Small G: the Big B of Film Magazines

There’s an old Buggles song that goes ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’. In a short single line, summarizing Marshall McLuhan’s media theories and concept of the global village. The medium, he propounded, would be as important as the message itself. An extension of the theory would imply that even in media and communications, each technological innovation would impact or even threaten the very existence of media currently in existence.

In this digital age, we are experiencing the same unfolding yet again. Long ago, it was thought that the arrival of television would kill the print business. It did have an impact but print survived. Following the ever-tightening grip of digital in everything we do, doomsday prophets seem pretty sure now that the days of print are numbered.

For our younger readers, who perhaps have very rarely read a physical newspaper or magazine, this latest case study in our Marketing Folklore Series may seem something alien and difficult to identify with. But there was a time, not so long ago, when the print media industry was booming and new magazines were sprouting by the day.

Print Boom

The era was the eighties, and as the middle class started to edge into relatively greater upward mobility, they began spending a bit more on non-essentials – print magazines, for one. As a consequence, thriving on increasing interest and readership, publications were thinking up new ways to engage increasingly diverse audiences.

One afternoon in 1988, three experienced media professionals were mulling over what would be a good category for a new magazine. More like sub-category – because they had already decided they were going to launch in the filmi magazine space. True, that space was quite over-crowded, and so they brainstormed to discover a niche.

Through experience they knew that film magazines by and large catered to the lowest common denominator. In fact, many thrived on being nothing other than gossip rags – washing dirty linen of stars right out there in public. Always looking for the next sensational story, and never mind the privacy of the stars. The saucier the better!

A Touch of Class

Film stars were, after all, extremely marketable property. But, as the brainstorming trio asked themselves: ‘Did it have to be lowdown and dirty?’, the answer that hit them was that it didn’t have to be. For every lascivious reader who thrived on gossip, there was another who was so enamoured by their filmi idols, they only wanted to read good and positive news about their heroes.

The high-profile brainstorming team was primarily from the reputed Chitralekha Group – respected for their flagship magazine titles Jee in Gujarati and Marathi. What they were seeking now, was to reach out to the niche English reader. A target audience comprising discerning English-speaking film buffs, but extending to industry professionals too – actors, directors, technicians.

The stance was decided – it would be classy, respectable reporting, but at the same time, they did not want it to be just an English version of Jee. Innovation would be a key differentiator – and that came through in its glossy, visual heavy format, and size… dimensions of 26.5 cm by 37.5 cm that stood out not just on the newsstand, but in the home as well.

g for Genius

Medium and message were both fixed upon, all that remained was the branding. Jee enjoyed huge equity in the marketplace; but as mentioned, they did not want it to appear merely an English version of Jee. Yet, it should leverage such a powerful brand association in some way.

That ‘way’ came through a clerical error. A secretary had mistakenly slotted the Jee phone number under ‘G’ in the phone book. It serendipitously hit home like a tonne of bricks. What a perfect balance the monosyllabic name ‘G’, and what a nice quirky way to stand out in the market. Better still, give it understated class and ‘lowercase’ it. ‘g’ it was, and as a single alphabet it could cut any way they wanted. Stand for anything they desired that began with the letter ‘G’.

In the end, they came up with ‘glamour, glory and grandeur’ – all in lowercase to go with the stylized lowercase branding. Lowercase and understatement that stood tall in the marketplace – aided by its odd giant size format. The small ‘g’ almost like the Big B of film magazines!

Big B in status, but the personality would be feminine, and this was best expressed through the stylized ‘g’ logo. In the initial years, carried elegantly and almost unobtrusively along the length of the right edge. Stylised to represent a classy and elegant female figure.

Victim of Evolution

The magazine enjoyed a few outstanding years on the newsstand, until Marshall McLuhan’s predicted next media wave knocked it out of existence. Well, knocked the stuffing out of the entire print magazine sector, really. Not sure, if ‘g’ even exists today, in whatever form, but that has to be attributed to the evolution of media, and not to what ‘g’ came to stand for or everything it delivered.

From ‘glamour, glory and grandeur’ to ‘glum, grim and gone’, though more due to circumstances beyond its own control. But, yet another case study that shows how a little quality brainstorming can lead to a winning product and positioning.

Don’t turn the page yet; you may when our next case study hits this space.