Team MindIt

Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai

Trend chosen- The Small Town Indian rises

Team Members
Malhar D Lakdawala (malhar.pgdm15c@greatlakes.edu.in)
Harsh Agarwal (harsha.pgdm15c@greatlakes.edu.in)
Siddharth Mehta (siddharth.pgdm15c@greatlakes.edu.in)

Contact Details
+91 9176059722
+91 9769494336
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The Small Town Indian rises
Rural proliferation of Dish TV
Company

High disposable Income had facilitated them to buy television sets but services of cable TV were unsatisfactory. Since
the launch of Dish TV, the whole gambit of viewership has changed. Moreover, Dish TV targeted cable dry/dark areas.

Current market shares of various players are as follows :-
Dish TV : 30%
Sun Direct: 25%
Tata Sky: 22%
BIG TV : 13%
Airtel : 8%
D2H : 2%

The growth in the rural segment can be attributed to frequent power cuts in the rural areas. DTH platform gives the rural consumer access
to their favorite programs, with the help of generator/ invertors, which is not possible with the cable service in most of the areas.

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Quick Statistics

Digital TV penetration is 34 per cent in rural areas and 11.9 per cent in urban India.
Indian rural market generates about 50% of the countrys GDP. Small towns comprises around 840 million people.

According to data from National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO), rural consumption per person increased annually at 19% in the period
20092012. The following figures reflect rural Indias significance to the countrys economy:
I n incremental terms, spending in rural I ndia during the period 20092012 rose by US$ 69 billion to urban Indias US$ 55 billion.

Defying logic, 70% of DTH connections in India are from rural and small towns (population under a million), as per a report by a marketing
research firm (Francis Kanoi)
Dish TV and DDs Direct Plus DTH service are the market leaders in Rural India, while Tata Sky, Dish TV and Sun Direct DTH services are the
preferred brands in top metros.
Out of 13.2 million DTH subscribers, over seven million DTH subscribers are from rural markets alone.


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So, what explains the magic of DTH? Obviously, the key is its high-quality signal, especially for those consumers who were used to analog TV.
Also, it has provided customers the choice to see what they want rather than being at the mercy of the cable operator.
In India, DTH services are about customer service, viewing quality and value added services.
Spending patterns show a significant divergence across rural and urban India. While the mean household income of urban India declined 3%, it
increased 6% in rural India. Monthly ARPU in urban India fell ~15%, but showed a small increase in small towns.


DISH TVs are best as compared to city cable networks; because, it is easiest method to recharge through our mobiles/internet; easy to choose
channels as per our choice and change the package also; there is very less maintenance and fast service.

Brick N Click methodology-
Advertisement in various languages
Various outdoor activities such as wall
paintings, hoardings & bus shelters in the
promotion month.
Launched song as an anthem (SRK still
rules in small towns)
Launched dishsawarhai.com
Dish TV has a vast distribution of dealers
& customer service across 6600 towns
Repackaging content as rural customers opt
for Hindi content over English
Customer care services.
Customized services and packages as per
customer requirements.


No extra charge
Less time
No transportation cost
The upper rural SEC were the early adopters

Simplicity in Use
Good Mix of regional languages
Native Language would be preferable
Differentiating itself from time to time
through its positioning and wide
distribution.
Made website more user friendly

Acceptability Affordability
Awareness
Availability
The 4A framework as adopted by Dish TV
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Inter firm rivalry
VERY HIGH
Price Wars
Non Price Wars
Threats of New Entrants
HIGH
DTH market is having only 7
operators
Bargaining Power of Buyer
HIGH
Range of Options
Price Sensitive Buyers
Threats of Substitutes
VERY HIGH
Cable TV High
IPTV Medium
Terrestrial - Low
Bargaining Power of
Suppliers
VERY HIGH
Transponder Very Low
Content Very High
CPE Low

Crucial determinants in
the DTH Industry & Dish
TV


Product

Multilingual GUI: The GUI of the Set Top Box software was
redesigned in multilingual form.

Regional Channel Offerings: To target rural audience, focus was on
promoting regional channel offering

Customized services and packages as per customer requirements.


Price

Subsidy on the hardware: Bundle Pricing of Set Top Box + Subscription

Free subscription for initial months: By giving initial few months free,
DishTV bounded consumer to the product

Focus on Prepaid Recharges: DishTV focussed on recharges through
prepaid cards

Place
More Sales and Service Centres: DishTV increased no. of Sales
and Service stores to 1,00,000 centres

Missed Call Service: Customers gave missed call to reach to
DishTV customer care

Recharge Through IMPS: To facilitate small retailers to have
agency, recharge through IMPS was implemented

Promotion
Sales Promotion in Melas: DishTV promoted the event in rural melas

Brand Ambassador: Shahrukh Khan (As SRK cuts across all age groups
and demographics and appeals to a universal audience)

Tagline Changed
Demo Vans: The Demo Vans educated the mass about DTH Service, and it
became a tool for promotion
Festival Promotional Offers: like Diwali Double Dhamaka, World cup
offer


4P Strategy of DishTV to
target Rural Market
- Growth for the digital
segment in rural areas
were 34%, 49% and 64% in
the past three years.
- 45mn customer base for
Dish TV as on 2013 out of
which 14.85mn customers
are from rural India.
- So, starting from 0 in
2004, it has now reached
14.85mn in 2013.
Marketing strategy & its impact
The strategy was to not concentrate on metros and large cities, where cable reigned supreme, and instead go to remote areas
and rural markets where laying cable was not viable and consumers were starved for good content. It entered the market with
limited programming: essentially the Zee bouquet and a few other channels.








By 2008-09 Tata Sky, Airtel and Reliance Big TV were aggressively building their brand and increasing the market share. Dish TV
then empanelled Nielsen to conduct a research on the factors for considering a particular DTH brand and also the reason for
considering Dish TV. They found out that consumers wanted more number of channels that satisfied their need for more is better
when it comes to entertainment. The tagline: Sabse Zyada Entertainment took form, which emphasized the facets of quality,
service, value and reach.
Then they launched a Rs 100 Happy Home Pack, which was customized to offer entertainment in all genres such as general
entertainment, sports, business, news, movies and cinema. The move witnessed 100% growth in sales, attracting 15,000
subscribers a day. Cashing in on the festive season, Dish TV added 3.4 lakh subscribers to its base. It left no stone unturned
even during the economic slowdown and identified opportunities in the rural markets where the impact was minimal.




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The first phase of communication
focused on raising awareness
about DTH services amongst the
target audience. With this idea of
tapping the potential in cable-dry
rural areas before going national,
Dish launched a campaign Dish
Har Chhat Par in 11 languages.
By 2006-07, Dish TV had added
Star and Sony to its bouquet to
take the number of channels to
155. It adopted the tagline
Bring Home Your Passion to
motivate the consumer
rationally as well as emotionally
to buy Dish TV
The company then
focused on empowering
the consumers by giving
them the control of what
they wanted with the new
tagline: Future of TV
entertainment.
Ill help you Recharge campaign on Facebook Enter your
subscription number and details, we will help you understand about the
application of it through our professionals.

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Campaign - Amma let me
recharge for you DTH Recharge
Attractive gift vouchers Do a
recharge and get a free voucher to
Mobile recharge , DTH recharge,
Data card recharge

Personnel to
Prospective

To ensure awareness first. Do some give way campaigns.
Promotions as suggested in the previous slides.

Then announce a Dish TV festival which will have ecents
like
Movie Screening
Lucky Draw
Meals/Snacks
Comedy & Poetry shows
Meditation or health sessions for the elderly.

This will only be for those who have a Dish TV installed at
their homes. Thereby ensuring people buying it to enjoy
this benefit. The festival as such wont also cost us a lot.
It can also be spread across villages.
The way forward
Dish TV is buoyant about its one-upmanship in the DTH category.
Now that Dish TV is out with a brand new communication strategy to pull in more consumers, the challenge is to stay relevant to its audience
amid the clutter created by new entrants. The growth strategy has to be largely customer centric.
The brand has increased its distribution with live transmission in buses and trains. It has also made its headway in ships and yards. Vying for a
bigger market share, Dish TV has tied up with yatra.com for applications like Travel Active; monster.com for Monster Jobs Active; and
shaadi.com for Shaadi Active Matrimonial.
It has introduced an interactive banking service with ICICI Bank and tied up with Caf Coffee Day and Kingfisher for cross-promotions. Since
the brand has a wide distribution network and deep penetration in Tier II and Tier III markets, it feels the alliance would bridge the unmet
need of an audience whose access to the internet is limited.
Yet, there are some major challenges which DTH has to combat. Its acquisition cost of a subscriber is more than double of that of digital cable,
as it has to subsidize each set-top box by Rs 3,000 to Rs 3,500. The depreciation of the rupee has made it worse because most set-top boxes are
imported. DTH players recently passed on some of the costs to subscribers, but they cannot do so indefinitely when they are looking at deeper
penetration in the market. As a result, the bottom-line of most of them is under pressure and companies like Dish TV and Airtel's DTH business
are in the red.

WHAT TO DO
Online portals are also expected to be instrumental for companies trying to access rural markets, in the near future.
Gives demos at Mandis after crop season because farmers are cash rich & able to commit.

The other concern is the tax burden on operators which is squeezing profitability. As much as 33 per cent of their top-line goes to pay the
government: 10 per cent as revenue share and another 23 per cent as service and entertainment tax (on an average; it varies from state to state).
The DTH industry has been lobbying hard against it.
Companies entering rural emerging markets with new brands can also gain consumer trust by piggybacking on the trust that they place in local
non-profit organizations and local citizens. ITC, for example, chose to piggyback on the reputation of prominent farmers when it started its e-
Choupal initiative to extend its distribution channel deep into rural communities in India.


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