final project by samarpita dutta (1)

Project report On

Finding out loyalty of customers of Outlook and generating revenue by selling subscriptions of magazines Under the Esteemed Guidance of: Mr. Sonmoy Ghosh, Professor

Submitted By:

SAMARPITA DUTTA Registration no. – 183142010025 of 2018-21

university roll no.31405018018

Techno International College of Technology DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the work, which is being presented in the summer internship report, entitled “Finding out loyalty of customers of Outlook and generating revenue by selling subscriptions of magazines”, in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the Degree of Bachelor of Business Administration and submitted to the have been taken. The matter presented in this report is not been submitted elsewhere for institution is an authentic record of my final project under the supervision of Prof Sonmoy Ghosh. I also cited the reference about the text(s)/figure(s)/table(s) from where they the award of any other degree or diploma from any institution.

Date:

Signature of the Candidate

Samarpita dutta B.B.A. (2018-2021) University roll no. 31405018018

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ACKNOWLEDEGMENT I hereby offer my sincere and profound thanks to Prof. Sonmoy Ghosh who provide me such a challenging task and also provide me a vast knowledge to complete this challenging project and guided me throughout my project including implementation of sales and marketing concepts and analysis. Without his esteemed guidance I would not been able to complete my project successfully.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER

CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Industry Profile

1.2

Porter’s 5 forces analysis of industry

1.3

Future of the industry.

2

PROFILE OF THE ORGANIZATION

2.1

Origin of the Organization.

2.2

Mission and Vision of the Organization

2.3

Growth and development of the Organization.

2.4

Marketing mix- 4P’s

2.5

Market players

2.6

SWOT analysis

PAGE NO.

6 7 – 15

14 – 34

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3

RESEARCH PROBLEM

3.1

Objective

3.2

Scope of project

3.3

Problem Statement

3.4

Research design and methodology

4

DATA ANALYSIS

4.1

Survey intent and stakeholders

4.2

Survey overview & Summary

5

35 – 36

37-46

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

47-49

ANNEXURE

50-54

BIBLIOGRAPHY

55

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The two main objectives of any publishing group are: •

Increasing Geographic Dispersion / Circulation

•

Improving Readership profile

This sums up to the reason that main source of revenue for any publishing group is advertising and an advertiser would like to be thorough with the facts and figures before investing his money in advertising. With the ubiquitous digitalization, content is available to the readers on demand through various sources. This presents an issue for the publishing house which is uniqueness of content and their positioning strategy. As per some standard reports related to the readership, it is quite evident that that the subscription rate for various magazines is going down as the world leaps forward towards digitalization. Subscription model has been there since the pre-internet age but it was limited to dailies and magazines. With the advent of internet, besides the likes of Netflix and Zomato Gold, we can subscribe to a range of products and services. Moreover, brands consider subscription model

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as true test of customer loyalty. If the subscribers renew their subscriptions, this means that the brand has lived up to the expectation of the subscriber.

Readers

Publishing House

Advertisers

Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1. Industry Profile

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Print Media, as anyone can understand is one of the most important factors coming through in the way a nation works. Newspapers, magazines, books etc. are read by a lot of people and are certainly one of the most trusted mediums of National and International News.

India has a vast array of Print Media with Thousands of Magazines and Newspapers in circulation. Top Notch Journalism, great reporting, press unity and a very strong network is what makes Print Media so much of a success even today in the age of Television and the Internet. It is also said that Print Media also helped literacy and undoubtedly the General Knowledge of the average person in India. There has been an unprecedented growth in this sector as the rising incomes and growing literacy are boosting readership and revenues of magazines and newspapers. From specialist magazines on whiskey, golf and parenting, to regional-language newspapers and financial dailies, new titles are coming thick and fast in one of the few markets in the world where advertising and readership for print media are expanding.

The boom period for the publishing houses started when in 2005 India allowed 100 per cent foreign investment in non-news publications, keeping the cap for news at 26 per cent. Early investments included Independent News and Media’s 26 per cent stake in newspaper publisher Dainik Jagran, Pearson Plc’s 14 per cent in Business Standard newspaper, Henderson Ventures’ investment in HT Media and BBC Worldwide magazine venture with Bennett, Coleman & Co. More recently, private equity firm Blackstone Group put $150 million in regional publisher Ushodaya Enterprises, Warburg Pincus moved $33 million into the Dainik Group and DE Shaw invested $39 million in Amar Ujala Publications, according to research firm Venture Intelligence. Local firms also seized the opportunity: Business Standard and Bennett, Coleman’s Economic Times launched Hindi and Gujarati-language editions of their financial dailies. Deccan Chronicle Holdings launched a business daily to compete with five others, and new regional-language and city papers are hitting the stands nearly every day.

The boom in advertising revenue was not just limited to print. As new media grows and controls are eased in television, these will attract greater investments and advertising 8

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revenues. Publishing houses slowly shifted to advertising business from news business as it was much profitable and made up for the deficits due to subscription loses.

Two main sources of obtaining data to determine readership of any publication in this industry are: ➢

National Readership Survey – NRS

➢

Indian Readership Survey – IRS

Here we have some surveys on the basis of market segmentation on all media including newspaper buyers. •

National Readership Survey is a survey on all media, but especially the print medium, conducted by the National Readership Studies Council (NRSC) – supported by Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), Advertising Agencies association of India (AAAI) & Indian Newspapers Society. It investigates the readership of about 80 major Indian publications-dailies, weeklies, biweeklies and monthlies-in over 450+ towns of 57 regions across the length and breadth of the country. The towns selected, however are publication centers of dailies. It is claimed to be the most thorough readership survey in the country. It provides exhaustive data (available to its clients on computer disks) readership, radio listener ship profile -the socio-economic characteristics of the readers of various publications, of cinema and TV viewers, and of listeners to radio, as well as the degree of duplication among publications and between media. Research agencies involved are: IMRB, TNS Software Mode, AC Nielsen in collaboration with ORG.

•

Indian Readership Survey is conducted by the Media Research Users Council (MRUC). IRS is the largest continuous media survey ever conducted (sample size of 229,000 individuals) providing a single-source database for demographics, media habits and product / brand usage across 986 towns and 2858 villages in India. This all-India survey conducted jointly with the Media Research Users’ Council (MRUC) also provides product / brand 9

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penetration information for over 50 different products allowing one to link media habits and product usage data for adults and children from the age of 12 years. Both NRS & IRS gives media consumption habits, product ownership & consumption, lifestyle indicators information on Psychographic, macro demographic & geographic parameters. Highlights of IRS 2019: Media Research Users Council (MRUC), in association with research firm Nielsen India, conducted the survey in 3.24 lakh households, which they claimed that the world’s largest sample size, between November 2018 and April 2019. The survey is based on the rolling average of data over a period of time. •

According to the IRS 2019, Television reaches 77 per cent of the India’s population of above 12 years of age, while newspapers 39 per cent and magazines 6 per cent.

•

Internet reach is growing faster than any other medium, especially after the roll out of 4G network in the country. It reflected in the online newspaper readership, which increased by 5 per cent in the last one of the surveys. The online newspaper readership growth in urban India stood at 9 per cent.

•

Other media platforms that have better penetration include radio (20 per cent) and internet (24 per cent).

•

India Today English, India’s most-read magazine, has recorded a remarkable upsurge in readership, adding 11.6 lakh readers in the last one year, according to the latest Indian Readership Survey (IRS).

•

In the first quarter of the calendar year 2019, the readership of the India today magazine has shot up by 14.5 per cent to 91.52 lakh from 79.92 lakh, beating the country’s magazine segment growth of 8 per cent.

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•

India Today English even went ahead of the magazine readership growth in the urban India, which is at 13 per cent.

•

India Today Hindi has come second in the overall magazine readership survey, registering a 7.72 per cent growth and its number of readers has increased to 77.12 lakh from 71.59 lakh a year ago.

•

Among the general news magazines in English, Outlook has 17.6 lakh readers (up from 15.17 lakh) and The Week has 16.34 lakh readers (up from 13.12 lakh).

•

The print story continues to grow with total number of readers increasing to 42.5 crore from 40.7 crore, thanks to rising literacy rates and disposable income. The dailies have added 1.8 crore additional readers since IRS 2017, while magazines added 90 lakh readers.

•

Hindi daily Dainik Jagran is the most read newspaper in the country with a total readership (TR) of 7.37 crore in the last one month of the survey, up from 7 crore a year ago, followed by Dainik Bhaskar (5.14 crore).

•

Times of India is the most read English newspaper with TR of 1.52 crore, while its AIR comes to 56.46 lakh.

1.2. Analysis of Magazine publishing houses using Porter’s 5 forces:

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Threat of new entrants

Bargaining power of buyers

Rivalry among existing competitors

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of substitutes

❖ Existing Competitors: This is definitely one of the intense forces affecting the publishing media industry. Rivalry in this sector is high due to presence of numerous publishing houses fighting for the same chunk of pie. This leads to a virtual price war for gaining the market share between the publishing houses. In Indian context, we have big media houses like outlook, Times group, HT media.

❖ Threat of New Entrants: Publishing is a tough business to break into as a new company. It takes a long time to gain the reputation and size to take on the existing market leaders. Moreover, due to the lack of innovation opportunities in this particular field it’s quite difficult to snatch away the market share from the existing players.

❖ Threat of Substitutes: With the advent of digitalization and the changing demographics, print media faces a huge challenge as the millennials prefer to

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access the content in digital form rather than in a hard copy format. Also, digitalization decreases the barrier of entry for other market forces thereby posing a huge challenge to the existing companies.

❖ Bargaining power of suppliers: The suppliers in the publishing industry are the authors, typesetters, printers and freelancers for content proofing. Apart from the authors, others don’t enjoy much of bargaining power. Hence, the industry is quite safe from the bargaining power of the suppliers.

❖ Bargaining power of buyers: The buyers in this industry are the intermediate customers in bookshops and retailers and also direct customers in readers. Both the types of readers are extremely powerful and enjoy leverage on the publishing houses.

1.3. Future of the industry: The publishing industry in India has undergone significant changes over the last decade, and is set to evolve in newer directions. The industry has travelled a long mile from brick and mortar stores to online subscription. The readers have become reliant on “algorithmic recommendations”, going by “what Amazon or Goodreads throws up as book suggestions similar to the one you’re currently reading”. Filtering one’s reading world through the sieve of algorithm-based recommendations means randomness gets thrown out of the window. As we shift from a time-rich and cash-poor economy to a cash-rich and time-poor one, most people don’t want to risk spending time reading a book they may not like. A book is now purchased like one would buy a washing machine — not on a whim, but after careful consideration.

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A maturing industry: “While there’s been an increase in awareness, consciousness of numbers, a lot of innovation and experimentation, the industry is behaving at its strangest — with disregard to any sort of logic,” says Thomas Abraham, MD of Hachette India. The decade saw the use of a more evolved commissioning process, backed by a generation of smart editors. However, the decision to continue backing ‘loss leaders’ — books that are acquired at a high price but don’t offer a return on that investment to the publisher defies logic, perhaps driven by a desperate bid to acquire “the next big thing”. The three areas involved in commissioning books — marketing, publicity, and sales and distribution — have evolved in different ways. Towards the end of the decade, however, retail sales began to dip drastically as online sales grew. The last two major distributors, ironically, derived the bulk of their revenues from online sales. Since Indian publishing does not have an industry-wide data resource to track growth or the sales of various genres, it relies on observed trends. In the absence of a publicly available database on the publishing industry in India, observers rely on hearsay to ascertain how the industry grew or declined

There has been radical shift in the way books are sold. Online sales now contribute to 50 per cent of book sales. The flip side has been the fall of book stores. While bestsellers continue to

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do well, shelf-space continues to be a challenge with most retailers bringing down the shelf life-cycle of a midlist book to under five months. All this has meant that life has become harder for a new author. If you do write a book and you don’t have a large social media following, how do you ensure that people know it exists Owing to the fact that retail space is shrinking for books and that most readers go by online or word-of-mouth recommendations for new books, the ‘discoverability’ of a book has become a concern for publishers. Over the years, they have gravitated towards genres that have a captive audience. Industry thermometer: A reliable way to gauge the prospects of any industry is the health of its independent players. It has become both harder and easier to run the firm now as compared to a decade ago. The biggest problem earlier was how you could get your books to readers. It was always a fight to get retail book stores to stock indie publishers’ books visibly and to get dailies and newsmagazines to review our books. Both these problems have been mitigated today because of the digital media and online selling of books. Three predictions for the next decade as per a publishing house •

In print, the skew between bestseller and midlist will worsen. We will gravitate towards a winner-takes-it-all situation where bestsellers become bigger, since everyone buys books based on recommendations. For instance, former US president Barack Obama has included William Dalrymple’s The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company in his year-ender. So big books get more publicity and the middling books risk falling into obscurity. Only bold publishing choices and publicity campaigns can prevent this from happening.

•

A digital subscription service will become a viable option for people who want access to a variety of reading content. Readers will have to look at an online repository of titles that a subscription service can provide. Publishers and subscription providers will have to work together to offer this choice to readers and make money in the process.

•

Audio books and eBooks will gain revenue share closer to the numbers in the US and UK markets. Currently, audio books are a very small segment but international players

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such as Audible and Storytel have been investing in the space. Podcasts have taken off in India, and are likely to have a multiplier effect on audio books.

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CHAPTER 2: PROFILE OF THE ORGANIZATION 2.1. Origin of the Organization In October 1995, group company Hathway Investments Private Limited entered the print media. Outlook, a weekly newsmagazine headed by Vinod Mehta, galvanized a sluggish market reeling under the impact of satellite TV. Outlook quickly carved a significant niche for itself among discerning readers who value its in-depth, investigative reporting as well as its stylish visual format. Known to be fiercely independent, Outlook has shaken the establishment on events ranging from Kargil to Kashmir to cricket, sensitized the reading public to important issues like big dams, education and gender, and provided an unremitting focus on South Asian geopolitics.

It’s an entrepreneurial journey that has spanned both ‘old’ and ‘new’ economies – building successful brick-and-mortar businesses to exploring the frontier world of convergence technologies. About a quarter-century before the onset of the ICE age, the Rajan Raheja Group made its beginning in the construction business. After building a huge presence in the realty market, the Group diversified laterally into manufacturing, financial services and media -each venture initiated, and executed, to fulfil the objective of assuming leadership in core areas. The list of the Group’s successes is long and eclectic. Today, H&R Johnson (India) Limited is the top name in ceramic tiles in India. Exide is the strongest brand of batteries in the automotive and industrial field. Co-promoters of Supreme Petrochem Ltd. along with Supreme Industries Ltd, largest processor of plastic materials in India.

The Group also joined hands with Oberoi Hotels as co-promoters of Trident Hotels and luxury resort Rajvilas, which Coned Nast Traveler ranked as one of the 25 best villa hideaways in the world. Prism Cement Ltd has a production capacity of 2.5 million tones; The Group is a Copromoter of Sonata Software Ltd, one of the leading software companies in India. As owners and operators of a fibre optic cable network in Kerala through Asian Satellite Communications, the group is also a significant stakeholder in the growing convergence

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business in India. Co-promoters of RMC Ready mix (India) Pvt. Ltd. along with RMC Group plc, U.K, the world’s largest manufacturer of Ready-mixed concrete. Hathway Cable & Datacom Pvt. Ltd has extensive cable network in 6 major cities and 7 large towns across India. Globus Stores Pvt. Ltd. is India ’s one of the largest apparel brand chain. A 50% JV with the ING group of Netherlands in ING Life Insurance. The venture is already the 5th largest insurer in India.

2.2. Mission and Vision of the Outlook Group Mission: “To deliver superior value to our customers, Shareholders, employees, and society at large.” Vision: “To be a premium global conglomerate with a clear focus on the business.”

2.3. Growth and Development of the Organization India offers a promising market for the print media industry. The increase expected CAGR is a result of the increasing rate of literacy and thus the increase in the number of people reading newspapers and magazines. Also, the demand for the latest events in the country and the world is driving the newspaper industry growth. The bright future and the immense scope of the Indian print media have also aroused the interest of foreign investors and recently the government has opened up the sector to foreign investment. Foreign media has also shown interest in investing in Indian publications. The revenues for India’s newspaper market are generated from advertising and circulation. India’s growth rate in this segment is poised to be higher than the average rate of growth in the AsiaPacific region over the next four years. Digital printing, new ways of promotion and distribution are the latest trends and content being the focus of the print media industry. Present Status of the Organization: India Today English, India’s most-read magazine, has recorded a remarkable upsurge in readership, adding 11.6 lakh readers in the last one year, according to the latest Indian Readership Survey (IRS). In the first quarter of the calendar year 2019, the readership

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of the India today magazine has shot up by 14.5 per cent to 91.52 lakh from 79.92 lakh, beating the country’s magazine segment growth of 8 per cent. India Today English even went ahead of the magazine readership growth in the urban India, which is at 13 per cent. India Today Hindi has come second in the overall magazine readership survey, registering a 7.72 per cent growth and its number of readers has increased to 77.12 lakh from 71.59 lakh a year ago. Among the general news magazines in English, Outlook has 17.6 lakh readers (up from 15.17 lakh) and The Week has 16.34 lakh readers (up from 13.12 lakh).

GROWTH 25 21.5 19

20 16.5 15

16.18

13.5

10 5 0 2005

2010

2015

2017

2019

Growth chart of the Organization from the year 2005-2019 The company has shown a decline in its growth rate from past few years. In the present market situation INDIA TODAY is capturing the major share, which is followed by OUTLOOK & THE WEEK.

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2.4. Marketing Mix •Product section describes the product portfolio of the company ranging from print to web media.

•Price gives a brief information about the price of the various products in the portfolio

Product

Price

Promotion

Place

•Promotion gives a brief information about the promotional schemes for the readers.

•Place describes the distribution channel, readership profiles and target segment

4 P’s: Product, Price, Place and Promotion

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2.4.1. Product Portfolio: The Outlook Umbrella

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❖ PRINT MEDIA

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Outlook: In October 1995, Hathway Investments Private Limited group company entered the print media. Outlook, a weekly newsmagazine headed by Vinod Mehta, galvanized a sluggish market reeling under the impact of satellite TV. Outlook quickly carved a significant niche for itself among discerning readers who value its in-depth, investigative reporting as well as its stylish visual format. Known to be fiercely independent, Outlook has shaken the establishment on events ranging from Kargil to Kashmir to cricket, sensitized the reading public to important issues like big dams, education and gender, and provided an unremitting focus on South Asian geopolitics. Today, Outlook is the preferred magazine of 1.5 million readers in India, and sells more than 11.2 million copies over the year.

Outlook Money: In July 1998, the Group launched “Intelligent Investor” re-christened as “OUTLOOK MONEY” as of 30-Nov-2002, India’s first personal finance magazine, which offers sound strategies for the lay investor, especially the growing segment of salaried middle and upper middle-class and self-employed professionals. Its message is clear and simple: ‘Invest well, borrow wisely, spend smartly’. Evidently, that message has gone down well: the magazine sold upwards of 1,00,000 copies a fortnight within a year. One of its distinguishing characteristics is that about 93 per cent of readers retain all past issues of Outlook Money.

Outlook Traveller: Outlook Traveller is a monthly magazine from the stable of Outlook

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Publishing India Pvt. Limited and the only significant magazine aimed at the travel reader. Every month since June 2001 OT has introduced readers to the wonders of unknown destinations while also encouraging 22pprox.2222 to take a fresh look at familiar places. Whether people are planning a holiday, or simply dreaming of one, Outlook Traveller continues to take them closer.

Outlook Saptahik: Outlook Saptahik, a weekly newsmagazine, was launched in October 2002 to establish significant presence amongst the vast Hindi reading audience. The product targets the evolved Hindi reader keeping their interests, realities & aspirations in mind. Outlook Saptahik retains the core strengths of Outlook with objective, fiercely impartial and bold journalism, while brandishing its own identity through a strong parallel editorial. The magazine is empathetic to its target audience & is not a translation of its English counterpart.

OUTLOOK GEO: This international magazine by Outlook group covers all the news about wildlife, Geography etc. It is also one of the best selling magazine in this segment. Outlook has priced this magazine at seventy-five rupees and it comes on a monthly basis. This is a German based magazine. GEO is a family of educational monthly magazines similar to the National Geographic magazine. It is known for its profound reports, which are accompanied by opulent pictures.

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OUTLOOK PEOPLE: The celebrity based magazine of Outlook group. This is a fortnightly magazine by Outlook and is most preferred by the fashion oriented people like youth, beauty saloons etc. This and Marie Claire of Outlook are one of the best magazines in the entertainment segment as it also covers the fashion statements, interviews of celebrities, Bollywood etc.

MARIE CLAIRE: International fashion magazine of OUTLOOK. Most preferred by youth and other style-oriented people. This is a monthly magazine.

OUTLOOK PROFIT: This magazine gives you the insight of the share market and is most preferred by Chartered Accountants and others in the same business.

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Careers360: Student’s Career Solution Magazine:

Newsweek: Newsweek, the international newsmagazine has partnered with The Outlook Group for marketing & sales in India. Newsweek offers comprehensive coverage of world events with a global network of correspondents, reporters and editors covering national and international affairs, business, science and technology, society and arts and entertainment. It is truly a magazine, which fuels the global perspective. It has won several awards & accolades, which makes it the best newsmagazine worldwide. Newsweek has won the 2005 SOPA award for editorial excellence in magazine design & is also the proud winner of Excellence in magazines in 2003 & 2004. Newsweek has won more National Magazine Awards than all other newsweeklies combined. We are also the most honored publication of the Gerald R Loeb foundation, which awards business journalism’s highest honors.

Outlook Business: Outlook Business, the new fortnightly business magazine that packs in credible, detailed information and analysis for decision makers to enable them take profitable business decisions. A composite package covering all factors that influence business 26

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movements with an Indian and a global perspective. With expert views which not only gives you an insight of the current business dynamics but also analyzes the impact & implications that it would have on your business.

WEB MEDIA

outlookindia.com: In 1998, Outlook went online as outlookindia.com, drawing into its fold the vast, nascent readership of expatriate Indians. Outlookindia.com is both Outlook magazine’s home on the Internet and an online publication. Apart from Outlook’s print edition in its entirety – supplemented with links to related articles on its own site and elsewhere on the Web – outlookindia.com also offers an array of original Web-only columns and and news updates every day with a very lively interactive section.

outlooktraveller.com: Inaugurated as a web resource in 2000, this travel Website has since come a long way. Outlooktraveller began by opening up new vistas in web-driven vacation planning, with its highly focused editorial features on an array of destinations. Still a highlight of the website, these are supported by tools and resources that make putting together your holiday a breeze? From selecting your destination, to choosing your mode of transport, finding your way around the map, selecting a place to stay to catching the local festivities, plus ferreting out the nearest ATM, fuel stop or cybercafé. Here there is something for everyone; themed vacation ideas from ‘A for adventure’ to ‘W for wildlife’, honeymooners dream destinations, foodies delights, first-person travelogues, a message room where you 27

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can exchange notes or ask us for more info that you want? And don’t forget to book your copies of our international award-winning bestsellers from Outlook Traveller Getaways, available at a special price when you order on the website. If you want a sneak preview, there’re excerpts from the guide books by renowned authors, including the likes of Prabhu Ghate, Ruskin Bond and Jug Suraiya.

outlookmoney.com: outlookmoney.com takes forward the philosophy and beliefs ushered in by Intelligent Investor (the personal finance magazine that was launched in mid1998, now known as Outlook Money). The site has six channels – Stocks, Mutual Funds, Loans, Retirement Planning, Taxation and Insurance – that address broad areas of the personal finance spectrum. Outlookmoney.com comes with many interactive tools. The Loans channel alone sports calculators that do all the number crunching a visitor may want on home, car, personal or equity loans. Outlookmoney.com seeks to provide total solutions to personal finance issues – from disseminating information to providing avenues for e-commerce transactions.

2.4.2. Price:

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Magazine name

Cover price

Outlook (Core Magazine)

Rs25 (51 issues/year)

Outlook Profit

Rs50 (26 issues/year)

Outlook Money

Rs30 (26 issues/year)

Outlook Business

Rs25 (26 issues/year)

Outlook traveler

Rs575(12 issues/year)

Marie Claire

Rs75 (12 issues/year)

Newsweek

Rs75(51 issues)

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2.4.3. Place: Outlook is the preferred magazine of 1.5 million readers in India, and sells more than 11.2 million copies over the year. The main distribution channels adopted by outlook are retail outlets and subscription. The customers of Outlook fall under various categories like: a. Universities b. Libraries c. Corporate d. Household e. Retail Customers

At OUTLOOK, guiding principles are: ➢ Customer service and customer satisfaction. ➢ Understanding the culture, social environment and individual customer requirements. ➢ To cater all varied needs of customers. ➢ They understand customer’s needs and wants and serve according to their requirements. ➢ They pride themselves on a friendly and open approach. ➢ Team of experienced people who understand the Indian risk drives them.

2.4.4. Promotion: •

Cover on Cover The Cover-On-Cover option includes a cover page to be added on the top and the back of the magazine and the any information or advertisement that the client wants is printed

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on this cover. This information or advertisement can be changed by the client with every issue. This option is mostly used by Hotels. •

Strip A Strip consists of a small strip being printed on the cover of the magazine on the bottom which would contain the advertisement of the client. The strip option is mostly used by restaurants etc. A strip option can only be used by a client if the number of copies ordered by them is more than 1000.

•

Flap A flap, like the strip, is on the cover of the magazine, but unlike a strip, it is not printed on the magazine but is affixed at the bottom. So, unlike a strip, both the sides, back and front of a flap can be used by the client for advertisement. For Example, a client can advertise on the front side of a flap and give a discount coupon on the back side

2.5. Market Players: There are mainly four competitors of the company in the market, as mention below: 1. INDIA TODAY (competing with Outlook English magazine) 2. BUSINESS TODAY (competing with Outlook Business) 3. THE WEEK (competing with Outlook English magazine) 4. BUSINESS WORLD (competing with Outlook Business)

➢

INDIA TODAY

It was launched in 1975 and in just a few years, it became the leading news magazine in the country. Now, with editions in five languages, it has become the most widely read publication in India-a position it has held for over a decade –with a circulation of 1.1 million every week and a readership of more than 15 million.

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The magazine’s leadership is unquestioned; so much so that INDIA TODAY is what Indian journalism is judged by, for integrity and ability to bring unbiased and incisive perspective to arguably the most dynamic, yet perplexing reason in the world. Breaking news and shaping opinion, it is now a household name and the flagship brand of India’s leading multi dimensional media group. INDIA TODAY asks the most difficult questions and provides the clearest answers. The success of INDIA TODAY in English led to an idea; good journalism should not be restricted by language. In a country with 12 major languages, the non-English readership of hundreds of millions of millions could not and should not be ignored; it was decide to publish. INDIA TODAY, in the major Indian languages, effectively melding national news with local needs. At present, INDIA TODAY is published in four major Indian languages; Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam.

➢

BUSINESS TODAY

It is largest-circulated business fortnightly in India. It’s the best report of the business topography of the newly liberalized India. As the wave of change sweeps business, economy and society like never before, BUSINESS TODAY has ensured that its readers have all the necessary upgrades to challenge tomorrow. It takes its readers deeper to give a complete understanding of the world of business. Ever since its inception in 1992, it has set one benchmark after another in business reporting. It was first to do serious reporting on management theories. And then again it’s the first to bring whole new genre of business journalism-more up close and more incisive. Today, BUSINESS TODAY commands the highest circulation and readership among all business magazines in India.

➢

BUSINESS WORLD

It is part of the ABP Group, one of India’s largest media groups and the brand leader in eastern India. ABP also publishes Ananda Bazaar Patrika, a widely popular Bengali daily,

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and the Telegraph, the largest and English daily in the eastern region. It also co-owns star News television channel along with Rupert Murdoch’s star group. Business world is the largest selling Indian business magazine, and the only business weekly in the country. Over a period of two decades, Business World has established itself as a magazine that offers incisive and high-quality reportage on economic and business affairs. In the past few years, it has focused strongly on understanding the meaning of Global India. It is an emerging sector, emerging leaders and emerging concerns. Its team of journalists and domain experts cover extensively trends and movements in markets such as telecom, IT, biotech, media and Pharma and provide exclusive analysis on infrastructure, economy and the stock markets. Leveraging on its brand leadership, Business world has now moved into other media platforms, like publishing and events. Its recent publications include doing business in Asia, The marketing white book, understanding 31pprox.31 and business world mega B-School guide. The business world Roundtables and great place to work seminars, which attract the best minds from the corporate and economic world, have becoming important forums to set agendas and address crucial issues. The magazine most respected companies Awards and the BW-NID Design award are considered as benchmarks of corporate excellence by Indian corporate.

➢

THE WEEK

Popular weekly magazine published by Malayalaya Manorama Group of Kerala. The Week is an Indian news magazine founded in the year 1982 and is published by The Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd. The magazine is published from Kochi and is currently printed in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kottayam. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it is the largest circulated English news magazine in India. The magazine was initially designed inhouse, and was periodically redesigned. A major content overhaul was led by Peter Lim, author and former editor-in-chief of The Straits Times/Singapore Press Holdings. The two major redesigns were led by: Peter Ong on 8 November 1998 & Dr Mario Garcia on 20 February 2005.

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Based in Sydney, Australia, Ong was formerly Picture & Graphics Editor of The Straits Times. He is principal consultant at Checkout Australia, and was regional director for the Society of News Design. Garcia owns the premier newspaper design firm, Garcia Media. Both of them also helped redesign the Malayala Manorama. In the early years, cartoonist Mario Miranda designed many covers for The Week. He also had a regular pocket cartoon in the magazine.

2.6. S.W.O.T ANALYSIS OF THE ORGANIZATION A SWOT analysis evaluates the internal strengths and weaknesses, and the external opportunities and threats in an organization’s environment. The internal analysis is critical in identifying the source of competitive advantage. It pinpoints the resources that need to be developed in order to remain competitive

Strengths: ➢

Published on Fridays so it covers all special news and events which take place especially on Friday. News of stock market as it closes on Friday, courts close on

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Fridays and also new movies are released on Friday. Hence it is the biggest strength for outlook. ➢

Outlook magazines also cover international financial market.

➢

It has been famous for sensational stories like the “Kargil Bungle” and the “match fixing controversy”.

➢

It also covered and published important meetings held like of Agra summit which was held on Friday.

➢

It offers very good subscription schemes with highly attractive gifts with them. It has distinguished and specialized magazines like OutlookTraveller, Outlook Money.

➢

OutlookTraveller has been awarded international awards for best selling magazine.

➢

The survey has shown that 93% of readers retain all past issues of Outlook Money and

➢

this is its distinguishing characteristic. ➢

A good number of magazines under are kitty, so it is easy to cater to different market segments.

➢

Responds very quickly as we have no red tape, no need for higher management approval, etc.

➢

A very good customer care system is one of its boosting point.

➢

Outlook has build up a brand name in 15 years of its operation and is amongst the best-selling magazines in India.

Weaknesses: 1. Issues in distribution network and Higher price of the magazine. 2. It is on a back hand from India today Hindi in Market share of Hindi magazines. 3. From the survey it has come out that the Quality of content is not good. 4. Even magazine’s paper quality, print quality and coverage have not been considered up to the mark. 5. Its sales are mainly based on advertising. 6. Outlook has got its competitors which are very old in the market and thus has got a better market coverage. 35

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Opportunities: ➢

As Outlook has distinguished products like Outlook Traveller and Outlook Money, so in order to have a stronghold in digital media, the company should focus more on it.

➢

As its near competitor India today has major market share in Hindi magazine segment so Outlook should focus on English magazine segment.

➢

Outlook should focus on quality of the content and this will eventually turn up the sales and popularity of the magazine. Keep offering good Promotional schemes to retain their customers and also to attract new ones.

➢

The media sector especially print media has a much brighter scope and thus it can expand itself to new horizons.

➢

It is not necessary that other companies are utilizing the new technologies being introduced. Picture quality as well as page quality of the magazines is still a prime factor. Cutting down the cost of production can be a prime factor in profit margin.

➢

Outlook can expand globally using the presence of Newsweek.

Threats: ➢

The adaptability of the new technology is still a prime factor. With the advent of digital media print copies are facing a big risk.

➢

India today is its near competitor which is a well-known name brand and it has been widely accepted in this publication business for more than thirty years.

➢

India today Hindi covers major market share leaving little future prospect for Outlook Hindi.

➢

Outlook does not pays much attention on customer retention. The promotional schemes are not customized as per the subscribers.

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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH PROBLEM 3.1 Objective: Project: The publishing industry has been totally dominant by a few major players and they are fighting amongst each other for the same chunk of pie. The segment under the purview of study is the subscription segment of publishing industry. As subscription model helps the company to be aware about the recognition and acceptance of its brand. Similarly, in case of magazine publishing industry subscription gives a brief idea about the customer loyalty. The objective of this study is to find out loyalty of customers of Outlook and generating revenue by selling subscriptions of magazines. This study also involves learning about the preferences of a reader in selecting a particular magazine.

3.2 Scope of the Project: The scope of the project includes finding out the preferences of the readers of magazines in subscribing them and understanding the factors that influence the renewal of the subscription of that particular brand in the market. Also, it includes finding out the outlook specific readers and their view in different topographies. It also includes understanding what are the factors that affect the distribution of these local players as mapped through the responses given by dealers and hardware store owners.

3.3 Problem Statement: Problem Statement 1: What factors influence the most while renewal of subscription of magazines by the readers?

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Problem Statement 2: Identifying the resubscription rate of outlook readers? Problem Statement 3: What are the factors that affect the retention of customers?

3.4 Research Methodology: The main source of data was the interview of the readers of different profiles and demographics. The various demographic factors being age, profession, geographies, psychographics etc. To understand the readers’ grievances, focus group interviews of readers came handy. Apart from that, I spoke to retailers and vendors who are also an important part of the publishing ecosystem.

❖ Primary Research: ➢ Questionnaires filled by readers ➢ Interviews of retailers and vendors. ➢ Analysis of sales pitch made by retailers.

❖ Secondary Research: The secondary research involved referring to various research sites and blogs which publish reports on various sectors of the economy including the publishing sector and print media. It also involved referring to various databases to extract the financials of Outlook India Publishing house. I have also referred to two sources of obtaining data to determine readership of any publication in this industry- National Readership Survey and Indian Readership Survey. These surveys provide information on the basis of market segmentation on all media including newspaper buyers.

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CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS 4.1. Survey Intent and Stakeholders: Ø

Ø

The main objective find out their loyalty towards

of interviewing retailers views about the magazine and a particular magazine

was to customer’s brand.

They

a

SKU’s.

also

gave

brief

idea

about brand wise

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Retailers and vendors

Survey NonOutlook Readers

Outlook Readers

➢ Outlook readers help understanding the and weaknesses magazine.

➢ Apart

us in strengths of outlook

➢ Non-Outlook readers help in comparing the outlook brand to other competitors. ➢ Moreover, they help understanding the decision of readers.

from

that,

they

give

us

a

brief

idea

the

customer

demographics

who

prefer to

read

outlook

help

us

about

magazine.

➢ To

add

on,

they

know

which product in

outlook’s

portfolio

most

liked

and

by

the

readers.

is

recognized

us

us in purchasing magazine

➢ Apart from that, they give us a brief idea about the customer demographics who prefer to read particular magazines.

➢ Moreover, they help in discovering the brand perception of outlook along with cost structure and product requirement of readers.

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4.2. Survey Overview: Total responses/ Sample Size: 92 Sampling method: Random sampling + Snowball sampling Demographics: ❖ Gender- The responses recorded have a fair percentage of responses from both the genders with 51.1% of males and rest 48.9 % Females. This rule out any gender biases in the responses from the research. Thus, giving a fairer approximation.

❖ Age- The age of the respondents varies in the range of 15 to 65 years. The average age of respondents was found out to be 33 years.

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❖ Geographic segment- The respondents can be segmented on the basis of geographies or residence location into urban, semi-urban and rural areas. The major respondents were found out to be from urban population as they are the prime target of publishing houses due to high literacy rate.

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❖ Profession- The survey has respondents from different occupations like students teachers, Finance execs, Business Managers, VC’s, sportsperson, Retired professionals and house wives.

Consumer Preferences:

❖ Upon analyzing the responses in the survey, it is evident that the majority of respondents love to read news magazines followed by Business magazines and

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Fashion magazines. So, it’s better if a magazine has content that is more current in nature as people refer these magazines for recent information. But despite that each type of magazine has its own niche segment to cater to.

❖ Most of the respondents prefer a weekly publishing pattern over bi-weekly and monthly publishing pattern. This can be contributed to the reason that weekly magazines are more informative and detailed in nature. Moreover, it keeps the reader up to date with current affairs.

❖ Surprisingly from the recorded responses it is evident that the two factors the influence the selection of magazines are brand and price. The factors such as cover

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story and content take a back seat in this regard. That implies the importance of brand perception in the publishing industry. Big players like India today, Outlook, The Week enjoy benefit out of this as people prefer to buy known brands.

❖ From the responses it is evident that readers buy Outlook magazines mainly for business news followed by entertainment, current affairs and others. The separate edition of outlook business is giving a big boost to Outlook publishing in this particular segment.

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❖ Since our survey intent was to capture responses from both outlook and non-outlook readers, we have a mix of both outlook and non-outlook readers in our sample. 46.7% are people with outlook subscription and rest are non-outlook readers.

❖ The regular magazine readers get their issue from subscription whereas one off reader prefer to buy the issues from various retail channels. Subscription model is targeted for regular readers as the company offers schemes on a bundle issue for a specified period of time.

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❖ The subscribers have opted for a various subscription schemes with majority having Subscribed the issues for 1 year followed by 2 years and then 6 months. A few customers have subscribed for a period of more than 2 years.

❖ The renewal of magazines is one of the factors that emphasizes on customer loyalty. Moreover, it also depicts the customer retention by the publishing houses. Of the subscribed customers, 42.4 % of the readers have renewed the subscription once the

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subscription period was lapsed while 57.6 % did not get it renewed. In the later parts I have discussed the factors behind this.

❖ The correct pricing of the magazine can be a distinguishing factor between a successful magazine which has enjoyed great support from readers and an unsuccessful one. The price should be tailored as per the target market. In the survey when a generic price for a magazine was asked from the respondents, it was seen that there is a great disparity in price perception amongst the readers. The main factor attributed to this was the profession and earning of the reader. The willingness to pay for a student was less than that of an IT professional or a business manager.

❖ Advertisements are a major source of revenue for the publishing houses. The ad space in an established magazine can generate huge revenues but on the contrary the larger the ad space the lesser would be space for content and this can be annoying for the

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readers. Upon asked about advertisements in magazines 15.2% of readers found it more than required and 42.4 % found it average.

❖ The respondents were asked to rate outlook on various parameters on a scale of 1(worst) to 5(Excellent) to assess the brand perception of Outlook publishing in the market. The average score on each of these attributes are as follows: ➢ Articles & Content – 4.43 ➢ Price – 3.79 ➢ Advertisements – 3.68 ➢ Free gifts – 3.5 ➢ Page quality – 3.73 ➢ Design – 3.70 ➢ Availability – 3.58 ➢ Retailers recommendations – 3.56 ➢ Image – 3.58 ➢ Resale value – 3.52

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It is evident from the responses that Outlook has scored highest on content and articles and

the price is also okay for the customers. ❖ Most of the subscribers (45.7%) are satisfied with

the distribution of magazines while 45approx. 30% subscribers are dissatisfied with it.

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❖ The major factors affecting renewal of subscription are brand loyalty, Service quality, Customer engagement and Promotional schemes in respective order. With changing trends customers are becoming more brand loyal and expect a greater service quality from the publishing houses as the competition has increased over a period of time.

Insights from Focus group interview with retailers and vendors: ➢ ➢

➢

➢ ➢

They prefer to suggest magazines that provide them a greater profit margin. The keep SKU’s of companies that are either in greater demand or the companies that provide them a greater credit period. With E-commerce & logistics companies coming into play, the sales of retail outlets are decreasing as customers prefer to get a subscription. Also, the advent of digital media has subsumed the sales at retail chains. The online reviews play a vital role as readers refer those reviews as medium of recommendation.

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CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS This observational study on customer loyalty in the magazine publishing industry has helped in gaining insights on the various factors that affect the subscription of magazines and how they are further going to augment the revenue figure. This study also helped in finding out the factors and causes which affect the degree of satisfaction among the customers of Outlook Magazines. In this tough time of competition, magazine publishing industry is going a long way in developing, formulating and implementing promotional strategies to cope up with this tough competition. Though there are many aspects which can be improvised in the services of Outlook magazine. Strategies are formulated not only keep up with cut throat competition but also to meet the highly volatile consumer preferences. There are several factors which influences the purchase. These factors may be internal and external as well. Internal factors include perception towards the brand, knowledge about product, purchaser’s attitude, lifestyle, motivational status etc. Motivation is the driving force which comes into play when customer has better experience with the product. This leads to the repurchase decision of the customer. Whereas external factors include culture, group or peer influence, the situation in which purchase is made etc. ❖ The analysis revealed that there are some factors e.g. the customer perceived value and value proposition which when converge, leads to customer satisfaction. If these are consistent in the whole process then this leads to customer loyalty. This is the key factor of customer retention which in turn affect the subscription rate of magazines of Outlook group. ❖ The renewal of magazines is one of the factors that describes customer loyalty. Moreover, it also depicts the customer retention by the publishing houses. As per the survey, Of the outlook subscribed customers, 42.4 % of the readers have renewed the

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subscription once the subscription period was lapsed while 57.6 % did not get it renewed.

❖ As

per

expressed

the

survey results,

their interest

again and

to

13% responded can

of

the

outlook

subscribers, 40.2% resp

subscribe

the

maybe-

these people are

swing customers

who

be

understanding

their requirement and

magazine the

made loyal by improvising.

❖ It also revealed the fact that there is a small opportunity of improvement in the area of promotional schemes. The customers agreed upon the fact that gifts are good in quality but they added that these promotional schemes can be more attractive. ❖ Considering the IRS survey 2019, Outlook English has 17.6 lakhs readers across the country. Considering a rate of 55.4% of subscribers in these readers, we will have 9.68 lakh subscribers. Now considering the SP of outlook English of Rs. 25(51 issues), the revenue generated through subscription would be Rs. 12,342 lakhs.

Suggestions:

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➢

Effective promotional scheme – a strategy for consumer motivation

It is important to motivate the consumer to subscribe for the magazine for boosting the sales and it’s obvious that most of the consumers will not get motivated unless and until they get what they want. From the market survey it was able to identify that the motivating factors are the gifts provided along with the subscriptions and according to most of the consumers, a good gift is the one which offers better utility. ➢

Offline referral marketing – a strategy for customer or subscriber motivation

Referral marketing can be effectively used to improve the subscription sales. The existing customer can be motivated to refer to their friends, relatives etc. to subscribe for the magazine by means of exciting and attractive gifts as incentives. The magazine should provide Business reply cards exclusive for existing subscriber along with subscriber’s copies during the magazine delivery so that they can refer their friends and relatives for magazine subscription. The business reply card should offer the facility to be filled with at least ten references. Subscribers should be able to send them free of cost. Now these subscribers can be provided with attractive gifts. ➢

Customer retention

It is a normal saying that customer acquisition is good, retention is better. This is because a customer retained is equal to five new customers as the money spent for acquiring a customer is calculated to be five times the money spent to retain a customer. From the information obtained from Outlook, if was identified that Outlook does nothing for customer retention. Outlook needs to formulate and implement customer retention and loyalty programs to retain the customers. ➢

Improvement in

magazines

–

As

per

customer

satisfaction

From the market survey it was revealed that the strengths of Outlook Magazine are Promotional Schemes and unbiased reporting. Its weaknesses are its Content quality, Paper quality and Print quality so it should work on it to increase the customer’s satisfaction. If the product is able to satisfy customers in its core product attributes, then the customer will tend to be loyal as their expectations are fulfilled.

So, In order to improve customer loyalty and thereby increase voluntary sales outlook magazine has to work on its weaknesses as expected by the customers of the magazine Since the quality 54

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of content and coverage are subjective in nature, Outlook needs to identify what are weaknesses of the current contents and coverage of the magazine as well as the customers’ expectations about them. Outlook need to restructure the magazine by implementing the customer requirements and demands in order to improve their satisfaction level which will in turn boost the magazine as well as subscription sales

ANNEXURE Appendix (1)

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BIBLOGRAPHY Books referred: ❑

Marketing Management for satisfaction

❑

by Philip Kotler. ❑ AMA Handbook

by Alan Dutka.

Consumer behaviour

by Leon G.Schiffman & Leslie

Lazar Kanuk Websites: 1. Wikipedia 2. IRS 2019 survey: www.mruc.net ➢

www.outlookgroup.com

➢

www.outlookindia.com

➢

www.outlooktraveler.com

➢

www.outlookbussiness.com

➢

www.outlookmoney.com

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