Do you think the brand revamp that Star Plus has gone in for will be successful?

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Sandeepkumar A, Welingkar,Bengaluru

Satellite Television Asia Region popularly known as STAR is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. In the year 1992, the then government of India opened up cable television to private players. Star Networks leveraged the situation to its best benefit. Star Plus (then Star TV) was dominant in the general entertain-ment segment in multiple slots for the next 10 years.

There are lot of reasons for a company to go in for brand revamp, in our case with the new tag line “Rishtawahi, SochNayi” it appears that the channel wants to keep its target audience intact and target them with new age, refreshing content. The challenge for STAR Plus is to stand out in the heavily crowed entertainment clutter. After “Kaun Banega Crorepati” sequence, the content pipe line has literally dried up in comparison to other general entertainment channels.

The brand revamp exercise saw STAR Plus spending around INR 200 million. It has created fantastic awareness among the target audience, but how much of it will translate into interest is a wait and watch proposition.

Not leaving any stone unturned, the channel is in the process of launching series of new programs, some in the prime time, a critical slot it lost to Colors few months back only to regain it later.

Analyzing and anticipating the competition from 200 odd new age general entertainment channels is a sensible strategy it has adopted. Brand revamp has provided the channel with a broader visibility. With solid content and other activities around the brand (STAR TV), it will help it fly through the turbulence safely for few more miles.

Counterview

Bhavesh Kothari, Welingkar,Mumbai

Once upon a time there was a storyteller, whose stories became a hit among the women of every household, women who had grown up listening to grandmother tales. These women started to find themselves in the characters of the storyteller, as the modestsister, or son-forsaken mother--in laws.These stories were identifiable, like they were scenes picked out from their very lives!

This storyteller, none other than Star Plus, had ruled the Indian GEC segment for 7 years in a row but Colors, whose shows weren’t merely household stories, were so different & contemporary that in 2 years, it displaced Star from the no.1 position!

That was the time when Star started to think seriously about its positioning. After a yearlong research, they decided to revamp the brand with a new look, new logo, new tagline and even new shows. On June 14th, 2010, their 10th anniversary, Star Plus unveiled its new red colour looks and the new tagline “Rishtawahi, SochNayi”, clearly signifying that it will follow the path of Colors. But they couldn’t back this ‘new thinking’ promise with its shows. The channel could manage to get only 443 TRPs in the following week, just slightly more than its previous rating.

Channel revamping has seen a varied degree of success in the Indian television scenario; SAB TV revamped itself to success with its light hearted soaps; Sony tried but failed last year. So far, the Star Plus revamping has not brought enough points to its TRP kitty, but it will be interesting to see if the Indian women accept the old storyteller in the new look!