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Tata Sky wants to shed its premium tag and has
launched a new television campaign to drive home
the point. Tata Sky, the second-largest private DTH player in
the country, never baulked at charging customers a
premium for value additions. Its listed rival with the
highest subscriptions, Dish TV, waged a price war
with lowest packages — even free subscriptions —
a few years back that quickly got replicated by other players. But Tata Sky refrained from joining
the war and even charged viewers for its interactive
suite when others provided theirs for free. Yet, its latest campaign launched a few weeks back
talks about sub-Rs 200 schemes, be they channel
packs, a second home connection or free
subscriptions. Tata Sky insists this is not about a
shift in its strategy; but the television commercials
tell their own story. The ads feature two guys who urge the viewers to
enquire about Tata Sky, even if it is to find out if it
has low-priced products and services. With the twin
taglines of “Poochhne mein kya jaata hai” and
“Poochh dala to life jhingalala”, the three TV ads
follow the two blokes’ fate after they ask outrageous questions in different situations.
Contrary to expectations, they find their requests
are not only entertained but actually granted. As a
result, they muster the courage to visit a Tata Sky
dealer to know more about low-priced Tata Sky
offerings. In the ad depicting a military parade, one of the two
gets away with asking for a lift to his hotel from a
surly officer on a tank, even as his friend, who had
refused to help, looks on. The ad moves on to the
pair’s discovery of Tata Sky’s offer of a monthly Rs
160 for a second Tata Sky connection. The second ad is about the duo negotiating with
menacing guard dogs to gain access to Tom
Cruise’s mansion for his autograph. They get their
way, thanks to their persuasion skills. The ad
highlights the State Pack launched six months
back, priced at Rs 185. The third ad, modelled on a sequence in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight,
has one of them asking automatic rifle-toting
robbers in a bank heist for change for Rs 500 and
ending up with an extra Rs 100 note. At the end of
it, they find out about Tata Sky’s offer of two to 12
months’ free subscription on combo offers. Shifting stand Tata Sky Chief Marketing Officer Vikram Mehra says,
“The price ranges which we talk about in the
campaign have been there since launch. Our
lowest-cost pack was in the league of mass market
packs and comparable to any other DTH player,
including those who play the lowest-ticket card. However, ours would not be the cheapest but the
most valuable in a given price range. We had to
educate the customer about this.” Note the shift here: In earlier interactions with the
media, Tata Sky had stressed on the fact that it
wanted to focus on consumers who were willing to
pay a small premium for more value. That might
have ended up giving Tata Sky the tag of being a
premium product, revealed an internal study. Mehra explains, “The fortnightly brand track that
we conduct to find out the most recalled brand
threw up a consumer perception that we were the
most preferred but were seen as expensive and
hence, unaffordable.” Not just the message, Tata Sky has also deviated
from casting its brand ambassador since inception,
Aamir Khan. The company and the agency say the
creative required actors who could portray
simpletons asking irreverent questions to drive
home the humour. Abhijit Avasthi, executive creative director at Ogilvy
& Mather, who oversaw the campaign, says, “Aamir
Khan had already made the brand look desirable
and premium. But we realised we were also
carrying the baggage of being unaffordable. We
decided that this was a good time to focus on the value proposition.” The insight was to play on the
regret that people might have when they realise
that if they had made some enquiries before
making a purchase, they would have landed a
much better deal. Yes, as in other markets in India, deals matter in
DTH. In the midst of the price war last year, Tata Sky
was overtaken by Sun Direct, which raked in a low
average revenue per user (ARPU) of Rs 99. The
lowest-price card didn’t see players through for
long. Tata Sky is back being the second largest. To top its strength in customer service, it has lined up a
host of services such as minimal relocation charges
(Rs 125-250) when shifting one’s home, a six-
month protection to all new customers and also Rs
15 money-back for those topping up with Rs 301
or more every month. Challenges abound Tata Sky’s ploy to look more affordable will have to
gel with its reputation of best-in-class customer
service. Its resistance to play the price card has held
it in good stead given the dynamics of the DTH
market. The set-top boxes, imported so far, are
sold at a discount, with the result the operator takes a loss every time it signs up a new customer;
the ARPUs are low in India ($3 compared to $25 in
Malaysia and $70-90 in the US and the UK), slowing
down break even. Sustainability will be driven by
the renewal rate of each platform’s customers.
Rather than the total subscribers a player has, which is widely reported, what matters is how
many renew their account regularly. Industry sources say while Dish TV claims to have
the largest number of subscribers at 11 million,
around 5.8 million of those renew their accounts
regularly. At 7.5 million subscribers, Tata Sky has a
better rate of renewal at 5 million while Airtel Digital
TV too enjoys close to 5 million renewals from a reported subscriber base of 6.2 million. Videocon
d2h, the last player to enter the market, has clocked
4 million subscribers so far, but 1.8 million of them
are active, according to market estimates. A
customer seeking the cheapest product is a
dangerous one to acquire because she will move out the moment she sees a lower priced offering
from another provider, Mehra points out. Vivek Couto, founder of Media Partners Asia, a
Hong Kong-based media research agency that
tracks the DTH industry in India, reckons that any
operator has to acquire 5 to 6 million subscribers,
who should each pay Rs 300 a month, to break
even. For now, observers point out, no DTH player enjoys as much. Dish TV is the only player to have
broken even, capitalising on its head-start. Tata Sky
ranks higher than most with ARPU of Rs 230-250,
while Dish TV is at Rs 150, Airtel at Rs 180,
Videocon d2h at Rs 170 and Sun Direct at Rs 60-80. To address the additional queries the campaign is
bound to generate, Tata Sky is running training
programmes for its support staff, including those at
the call centres. Retaining those who come on
board, as a result, would be left to its servicing
prowess and the value additions.
Sorce-business standard
launched a new television campaign to drive home
the point. Tata Sky, the second-largest private DTH player in
the country, never baulked at charging customers a
premium for value additions. Its listed rival with the
highest subscriptions, Dish TV, waged a price war
with lowest packages — even free subscriptions —
a few years back that quickly got replicated by other players. But Tata Sky refrained from joining
the war and even charged viewers for its interactive
suite when others provided theirs for free. Yet, its latest campaign launched a few weeks back
talks about sub-Rs 200 schemes, be they channel
packs, a second home connection or free
subscriptions. Tata Sky insists this is not about a
shift in its strategy; but the television commercials
tell their own story. The ads feature two guys who urge the viewers to
enquire about Tata Sky, even if it is to find out if it
has low-priced products and services. With the twin
taglines of “Poochhne mein kya jaata hai” and
“Poochh dala to life jhingalala”, the three TV ads
follow the two blokes’ fate after they ask outrageous questions in different situations.
Contrary to expectations, they find their requests
are not only entertained but actually granted. As a
result, they muster the courage to visit a Tata Sky
dealer to know more about low-priced Tata Sky
offerings. In the ad depicting a military parade, one of the two
gets away with asking for a lift to his hotel from a
surly officer on a tank, even as his friend, who had
refused to help, looks on. The ad moves on to the
pair’s discovery of Tata Sky’s offer of a monthly Rs
160 for a second Tata Sky connection. The second ad is about the duo negotiating with
menacing guard dogs to gain access to Tom
Cruise’s mansion for his autograph. They get their
way, thanks to their persuasion skills. The ad
highlights the State Pack launched six months
back, priced at Rs 185. The third ad, modelled on a sequence in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight,
has one of them asking automatic rifle-toting
robbers in a bank heist for change for Rs 500 and
ending up with an extra Rs 100 note. At the end of
it, they find out about Tata Sky’s offer of two to 12
months’ free subscription on combo offers. Shifting stand Tata Sky Chief Marketing Officer Vikram Mehra says,
“The price ranges which we talk about in the
campaign have been there since launch. Our
lowest-cost pack was in the league of mass market
packs and comparable to any other DTH player,
including those who play the lowest-ticket card. However, ours would not be the cheapest but the
most valuable in a given price range. We had to
educate the customer about this.” Note the shift here: In earlier interactions with the
media, Tata Sky had stressed on the fact that it
wanted to focus on consumers who were willing to
pay a small premium for more value. That might
have ended up giving Tata Sky the tag of being a
premium product, revealed an internal study. Mehra explains, “The fortnightly brand track that
we conduct to find out the most recalled brand
threw up a consumer perception that we were the
most preferred but were seen as expensive and
hence, unaffordable.” Not just the message, Tata Sky has also deviated
from casting its brand ambassador since inception,
Aamir Khan. The company and the agency say the
creative required actors who could portray
simpletons asking irreverent questions to drive
home the humour. Abhijit Avasthi, executive creative director at Ogilvy
& Mather, who oversaw the campaign, says, “Aamir
Khan had already made the brand look desirable
and premium. But we realised we were also
carrying the baggage of being unaffordable. We
decided that this was a good time to focus on the value proposition.” The insight was to play on the
regret that people might have when they realise
that if they had made some enquiries before
making a purchase, they would have landed a
much better deal. Yes, as in other markets in India, deals matter in
DTH. In the midst of the price war last year, Tata Sky
was overtaken by Sun Direct, which raked in a low
average revenue per user (ARPU) of Rs 99. The
lowest-price card didn’t see players through for
long. Tata Sky is back being the second largest. To top its strength in customer service, it has lined up a
host of services such as minimal relocation charges
(Rs 125-250) when shifting one’s home, a six-
month protection to all new customers and also Rs
15 money-back for those topping up with Rs 301
or more every month. Challenges abound Tata Sky’s ploy to look more affordable will have to
gel with its reputation of best-in-class customer
service. Its resistance to play the price card has held
it in good stead given the dynamics of the DTH
market. The set-top boxes, imported so far, are
sold at a discount, with the result the operator takes a loss every time it signs up a new customer;
the ARPUs are low in India ($3 compared to $25 in
Malaysia and $70-90 in the US and the UK), slowing
down break even. Sustainability will be driven by
the renewal rate of each platform’s customers.
Rather than the total subscribers a player has, which is widely reported, what matters is how
many renew their account regularly. Industry sources say while Dish TV claims to have
the largest number of subscribers at 11 million,
around 5.8 million of those renew their accounts
regularly. At 7.5 million subscribers, Tata Sky has a
better rate of renewal at 5 million while Airtel Digital
TV too enjoys close to 5 million renewals from a reported subscriber base of 6.2 million. Videocon
d2h, the last player to enter the market, has clocked
4 million subscribers so far, but 1.8 million of them
are active, according to market estimates. A
customer seeking the cheapest product is a
dangerous one to acquire because she will move out the moment she sees a lower priced offering
from another provider, Mehra points out. Vivek Couto, founder of Media Partners Asia, a
Hong Kong-based media research agency that
tracks the DTH industry in India, reckons that any
operator has to acquire 5 to 6 million subscribers,
who should each pay Rs 300 a month, to break
even. For now, observers point out, no DTH player enjoys as much. Dish TV is the only player to have
broken even, capitalising on its head-start. Tata Sky
ranks higher than most with ARPU of Rs 230-250,
while Dish TV is at Rs 150, Airtel at Rs 180,
Videocon d2h at Rs 170 and Sun Direct at Rs 60-80. To address the additional queries the campaign is
bound to generate, Tata Sky is running training
programmes for its support staff, including those at
the call centres. Retaining those who come on
board, as a result, would be left to its servicing
prowess and the value additions.
Sorce-business standard
