However, the newspaper should have connect so that it can be accepted over all the other regional options that are available to the people in various parts of the country.
TOI is looking at becoming a national leader, loved all over the country. The idea is to leave room for branding the name Times of India such that it accentuates the overall brand equity of the Times Group indirectly. Therefore, we are competing with not only newspapers but also news channels. Every next news channel and newspaper talks about providing the true picture, the bigger picture or he relevant picture, but we need to take a much more closer and personal place.
Issue: Times of India launch has never been publicized with an extensive Advertising campaigning. Chennai however, is a city that has very peculiar and regionalist traits. The people of Chennai are not very flexible and open to changes. They have their regional preferences in every possible aspect. Thus the issue is to build a connect and a chord with these people of the southern city of Chennai. Objective: to create acceptance for Times of India in Chennai 2.
Target group: The people of Chennai, very well read and very Chennai. They read newspaper for three chief reasons politics, cinema and politics.There is a breed of young readers, pro change readers, readers with a national and global outlook. Thus age group is 20 onwards for both, men and women, married or single.
These are people who are slowly opening up to the world in a much bigger way than the major part of their conversations. It caters to the traditional reader and also to the evolving reader, which is fully descriptive of Chennai. The Chennaite is comfortable with his/her traditions, and is equally modern minded. One has to realise that Chennai has changed and TOI is ognizant of the change. Media habit: TV and print majorly for people above 25.College going students nowadays are exposed to high degree of social networking sits such as facebook, Orkut, twitter.
Youtube is a platform which offers uninterrupted reach. Hoardings are important to build a name in the city so that even people visiting Chennai know that TOI exists there too. TV and Internet are our focus area clearly. 3.
Competitive framework: The Hindu: Grand old lady of mount road, it knows its audience well. Everybody knows that Chennai wakes up to drink filter coffee and read the Hindu. Very good for local news, Okay-okay for national news and very ordinary for international news.Biased towards current government always, at the centre, and at the state.
If the government doesn't want people to know about people dying in Tibet, Hindu will be careful in its coverage of the issue. The New Indian Express: TheyVe improved newsprint quality a lot. Lesser number of pages than the mammoth Hindu. Less on local news. Doesn't print much about open manhole covers in Perungudi which cause grave inconvenience to residents. Although sometimes slightly anti Congress (and anti Sonia Gandhi).
Has brand value and a decent base in Chennai to sustain for a while in spite of competition.Deccan Chronicle is also there but it is not much of a competition right now. The Indian Express has gone in for a facelift (Pehle kyon nahi socha? ) and looks snazzy. It has also gone in for a new advertising campaign with a cure-for- constipation-like baseline '100% steel. 0% gas'.
One of the outdoor campaigns reads, "l don't want Shakespeare to write my news", while another says, "Lectures turn me off, so do socialites". The Hindu has blinked, despite being the leader, by dropping its price. The Deccan Chronicle has remained silent thus far.
