Customer Brand perception of various Economic dailies

Corporate Guide Mr. Shani Buddhi Raja Location of WorkBusiness Standerd Hazaratganj, Lucknow Project DurationJune 2014 – July 2014

Industry ProfileJames Augustus Hicky a rambunctious and irreverent Englishman gave India its first newspaper in January 1780. The weekly Bengal Gazette, also known as Hicky’s Gazette, was a rag of sorts with gossip about English society in Bengal, the center of the British East India Company’s existence at that time. More than a year later in June

1781 he was in jail for defamation. Undaunted, Hicky edited his paper from jail and his audacious column continued to appear. After a second prosecution in 1782, his press was confiscated and his career as an editor came to an end.

If that seems like an unpromising beginning for India’s publishing industry, it wasn’t. Here was an Englishman with the impudence to question the governor general and chief justices that his own country had appointed. Hicky symbolizes in many ways that essential element of a vibrant print industry – freedom. Combine that with the other mark- that of government censorship and control. Across the developed and developing world, the history of press is littered with examples of governments trying to browbeat, scare, cajole and

bludgeon the freedom that the Hick’s of this world want to write what they think – for the people who want to read it.

By the time the first newspaper was launched in India, printing was a booming industry elsewhere in the world. After Hicky’s Gazette came a succession of newspapers and periodicals, many out of Bengal and many created by Englishmen. There was the India Gazette, another weekly from B. Messink Welby and Peter Reed in 1780, and the

Calcutta Journal, a bi-weekly from James Silk Buckingham in 1818. The first Indian-owned, Indian language paper came, rather appropriately from noted social reformer Raja Rammohan Roy in 1820. Sambad Kaumudi was a weekly Bengali newspaper.

Between 1780 and 1947 until India’s independence, more than 120 newspapers and periodicals were launched in almost every Indian language. Some were owned by Englishmen, others by Indians and still others by missionaries. Almost all of them began with a cause – either to speak out against British imperialism or to spread the message of Christianity among the natives. None of them, it seems, had the intention of making money.

That is still the main reason why the newspaper industry in India remains small. It never got out of the ‘I am here to fight a battle not to make money’ mindset. At the time independence that was nothing wrong with the notion. The trouble was that things continued that way for decades later. At that time, India was a nation struggling to discover its identity and trying to get out of British clutches. The need of the hour was to spread the message of independence. So newspapers sprouted up all over the place – and equally quickly they shut down. In fact many of the editors of defunct newspapers usually manage to get the funds to start another one.

So, it appears that the aim for many of these newspaper launches was never ever to make money. It was always a cause, revolt, a message, and a tool to counter propaganda or spread some of their own. Many of the top publications today are the ones are the one that have lived through the freedom struggle. The Times of India

(TOI), Mumbai Samachar, Malayala Manorama, Anand Bazar Patrika (ABP) and the

Hindu, among others are all veterans of the Indian Freedom Struggle. Ironically enough, across the length and breadth of a largely illiterate country, there cropped up vehicles, which would play a huge role in the bringing down of the British Empire. Most of these were financed by benevolent or patriotic businessmen or through donations. Even after independence most had a cause, to see to the birth of a nation and its growth. Wealthy businessmen continued to keep running these papers, most of them at a loss, because of the influence and the power they brought them. They could afford to do it because most had other successful businesses, like the Goenkas who owned Indian Express, also own real estate.

POPULRITY OF THE PRINT MEDIA IN INDIA“If you read a lot, you are considered well-read; but if you watch a lot of TV, you are not considered well-viewed!” cribbed Lily Tomlin, the American actress and comedian.

And therein lies the truth behind why, despite all catastrophic predictions, print has managed to survive the onslaught of other media and grow from strength to strength, in India at least.

The desire to be “well-read”, especially in India, has its foundation in our history, where a person’s worth was determined by the extent of his or her knowledge. As long as our history continues to subliminally influence our habits, print will never hear the death knell in India. In fact, there exists no better medium to gain knowledge than print currently.

Today India is a buoyant print market, with 216 million adult readers, a number that would make this reader universe the fifth largest country in the world.

There has been a lot of good news for the Indian print industry in recent years. For example, in the last five years with a 19-per cent growth rate, readership has grown faster than the country’s adult population, which grew at 15 per cent.

With projected revenues of Rs 6,800 crore in 2006, print is India’s leading medium, constituting 49 per cent of the Rs14,000-crore advertising market. It is also the fastest growing medium for advertising, with an estimated 20-per cent gain in 2006. Television, for example, is expected to grow only at 15 per cent.

Also, sensationalism in terms of breaking unique and controversial stories has helped print to regain topicality in news reporting to some extent.

More interestingly, the profile of the reader is also changing to address the advertiser’s need today. About 71 per cent of new readers today are coming from rural India, which is where most advertisers are concentrating their efforts to increase sales. At a 30 per cent growth rate, the advertiser’s key audience, the female readership, is growing faster than the male readership, which is growing at the rate of 15 per cent

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CHALLENGES FOR THE PRINT INDUSTRY

The first challenge that the print industry has to address is to win over the future readers

— the youth of today — in a big way. A survey done amongst today’s youth revealed that only 37 per cent of them felt it important to read a newspaper every day and nearly half of them believed that newspapers do not play an important role in their life. Publication owners need to figure out tactics on how to “catch them young”.

The second challenge lies in defining the role of newspapers, given that the latest news is available on numerous television channels. “Newspapers cannot be defined by the second word — paper. They’ve got to be defined by the first word — news”, it holds true with the advent of the news channels and the internet.

The third challenge lies in tackling the lack of time amongst today’s readers. Time spent reading has hardly grown in the last five years. Despite this, we have numerous publications entering the market and newspapers are flooding the readers with multiple supplements on the same day.

The fourth and final challenge lies in making the ad space more efficient and effective for the advertisers. Compared with television, print still continues to be a cost inefficient medium for most advertisers. Also, the print medium is not offering any unique innovations that could generate more bangs for the buck for advertisers

The challenges in front of the print industry are best summed by the words ‘Whatever business you are in, you cannot run in place for someone else will pass you by. It does not matter how many games you have won’.

The print industry has managed to constantly run out of place to get to where it is today amidst tough competition. Its future lies in finding an answer to “What is the new path they are going to run in now?”

Numbers crunch

Reach: 200 million readers

Newspaper readership: 176 million

Magazine readership: 69 million

Size of print media industry: Estimated at Rs109 billion in 2005; projected to grow

to Rs195 billion by 2010

Size of newspaper industry: Estimated at Rs96 billion in 2005; projected to grow to

Rs170 billion by 2010

Size of the magazine industry: Estimated at Rs13 billion in 2005, projected to grow to

Rs25 billion by 2010

Source: FICCI-PwC report on the Indian entertainment and media industry

CHANGING TRENDS IN NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY

Newspapers have generally been closely held, many a time family owned enterprises.

Significant changes of late are taking place in Newspaper Industry. Some newspapers have gone public while some, which were primarily in the publishing business, have diversified in allied and other fields. Some cross-financial investments between different newspaper groups have widened the potential areas for cooperation and are likely to strengthen the Industry.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Indian general newspapers is also taking place. Issue of IPO’s is helping closely held newspaper organizations to become widely held.

Additional resources mobilized through FDI/IPO’s are funding expansion and modernization plans of such newspapers.

Advertising is a big industry and share of print media in the total advertisement market is very significant. In the current economic scenario, as a constantly changing reflection of public and private realms at various levels and intersects of our lives and times the newspapers have a critical role to play.

Readers turn to their preferred newspaper for various reasons. Therefore there is no reason to doubt that the newspapers will continue to thrive, even in the digital world.

Organizational Profile

Business Standard started in 1975 by the Anand Bazar group in Kolkata previously Calcutta.

The paper was hived off as a separate company in1996, and then bought by Mumbai-based financial investors

Currently Business Standard has publication in 12different cities in India.

Business Standard sells approximately 226,000 copies daily, making it the second largest in the business newspaper segment.

Mr. T. N. Ninan was editor from 1993 to 2009. In January 2010,Mr. T. N. Ninan became chairman and Editorial Director

The current editor of Business Standard is Mr. Sanjaya Baru.

Approximately 200 people are employed in the editorial team, including well-known Indian journalists.

Mr. A K Bhattacharya,Mr. Sunil Jain Mr. Shyamal Majumdar

The daily has extensive coverage of the financial markets and is patronized by the investors big and small.

To cater to needs of the retail investor, special focus is provided in the form of extensive coverage on Personal Finance.

  The daily newspaper Business Standard (also available as an e-paper) is

the preferred choice of serious business readers. It is published from 12 centres - Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Pune, Kochi and Bhubaneswar. 

A Hindi Business Standard is published from eight centres across northern India: Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Patna, Lucknow, Bhopal, Chandigarh and Raipur. Its content can be accessed at bshindi.com. 

Business Standard stands for reporting that stresses accuracy and credibility, comment that is informed, independent and fair, and journalism that is rooted in ethical conduct and defined by a sacrosanct bond with the reader. All Business Standard journalists sign on to a code of conduct that is available on this website.

Business Standard has a 230-person editorial team that is led by AK Bhattacharya. 

Business Standard's stable of specialist contributors includes some of the sharpest minds writing on economics and business. Among them: Shankar Acharya, former chief economic advisor, Government of India; Deepak Lal, professor of economics, UCLA; Suman Bery, director-general, National Council of Applied Economic Research; Abheek Barua, chief economist of HDFC Bank; Nitin Desai, former chief economic advisor and former under-secretary general at the United Nations; Arvind Subramanian, professor at the Peterson Institute of International Economics; Parthasarathi Shome, former advisor to Finance Minister; and Indira Rajaraman, former member of Finance Commission.

  It offers syndicated columns from Martin Feldstein and Dani Rodrick,

and content from Breakingviews.com--with exclusivity in the Indian market. 

In addition to two newspapers, BSL publishes two monthly magazines (Indian Management and Business Standard Motoring), as well as a quarterly (Asian Management Review). The company also has a books division, which publishes books under the BS Books imprint.  

BSL is majority-owned by the Kotak Mahindra Group, but is run independently through a board of directors, with TN Ninan (a former editor of the newspaper and perhaps India's best known business journalist) as chairman. 

The editorial team at businessstandard.com is led by Niraj Bhatt.

Supplements and MagazinesSupplements –

Strategist(Monday)

Smart investor(Tuesday -Friday)

Weekend (Saturday)Magazines 

Motoring

Indian Management

The Fund Manager, Banking Annual, BS1000(Annual basis)

Major players in Indian market

Economic Times

Mint

Financial Express

Financial Chronicle

Business Line

On the Job Training

To increase the Subscription forNewspaper as well as for Magazines

To provide the customers with the freegift and coupons for the first month, sothat the newspaper gets delivered tothem as early as possible

To lease with the existing customers(from the database) and obtain feedback about the delivery of the newspaper andalso renew their subscription for the following year

Research Methodology Research Topic“Customer Brand perception of various Economic dailies” 

Research Objectives

To study different factors that influence the customers to buy an economic daily.

To study the brand switching behavior of the customers in the economic daily segment.

To analyze strategy opt by the competitors in actual market and its cause and effect relationship with customers.

Defines The Problem And Research Objectives

Developing Research PlanPrimary Data Secondary DataSurveyMethod

Sampling units Sampling units of this project are – Financial newspaper readers , cities of Dombivli, Kalyan, Ambarnath, Badlapur and other suburban cities of Mumbai.

Sampling technique Non Probability, Convenience sampling

Sample size The sampling size of my study is 50 respondents

Data Analysis and Interpretation

1 . D o   y o u   r e a d   f i n a n c i a l   d a i l y ? Yes / No

Sales

2. Which financial daily do you read?

ET39%

FE1%

BS31%

MINT19%

DNA MONY7%

BL3%

Sales

3. How frequently do you read a financial daily?

92%

6%2%

Sales

Daily

3 times a week

2 time in week

other

4. How much time do you spend reading a newspaper?

16%

84%

Sales30-60 0-30

5. Which language will you prefer of your financial daily?

96%

2% 2%

Salesenglish hindi gujrati

6. Which factor you will consider before buying financial daily?

9%

21%

2%

2%

5%

61%

Sales

pricecontentbrand imageservicediscounts and offersall of the above

7. Which are the important sections of a financial daily that you read?

Editorials International News

National News

Banking Realated

News

Financial market news

General News

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Series 1Series 2

8. Which are the important attribute you will consider for your financial daily?

Langu

age

content

Servic

e

Unbaised

Inform

ation

Detailed

analy

sis

Stock

market

cover

age a

nd

Edito

rials b

y exp

erts

Useful Su

plemen

ts0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Series 1

Series 1

9. Are you an Investor?

Sales

yesno

10. Benefits you derive from the Investing decision from the financial daily

NA; 50

Yes; 28

no; 4

average; 18

11. Do you purchase financial daily on regular price or under scheme?

Regular price; 28

Subcription; 72

12. Are satisfied with the existing financial daily?

10%

70%

20%

Sales

NeutralYesNo

13. If you were given option to change to some other financial daily, will you accept it? To which financial daily you will opt for under Annual subscription scheme?

Sales

economic timebusiness StandardDNS monyOther (please specify)financial expessHT mintHindi Business lineno

14. If you are already into the Annual subscription scheme, are satisfied with the service from the existing financial daily?

Sales

NAYesnoneutral

15. Do you have any complaints regarding the service from the existing financial daily?

Sales

yesnoAverageNeutral

Interpretation of the data analysis 

Business standard has excellent quality and content as compared to any other newspaper

Lack of brand awareness and service in some areas

Preference towards annual subscription schemeis high

More emphasis to Service, Unbiased Information, Content, Language, Detailed Analysis, Stock Market coverage and investment tips

Objective 1:

Alternate Hypothesis is accepted and Null Hypothesis is rejected There are different factors which influence the customers to buy an economic daily Objective 2: Alternate Hypothesis is accepted and Null Hypothesis is rejected Objective 3: Alternate Hypothesis is accepted and Null Hypothesis is rejected Different strategies of the competitors has cause and effect relationship with customers

Recommendation 

BS may like to consider Sunday’s edition in its subscription

To enhance the quality of distribution channel of the magazines

May consider to add new stock market news and information of bonus of different companies

Increase the number of centers from where the newspaper is available

Management may consider to design a vendor Relationship Management program

BS can improve a MIS and keep atrack of its readers.

Increase the font size

Provide higher incentives to vendors

Increase the brand awareness in the public

Have a consistent relationship with the existing customer

Conclusion

Economic Times most preferred newspaper

Stock market news is most preferred followed by company news & advertisement in business newspaper

Price factor is not major concern for majority of newspaper buyers

BS provided me a wonderful opportunity to learn about wide variety of business techniques & to visit various corporate, institutions & enterprises