Exclusive | We understand youth more than anyone else: Viacom18's Bhowmik

Youth music channel MTV in a step to elevate its ‘coolness’ quotient has associated with Soundlogic, makers of technology products, to launch an uber cool range of Gadgets for the youth christened MTV Fashiontronix by Soundlogic.

MTV Fashiontronix by Soundlogic brings together the confluence of MTV’s unique creative edge and Soundlogic’s technical bandwidth to deliver unmatched sound experience. The range is available in cool trendy colours that exude MTV attributes making it just as stylish as the youth today!

Adgully caught up with Saugato Bhowmik, Business Head, Consumer Products, Viacom 18 to know more about this association and more.

Its been three months that Bhowmik has come aboard the network and this is the first association post his joining. Sharing his thoughts on the same Bhowmik said, “It has been just a couple of months of my joining with MTV's consumer products department and we have done quite an in-depth research about the needs and demands of youth in terms of consumer products. For MTV it is quite clear. We have some 20 - 25 product categories that we think can embody the brand value at MTV for youth who always want to stay ahead of the curve and know what is the next thing happening.”

Speaking about their targets and positioning strategy for the new range of consumer products, Bhowmik said, “Funky, colourful, energetic, vibrant colours, subtle marketing with a digital push is what youth is all about! Wherever the youth belongs to, be it a small town or a metro town, his/her aspirations have always been high and up to the mark. We definitely see a smaller town youth also as a really aggressive consumer when it comes to technology etc. They want to match up with metro youths. If you may notice, our much popular show Roadies has most of the participants from smaller towns; our most successful auditions happen in towns like Chandigarh and Pune. No doubt that these cities too have their own mind-set but we have online purchases from towns like Jabalpur”!

“We believe that we understand the youth and their needs and aspirations more than anyone else. I want to take this thought ahead in lot of products that can cater their needs. I believe this category of gadgets is growing day-by-day and catching up with the youth. They believe in being 'on the go' – on-the-go music, on-the-go content and everything else! Hence all these points kept in mind made us come up with association with Soundlogic. This association in terms of mobile - accessories is first-of-its kind for us and we will be bringing in huge pipe line of products under this association”, he said about the association.

Sharing his insights about the strategy of deepening their penetration in the youth segment along various categories, Bhowmik said, “I am bringing in a much deeper strategic thought and insight for looking at youth and building engagement amongst the brand; hence we are focusing on and looking at a lot of categories like apparels, fashion, gadgets, peripherals, luggage, eye wear, bag packs and much more. These, we believe are some core categories where youth spend most of their money, interest and time in.”

After mapping thoughts and research, the channel has set a clear target and strategy to hit on these categories, for long term in the next 12 months. Speaking about the tie-up strategy and its duration, he said, “I personally don't believe in short term commitments and tie-ups and hence I believe in engaging with brands for long run. Sometimes short terms tie-ups do happen; though it depends from category to category and brand to brand. Some deals are long term, some are annual which go in renewal every year, while some are monthly, other deals are 5yrs, 10yrs,etc. For example in categories like eye- wear and apparels you cannot go beyond a 2-3 year deal as the designs are changing very rapidly. Also, I believe that such tie-ups are also opportunistic and are integral part of the business.

Speaking about the utilization of the other channels of the bouquet and their offerings in consumer products category, Bhowmik said, “We are very keen in using our power of English and Hindi channels from our bouquet and the power of our digital presence to build these categories and our brand. All the channels, depending upon their tonality and presence have their own focused categories when it comes to be in the consumer products. Like for VH1, the channel has its own set of categories like apparels that match up to the mark of international level in terms of blending it with international music. Hence giving the audience such a blend is what we focus at.”

A known fact is that apart from youth, the kids category is very competitive and is growing at a rapid speed. Sharing his thoughts on the same, Bhowmik said, “Yes no doubt about it. So even in the kids category it is us and a few players. For the kids ages bracket too, we have mapped out some categories in the toys, games, stationary, bag packs, apparels, activity books, story books, luggage and much more. We have some established brands on channels in the kids category like children love ninja Hathori etc.”

Bhowmik also stated that every category has its own distribution and tie-ups. He personally does not believe in keeping fragmented set of licensees. “So basically I want 1 or 2 per category as the ‘go to’ market strategy would be different for every category”, he added.

Talking about opening of on-ground stores, Bhowmik said, “At the moment we are not thinking of opening up our own stores but you never know how things go further down the line. Firstly at this point we would want create and build a strong base of the products and categories we have. Also if we see the ROI on stand-alone stores is very less. One can think of opening a stand-alone store only when you have the expertise of running a store from the long run”.

The new product range comprises Earphones; Headphones & Bluetooth enabled speakers priced between Rs. 899 and Rs. 3999. The range is available exclusively on www.cromaretail.com and across 40+ Croma stores for the first 60 Days. Apart from this, it is available at 300 + traditional retail outlets across the country.

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