The Other side of SRGMP: Game behind the - Page 7

Thanks CB.

Absolutely agree with your point. You can market your product and get the initial share but unless the product is good, it won't continue to hold the market share. Sooner or later, the audience will shun you off for better products (once the shine of the marketing gimmick wanes off !!!)

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Originally posted by: chatbuster

i think at the end of the day, one also has to have a good product (this is what i'd like to believe, though all the training has been contrary). marketing can take u so far, but if u dont have the product, sooner or later u stumble. for HR, that happened at the last stage. (and by product here, i mean the combo of HR and Vinit, not just Vinit by himself).

And - even if you have a good product, if you overhype that product, you set the bar so high that your weaknesses start to show more than your strengths.

Skud bhai - I will just say one word - "YOU ARE GREAT"
Highlighted the points I liked most.

Originally posted by: simplyskud

Brilliant article, SoulSoup.

If we have followed the show closely enough, all the inbuilt / external marketing strategies for any contestant came to the forefront only when the AgniPariksha round began ... basically when the choice was put to the public (aka, the customer here). Before that, it was more on the grounds of the previous SRGMP versions.

Let's not get into a debate with Gajji's role in the show and making it open to public voting. He was asked by zee mgmt. to boost the TRP ratings. Thanks to all the dramas and his brilliant editings, the channel (Zee) upstaged Sony as the number two channel next only to Star. Apart from the ratings, let's not forget the amount of money that he raked in from the show itself. Now with the show coming to an end, Zee is marketing the contestants in all the zee sponsored shows and award shows for even more money.

Ok. Enough with Gajji and Zee ... Let's get back to the marketing game that started with the AgniPariksha round. Remember, right from the time when the show started people were asked to poll in for the best mentor(as they felt). HR was simply brilliant in playing his card ... he praised the other mentors around and often accepted them as his senior and better musicians. Aishwarya's exit(unceremoniusly) and HR's behaviour ensured that he shot to the top of the books in the mind of the audience. :

Almost forgot the Aishwarya episode. Anyone noticed that HR never mentioned his name after Brahmastra?

Round 1 to HR. Result : HR being given the Brahmastra.

HR played his cards right once again. He brought in few contestants from other gharanas and hit the pulse of audience yet again. It didn't make any difference to him that Paresh and Ujjaini enetered the show again. For him, he had made his mark with the audience yet again by portraying his generous nature.

Bullseye 😉

Round 2 to HR. Result : HR had already won a fair share of audience even before the AgniPariksha began.

As the AgniPariksha rounds ran and Raktima (classically trained), Swananda and Sharib made early exits, HR by then was sure what was working with the audience(it wasn't music, it was how the singer was marketed to the target audience). Then came his marketing schemes out of his hat : Vinit's love, Maa ka pyar, DeshBhakti, consistency and so on.

That's another classic marketing 101 - understanding the Mob psychology

Round n(next few) to HR. Brilliant strategist and marketing genius.

Like SoulSoup pointed out, HR went wrong in few areas: Directly disapproving of another contestant when he himself ascertained he didn't like Debojit's singing and brought out the regional bias in Debojit's share of votes. This angered the public(as they felt that their choice or judgement was being ridiculed ... never ever ridicule the voter ... you're bound to lose support). Hype gets you the market, overhype makes you lose a share of the market you had gained because of your hype ... the same happened to HR. He lost because he went overboard in promoting Vinit. Last but not the least, the contestants walkout episode blew his marketing gimmicks to shambles. Once that happened courtesy one of the mentors(we still aren't sure if it was AS or HR), people sympathized and empathized with Debojit. ID's walkout, his deafening silence added further support for the underdog and the voting favour completely changed hands. HR blew his own lid off in the final rounds ....

Final round to ID. A lesson for HR about where his strategies went wrong.

Let's not forget SRGMP's reach/audience. It chiefly comprises of TV addicts(housewifes who get tired of watching soap operas,kids and teenagers who have quite a lot of spare time and musical enthusiasts) and few offbeat TV viewers.

Chatbuster - is that the market segmentation you were looking for? Skud bhai - you are the boss! 👏

Of the three the first two (housewives, kids and teenagers) are the ones who spend the maximum on sms or voting (remember a lower middle class housewife in MP spent over a lakh and half in sms for Qazi in FG). Infact because of the female element in the audience, female contestants get eliminated earlier than their male counterparts inspite of the talent. II, SRGMP, FG, II2 ... all illustrious examples.
HR had the audience in his mind all along .. he very well knew what kind of drama/strategy catered to this niche target ... and he played his 'masala' elements to the perfection. Unfortunately, he blew his own strategy off and brought in a huge dose of regional support for his opponent contestant ...

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Originally posted by: AparnaVittal

Hi Soulsoup...was just re-reading your great post and the above point got me thinking....your take on the "tipping point" part also worked for Vinit...in fact, he also got all the 3 forms you mentioned ...the highest contributor being the sales person (here Himesh) ...I would actually think that this was greatly responsible for putting Vinit in the finals...

Or did I get the funda wrong?

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Aparna – for a great Marketing 2.0 venture you need all Maven, Connector and Salesperson – all have equal importance.

And yes – Vinit also had the same advantage as Debu – but I think at the end of the day – HR shot himself on foot by over focusing on the 'regional vote'

BTW : I didn't expected this much of response for my this post. 😳Even Bhaskar expressed his doubt also. 😉

Thanks to all. 😃😃😃

BTW: Didn't get a single comment like Debu Sux – Vinit Rox. Thanks for that too. 😃😃😃

Madhavir - here it goes

First Nihira : I don't think she either wanted or needed to be part of this marketing game. If you notice thoroughly – Nihira is the only contestant who asked for vote in only English/Hindi. So I don't think there is anything to discuss.

For Hemchandra: He had to work against to greatest obstacle –

1. Poor home ground support and

2. His Mentor's really bad marketing strategy. Yes – Adesh ji was the most vocal on the Regional issue. On the other hand, he just touch-based on the USPs (Unique Selling Propositions) of Hemu - his background, consistency, originality (+ his looks 😉). He failed to en-cash the positive points and focused on the negative things.

Originally posted by: madhavir108

Excellent post!

Can u give a counter analysis to why Nihira and Hemu didn't make it to finals ?

Not to discredit Vinit or Debo, love them completely, but I personally thought Nihira and Hem had the best voices in the show (female and male)

soulsoup,

First of all, thanks for a good, intelligent post.

Appreciate the efforts you put behind this analysis.

Your analysis perfectly consolidated the points that have been loosely discussed in the forum, without using Marketing terminologies.

e.g.
(HR's) over-hyping (for vinit) - Over marketing

(HR) talking about Debo's vote base - competitor bashing/baiting, product marketing taboo

walk-out threat by the three competitors - Uncertainty in Product performance


Thanks for providing a theoretical form to it and make it into a text book format. The theories that were enunciated seem to be going in correct paths, after all!

Wish to see some more of this stuff around...

Not to forget, I need to look into chatbuster's analysis as well, which seem to be hitting bull's eye as well.

Good job, once again, soulsoup.

Thanks for giving a nourishing (as I cannot say 'chicken' due to avian flu in the air) 'soup' to this SRGMP forum's 'Soul'! 😉

no kidding...

My comments, before I forget regarding 'being in GS's shoes'.

Frankly, GS should be more than happy to have these marketing strategies being put to use by mentors, contestants, press. Though from the talent point of view, I agree that old format should be brought back, from a purely commercial point of view, remember that is what gives him bread and butter, GS should go in for the similar format with few tinkerings here and there, to make it look less commercial. Purely MPV. Thanks.

It was only Vinit and Debojit who were asking votes 4 other reasons..(I think so)

Thanks Angshuman -highlighted the points where Angshu provided some alternative theories.

Originally posted by: anshu03

Hey Soulsoup, your post is very good and as earlier discussed with you, your effort really shows. Yaar ab aap system wale log aise analysis karoge, to hum Marketing and market research wale kahan jayenge !

Aaap to mujhe sharminda kar diye 😳

I have loved the flow of your analysis, having done my masters in market research at IIT, I can really appreciate your work. I would also like to commend you on your choice of Subject i.e. HR-Vinit. You know in marketing we refer to a term a 'condusive area'. Keeping in mind that this Forum has many HR bashers, I must say that your choice of example is excellent. Condusive area leads to immediate acceptance. We should more such intelligent posts on the forum, no matter who you support.
Okay now coming to your analysis, totally agree with your positive - negative theory, any form of publicity is good publicity.
Both Vinit and Debo had their alternate selling points. FOR Vinit it was - pyar, sanskar and topi and For Debo it was - Maa Ka sapna, wife's struggle. But I dis-agree on one point and that is about Over Marketing. In marketing there is nothing like over marketing. I agree that HR's aggressive strategy would have some people going neutral or the other way, but it would also lead to many new people (late commers) joining in.


If you see in the last 3 stage, the diff between Vinit (44 lac) & Debo's vote (51 lac) percent was more than 9% but in the finals it was less than 1%. In marketing terms he did eat into Debo's market share and also increased his customer base. If there were some more days, then who knows !
Further, If Gajendra was the Producer/manufacturer and the audience was the Consumer, Vinit & Debo were the products, HR & ID were the marketing team, a very important role was played by the Retail channel or Distributor, in this case the telecast providers, that was Zee. The channel people had to do a lot with all these so called strategies.
There is lots that I have to discuss with you and I would not like to bore the others and so will do it via PM.
But being a HR supporter, I would only say one thing, The laws of marketing say that there is only 20% what you can achieve with Marketing and the rest 80% is the product. And the more time the product spends in the market, the lesser the marketing contribution. So the bottom line is that the HR could have marketed Vinit anyhow but if the product (Vinit) was not good enough, he would have not lasted in the market.

Angshu - this should be applicable for Debu too - right? 😉

I wish Himani & Hemu were given more opportunity and they would have been the market leaders !

Originally posted by: fairdog

Thanks for giving a nourishing (as I cannot say 'chicken' due to avian flu in the air) 'soup' to this SRGMP forum's 'Soul'! 😉

😳

Thanks Fairdog - for more than fair comments. 😃

Originally posted by: anshu03

Yes, it is applicable to Debo too. I have never said that he is a bad singer although he would not get my vote for India ki voice. Frankly I cant look beyond Himani and Hemu in terms of voice quality but anyways thats another story.
The bottom line is the more controversial and in-your-face kind of people have more chances of wining such things than the seedha-saadha singers.

Thanks Angshu - it's a pleasure to even argue with you 😉