Glocalisation

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Everyone is telling me that when the "police", i.e. the Directors and Presidents of the company, come over to Mumbai, things will change for the better. They will make sure the India company follow the practise/culture/workflow/etc of the company.

So what if the channel doesn't have the look? So what if the executives in the U.S. can see the channel.

The reality is this. When a company enters a huge market, they have to localise to suit the tastes of the locals and not try to change the locals' tastes. This is going to happen whether we like it or not.

Coca-Cola had to come up with Thums Up because Indians didn't like Coke as much.

Subway has Chicken Seekh and Chicken Kali Mirch sandwiches.

Maggi has Dal Atta instant noodles.

McDonalds has McAloo Tikki burger (don't ask me what it is).

On the broadcast side, years ago when MTV first entered India, they too had to localise their programs before they managed to capture the India market.

Disney would be no different.

You can just use the Asian feed for the Singapore market because Singapore a small market. Having a dedicated feed for Singaporeans is not worthwhile. But India is too big a market to ignore. Using feeds from other countries may mean losing eyeballs to other local kids channels.

In the process, some compromise in branding would have to be made. No matter what the executives sitting in the US office say, the ones who know the market best would be the Indians in the India office.

Furthermore, the television business is ultimately a commercial business. The bottomline is always the priority. Without commercials, there won't be a channel. To keep advertisers happy, the channel would need high ratings. To have high ratings, the channel would need to cater to the locals' tastes.

I anticipate more local programs and promos on the channel especially since the creative team is moving back to India. We'll just see how the channel turns out and see whether they manage to retain the original branding of the company.