Exclusive | Content is the king, context is the kingdom: Aval Vikatan's Arivazhagan

The Tamil Women’s magazine, Aval Vikatan, launched in year 1997, has with time successfully reached out and fulfilled women’s needs. Published by the Vikatan group this magazine mainly covers topics on beauty, fashion, lifestyle, household tips, articles on cooking, filmy gossips, analysing problems of women, interested topics, health related articles and celebrity interviews.

Being in a competitive market the journey for Aval Vikatan has not been easy, but their desire of offering differentiated content to their readers and eliciting readers involvement has led to the success of the magazine which completes 16 years this October 2013.

As the magazine would be celebrating their 16th anniversary soon, Adgully caught up with Arivazhagan, Editor, Aval Vikatan, to gain insights on their  journey since the launch of the magazine and  about new plans they intend rolling out in the near future. The current campaign for the magazine’s anniversary issue has been created by OPN.

Since Aval Vikatan, the fortnightly Tamil magazine for women is about to turn 16 this year, we asked Arivazhagan to share his thoughts and  views on the magazine’s journey . "Aval Vikatan has had an exciting journey. Before its launch, the Tamil Women’s Magazine market was mainly conventional and stereotyped women as the typical homemaker, so one could not expect anything beyond cooking tips, child care or embroidery. The leading women's magazine then was primarily catering to the mother in law and her perspective of what she wanted her daughter in law to read. We conducted a survey across Tamil Nadu to decide our content before our launch and it was evident that  the contemporary women viz.  daughter's in law were very clear that they wanted change, period. When we launched Aval Vikatan in October, 1997, portraying women as enablers and change agents, the true magazine for the new generation of working women and young home makers, it became a clear USP and eventually helped overtake competition and get to the numero uno space in IRS as well as in ABC within 6 years of its birth!" he explained.

Over the years, the magazine continues to cover unheard of and  inspiring stories about successful women, has conducted small scale enterprise workshops, fun and gala events like Jolly Day and Asathal Pengal to showcase their talent. Unlike other genres, its readers have been the major contributors to the magazines year after year and are known to have honed their journalistic skills to a commendable level.

When asked to share the factors which have contributed to the magazine’s success till date he said, "We always believe content is the king and context is the kingdom. We are never short of quality content at any point of time. With readers adorning the contributor’s hat, we get a wide scope and variety of content that can be presented. Secondly, feedback is our fuel. From the initial years we have been receiving feedback in various means and forms, be it letters or surveys and have always given due consideration to the same. Recently, thanks to the voice feedback facility we have in place, readers can simply dial a given number and leave their comments about our magazine in their own voice. Hence no flaw or mistake is missed out and gets notified. Even a minute typographical error gets notified by the watchful eyes of our readers. Third factor is the engagement. From running contests, quizzes in the early years, to events and workshops and the recent social media pages and voice products (delivering content over phone) we have always given scope for more than one way interaction for our readers. Events such as Jolly Day, small industries workshops such as jewellery making, handicrafts have been a hit with our readers."

For Aval Vikatan, the constructive criticisms have helped it to mould the content mix of the magazine to suit women’s tastes more effectively. In the recent past the magazine was quick enough to catch the digital trend (sms, voice feedback, social media) and its followers on facebook are proof that its readers have evolved from just a homemaker to the multitasking woman.

The content of the magazine is decided by its readers from the beginning. "We have been covering wide variety of content ranging from personal and child care, health and counseling, fashion, cooking, relationships to start up business, career guidance, work related issues for women, legal, education, social issues and technology,” he added.

Recently they have also started reviewing films and restaurants, with readers giving out a woman’s perspective of the same.

Aval Vikatan has always been aggressive in pricing, with competition following suit. It is priced at Rs. 22 in TamilNadu and Rs. 25 in rest of India. As far as the positioning is concerned, Aval Vikatan has been connected with the aspirations of the common woman and helped to be their constant source of inspiration to think out of the box.

Where readership numbers for the magazine is concerned, he shared, "We have consistently been the No.1 Tamil Women’s magazine. As per IRS Q3 2012, our AIR is 4.47 lac readers, which is double the readership of our closest competitor."

With the magazine’s presence in the southern market and co-existing with other magazines in the same region, we asked him what makes Aval Vikatan different in terms of  competition.  "It is mainly the engagement and impact that we have made with our readers. We can proudly say that we have been instrumental/influential in improving the lives of many of our readers through our content, events and reach out. Being a solid part of the 87year old Vikatan Group adds to our stability and construct, as well as our nimbleness to be different."

Aval Vikatan already has two premium off shoots as in terms of new plans. Aval Vikatan Manamagal (Bride) priced at Rs.99,  is a big, glossy, quarterly magazine which has already won the mind and souls of its readers. Aval Vikatan Kitchen also a premium product priced at Rs. 60, is a quarterly magazine for those who love food and love to cook. More are in the pipeline awaiting market feedback and timing.

Elaborating on the challenges they foresee and their plans to overcome the same, Arivazhagan said, "As I said earlier, our readers have been growing along with us. With the recent spur in digital media, our readers are shifting to newer mediums of reading. We are already there in the Online Space (started way back in 1995), Apps and in social media. We constantly strive to be in all places where our readers would consume media in any form."

Alluring young readers to their magazines is another challenge for Aval Vikatan and according to them the best way would be to offer content relevant to them in the medium they prefer. Aval Vikatan has  currently introduced an educational column for teens, consisting of 16 pages which covers topics on fashion, technology and issues relating to the younger generation.

Aval Vikatan is for the woman who wants to prove something or break the shackles and rise up in her life. The magazine infotains, educates and empowers its readers.