The Millenial’s Match-Maker
It is said that marriages are made in heaven, but for Aditya Save, CMO, Shaadi.com, marriages are definitely made on his company’s website. With a new campaign titled ‘My conditions apply’, Shaadi.com has undergone a complete revamp, with an attempt to keep up with its evolving target audience Q] What was the insight behind the ‘My conditions apply’ campaign for Shaadi.com? The campaign is a culmination of a lot of efforts that the brand team has been investing in for some time. Every leader brand needs to revisit itself once in a while and look at the changing landscape, both of consumers and society, and portray itself in a way that will help the evolving consumer segment to continue to identify with it. That became our starting point. If you look at the younger set of consumers today, relationships fit into a phase of their life where they have other pursuits, like education, career and life planning. That was the germ of the thought behind ‘my conditions apply’. Q] Through this campaign, you are endearing yourself to the female population primarily. Are there plans for a similar campaign for men who also have inhibitions about arranged marriages? The thought is more about matchmaking and finding the right partner. I am aware that guys will also have conditions that they want to express before they choose to come onboard but I haven’t found anyone who said that he doesn’t identify with this ad. Yes, the visuals do comprise women but if you look at the core of it, these are very human conditions and very ‘me’ related thoughts. It doesn’t matter whether you are talking to a young person or old, a man or a woman – everyone pretty much resonates with this idea. Q] How has Shaadi.com’s marketing strategy evolved with time? The first phase for any brand is building awareness, letting people know that you exist. That is where the first few years get spent. For shaadi.com, because it was a digital platform started in the late 90s, getting people to understand that you can conduct a life partner search online took some effort. As time went on and people got comfortable with online as a medium, the devices changed with mobile becoming the lead medium. So it meant getting them to conduct the same search, with the same amount of attention and detailing but on a different medium, so that took some effort. Today, because choice-making has to exist among other pursuits, our focus has shifted to that. It is about acknowledging how a young person today is balancing the hunt for a life partner along with other aspects and preferences in her or his life. Q] Nowadays dating platforms also offer a similar ‘boy meets girl’ experience. How would you differentiate it from shaadi.com? If you look at the life of someone who is 20-years-old and then you follow them for the next 10 years, be it a man or woman, you will find that he will have gone through five-six different phases. From studies to finding a job to looking for someone who they like spending time with; I think it is within that casual exploratory phase where the dating apps work. Then there is a phase where you feel that you have a fairly keen intent to get into a relationship and want to meet people on a platform where the intent is the same as yours. Shaadi.com plays in the latter space. The dating apps suit a younger set and have a more casual approach. Q] Do youngsters prefer to be on dating platforms like Tinder and Woo as opposed to the more conformist shaadi.com? Have they eaten into your market? I don’t think the two work against each other in any way. They are not encroaching into our territory. If you are not ready for a committed relationship, it is not the right time for you to be on a matrimonial website. Luckily today youngsters have the opportunity to decide in what phase of life you want find a life partner, social pressures have eased up to an extent. If you are looking for someone and have not been able to find him/her in your social or professional circle then the online matrimonial platform is where you would go. You will go to a shaadi.com to look for people you can connect with. So in that sense the market is only growing, and I don’t see a concern there. Q] What is the marketing strategy of shaadi.com and the media mix? It is fairly simple – relevance and resonance. We want to be relevant to the people who are thinking of a committed relationship today and want to resonate with the kind of life they lead and the kind of challenges and pursuits they have. Our communication should mirror the audience we are trying to talk to. If you are looking at a busy young individual who wants to chase a career and search for a relationship then the media mix follows exactly that i.e. mass media and digital. We are a digital company so that medium is mainstay for us. Q] Your competitor, Bharat Matrimony is focussing on the mobile app, with the goal of keeping relatives from interfering. How big are plans for your app platform? We find a lot of usage on apps from youngsters and their parents; we also find a lot of desktop usage from both. If you are on the move and busy you tend to use the app more. If you have time and want to sit and sift through multiple profiles you will want a slightly bigger screen. Thus, the web interface also really works for us here. It is not a question of being able to keep out someone or include somebody using a device, anymore. That phase is really passé. Q] Tell us about shaadi.com as a platform for advertisers? Are you exploring the idea? We are here for a reason – we are an experience and connection platform. So advertising on shaadi.com is not something we have really considered. The experience of looking for someone special, the process itself, occupies all their mind space. We are not looking at diversions so far. All our revenue comes from subscription alone. You join for free and when you want to reach out to the other person you need to pay. Q] What are your marketing spends like and what kind of challenges do you face today? We are looking at marketing spends of 40-50 crore in a year. We want to expand the category and stay relevant to the audience that we are talking to. We want to be able to pick up on emerging trends and the concerns of our customers. I think most leader brands tend to face similar challenges in their own categories. ABOUT THE BRAND Shaadi.com was founded in the year 1996 and has pioneered online matrimonials by redefining the way Indians looked for their life partners. The brand has in the process touched over 35 million people. Amongst many other awards, Shaadi.com has been recognized as the Most Trusted Matrimonial site and is amongst the world’s 50 Most Innovative Companies and has also been recognized as the world’s most engaging brand on Facebook. FACTS CREATIVE AGENCY: JWT MEDIA AGENCY: MADISON SOCIAL & DIGITAL MEDIA MARKETING AGENCY: IN-HOUSE PR AGENCY: GENESIS BURSONMARSTELLER CMO FILE Aditya Save is the Senior Vice President of People Interactive and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Shaadi.com. Aditya has over 15 years of experience in developing and implementing strategies for consumeroriented businesses as a marketing practitioner. Prior to joining PeopleInteractive, Aditya was heading Marico’s Global Centre of Excellence for Digital and Media and his portfolio covered markets across Africa and Asia, each with their unique product and consumer mix. MARKETING TIP Consumer behaviour is the only truth. It is one thing for a consumer to say that she believes in something and quite another to actually on it. So focus only on the actions taken by consumers as a final metric for success Feedback: neeta.nair@exchange4media.com
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