NPD lessons from Bollywood
India has produces world’s largest number of movie productions in any calendar year. India is the only country which celebrates new year’s of more than 11 different communities. While, 1st movie to enter Oscar nomination was “Mother India”
Bollywood movies are visual retreat and movies were done at every possible romantic flick in pre industrialization era, the industrialization of bollywood had turned each movie production as New Product Development (NPD) exercise from script to detailed location and frame by frame screen play.
The evolutionary change in audience expectation is addressed by bollywood in true democratic sense, now it is critical for movies to capture audience imagination within short period “every romantic flick is not a success formula”!
Industrialisation of bollywood provided benefits like movies on biopic of a sport person, new comers creating blockbusters, small movies make a good business. This transition brought shift in the perception of the business. Gone are the days when movies were assessed based on number of weeks it sustained – 52 week, 25 weeks, Silver jubilee, Golden jubilee. Today it all boils down to the business a movie does – which movie entered the 100 crore club is all that it matters. With entry of multiplexes, mobile aps and social networking movie making is an NPD than an craftsmanship. The audience is now well informed before making a choice to view the movie, they are informed on the script writer, director and other credentials based on which they decide to invest time and money.
India’s best NPD mission “MOM”, Mr.Arunan the architect of this mission is known to millions of Indians due to 24/7 media and emergence of social networking.
Major similarities of movie making with NPD
Script (cad and cae): Bollywood have moved away from melodrama scripts to inspirational, motivational scripts. Any NPD requires exhaustive research on concepts and specialization in each segment. Organizations define their scope with technology in mind than vice versa. Earlier it used to be design based cae now its CAE based cad.
The entry of price point based products wherein companies no longer accept isolated CAD/CAM/CAE products since technology plays important role in keeping the product in market. It is similar to how the scripts are written keeping an actor in mind and actors who also train themselves to fit into the role.
The NPD on mobiles and smart phones which results in a new mobile entering the market week on week is more or less like tv soap which come with twist and turns in every episode. NPD across categories making the product which are cae based cad; the material to make the product takes precedence over looking for material to justify the design. This specialization is found at bollywood as well, no single lyrics writer take on full movie, no leading actor does 3 films a year.
Screenplay (functional design/prototype): The rich movie experience is always due to screenplay, so the editor has to make the right choices to cut or to paste or to reshoot. In NPD functional design takes highest point of reference to make a product successful. The life span of a products is coming down at faster rate with it the used product market is expanding at far more higher rate due to new market places like ecommerce portals and companies offering exchange schemes to keep the customer bonded with the brand.
Security (background music): Every thriller movie is a success when relevant and apt background music is present since mind reacts more to sound than image. NPD is in highly competitive environment every aspect of data security plays major roles as it involves large community of employees, suppliers, service providers, technology and new monster(s) to tackle BYOD and social networking.
Reality shows (Price): Most of production houses run their awareness campaign at reality shows on television, optimum utilization of internet and mobile apps have made the black marketing of movie tickets as ancient history. At NPD products are categorized and promoted at price point market than user preference market.
Marketing(PLM/SLM): The life span of movie is down to few weeks, so the marketing of the movie across the available publicity spectrum
takes the highest importance for the success. The production houses plans the marketing activity at the conceptual stage itself. Television networks have provided 2nd round of monetization for each movie, as movies run on TV channels post euphoria at multiplexes. NPD also faces the same situation as social networking and mobile apps are fastest way to reach the buyer for success. No NPD will be successful without right PLM/SLM in place since isolation can not keep customer engaged. A well implemented PLM and SLM de risks the product from being a copy cats products at market place and to get respectable market share for NPD efforts
Item songs (after sales support): Every bollywood movie showcases 1 song and dance extravaganza as item song, but that sometimes becomes an USP and comes with an high cost. Most of times item song(s) have decided successes of a movie. NPD market looks at warranty and guarantee which decides the engagement with customer. These aspects contribute to keep after market segment intact and facilitate used product market to expand.
Game changer for bollywood was the emergence of multiplexes which existed with shopping malls where customer has the delight of shopping with entertainment and food as well ! Is 3Dprinting game changer at NPD, consumers are in for a delight “bollywoodishtyle”
