Top English Daily Brands: The Hindu versus Times of India

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the requirements of the

Marketing Management II Course to

Prof. Somnath Chakrabarti

(Course Faculty)

On

02th January 2014

By

GROUP 1 – SECTION B

PGP13086 G. RAM HITHESH

PGP13097 NAMAN

PGP13105 PRATIK VINOD GAOKAR

PGP13108 RAKESH KRISHNA VELAMA

PGP13117 SENTHIL KUMAR P

PGP13129 VOTARIKARI ROHITH

PGP13132 GUDA RAGHURAM

Post Graduate Diploma in Management

IIM Kashipur

Introduction

Even in the era of technology and internet with online news gaining popularity, the importance of newspapers cannot be undermined as a source of information. Though there are many other sources of news like magazines, radio and television channels etc., no other source ever could come near the newspaper in importance. The morning newspaper is as indispensable for a good start to everyone’s day as the morning cup of tea. The width, breadth and the depth of the news provided, its low cost, coverage of international, sports, entertainment, political areas in a single holistic view and the ease of providing news at one’s leisure and comfort are few of the characteristics that make newspaper as the most popular source of information. The history of newspapers in India is equally interesting. The introduction of newspapers in India was hastened by the spreading sense globalization amongst the countrymen who wished to be informed about the recent events in the world.  It was during the same time that the first newspaper of the country was introduced in Calcutta (now known as Kolkata).  The newspaper titled Calcutta General Advertise or Hickey’s Bengal Gazette was introduced by an eccentric Irishman called James Augustus Hickey during the 1780’s. As per data by Registrar of Newspapers for India, the total number of registered publications, as on 31st March, 2012 stood 86,754 .The largest number of newspapers & periodicals registered in any Indian language is Hindi 34,651 followed by second largest number of newspapers & periodicals registered in any language being English with total registration of 11,938.

Top English Dailies in India (The Times of India Vs. The Hindu)

The Times of India and The Hindu are one of the two most circulated dailies in India. The legacy of The Times of India is almost 175 year old legacy, when the Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce in Bombay (Now known as Mumbai) was founded on 3 November 1838 during an intermediate period between the Mughal and British Raj. The newspaper was published every Saturday and Wednesday earlier before becoming one of the most circulated English Dailies.  TOI has a readership that exceeds the combined readership of its three closest competitors, the Hindustan Times, Hindu and Telegraph, according to the Indian Readership survey 2012. The Times of India today has a strong readership base especially in Northern and Eastern part of India while it loses out to The Hindu in the southern India. The Hindu is an Indian daily headquartered at Chennai, The Hindu was published weekly when it was launched in 1878, and started publishing daily in 1889. According to the Indian Readership Survey in 2012, it was the third most widely-read English newspaper in India (after the Times of India and Hindustan Times, with a readership of 2.2 million people). The Hindu has its largest base of circulation in southern India, and is the most widely-read English daily newspaper in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Over the years both, The Times of India (TOI) and The Hindu have tried to expand their readership base in the southern and northern part of India respectively which has led to an intense marketing and advertising battle between these two dailies. With India being one of the

youngest nations in the world having more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35, the young conscious India is certainly the largest target market for these dailies. TOI and Hindu have released several advertisement campaigns targeting the Indian youth undermining each other’s style of publishing news and trying to project them as the Best English Baily for the generation Y. This study attempts to find out the parameters that govern and extend to which they govern the Indian Youth to select one of these English dailies and the impact of the advertisement campaigns on their selection.

Category Overview

The English language daily readership in India is up to 1.4 billion copies per year. The top three readership positions in the country are for Times of India, The Hindustan Times and The Hindu.

Press consumption growth rate is estimated to be 0.8 to 1%. According to Indian Readership Survey (IRS) of 2012 the growth from Q2 of 2012 to Q4 of 2012 is 0.8%. With a mediocre growth rate companies that operate in this category of English Daily are vying to attract competitor’s readers to increase their readership.

TOI and The Hindu are involved in this kind of a brand war.

Company’s Overview

Times of India

The Times Group was established in India in 1838 under the name The Bombay Times and the Journal Of Commerce. They published every Wednesday and Sunday. The Bombay Times was renamed as the The Times of India (TOI) in 1861. At present, The Times of India is published by the media group Bennett, Coleman & Co. The Times of India has its markets in major cities-Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Surat, Coimbatore, Madurai, Patna, Pune, Calicut, Kochi, Lucknow, Navi Mumbai, Nagpur, Nashik, Panaji, Mysore, Hubli, Mangalore, Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Chandigarh, Raipur, Ranchi, Guwahati, Trivandrum, Aurangabad, Kolhapur and Bhopal.

The Times of India philosophy after independence has always insisted on accuracy. Time’s avoidance of sensationalism has increased its standing in our country. But the roots of their modern philosophy were laid in the early 90’s after the first globalization initiatives taken up by the Indian Government. The repositioned the consumer. The consumer from being the reader was now placed as a conventional product consumer. The newspaper now became a conventional product rather than a source of news.

The news was published by connecting the news with the impact it would have on the lives of the people i.e. not just the people as a whole but the brands they knew about and the ideas they

had about them. A tax rate raise would be interpreted with the effect it would have on movie stars along with the common man.

TOI, to increase its readership in the southern part of the country and especially Chennai, moved to make an ad that would incense the newspapers there. The advertisement starts with a montage of boring scenes –it has someone inaugurating a building, an election rally, a leaking water pipe, rows of men, exercising, school-children with a rolling shield and so on. In the background, a monotonous voice sings a lullaby. Each of these scenes ends with a reader sleeping in various positions – standing, sitting, lying down, leaning over. Then these nine words flash on the screen – ‘Stuck with the news that puts you to sleep?’ – and the tempo of the music changes. It’s now energetic and cheerful. A stack of newspapers falls down with a thud and a printing press is in full blast in the background. The ad ends with these words: ‘Wake up to the Times of India’.

This advertisement was a direct attack on The Hindu.

The Hindu

The Hindu was established in 1878 and started its daily publishing activities in 1889. The business has always been in family. In 2003, N. Ram became the editor-in-chief to bring about major changes in the structures of the organization. The Hindu was known to be conservative and leaning towards the left wing. The Hindu gained greater national recognition when they covered the Bofors Scandal in 1987. The company from that position chose to gain more objectivity and to increase it quality. This was the motto in 2003 as well. In 2012, they appointed the first CEO from outside the family-Mr. N. Ravi, while on course to professionalize The Hindu Group.

The Hindu, being conservative in its core values – never advertised. But on the eve of the attack by The Times of India, chose to stand its ground and chose to revert back. They signed with Ogilvy & Mather to create advertisements that not only undid the damage that TOI’s advertisement of branding them as boring had done, but also create a new image for The Hindu along with idea of being knowledgeable cool.

With TOI’s first attack with ‘Wake up to the Times’, The Hindu answered with ‘Stay Ahead of The Times’ which portrayed normal people who were quizzed about general happenings, to show they were clueless about who is the son of Ratan Tata, Which sport did Dhyanchand play, and other such questions. Then they were asked questions about Bollywood actors and actresses which they were sure about. Then they are asked the question – which newspaper do you read?

The replies to those questions are muted but the answer could be fairly decipherable from the lip-movement – it was pointed towards The Times of India. These ads were created to convince the readers out of the Page 3 culture that has been propagated by various newspapers, notably The Times.

The Hindu did not stop only with TV commercials, but also they continued the fight into print ads as well. Ads that had the picture of a newspaper along with the tagline – “Also contains the pages 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8”. Simple lines, simple ads that spoke a lot more by connecting with the audience at an intellectual level.

The Hindu positioned itself as a knowledgeable newspaper which focuses on the long term. This idea is brought out in the India Behave yourself ad campaign that talks about how the behavior of the national politicians/adults could influence the younger generation to not understanding what is right or wrong.

Hindu has also had demonstrations and live interactions at various malls to promote its offerings. This has helped them gain further audience.

Objective of Project

This report expresses to understand the readers of The Hindu and The Times of India. To understand the reasons behind their preferences and to find if a pattern exists. How the location, preferences, culture influence the numbers of readers of The Hindu and The Times of India. It even attempts to understand how the most recent ad campaigns have affected the readerships of the newspapers.

Research Methodology

We conducted an online survey from December 20, 2013 to December 28, 2013 to collect the

data for our report. Every Indian who reads the English newspaper was in the sampling frame.

We not only considered the demographics for sampling population but also the psychographics

of respondents. We promised to keep their identity anonymous and so we did not ask them to

enter their name in survey form but collected the data regarding their location, age, their lifestyle

and occupation which was helpful for us to infer about their demographics as well as

psychographics. After a rigorous brainstorming process, our team came out with 13 parameters

which we think are most relevant in terms of our target population. The parameters and the

context of their use in this research were:

1. Readability: Simplicity of the newspaper language.

2. Balanced View: Transparency in opinions on various issues.

3. International: The extent of international news covered by the newspaper.

4. Education: The updates/ study material etc. about various competitive exams.

5. Job Classifieds: Genuine information regarding job updates.

6. Economy Updates: Economic updates covered with in depth details on the subjects.

7. Technology: Updates regarding various new-happenings in the field of Information and

Communication Technology.

8. Sports: Updates regarding sports (every sport) and various tournaments going on in the

world.

9. Political Updates: Updates regarding the political activities in our country.

10. Entertainment: Updates related to page 3 activities, movie ratings/reviews and other

such activities.

11. Editorials/Social Issues: Opinions by different people on various social issues published

in the newspaper.

12. Advertisement Campaigns: Promotion activities of any brand/product/services.

13. Health/ Fashion/ Lifestyle: Regular updates and tips/ expert opinions regarding fashion/

lifestyle, covering the critical aspects of the topic while maintaining decency.

After the introductory details, the first half of survey asked respondents to rate their desirability

of these parameters on a horizontal Likert scale with rating 1 indicating the most undesirable and

5 indicating the most desirable feature. Then the survey asked them to reveal their preference for

English daily between The Hindu and the Times of India. In the second half of survey form, the

respondents were required to rate the English daily of their choice on same 13 parameters with

the context that up to what extent their choice fulfills their expectations with respect to those

parameters. This time a rating of 1 meant strongly disagree while a rating of 5 meant that

strongly agree. The last two questions were to know if they will prefer Times of India when The

Hindu is not available or vice-versa and to determine the effect of latest TOI vs. The Hindu

advertising campaign on them.

The link of the survey form was sent to various individuals (mostly students and IT professional)

through social media and they were requested to respond to it. The data thus collected was

collected in the excel sheet and analyzed to get inferences like what parameters are most

desirable/undesirable by the target population in English daily and to get the final conclusion of

this research report that which of the two newspapers, Times of India or The Hindu, better

satisfies their demands.

Data analysis and results

E-Survey conducted by our team has totally garnered 78 responses from across India and 1 response from overseas.

Geography:

Zone wise distribution of the total responses is shown in below Exhibit 1

1%

35%

37%

24%

3%

Distribution of respondents Zonewise

OverseasNorth IndiaSouth IndiaWest IndiaEast India

Exhibit 1

Exhibit 1 shows that survey constitutes 35% of respondents from North India, 37% of respondents from South India, 24% of respondents from West India, 3% of respondents from East India and 1% of respondents from Overseas.

Zone wise preference of the respondents for The Hindu and TOI is as shown below in Exhibit 2

Over-seas

North India

South India

West India

East India

Total

Hindu

0 18 22 5 2 47

Times of India

1 10 7 14 0 32

10%50%90%

Zonewise preference comparison of The Hindu and TOI

% p

refe

rre

d

Exhibit 2

Out of total respondents of 79, 47 preferred The Hindu and 32 preferred TOI. According to Exhibit 2 Hindu leads TOI in South India and North India, whereas TOI leads Hindu in West India.

Age

Age wise distribution of the respondents participated in the survey is as shown in Exhibit 3

15-20

1 1%

21-25

62 78%

26-30

12 15%

30-35

2 3%

35+ 2 3%

Exhibit 3

Most respondents are from the age group of 21 to 25 representing about 78% of total respondents.

Exhibit 4 shows the distribution of preference between The Hindu and TOI with the age groups

15-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 35+

1

38

7

1 00

24

51 2

Distribution of Preference with AgeThe Hindu TOI

Exhibit 4

From Exhibit 4 it can be observed that respondents from age groups 21-25 and 26-30 prefer The Hindu over TOI

Exhibit 5 shows the age distribution of respondents, who have preferred The Hindu

2%

81%

15%

2%

The Hindu preference distribution - Agewise 15-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 35+

Exhibit 5

Age group of 21-25 constitutes 81% of total respondents who prefer The Hindu, whereas age group 21-25 constitutes 78% of total respondents who took the survey. This shows that age group 21-25 is most important constituent of reader base to The Hindu

Exhibit 6 shows the age distribution of respondents, who have preferred TOI

75%

16%

3%6%

TOI preference distribution - Agewise 15-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 35+

Exhibit 6

Similarly age group of 26-30 and 35+ which constitute 16% and 6% of respondents who prefer TOI is greater than 15% and 3% of respondents who took the survey. This shows that age group of 26-30 and 35+ are most important constituents of reader base to TOI

Occupation

Exhibit 7 shows the distribution of preference with occupation between Hindu and TOI

StudentBusinessman

ProfessionalExecutive

Home makerOther

32

1

13

10

0

13

0

16

20 1

Occupation wise preference distribution between The Hindu and TOI

The Hindu TOI

Exhibit 7

Exhibit 7 shows that Students prefer The Hindu whereas, Professionals prefer TOI.

Exhibit 8 shows distribution of occupation among over all respondents. Exhibit 9 and Exhibit 10 show the distribution of occupation among the respondents who prefer The Hindu and TOI respectively.

57%

1%

37%

4% 1%

Distribution by Occupation of RespondentsStudent Businessman Professional Executive Home maker Other

Exhibit 8

68%2%

28%

2%

Distribution by Occupation among Hindu preferred respondents

Student Businessman Professional Executive Home maker Other

Exhibit 9

41%

50%

6%3%

Distribution by Occupation among TOI preferred respondents

Student Businessman Professional Executive Home maker Other

Exhibit 10

Comparing Exhibits 8, 9 and 10 we can observe that Students are most important constituents of reader base to The Hindu and Professionals and Executives are most important constituents of reader base to TOI.

Life Style

Exhibit 11 and Exhibit 12 show the life style of the respondents who prefer The Hindu and TOI respectively.

34%

18%11%

7%

29%

1%

Life Style of The Hindu preferred respondentsFit or active Life Style Contemporary Digital LifestyleFashion Conscious Voluntary Simplicity Other

Exhibit 11

32%

13%

17%

6%

28%

4%

Life Style of TOI preferred respondentsFit or active Life Style Contemporary Digital LifestyleFashion Conscious Voluntary Simplicity Other

Exhibit 12

From Exhibit 11 and Exhibit 12, we can observe that respondents with Digital Lifestyle prefer TOI. Similarly, respondents with Contemporary Lifestyle prefer The Hindu

Features

Exhibit 13 presents what does the respondent, who prefer The Hindu, desire in English news daily versus what The Hindu currently caters

From Exhibit 13, we can observe that the Hindu cannot actually score to a desired extent on the features such as Readability, Balanced View, Entertainment, advertisement campaign and Health related features. Whereas, The Hindu does exceedingly well in providing features such as Technology, Job classified and Economy related features.

We can also observe that The Hindu satisfies its readers on features such as International, Sports, Educational, Political and Editorial.

Out of the 13 features surveyed The Hindu can either satisfy or exceed its reader’s expectations in 8 features.

Readabil-ity

Bal-an-ced

View/

Transperancy

In-ter-na-tional

Sports

Technol-ogy (In-for-ma-tion &

Commu-nica-tion Technol-ogy)

Edu-catio

n (Up-date

s and othe

r Rel-evan

t/Helpful

Ma-teria

l)

En-ter-tainmen

t (Page 3 / Mov

ie rat-ings

/ Re-

views)

Po-liti-cal Up-date

s

Job Clas-

si-fieds

Economy Up-date

s

Edi-tori-als / So-cial Is-

sues

Ad-ver-tisemen

t campaign ef-fects

/ Up-date

s

Health / Fashion / Life-Style

Desired

4.40425531914894

4.27659574468085

3.8936170212766

3.93617021276596

3.68085106382979

3.87234042553191

3.08510638297872

4.02127659574468

3.1063829787234

4.04255319148936

4.21276595744681

3.19148936170213

3.27659574468085

Actual

4.25531914893617

4 3.93617021276596

3.93617021276596

3.85106382978723

3.87234042553191

2.91489361702128

3.97872340425532

3.31914893617021

4.06382978723404

4.21276595744681

2.97872340425532

3.12765957446808

0.31.32.33.34.3

Desired featues vs Actual features available accord-ing to The Hindu preferred respondents

Rati

ng S

cale

Exhibit 13

Exhibit 14 presents what does the respondent, who prefer TOI, desire in English news daily versus what TOI currently caters

Readabil-ity

Bal-an-ced

View/

Transperancy

In-ter-na-tion

al

Sports

Technol-ogy (In-for-ma-tion

& Commu-nica-tion Technol-ogy)

Edu-catio

n (Up-date

s and othe

r Rel-evan

t/Helpful

Ma-teria

l)

En-ter-tainmen

t (Page 3 / Mov

ie rat-ings

/ Re-

views)

Po-liti-cal Up-date

s

Job Clas-

si-fieds

Economy Up-date

s

Edi-tori-als / So-cial Is-

sues

Ad-ver-tisemen

t campaign ef-fects

/ Up-date

s

Health / Fashion / Life-Style

Desired

4.1875

4.3125

3.65625

3.96875

3.65625

3.53125

3.625

3.96875

3.15625

3.75 3.6875

3.125

3.5

Actual

4.21875

3.59375

3.84375

3.84375

3.875

3.59375

3.1875

3.90625

3.21875

4.09375

3.75 2.9375

3.4375

0.31.32.33.34.3

Desired featues vs Actual features available accord-ing to TOI preferred respondents

Ra

tin

g S

ca

le

Exhibit 14

From Exhibit 14, we can observe that TOI cannot actually score to a desired extent on the features such as Balanced View, Sports, Entertainment, Political, advertisement campaign and Health related features. Whereas, TOI does exceedingly well in providing features such as International, Technology, Education, Editorial and Economy related features.

We can also observe that TOI satisfies its readers on features such as Readability and Job Classifieds.

Out of the 13 features surveyed TOI can either satisfy or exceed its reader’s expectations in 7 features.

Substitutability

Exhibit 15 and Exhibit 16 show how the TOI and The Hindu readers feel about substituting their most preferred choice with available choice.

55%45%

The Hindu respondents if they want to avail TOIYes No

Exhibit 15

78%

22%

TOI respondents if they want to avail The HinduYes No

Exhibit 16

From Exhibit 15 and 16 we can observe that The Hindu respondents are more resilient to substitute The Hindu with other available English dailies when compared to TOI respondents.

Effect of Advertisement Campaign

Exhibit 17 presents what respondents felt was the effect of advertisement campaigns of TOI and The Hindu where both the brands were locking horns against each other.

No effect 26

33%

Hindu have garnered more respect 30

38%

TOI is more relevant to current times 7 9%

Both have gained equally through the campaign 14

18%

Other 2 3%

Exhibit 17

From Exhibit 17 we can observe that most respondents feel that the campaign benefitted The Hindu.

Conclusion and Managerial Implications

Although IRS 2012 shows that Times of India is the most read English daily in India our survey states otherwise due to the sample considered. Also we could observe in the Zone wise distribution for North India region The Hindu is preferred over Times of India this is due to the fact that respondents from North India are mostly students and from Exhibit 9 we can observe that students prefer The Hindu over TOI.

Among the 13 features on which we have surveyed The Hindu meets its reader’s expectations on 8 features, Whereas TOI only meets it reader’s expectations on 7 features. This result can be used to iterate the fact that The Hindu is serves its readers better than what TOI does.

An interesting observation from Exhibit 16 about TOI readers is that 78% are willing to substitute TOI for any other English daily. The Hindu can use this observation to its advantage and can grow its market in North India by making itself available where ever TOI is not adequately available. For this to happen, The Hindu should look to establish more printing presses in North India in locations where TOI is not adequately available.

Another option with The Hindu to gain more readers is by continuing the Advertisement campaign which promotes The Hindu as a knowledgeable and long term looking brand. Exhibit 17 substantiates this conclusion.

The Hindu attracts students whereas, TOI attracts executives and professionals. As Executives and Professionals are generally decision makers in a family TOI holds advantage in converting a preference to a readership.

References

http://blog.releasemyad.com/2010/07/newspaper-history-the-origin-of-newspapers-in-india-and-the-world

http://rni.nic.in/welcome.html

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-03-30/india/38144726_1_indian-readership-survey-average-issue-readership-ahmedabad-mirror

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_India

http://www.bestmediainfo.com/2012/01/the-hindu-hits-back-at-toi-with-its-new-campaign/http://forbesindia.com/blog/business-strategy/how-toi-woke-up-the-hindu/http://www.afaqs.com/news/story/35838_The-Hindu:-Its-time-to-behave!http://www.inma.org/blogs/ideas/post.cfm/the-hindu-s-multi-media-campaign-making-education-cool-goes-viralhttp://www.thehindu.com/news/national/changes-at-the-helm-editorial-and-business/article5257829.ece?homepage=truehttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-31/india-s-top-newspapers-battle-for-readers-hearts-and-souls-choudhury.htmlhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/596251/The-Times-of-Indiahttp://www.worldpress.org/newspapers/ASIA/India.cfm

http://mruc.net/irs2012q4_topline_findings.pdf