RADIO MIRCHI

ENTRY INTO KOLKATA MARKET

Group A13

Ponmathi
Siddharth
Zeeshanhul
Abhisek
Nisarg

April 2003 Bennett, Coleman &
Company Ltd wants to expand its
footprint in radio by launching its Radio
Mirchi channel in populous cities
Currently operating in Indore, Mumbai
and Delhi. Next in line Kolkata
3 private players will enter Kolkata at
the same time as Radio Mirchi, which
is used to operating as a virtual
monopoly
SITUATION ANALYSIS
Characteristics of Kolkata market
Unlike Delhi and Mumbai, Kolkata
is a more heterogeneous market
Achieving 70% market share
more challenging due to
fragmented market
Decision
(1) Which market segment to target
(2) Which product design to adopt
Population (SEC) (%)

16 MARKET SEGMENT
47
Targeting 60-70% market share to become #1 radio
18
channel and pull revenue from advertisers

19
Advertisers target the younger population (age group 15-
A B C D
34) due to higher disposable incomes in this segment
45% of population
Population (Age) (%)
6 Do not specifically target SWAY customers and become a
30 niche player will turn advertisers away

45
Choose Mass from (1) Premium (2) Mass Premium Youth
19 (3) Mass Premium Adult (4) Mass Be the Star Plus
of Radio (mass audience, premium packaging)
12-14 15-34 35-44 45+
 PRODUCT DESIGN FORMAT
TALK VERSUS MUSIC RADIO
High literacy rate (81%) in Kolkata good
consumer base for radio in talk format
BUT
Most of the population tuned in to listen to Recommend
news which was not allowed to be Music Radio
broadcasted on private FM channels
Even if talk shows contained non-news
content, potential problem of confused
positioning
 PRODUCT DESIGN RJ LANGUAGE
ENGLISH VERSUS BENGALI
Positioning in SEC ABC category, wherein Bangla was the preferred
language of listeners
Mother tongue of 71%
Bengali newspapers read by 72%
Even if mother tongue is not indicative of preferred language
(as in Nagpur), in Kolkata, surveys found that Choos
Common language of conversation was Bangla e
Even in high class clubs, language switched between Bangla
Bangla and English
10% of population (Marwaris) controlled advertising money and spoke
Hindi (not Bangla), but advertisement wasnt for them. It was for the
Bangla speaking radio listeners.
 PRODUCT DESIGN MUSIC LANGUAGE
English
Not an option since it implied being a niche Bangla Aamar
player in an industry where advertising Choose a mix
revenues are crucial
65% of operating cost = license fee = 2x
of Bangla and
revenue Hindi a
Bangla category
Majority population spoke Bangla currently
English
But not many successful films in the past unoccupied in
few years the market and
Hindi constituting Power
Hindi music was expected to outsell Bengali mother tongue
music soon
of 97%
Target segment (youth) preferred Hindi films
and music Hindi Red FM
 PRODUCT DESIGN MUSIC GENRE
Thinking from advertisers perspective they want to target working men and
working women who decide where to spend their incomes
Play Top-40 music appeal to youth which is the segment advertisers want to
target
Retain CHR
Even though it has been taken by two other channels, it will attract young
listeners
Play Retro too
Even though intuition suggests that it will attract older listeners, Old Hindi Film
songs for instance are the second-ranked choice of young audiences (such as
Students) (Exhibit 18)