from indiatogether a few days ago – check it out too?
Seems to me that it is just an attempt to imprint their brand in our minds. I mean, what insights can questions like: “How much would u like to pay for a newspaper? Rs 1.5, 2. or 2.5” these give??? We had a very similar B school case study about Dainik Bhaskar’s launch in Jaipur. The marketing jargon for this strategy is “carpet bombing” if my memory serves me right.
Interesting way to look at media is as pronounced by Dr. Madhukar Shukla at:
http://madhukarshukla.blogspot.com/2004/04/what-does-mainstream-media-sell-and-to.html
… most of us tend to believe – somewhat naively – that when we buy a magazine or a newspaper, or watch a TV channel, we are the customers, because we pay for it (even if nominally).
We tend to ignore that the media revenues come, not from subscriptions paid by its readers/ audience, but from advertisements paid for by businesses.
So, perhaps, a more rational way of looking at media should be like this: Media sells its subscribers/ audience/ spectators/ readers to its primary customers – the businesses, and gets paid for that service!!!
Haven’t had the pleasure of being DNA-ed, am not at home during the day.
I think this is an exercise in increasing the amenability of a sales pitch later with the tilt :Hey, this is what you asked for–why don’t you buy it ?”
I’d also aver that Indian audiences have always been passive recipients–circa our collective hovering around AIR, reading newspapers in the morning. Even now, the relative success of TOI, NDTV masquerading as media with their standards perhaps points there.
When the lead newspaper is prostituting itself, whadya expect ?