BrandTrends shares the Most favorite Entertainment brands in the autumn of 2022

India is the second most populous country in the world with a population of over 1.3 billion people and has 22 officially recognized languages. India has also a rich cultural heritage, with influences from its history, religions, and diverse regional traditions. It is known for its food, music, dance, art, literature, and festivals. But how does this impact the Indian Entertainment market?

The population of children under the age of 25 in India is approximately 768 million. This accounts for around 56% of the country’s total population and as such a phenomenal market for brands.

A highly concentrated market, led by cross-target brands

However, the number of Entertainment brands known by kids is comparatively pretty limited, with 248 different brands spontaneously mentioned, which represents only +17% vs 3 years ago. And a vast majority of those brands are mentioned by both girls and boys. The number of gendered brands is superior to the cross-genders ones only among 7 to 14 years old.

On top, a large number of brands reach the same level of attractiveness: their level of popularity, preference and purchase intent are all in the same range, with high scores. This shows that children are committed to the market, but this also means that new comers will meet huge difficulties to go through the clutter.

A fierce competition across global and local brands

As shown in the table below, the ranking of most favorite brands illustrates how fierce is the competition across brands, with the Top 5 reaching concentrated scores, with tight gaps.

Tom & Jerry, Marvel and Doreamon lead the market, Chhota Bheem being at the bottom of the podium.

However, this hides different performances for the brands. While Marvel and Doreamon are part of the Top 10 most favorite brands across age and genders, Tom & Jerry is strong among youngest only (up to 6 for boys, up to 9 for girls). Chhota Bheem performance comes from its great performance among girls up to 14.

The local landscape is completed by Motu Patlu and Pogo, both being part of the most favorite brands among both boys and girls up to 14.

Similarly as in other countries, Marvel and DC Comics now better perform than the super-heroes hosted among each of those franchise. Marvel superheroes are actually currently appearing in both feature films and tv series. And as other characters were well-liked by viewers, they continued to exist in the same interconnected film and television universe. As a result, the individual character components suffer at the price of the umbrella brands Marvel and DC Comics. This drives a x4,5 more mentions for Marvel and x2,8 for DC Comics along the past two years. And this mechanically limits the super-heroes strength, while only Spider-Man ranks #7.

Anime as a key point of interest

Doraemon, Pokemon, Ben 10 and Crayon Shin-chan highlight the attractiveness of mangas and animes in the Indian market.

If the category is massively growing around the globe, the above brands influence is consistent since more than 2 years now and they can be considered as part of the local culture. However, and as for the other sub-categories, we didn’t see any new players successfully popping-up since a while.

Ownership and Licensing Opportunities

Overall, the Indian market for products with an entertainment license remains huge. The level of ownership is great across brands, highlighting the interest towards the market across targets.

The main challenge for brands is to maintain their attractiveness, always offering new products for sustaining their performance and make sure to be part of the most favorite players.

New comers must embraced differentiating strategies for hoping to be part of the game. Offering dedicated products for certain gender and / or age may be an opportunity to concentrate the investments and optimize the opportunity to be present in consumer’s minds. Affinity is a must for those who want to transform their visibility into attractiveness and key messages must be considered while deeply understanding needs and expectations of the target audience.