Star CJ Alive rebrands as Shop CJ; expands portfolio & platforms

To mark the new philosophy and brand identity, the home shopping channel has changed its logo and sports a new brand tagline – 'Shop a new trend'

Aanchal Kohli | Mumbai | April 17, 2015

Star CJ Alive has rebranded itself as Shop CJ, which marks the culmination of a year-long exercise wherein Star phased itself out of the alliance to focus on its core expertise of GEC and sports offerings, while Providence Equity Partners replaced Star in the venture. Though the channel began sporting the Shop CJ name since April 13, 2015, Shop CJ's new TVC is slated to go on air only on May 1, 2015.

To mark the new philosophy and brand identity, the company has changed its logo and sports a new brand tagline – 'Shop a new trend'. Expanding its presence from a 24x7 shopping channel, Shop CJ has also forayed into the mobile commerce space with the launch of its mobile app, thereby becoming an omni channel platform. It is available on various DTH platforms such as Dish TV, Tata Sky, Airtel and Videocon d2h.

Kenny Shin, CEO, Shop CJ Network speaks about the shopping channel's India plans, growth strategy and more to Bestmediainfo. Excerpts:

Do you think the absence of the Star brand name will affect the channel in some way?

No, not really. Over these years, we have managed to create a niche place in the market. As the channel's name has already been changed, we have not seen any significant change in terms of sales since the renaming of the channel.

What were the efforts taken for the channel name's transition?

The rebranding initiative is to better align the company's new philosophy with the future strategy. The entire look and feel of the channel's brand identity is being changed with an aim to bring ultra-trendy, durable, cost-effective, innovative and customer-friendly products.

How will you be communicating the same to all stakeholders – viewers and advertisers?

We will aggressively pushing it on social media. To mark the same, we are also in the process of creating a television commercial, which is slated to go live from May 1, 2015. The film is conceptualised by our creative agency, Percept.

How have the past couple of years been for the channel? What are the key milestones?

For the last three years, we have been garnering a strong growth of 40-45 per cent every year; but last year was a little challenging for us, wherein we registered only 20 per cent growth. The simple reason was the emergence of a lot of new players in the market and the entire industry facing a slowdown.

Will that not be a threat later on as well?

Not really, because the home shopping industry survives on trust. Competition is always welcome, but we have a loyal base of audience and we have managed to sustain them in spite of strong competition, which is increasing.

What is the viewership of the home shopping segment in India? How much does CJ contribute to that?

India's nascent TV home shopping market is worth $525 million. The TV home shopping industry has started to effectively leverage the reach of cable and satellite in India, which is estimated to be at 140 million households to 650 million people as of December 2014. In comparison, the number of Internet users is estimated at 302 million.

The industry is growing at the rate of 40-50 per cent year-on-year and MPA analysis indicates that the TV home shopping market could generate between Rs 45 billion and Rs 50 billion in March 2015. Out of this, Shop CJ has 20 per cent market share, which we intend to increase substantially in the next year.

How has the e-commerce venture for the channel shaped up, when the space is already crowded with several established players?

Unlike others, our e-commerce and mobile platforms are an extension of our television business. The major part of our revenue is from TV, which is about 94 per cent.

Now, Snapdeal has entered into a deal with DEN to launch their TV offering; while Naaptol was also reportedly looking to expand. Do you foresee a lot more competition in this space? If so, will we see a significant change in the market shares?

No. As we have been one of the pioneers in this industry, so it will take time for the new players to reach the position that we are in.

Which are your key markets and how much do they contribute in your overall revenue model?

Our major markets are Delhi and Mumbai; while the Tier 1 and 2 markets contribute 40 per cent to our overall revenues, Tier 3 and 4 markets contribute 20 per cent to our revenue pie.

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