My Turf
Chennai is one of the most profitable city for OOH given the scale of the city. Question of being the 'right place' is the equation .i believe that how we frame our strategies is important rather than analysing the feasibility of market scale in India's third biggest city .
The are the factors by which chennai is very different .
1)Language
(i request you to read this factor in a pure business perspective ,not to involve in linguistic prejudice )
In every other city in India other than chennai, having an advertising content in Hindi is either helpful or just ignored. But in Tamil Nadu,hindi is hated , it is still unfathomable for other state people .Let me give you some statistics 48% of students in TN study in tamil medium and for most tamil is the second language .And there is a law that no other language can be thought to students till 8th standard (CBSE is given exception ,but only 0.3 % of students in TN and 3.8% students in Chennai study under CBSE).most people choose to study German or French rather than hindi. But there is also the hate factor, every state government history book and Tamil book will mark hindi as an enemy language. It is mainly because Tamil nadu is ruled by anti-Hindi parties from 1963 ,and the agitation dates back to a century ( please refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Hindi_agitations_of_Tamil_Nadu) and this agitation is fueled in the recent past by Sri Lankan genocide .
Thus by no means even a single letter of hindi should be used in logos, advertisement, posters or whatever forms of advertisement. People from other parts of india try to pose an glandular image but are actually creating a negative impact. When make your advertising easy for two, you’re actually losing 10 people .This is a ground reality everybody fail to address.
2)GETHOS
Every metropolitan city has ghettos , same as big as dharavi.there are ghettos/slums in the exclaves of the city navi mumbai or as in ahmedabad.But there is something very typical about the slums in chennai. they are systematically created opposed to natural formation or of geographical reasons.Chennai(or madras) is first city for British to build fort(St.george fort) and rule directly thus systematically they made all low level workers occupy the north side of the fort and the business people and high level worker in the south .In most of the cities a slum/ghetto will be adjacent to a normal or in coastal cities the ghettos lie near the shore .But not in chennai there is literally a border line between the two worlds.
This is very important for OOH but many don't understand it, a normal systematic analysis will not explain this .it will explain the consumption pattern and spending style in a group analysis data but not the understanding of the area .An uneducated landlord may earn 5 lakhs per month but will not buy an mac ,this is nowhere stereotyping (I’m actually from my north chennai ) this is a consumer pattern that is lying below the numbers .Given this understanding , our marketing strategy for chennai will be radically different .
3) Legal complexities
In chennai there is a very special ban for posters .In detail, it means we can’t use any posters in the prime roads of the city. (http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/civic-sense-writing-on-the-wall/article3449810.ece)
So MNC ,FMCG are turning towards indoor advertising but they are not reaching quite a success there.Thus the niche for outdoor branding exists and is increasing , hence the city is ready to move into digital outdoor marketing .there are many small OOH businesses in chennai but not any big to invest huge numbers .Malls and cinema screens are now used to advertise .But there are not at all organized ,the reason national player s fail in chennai in not understanding market sentiment .And local players are not able to gain monopoly of their limited capital and narrow concepts.
And advertisement laws in chennai is very complex and unless you have a legal adviser or legal consultant ,it is impossible to conduct large scale OOH in chennai , small fishes can’t afford this cost neither they tend to look around.
Chennai is the safest and most preferable place for tourism for expats and foreign tourist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Chennai#Tourists.27_arrival) but they are not well utilized by the market because of their limited understanding of the existing players .Many high-end brands are keen to sell to the tourist but are unable to find a player of that caliber ,with standardized business setting. Thus I believe even if this aspect is not to a big populous ,it can make big money ,given the nature of the brands in the game.
To add OOH advertisement in the sub-urban of chennai is of huge potential but not yet explored, many start-ups and MNCs are looking out for an organized business entity.
