First mover advantage- make sure you wrestle the advantage:

Al Ries and Jack trout in their book “Positioning” said that “it is better to be first than it is to be better”. The book gives the examples of IBM being first in mainframe computes, Kodak first in photos, Ford in cars among a lot of other great examples. This concept talks about the first-mover advantage and how advantageous it is. We will look at this concept from Indian point of view specifically related to the television content since the advent of satellite channels.

Can you name the first General entertainment channels in India? Zee TV. Although star plus, Sony TV and the latest Colors have made inroads in GECs, it was Zee which started the entertainment revolution through shows such as Tara, Banegi apni baat, zee horror show etc. Zee TV is still among the top 3 is not the topper. Star plus was an English channel showing programs such as Bold and Beautiful, Baywatch. The converted star plus to a Hindi channel and started a new channel called star world for such English programs. This is an example of starting a ‘new category’ which will be covered in another literature part.

Can you name the first saas-bahu show which catapulted star plus into the limelight and helped it overtake Zee TV? Kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi (KSBKBT). It, along with ‘Kahaani ghar ghar kii’ and ‘Kasauti zindagi kii’, spawned a new genre of shows and there was a rush of “me-too” shows on other channels too. Some of them were successful and some weren’t. These three shows continued to rule the roost for the next 8-10 years with hundreds of episodes. Did some one say first mover advantage..

Can you name the first reality show on Indian television? Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC). It not only extended the lead which star plus had over other channels but also took them miles ahead of competition. Is there any other reality show which could create that magic and the Television rating points (TRPs). Hardly any. ‘Sawaal ek crore ka’ and ‘jeto chappar padh ke’ on Zee TV and Sony failed miserably. Even Shah Rukh Khan as host of KBC couldn’t bring the TRPs. ‘Dus ka Dum’ and ‘Kya aap panchvi pass hai’ were successful but not as much. Did anyone say first mover….

Which was the first laughter show? Laughter Club on Star one. The ‘me-too’ products such as ‘comedy circus’, ‘hans baliye’, ‘chote ustad’ and others haven’t been as famous as laughter club.

Which was the first sports channel? Star sports. New sports channels such as Ten sports, SET MAX, DD Sports, Zee sports haven’t been as successful. People remember Harsha Bhogle from star sports only and too a certain extent, the noodle straps by Mandira Bedi on SET MAX.

Which was the first cartoon channel? Cartoon Network. Hungama, Nickelodeon, Jetix, Disney channel also were launched but ask any child and the first name he would say is ‘Cartoon network’. Although ‘Shin Chan’ is famous, for children, cartoon means only Cartoon Network. First mover advantage isn’t it…

Third goes to show that the concept of first mover still holds true and will continue to do so since people often remember the first new thing that they see or feel. First impression shouldn’t be the last impression but unfortunately it becomes the first impression, although unintentionally. Thus it is better to be first than it is to be better.