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Lifestyle channel Discovery Travel and Living has been rebranded TLC, and it is now eyeing to
become the country¶s top English entertainment channel. TLC currently leads viewership in the
travel and lifestyle category with a share of 56.6 per cent (for January to September 2010, TAM
data), ahead of rival NDTV Good Times which led the space last year.

TLC says it is focusing on new, more engaging content to extend its on-air presence. In this
quarter, it will be rolling out 15 new shows, six new hosts and 11 new seasons of existing series.
Says Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific Senior Vice-president & General Manager (India) Rahul
Johri: ³We want to make TLC the number one English entertainment channel. While content-
wise, the focus will remain on food, travel and lifestyle, a wide variety of entertainment to the
Indian programming is the new thing.´ Last month, the channel featured film star Shah Rukh
Khan in new episodes of Living With A Superstar. Later this month, TLC will roll out Asian
Diary-Season 2 with host Vir Sanghvi exploring culinary delights across India and Asia. India
will be featured on some international shows as well. ³The change is happening in our
programming, and we are bringing world-class packaging too,´ says Johri.

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TLC has initiated a flurry of activities to create more buzz around the new programming.
Recently, it brought three popular show hosts ² globe-trotter Ian Wright, chef Bobby Chinn and
beverage specialist Kevin Brauch ² to India to engage with the audience. All three will be
hosting new shows starting this month or the next.

Johri says he hopes to take TLC to 50 million homes by year-end, up from the current 35 million
homes it reaches. This month Discovery Networks has also launched its Telugu feed which will
further attract more viewers. TLC is now available in four languages: English, Hindi, Tamil and
Telugu.

The channel is, however, up for some stiff competition from rival NDTV Good Times which too
is ready with fresh engaging content. The biggest showstopper is likely to be the Hunt for
Kingfisher Calendar Girls 2011 which starts on October 11. The makers of Kingfisher calendar
recently tied up with NDTV Good Times for a reality show to search for the next calendar girls.
Shibani Sharma Khanna, channel head, NDTV Good Times, & creative head, NDTV Lifestyle,
is hopeful that once the show goes on air, the television viewer ratings will again swing in favour
of NDTV Good Times for the next three months. She stresses that the channel¶s customised
programming for the Indian audience will be its biggest pull. ³We are contemporary yet global
and carry a 360-degree urban Indian channel experience. The channel is for the urban, educated
lot that spans across topics like dating and getting married, gadget, style and fashion, ownership
of diamonds, shoes, accessories and so on; and, most importantly, how we eat, where we at, and
with whom we eat,´ says Khanna.






 
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Tata Motors is marketing its crossover vehicle, the Aria, through a viral campaign on the
internet. With a reported price tag of Rs 12-14 lakh, the car will have a premium consumer base.
Tata Motors Utility Vehicle Product Group Head Sunil Saxena says: ³The internet has become a
necessary tool of research for any capital purchase, more so with the premium set of consumers
that the Aria will address.´

So the utility vehicle team at Tata Motors partnered with Experience Commerce to launch the
cleverly-named site, www.buildadreamcar.com. Experience Commerce CEO Sandeep Maiti
says: ³The brief was not based on the usual metric of click-through ratio. We had to build
excitement around the brand. The teaser, therefore, does not have the brand name anywhere to
build up curiosity even more.´ The rest of the campaign, spanning mass media, will unfold with
the launch of the car. Adds Saxena: ³To those who should own such a car, we did not want to
advertise in the usual blatant way. We wanted to reinforce that this is the kind of car they wanted
before revealing which car it was.´

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Tata Motors Utility Vehicle Product Group General Manager Sanjay Gupta says: ³Consumers in
the premium segment are tech-savvy and are much easier to engage. When assembling the
virtual car, one will see that the features provided are high-tech and often used in crossover
vehicles such as cruise control and torque-on-demand. While the users will have fun, they would
also gradually get to know the technology that has gone into the car.´

Users are spending more than 15 minutes on an average on the website trying to get to the next
level. Starting with a virtual training room, users have to assemble the chassis, dashboard,
interiors, exterior, engine and special features to win points at various levels. Points will be based
on the perfection of the assembly; dragging the parts to the correct spot, for instance. Three
winners will get to drive the Aria on an all-expenses-paid trip in India.

Maiti says the chatter on the net they are picking up is mostly around the features of the car,
which is what the team wanted. Links on social networks and friend invites have cast a wide web
among internet users. Twenty-five thousand users have registered to play the game, extending
invitations to 400,000 more acquaintances. It has been reported that the company has spent over
a crore on the teaser campaign alone. Company officials admit that the digital marketing spend
for the Aria is considerably higher than usual. The car, said to be built on the Tata Safari
platform, will have a DICOR engine. It was showcased at the Delhi Auto Expo in January 2010.

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The Indian Hotels Company has got four brands to cater to different markets

The Indian Hotels Company,

owned by Tata Sons, recently
launched a new brand, Vivanta
by Taj, in the upper upscale
segment. The brand covers three
new hotels in Bangalore, Goa and
Maldives and 16 old properties in
India and Sri Lanka. With this,
the company now has put in place
its brand architecture. Thus Taj is
slotted in the luxury space,
Vivanta by Taj in the upper
upscale segment, Gateway in
upscale and Ginger in economy.
Raymond Bickson, the 55-year-
old managing director and chief
executive of The Indian Hotels
Company, likens it to Tata
Motors¶ portfolio: The Nano at
the entry level, and then the
Indigo, Safari and Jaguar or Land
Rover as one moves up on the
value chain.
The philosophy behind the multi-brand portfolio is actually quite straightforward. Over the years,
new segments have emerged within the hotel industry and one brand doesn¶t fit all. Within cities
too, there are different markets. South Mumbai, for instance, could have a different appetite for
hotels vis-à-vis the business district of Bandra-Kurla. What appeals to one set of customers can
deter or intimidate another set of people. The Indian Hotels Company for close to a hundred
years operated all its hotels under Taj. ³But the value of Taj was being diluted by properties that
should be in the other segments,´ says Bickson. ³Our brand architecture had to be changed for
the future to remove confusion, give focus to our marketing and take on the challenge from
global rivals.´

The last point is important. India, along with China, is the final frontier for the hotel chains of the
world. With just 5 million overseas travellers, everybody knows the upside is huge. A larger
market is domestic travel ² the numbers here could be multiples of overseas travellers. Bickson
reckons that no fewer than 47 brands have decided to enter India. Most of them have multiple
brands: Starwood and Marriott have 23 each, Accor has 18. ³We need to protect our market
share of 20-25 per cent,´ says he. ³I want a larger share of the customer¶s wallet.´ Global brands
hook a customer for life by offering a brand for every price point. If The Indian Hotels Company
wants to instill a similar loyalty in its customers, it has no option but to have a bouquet of brands.
The four-brand strategy begins to fall into place: A customer sticks to The Indian Hotels
Company as he progresses in life. ³We are now poised to run to every primary, secondary and
tertiary city in the country,´ says The Indian Hotels Company Senior Vice-president (sales &
marketing) Ajoy K Misra.

That¶s perhaps the reason why most hotel companies like East India Hotels, ITC, IHHR
Hospitality and Bharat Hotels want to have more than one brand in their portfolio. The only one
focused on the luxury segment is Hotel Leelaventures. The Indian Hotels Company has taken the
lead with four brands. But there is still a missing link. There is a fifth segment between economy
and upscale called midscale ² the one that exists between Ginger and Gateway. ³The midscale
segment is waiting for us to enter. What kind of brand we should bring in will be clear once we
have done our research on the customer for that category,´ says The Indian Hotels Company
Vice-president (marketing) Deepa Misra Harris.

ï
   


According to Bickson, The Indian Hotels Company began to think of a multi-brand portfolio
almost seven years back when it signed on brand consultancy Landor Associates for the purpose.
After much consumer research, first off the block was Ginger. Gateway came in 2008 and
Vivanta by Taj two years later. This brand was actually supposed to be launched in 2009 but was
delayed because of the adverse sentiment that followed the financial meltdown. Bickson has an
aggressive growth strategy. The company has opened one hotel every six weeks for the last
seven years. This year so far it has opened 13. As much as $3 billion (almost Rs 14,000 crore) is
being spent by the company, its joint ventures and associates (which will be run by The Indian
Hotels Company) on hotels across the globe. ³Thirty-eight per cent of the upcoming projects in
the country are ours,´ says Bickson. His target is 20,000 rooms by 2012, up from about 12,650
rooms across 106 hotels now.

The vehicle for growth in the days to come will be Vivanta by Taj and Gateway. At the moment,
The Indian Hotels Company gets almost 65 per cent of its revenue from Taj, and 35 per cent
from Vivanta by Taj and Gateway. (Ginger is a subsidiary. Because of low tariff, its contribution
to the consolidated revenue of the company is very small). In five to seven years, it will be split
equally between Taj on one hand and Taj by Vivanta and Gateway on the other. Won¶t more
non-luxury brands in the portfolio impact profitability? At the moment, Misra says Taj¶s
contribution to profits could be higher than its 65 per cent contribution to revenue. More
importantly, have Bickson and his team been able to create enough differentiation between the
brands?

Vivanta by Taj, which could be 15-20 per cent cheaper than a Taj hotel in the same city, is
targeted at a younger traveller vis-à-vis Taj, and competes with the likes of Hyatt, Westin and
Sheraton. ³The average Vivanta by Taj customer is slightly younger, believes in no boundary
between work and play and is rationally exuberant. He is the kind of person, because he is so
intensely consumed by work, who understands the relevance of relaxation and therefore the little
details of life. He will stop to smell the roses,´ says Harris. As many as 155 touch points have
been identified from before the guest arrives till he leaves where Vivanta by Taj can create a
differentiation. According to Harris, the chauffer to the guest will hold an electronic placard at
the airport; the car to the hotel will have a massage chair, a Sony Playstation and energy drinks
instead of plain water. The name, according to Landor Associates India Country Director Lulu
Raghavan, is derived from bon vivant. ³It is for people who live life to the fullest and, yet, are
sophisticated,´ says she.

³Vivanta by Taj is wired hard to work and play. It is extremely efficient in delivering work and
play environment. It has high-energy bars and very good gyms. Spas will be differently designed
for a shorter treatment than luxury hotels. The customer doesn¶t have the time but must still
experience the hotel. He doesn¶t want formality, he likes more relaxed service,´ says Harris. This
is also the message of the ad campaign for the brand devised by Rediffusion Y&R. All the
formality and bespoke personalised services of Taj are thus not provided in Vivanta by Taj.
While Taj has, on an average, a staff to room ratio of 1.75, it is 1 for Vivanta by Taj. Its rooms
will be smaller than Taj, the public spaces will be lesser and the restaurants could be fewer.

@   

Gateway, on the other hand, is targeted at a younger traveller who has had his first taste of
success, is wired and works round the clock. It could have one specialty restaurant and one all-
day diner. Of course, in the same city, it could be 15-20 per cent cheaper than Vivanta by Taj.
According to Harris, the Gateway gamble has paid off well. According to a recent survey of
hotel brands in the country by Gallup, Gateway came third after Taj and Oberoi in unaided brand
recall. It was the fourth most-buzzing Tata brand in 2008, the year of its launch, and fifth in
2009. Also, by opening lower price points it was able to get customers at a time when the
industry was gasping for breath. Harris admits there could have been some down-trading on the
part of travellers during that period. ³We had some trepidation that the person who asks to be
driven to Taj may not like to ask for Gateway. But we have seen a resurgence in this segment,´
says she.

Ginger, of course, is a no-frill hotel for the budget traveller. It is often located near the railway
station or the bus stand. It does not run a restaurant ² the function is outsourced. It was
management guru CK Prahalad who had advised Ratan Tata that there was a huge gap between
state-run guest houses and luxury hotels. The Indian Hotels Company had thus come out with
IndiOne. That brand eventually gave way to Ginger.

Where does it leave Taj? The brand has been positioned in such a way that it can only have a
high-street location. (The Indian Hotels Company, of course, runs a score of resorts and palaces
under Taj.) In the new scheme of things, Taj will be the brand for the company¶s global foray ²
a magnet to get customers to its other properties. The company has identified some gateway
cities that feed markets in India and elsewhere in large numbers. Taj hotels will be located there.
The brand is present in New York, Boston and San Francisco in the United States and London.
Six are coming up in West Asia and one in Phuket, Thailand. More could come in Mexico,
Chicago and Los Angeles. Harris admits that the brand recall of Taj is low in the West, but
claims that once a customer stays with it the probability of him choosing it again is as good as
any other brand.

Eventually, says Misra, all the four brands will travel abroad. ³There is a phase where some of
the brands have to consolidate in the domestic market. It is not wise to step out before we come
close to realising the full potential here. We are conscious that our resources need to be focused,´
says he. Vivanta by Taj, of course, has a presence overseas with a hotel each in Sri Lanka and
Maldives. Some time back, it was felt within the company that Ginger could be taken to other
South Asian countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Bickson also knows that the brand could
do well in emerging markets like Brazil. But clearly that will have to wait.