Her first name is misleading, especially when you realise that shes been brought up in small town and is dedicating her professional life to making radio effective and feasible in small towns and places you havent heard of yet.

Monica Nayyar Patnaik is director of Radio Choklate 104 FM 'Odishas apna No.1' Orissas first private FM channel in Bhubaneswar (and soon in Rourkela). She describes herself as a workaholic, likes to holiday, dance and play golf whenever time permits. She used to conduct soft-skill training sessions but that has taken a backseat. A hobby she actively enjoys is the discussion group of like-minded people in Bhubaneswar. An interaction with her tells agencyfaqs! that it will be a while before she picks up that golf stick.


Q. Where were you born and brought up? How do you identify and relate to life in a small town?
A. I can identify with these places completely. I was born in New Delhi but spent my early 10 years in Kota, a small town, after which I came back to the capital city and studied in Delhi Public School, R K Puram, did my post-graduation in Molecular Biology and also post graduation in International and Domestic Marketing from Fore school of Management and later worked at Dabur as a Product Manager. I am now settled for the past 8 years in Bhubaneswar, a small town again, after getting married to an Oriya.

Q. Whats with the name, Choklate?
A. We wanted a name that would be immediately identified with Oriya people and yet had a universal appeal. And chocolates that have, invariably, been a part of every Oriyas life extending cheers to everyday liveliness, pronounced as Choklate was such a word. Also in Orissa, this is one word which is recognized by a 7 year old as well as a 70 year old. Anything sweet - be it candy, toffee, bar - all are referred to as a choklate here. Our punch line Dhum Mitha symbolises the sweetness of relationship with our listeners. This signifies a strong, lovable, engaging association with listeners.

Q. What are the advantages and disadvantages you have over pan-India networks?
A. Our parent company, Eastern Media Ltd, bid only for Orissa licenses as we consider it our strength. For instance, in this one state itself, we have eight editions of Sambad (Largest circulated, most widely read (Source no.1 ABC, NRS, IRS) Oriya daily). Apart from that, we are also looking at television, movies, events and outdoors.

As far as Orissa is concerned, we are the only local players to win licenses, which automatically makes us be referred to as an apna No.1 radio station symbolizing an own-ness.

Of course, that being an advantage, we cannot neglect other investments in the business. We have 4000 square feet set-up including the studio and we need to leave no stone unturned to match expectations (of listeners) that national players might raise. (Reported investment into the venture is about Rs six to seven crore.)

Q. What is the radio and media consumption there like?
A. TV is comparatively low. There are about one or two regional local networks. Newspapers are the best bet. AIR popular in some towns will now be listening to the new Choklate. That would be competition for us.

Q. ...and lifestyle? There must a drastic difference from towns?
A. Yes, of course! We did a lot of research, especially in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Rourkela. We discovered that Rourkela prefers more of Hindi than Oriya music.

The number of 4-wheelers and 2-wheelers is an indication on commuting time, which translate into drive-time for us. Theres hardly any! You can go from one end of the town to the other in 15 minutes. Although with traffic nowadays, it can take up to 25 minutes.

Shops are closed from 2 pm to 4 pm. There is high preference for devotional music and its working for us. Taking these observations and other insights in mind, we designed the day-parts. Our competition has imitated it hour-to-hour and we take it as a reassurance.

Q. So then, how do you design your segmentation, programming and elements of marketing?
A. We know Oriya best. Our local team is well-versed with what will work and connect. For instance, Sabitri (a fast for the husband) is quite a festival. We had Choklate Jockeys performing a one-hour music drama that went on-air.

Then just like how people if cities spend a Sunday in a mall or go watch movies, people here prefer going to orchestras. These are live bands playing songs in open places or pandals. Hence, we started Radio Orchestra 104 a 3-hour show on Sundays that brings an orchestra live to peoples homes and they dont even need to go anywhere to get their favourite Sunday pastime. We plan to have a listener-poll for orchestras soon and whats even possible is Orchestra as an event that enables us to have an off-line presence.

The idea is to make people relate to what youre playing and create potential for interactivity, to leverage on mera naam aayega if I request mentality. We encourage this as it allows people to come out and express themselves. We even interviewed the citys topper of exams!

Then of course, you have to be traditional, yet grow them to a certain level. We tested for full Hindi music but also became the first to play Oriya and now have a 50:50 ratio. We are the only ones to have exclusive song rights with the four top Oriya music companies, because people want to listen to it! Its now 60:40 in favour of Oriya music.

Oriya movies also have a craze so we have talk shows on Ollywood. (Yes, thats Orissas version of Hollywood.)

Q. What do local advertisers want, which is different from what pan-India advertisers are looking for? What 'value' do they seek? Are they equally or more demanding?
A. For local clients, we are customising bulk rate packages and also giving them long-term associations at a cost that they can afford. It has not been so difficult for us to sell our channel here, thanks to the listenership Radio Choklate has already earned. For national clients, we sell Orissa to complete their plan. The coverage in neighbouring towns also helps the clients for a better reach for their products.

For both our clients we offer value additions in various ways, sometimes also with our print media.

Q. Are you affected by the measurement issues being haggled over by bigger players?
A. I do feel that the issue is being dealt with in haste and were pushing it too fast. It may be misleading and I would still doubt whether advertisers will get their moneys worth.

As far as we are concerned, we will appoint an MR agency to measure our performance.

Q. What are the difficulties one faces in starting a station in a small town? Has your experience made you richer in learnings that you would like to share?
A. There are difficulties but not only in programming. There always is a regional concern. Ironically, Maharashtra listens to more of Hindi than Marathi. Getting the right language mix and RJ-profile (and language) mix will be question marks.

Understanding the psyche of people is a challenge. You cant blindly implement whats happening in big towns. We have learnt the differences in advertising and other support-systems the hard way. The studio is not something make-shift you need to pay attention right form the beginning.

Small towns are about the original stuff the local flavours, the local touch. John Abraham may not work here!

© 2007 agencyfaqs!