The Keller model

Competitive frame: TF1, M6 and the generalists channel such as France2, France3, France4, D8, Canal+.

The Keller model is mainly composed of 3 concepts that are the Pods, the Pops and the Mantras.

The PODs: The point of difference

 TF1 

We have defined the PODs of TF1 as the News, the Famous spokesperson and the games.

Tf1 is well known as a NEWS channel with very important journalists known from very long time by watchers: Jean Pierre Pernault, Claire Chazal. They have, very often, political guests or even artists that are doing their promotion on the 20h news.

Plus the brand use very famous and well known SPOKESPERSON and put them forward to make people loyal to the channel. As we saw earlier in the blog they did a TV spot with all the famous spokesperson of the channel with the colours of TF1. It is like watchers know personally these presenters because they see them everyday on TV. And the channel uses it as a tool to create awareness. 

The last but not least point of difference of TF1 is the GAMES. Here are some examples of famous games: “Big Dill”, “Roue de la fortune”,  “Attention à la marche”, “Le juste prix”, “La famille en or”, “Qui veut gagner des millions”, “Le maillon Faible”, “A prendre ou à laisser”, “Drop the box”, “Le millionaire”.  

Those games bring through years an important brand awareness and loyalty because watchers are following the game every day and identify to the “real” persons that are playing.

  

 M6

We have defined the PODs of M6 as the Series and the Reports.

M6 is THE podcaster of all the American SERIES such as Desperate Housewives, Bones, NCIS, Lie to me, Malcolm, “l’agence tout risque”, Prison Break, Sex in the city, Nip Tuck. This was an important innovation at the beginning and that bring brand loyalty because those series were only on M6 so it was the place to be to watch Sex in the City for example.

In addition, the channel is “specialist” on REPORT tv show such as “Zone Interdite”, “Enquête exclusive”, “66 Minutes”.  This is a good way to do “news” and actuality in a playful way.

The POPs: The point of parity

The points of parity in the market including TF1 and M6 and the generalists channels are:

-       The way to segment

-       The way to target regarding the time of the day

-       The way to earn money with a high audience and consequently high incomes from advertising

-       Sport

-       Cooking shows

-       Music shows

How TF1 & M6 use PODs?

Concerning M6 they try to attack Tf1 on its main point of difference: the News. Actually M6 is not a channel of news they do not have “8pm TV News” with charismatic spokespersons. But M6 created few years ago the “19H45 News”: a small news broadcast just before the traditional time of the news on the other channels: 8pm. With this program the channel catch some watchers who won’t watch the news on TF1 or France2 because they have already seen everything 15 minutes ago on M6. In addition, during the traditional time of the news M6 broadcast a short and fun program that people follow each night. That allows them to keep the audience on the channel and not on TF1 or France2 for the news.

The only problem for the moment is that this “19H45” news broadcast is lower in quality than the TF1 or France2 news.

But they had the good idea to spoil some watchers from the 8pm traditional news.

Tf1, try to threaten M6 on the American series, which is an important PODs of the channel. They are trying to counter the M6 series with movies or other American series or even French series. Very often when M6 has a American series in prime time TF1 has “Les Experts” or a movie.

But still that M6 is THE channel (free channel) of American series and this is a tough job to counter this.

MANTRAS

	EMOTIONAL	DESCRIPTIVE	FUNCTIONS
TF1	Tradition	News Entertainment	Generalist TV Channel
M6	Fun	Entertainment Information: Reports	Generalist TV Channel

Keller Pyramids

The Keller Pyramids below are conclusions and sum-up of that blog. That shows exactly how the 2 brands were at the beginning and how they managed to be the famous TV channel that they are today. Each of the brands had its own path but the fact is that nowadays they are both in the main French TV channel competing to be the best one!

Brand community

All along this blog we have seen that M6 and TF1 marketing strategies are quite close and M6 is nowadays a fierce competitor of TF1. But is this trend the same regarding Brand Community?

On this field it seems that TF1 is one step higher than M6. Even if both TV channels try to develop highly viral content thanks to uncommon program with specific casting TF1 has developed an effective strategy to increase interactivity. Indeed while you are watching your favorite program like “Qui Veut Epouser Mon Fils” you can share in live your feelings and reflections on twitter of Facebook. Of course you can do the same on M6 but TF1 manage very well this trend and has for example added live tweet on TF1 replay which allows people who have missed the live show to re-watch it and to live all the tweet comment like if it was in live.

Thanks to this new tool you can watch online the final of “Danse avec les stars” and follow the live tweet in the same time.

Yesterday evening thanks to its program “La France à un Incroyable talent” M6 has launch a similar program which allows people to interact and grade candidates thanks to M6 official application.

Regarding the number of like on Facebook, TF1 has 1.19 millions like and M6 1.1 millions so they are quite equal on this platform.

If we now have a look on each channel official websites, TF1 website seems to be more customer oriented and so more willing to build a community around the Brand and its programs. First the name of the site is extremely well chosen: MY TF1, then people can find much more services than only information on TV program, you can follow the news or even make shopping. M6 has developed a much more basic website only focus on programs.

Last but not least Brand Community can also be created thanks to the programs broadcasted. In this point M6 seems to have the most effective strategy. By broadcasting American series like Desperate Housewives or reality TV like “l’Amour Est Dans Le Pré” they succeed in creating a strong community around it because people empathize with actor or candidates, they feel committed in those programs and want to follow the story. TF1 has also this kind of programs like “Qui Veut Epouser Mon Fils” or “Secret Story” which generates a lot of tweet or reactions from viewers.

Lovemarks

Hello everybody,

We are now going to see some of the key drivers that turn the Brands TF1 and M6 into Lovemarks.

Key Drivers	TF1	M6
Recognized by consumers	·    The logo ·    The most famous presenters ·    The most famous emissions	·    The logo ·    The most famous presenters ·    The most famous emissions
Presents a narrative	·    Historically known for its nearness with people through accessible and entertaining programs	·    M6 makes everything so that televiewers recognize themselves in their diversity. ·    Broadcasts are indeed a reflection of the French society of today
The promise of quality	·    The most famous journalists in France (Jean Pierre Pernaut, Claire Chazal) ·    Variety of the programs ·    The most complete TV News	·    Variety of the programs ·    Very innovative ·    The most famous TV reality shows ·    Often football
Symbolic	·    The first channel created ·    The best audience	·    The second private channel
Values	·    Popular channel targeting a large number of French people	·    The channel reflects the image of multicultural France by making the promotion of the values of integration and solidarity by the presence on its antenna of the visible minorities

Here are all the reasons that make TF1 and M6 lovemarks. Lovemarks are all the reasons that should inspire mystery, sensuality and intimacy between a brand and its customers.

There is an emotional link created which should create loyalty for the customers.

Preference : focus on TV series

Hi !

TF1 and M6 are broadcasting a large number of TV series in prime time and these series are in majority produced in the US. As TV programs the channels are offering directly impact market shares and brand equity, let's have a look on the TV series that French people prefers (Huffington Post, 2012):



Among this Top 10, 5 series are broadcasted on TF1 and 3 are broadcasted on M6. We can notice that 3 French series appear on that ranking (Scènes de Ménages, Un gars une fille and Julie Lescaut). They are all broadcasted on TF1 and M6.

Sources :
http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2012/09/18/series-tv-france-esprits-criminels-mentalist-ncis_n_1893934.html