* Decline of Star Plus started from 2005
* From mid 2007 onwards they became steady
* To understand what went wrong Star Plus did a detailed consumer research with their core audience i.e. women of India
* Following were the findings
* Star Plus has stretched all ‘K’ series serials too long beyond a point
* The stories of all these shows were moving at a very slow pace and hence people started losing interest
* Post ‘Kyunki’ and ‘Kahani’ Star Plus lacked iconic character like ‘Tulsi’ and ‘Parvati’ in their shows
* Star Plus logo was trestricted in a rectangle. Also, the white swoosh cutting the star was considered inauspicious
* A details survey was done on the change in Indian families today vs 2001
* Following were the findings
* Women were and still are the center of the family, binding all the members together
* But the problems that women facing were different then vs they are facing today
* E.g. it is no longer about what will I feed my family tomorrow but it’s about should I allow my 16 yr old daughter to wear jeans in school
* E.g. The choice is not between should I buy bicycle for son vs doll for daughter but it’s about if son has (girl)friends then should I allow daughter to go out with her (boy)friends
* Based on above findings they realized that Indian women are still same at the core but the problems they are facing are different
* Hence, they realized that if they want to connect back with their core audiences, they will have to understand their problems and help them in solving them
* And hence they came up with the positioning of “Rishta Wohi, Soch Nayi”
* With this positioning they became very choosy about the shows that they were airing
* They came back with strong characters around which the story will revolve. E.g. Suhana from Sasural Genda Phool and Pratigya and Sajjan Singh from Pratigya etc.
* The shows to depict today’s problems....