Anant's blog: When being number two is a virtue

This morning, I read that The Times of India’s dotcom was the #1 newspaper site in the world. Thankfully, I haven’t come across any other newspaper making a similar claim.

During the last few months, I’ve read that CNBC and NDTV Profit and UTVi and ET Now were leaders.

Similarly, CNN IBN, NDTV 24X7 and Times Now are all number ones.

It’s come to a point when I don’t care who the number one is according to the numbers.

One would think that, in this industry, a media product and an advertising agency could, together, come up with leadership messages and differentiators that go beyond data that is sliced and diced and cooked.

I would think that the consumer in general is with me on this, confused, tired and fatigued.

There was a time when I sold airtime on the STAR Network and on Sony and we had what was called (I think it is still called) a Standards and Practices department. Their job was to ensure that all TVCs aired complied with the broadcast laws and codes of the land the channels were uplinking from and were being downlinked into.

So all salesmen first did their own check on the storyboards. The first thing one looked for was ‘claims’.

You could not, for example, say that your product was a #1 UNLESS it was ratified by an independent body.

You could not, for example, claim that your product made your skin fairer in 10 days UNLESS the claim was ratified, again, by an independent body.

The S&P rules made life simpler for the consumer. There was no chance, thanks to the rules, that two products in the same category in the same market could make identical claims.

Wish life were as simple when it comes to media products that we see today.

I’ve been thinking hard about this. Want a simple differentiator?

Say you’re the #2. Number two news channel, newspaper, news magazine, whatever. That will get you noticed.