Role of CRM in the Media Industry in India

The Indian media and entertainment industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the country. Its various segments— television, advertising, print media and radio among others—have witnesses tremendous growth in the last few years. The media and entertainment industry in India is likely to grow 12.5 per cent per annum over the next five years and touch US$ 20.09 billion by 2013. Viewership across various segments is likewise increasing and marketers are launching new channels to meet this growing demand. This plethora of options available to the corporate advertisers has resulted in increasing competition amongst media vehicles and this is when customer relationship takes the lead role to cut through competition

New media companies require ways to scale their support organizations to keep up with the pace of their innovations. Meanwhile, traditional media companies are urgently working to retain their valued customers. It has therefore become imperative for media companies to adopt new technologies and proven best practices to ensure maximum sales and productivity. The change from the profit orientation of a business to customer centric unit has lead to the surge of CRM inculcation in the modern business scenario and media has not been left far behind.

A CRM application helps media companies become more successful by better serving the needs of the target audiences and partners. A typical sales force automation solution will assist Media Companies in the following

• CRM offers senior management within the media company with accurate visibility into Sales Pipeline.

• It enables sales personnel to better manage the complex 2 way selling to customers and their agencies and facilitates brand based selling.

• The proposal module enables automatic generation of personalized proposals from a central rate card to eliminate errors and discrepancies.

• It helps in easy creation of proposal templates, discount masters and terms and conditions masters so that proposals can be generated at the touch of a button.

• It facilitates effective media agency management.

• It enables central management of complex rate cards with various options such as time bands, prime time

• Helps sales people to track and manage opportunities from start to final closure

• It enables effective sales activity management through a powerful calendar and activity management tool

• It helps the management to monitor performance and productivity of the sales team and set realistic sales targets

• It offers a centralized and complete view of the sales inventory which enables effective inventory management and helps sales teams to achieve targets.

• By maintaining client and agency personal information it helps the media house provide personalized service for increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

CRM seems a perfect fit for media industry. Today companies in the media industry realize that they can use a CRM approach to strengthen their relationships with subscribers, advertisers and business partners and be an edge above there competition.