Net matrimonials up ad spends as users increase. | |
| There was a time when matrimonial searches were restricted to a few pages in the mainline newspapers every Sunday. But with rising Net-penetration and increasing comfort with technology, a large part of the matrimonial industry in India has gone online. |
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| A large part of the rapidly rising ad-budgets of these portals are also spent online, but, interestingly, there is a significant offline component too. |
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| Shaadi.com, jeevansaathi.com, timesmatri.com and bharatmatrimony.com are a few of the popular names which have dominated the online matrimonial market over the past few years. |
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| Vivek Khare, senior vice-president, jeevansathi.com feels that the market has expanded because of the Internet. "The online matrimony market has just made it easier for people to access and search for prospective brides or grooms." |
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| The advertising strategy of these sites was initially aimed at educating the consumer. Now with an expanded customer base, the advertising focus has shifted. |
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| Says Murugavel Jankiraman, CEO, bharatmatrimony.com: "Our initial advertising was about telling the customer how to get involved in online matrimony. Now it's all about telling the new features added on the site." |
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| The ad spends for the companies have also seen a substantial jump. For instance, the advertising budget for jeevansathi.com is around Rs 6-8 crore, almost 30 per cent more than last year. |
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| Part of the adspends are for the Net itself. Khare says that most companies see the Internet as the most sought after medium. "Since most of our target audience comprises of the online community, it makes sense to use the Internet as an option." Television and radio are also popular media to expand and reach that elusive first-time user. |
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| Jankiraman agrees that the Internet is the best medium for advertising, but concedes that it is also necessary to use other media for brand building. More than 60 per cent of bharatmatrimony's ad spend is on the Internet while the rest is used on TV, print and radio. |
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| The company will be spending about Rs 8-10 crore on advertising this year, up a hefty 60 per cent over last year. Now how about that? Money is making love get around. |
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