Jeevansaathi upholds marriages arranged by suitors

Matrimonial site, Jeevansathi.com had recently launched a contest to attract potential users. The 'In Sawalon Se Mujhe Bachao' contest, held in Delhi, invited potential brides and grooms, as well as those who got married recently, to share some of the weird questions that they have come across while seeking potential partners. The best responses were promised attractive gifts.

The participants came up with interesting examples, such as, "Can you perform prayers in the morning and also have fun (dance) with my son?"; "Do you wear specs all day as well as while sleeping?"; "Humen ladki to professional/working chahiye, but tum dopahar ko aake khana to garam bana dogi na (We want a career woman, but could you also get back in the afternoon and cook lunch)?"; "Kharraate lete ho (Do you snore)?"; and "Nahaana pasand hai (Do you like having a bath)?".

These were just a few of the many annoying or embarrassing questions that potential brides or grooms have to face in the process of getting married, confirmed Delhiites who participated in the contest.

Jeevansathi.com is best remembered for its TV campaign featuring the father of a prospective bride chasing every boy he saw, to see if they were fit to marry his daughter.

A year later, it came up with yet another TVC that tried to address a major concern of people seeking to get married: privacy. This time, the portal is playing the embarrassment card.

She adds that all one needs to do is to log on to the site, chat with the person of his or her choice, arrange for face-to-face interactions, and thereby, know each other better. Subsequently, the relationship could be taken to the next level.

Through the new campaign, Jeevansathi.com positions itself as a site targeting potential brides and grooms, who can now escape the grilling sessions by the families involved, and arrange their own marriages by simply logging on to the website. Is the new positioning setting it apart from others in this category?

"All the players in this segment are online portals. Thus, while communicating, all of us focus on product features and showcase our ability to make the best of matches. The messaging part is almost similar for most of us, because the product is similar," Singh says.

However, she adds that Jeevansaathi.com is different in terms of media usage and target audience. "We use TV as a medium much more than any other player. When we use media other than the Web, we solely target customers in the North and West. I feel that Bharat Matrimony mostly targets the South; and Shaadi.com caters mostly to NRI candidates," explains Singh.

Although the current media spends of Jeevansathi.com could not be ascertained, it is learnt that there are two or three peak seasons a year, when the brand advertises the most (around the 'marriage season').

If, in any given quarter of the year, the brand has a TVC to run, 60-70 per cent of the ad budgets goes into television, 30-35 per cent is spent in the online space, and the rest goes for print and radio. Since the brand does not have any TVC in this quarter, 70 per cent of the budgets are going into online initiatives, and 30 per cent in radio and print.

Industry sources add that the matrimonial site has spent Rs 40-50 lakh solely on this radio activation programme.

The site has also tried in-cinema advertising in multiplexes, for movies such as My Name is Khan and 3 Idiots. It has advertised on about 75-80 screens across Delhi.

The first round of the radio contest broke during December 2009-January 2010 in Delhi and NCR. It was extended to the digital space as well, and ran for almost three weeks in January. Following the great response to the first round, a second session of the contest was held during February-March on Radio Mirchi, Fever FM and Radio City.

According to the executives of Jeevansathi, approximately 260 responses were received on radio during the second session of the contest, and more than 650 responses were received through the internet.