THE INDIAN EXPRESS

A STUDY OF BRAND PERCEPTION OF THE INDIAN EXPRESS IN BARODA

BARODA
From 01st May, 2011 to 30th June, 2011 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the two year full time PGDM

SUBMITTED BY: GULAB SINGH PGDM (II-Sem.)

GUIDED BY: Internal Guide: Prof. ANIRUDH TAMBE External Guide: Mr. VIRENDRA GAEKWAD

Parul Institute Of Management (PGDM),Limada,Waghodia, Baroda

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

DECLARATION
I, GULAB SINGH, students of Parul Institute of Management, Baroda hereby declare that this project namely A study of Brand perception of The Indian Express in Baroda was done by me under the guidance of Mr. VIRENDRA GAEKWAD (Circulation Manager) and Prof. ANIRUDH TAMBE (Parul Institute of Management). I also declare that, this project has not been submitted fully or partially for the award of any degree, diploma, title or recognition earlier.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sl. No. 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 2.1 2.1.1 2.1.2 2.1.3 3.1 3.1.1 3.1.2 3.1.3 3.1.4 4.1 4.1.1 4.1.2 4.1.3 4.1.4 4.1.4.1 4.1.4.2 4.1.4.3 5.1 5.1.1 5.1.2 5.1.3 5.1.4 6.1 6.1.1 6.1.2 6.1.3 6.2.1 6.2.2 7.1 7.1.1 7.1.1.1 7.1.1.2 Title CHAPTER 1 Purpose of Project Limitations Methodology Structure of Report CHAPTER 2 Introduction Indian Newspaper Industry The Indian Express Group The Indian Express Newspaper CHAPTER 3 Project 1 : Circulation & Distribution Problem Introduction of Newspaper Circulation Problem Definition Process Study of Distribution Process Distribution Process Chart CHAPTER 4 Project 2 : Market Research Project Management Decision and Market Research Problem Market Research Problem and Research Components Information Required Research Methodology Sampling Technique Data Collection Questionnaire Development & Pre-Testing CHAPTER 5 Project 3 : Frontline Sales & Promotion The Selling Process Problem Definition Process Scope and Objective Frontline Sales Process Strategy CHAPTER 6 Conceptual approach towards Brand Perception. Introduction Brand and its Importance. Brand Equity and its Model. Brand Perception. Measuring Brand Perception. CHAPTER 7 Data Analysis & Results Project 2 : Market Research Project Descriptive Research Qualitative Research
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Page No. 7 8 8 9 9 10 13 13 14 16 18 18 18 18 18 19 21 21 21 21 22 24 24 24 25 27 27 27 29 30 30 32 32 32 32 33 35 36 42 42 42 42 67

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CHAPTER 8 8. 8.1 8.1.1 8.1.2 8.2 9. Discussions and Conclusion Suggestions and recommendations Circulation & Distribution Study Frontline Sales & Promotion Learnings CHAPTER 9 Appendix

92 92

92 96 97 99 99

TABLE OF FIGURES
Fig. No. Fig(i) Fig(ii) Fig(iii) Fig(iv) Fig(v) Fig(vi) Fig(vii) Fig(viii) Fig(ix) Fig(x) Fig(xi) Fig(xii) Fig(xiii) Fig(xiv) Fig(xv) Fig(xvi) Fig(xvii) Fig(xviii) Fig(xix) Fig(xx) Fig(xxi) Fig(xxii) Fig(xxiii) Title Newspaper Distribution Process Chart Customer based Brand Equity Model MR Data Analysis : Age of the Respondent MR Data Analysis : Sex of the Respondent MR Data Analysis : Qualification of the Respondent MR Data Analysis : Occupation of Respondent MR Data Analysis : Place of buying newspaper MR Data Analysis : Newspaper read by the Respondent MR Data Analysis : Age Wise Readership MR Data Analysis : Section Preferred in newspaper MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Content MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Images MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Color MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Layout MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Design MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Length of the Articles MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Coverage of the News MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Analysis of the News MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Price of the Newspaper MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Design Timeliness MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Current Affairs MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Political News MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Business & Finance
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Page No. 19 32 42 43 44 45 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

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Fig(xxiv) MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Entertainment News Fig(xxv) MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Sports News Fig(xxvi) MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Health Articles Fig(xxvii) MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Editorials Fig(xxviii) MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Educational Articles Fig(xxix) MR Data Analysis : Satisfaction Rating Advertisements Fig(xxx) MR Data Analysis : Awareness of TNIE e-newspaper Fig(xxxi) MR Data Analysis : Overall Satisfaction Rating Fig(xxxii) MR Data Analysis : The Hindu as a Cricketer Fig(xxxiii) MR Data Analysis : Times of India as a Cricketer Fig(xxxiv) MR Data Analysis : TNIE as a Cricketer Fig(xxxv) MR Data Analysis : Mint as a Cricketer Fig(xxxvi) MR Data Analysis : The Hindu as a Film Star Fig(xxxvii) MR Data Analysis : Times of India as a Film Star Fig(xxxviii) MR Data Analysis : TNIE as a Film Star Fig(xxxix) MR Data Analysis : Mint as a Film Star

61 62 63 64 64 65 66 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction to Project

1.1 Purpose of Project

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The Readership survey can help the organization optimize the relationship with its customers. In the highly competitive world with competitors waiting eagerly for a company to make the smallest mistake, it is extremely important for the company to ascertain the satisfaction of their customers. After all, with no customers, the company has no revenues. The survey helps to:
Measure customer satisfaction levels.

Figure out different brand enhancing factors.

Improve customer retention. Gauge interest in new products and service offerings. Pinpoint areas for improvement.

The project so was conducted in three phases with the following aims: Phase 1: Study the Distribution & Circulation of The Indian Express newspaper. Phase 2: Management Decision & Market Research Problem DM Problem: To figure out the brand enhancing factor of the brand The Indian Express. MR Problem: To examine the brand perception of The Indian Express in Baroda. Phase 3: Sales & Promotion for The Indian Express Newspaper. 1.2 Limitations
1. The list of customers given as sample of the market may not be

correctly representative of the market considering the huge size and diversity of the market.
2. False response and biased answers given by the respondents may
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affect the quality of the results obtained.

3. The study is conducted considering the prevailing conditions

which are subject to change in the future.

4. The Research is confined to the geographical boundary of Baroda. 5. Sampling has its own limitations; it may or may represent the

intended Population. 1.3 Methodology The Market Research project was carried out in two phases. In the first phase primary data was collected from the customers through questionnaires (direct, telephonic and mailed) prepared for the purpose. The second phase consisted of analyzing the Primary data with SPSS tool and does the findings and Analysis. 1.4 Structure of Report The project report starts with an introduction which contains the background to the management decision problem. The management decision problem is defined after this. Following this the research problem, components and research questions are stated. The methodology followed for research in the project is then explained. Next the analysis of the data collected and the results of the same are given. This is followed by discussions and conclusion of the project. This includes suggestions and recommendations for solving the management decision problem based on the results of the analysis as well as the learning from the project. The report ends with an overall conclusion after which the references and appendix are given.

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CHAPTER 2

Introduction of Company & Industry

WHAT IS A NEWSPAPER

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A newspaper is a printed periodical whose purpose is to deliver news and other information in an up-to-date, factual manner. Newspapers appear most commonly in daily editions, but may also be issued twice a day or weekly. While the content of a newspaper varies, it generally consists of a predetermined combination of news, opinion, and advertising. The editorial section is written by reporters and other journalists at the direction of editors and may also be compiled from wire service reports. The advertising content of a newspaper can be divided into two parts, classified and display. Classified ads are small, text-only items obtained via telephone and set into the format by the classified advertising representative. Sales representatives employed by the newspaper who actively solicit local businesses for this larger, more visually oriented ad space obtain display ads. A newspaper is printed on thin paper made from a combination of recycled matter and wood pulp, and is not intended to last very long. Large printing presses, usually located at a plant separate from the editorial and advertising headquarters, print the editions, and a network of delivery trucks bring them to

CHAPTER 3
the newsstands

and

geographical

distribution centers for subscribers.

INDIAN NEWS MEDIA

Compared to many other developing countries, the Indian press has flourished since independence and exercises a large degree of independence.
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Many of India's great English-language newspapers and some of its Indianlanguage press were begun during the nineteenth century. The Indian press has experienced impressive growth since independence. In 1950 there were 214 daily newspapers, with forty-four in English and the rest in Indian languages. By 1990, the number of daily newspapers had grown to 2,856, with 209 in English and 2,647 in indigenous languages. The expansion of literacy and the spread of consumerism during the 1980s fuelled the rapid growth of news weeklies and other periodicals. By 1993 India had 35,595 newspapers--of which 3,805 were dailies-and other periodicals. Although the majority of publications are in indigenous languages, the English-language press, which has widespread appeal to the expanding middle class, has a wide multicity circulation throughout India. There are four major publishing groups in India, each of which controls national and regional English-language and vernacular publications. They are the Times of India Group, the Indian Express Group, the Hindustan Times Group, and the Anandabazar Patrika Group. The Times of India is India's largest English-language daily, with a circulation of 17,00,000, published in six cities. The Indian Express, with a daily circulation of 15,19,000, is published in seventeen cities. There also are seven other daily newspapers with circulations of between 134,000 and 477,000, all in English and all competitive with one another.

ABOUT THE GROUP

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Ramnath Goenka established the Indian Express in Chennai in 1932 in its current avatar when the struggle for Indian independence was at its peak. Goenka, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, heeded his call for an independent voice of India's millions and took over the newspaper from S. Sadanand for Rs. 300,000 - all the money he had at the time. Often taking on the British regime, Goenka infused the legendary anti-establishment spirit in its content that remains its hallmark. The newspaper that's been accused of being "maker and destroyer" of governments The Indian Express Group is a flag-bearer for the Indian publishing industry. It brings out over 12 publications, in 6 major languages, from 20 publishing centers across the country. It has over 6 million readers across the country. Covering the length and breadth of the country from Jammu to Kochi it is the largest publishing house in India. It is being Marketed through a network of over 5000 agents, 34 offices spread across the country, and a staff of over 600 marketing personnel.

The Indian Express group publications include the Indian Express, The Financial Express, Loksatta and the highly respected Bollywood weekly Screen among others.

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

The Indian Express is a newspaper started by Ram Nath Goenka, and is published from New Delhi, India. The Indian Express is owned by the
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Indian Express Group, which also owns the Financial Express, a newspaper focused on the Indian economy, stock markets, and fiscal policies. In 1948, Ram Nath Goenka partnered with Lala Deshbandhu Guptato of Daily Tej Limited to publish Indian News Chronicle, English daily, from New Delhi.[1] After the demise of Guptato, the daily was bought by Ram Nath Goenka and renamed as The Indian Express It boasts of having on its staff some of the country's most reputed reporters and editors. Its investigative reports have led to changes in several areas. Its coverage of the murder of an engineer working on the national highway project got the Supreme Court to force the Government to commit to a whistleblower law. Its campaign also helped bring about the Right to Information law. Also the Express Group has a Bombay division, different from its Madurai division, which brings out the South Indian newspaper, The Indian Express. The Indian Express is in fact considered to be much less fashionable when compared to its elite competitor The Times of India.

RAM NATH GOENKA

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A man who fearlessly struggled to uphold the freedom of the press and democracy, Ramnath Goenka is a legend in the history of the Indian fourth estate. Born and brought up in Bihar, at the age of 15, he decided to migrate to the city to follow his dreams. From a very young age, he exhibited a fiery patriotism and Mahatma Gandhi advised him to publish a newspaper devoted to the freedom struggle. In 1932, he took over the loss-making Madras edition of The Free Press Journal and drove the delivery van himself to dispatch the papers. He founded the Indian Express in 1936. For him a newspaper was not just another business. It was a mission, a vocation and a calling. The running of The Indian Express was, for him, not a matter of profit and loss but a vehicle of national empowerment. Two elements made him a true original. His sense of history and his instinct of patriotism

He switched on the light we are guided by it.

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VIVECK GOENKA
An Engineer by qualification, a newspaper publisher by profession and a socially committed citizen by choice, Mr. Viveck Goenka is the Chairman & Managing Director of Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd., one of the most widespread newspaper publishing groups in India. He is also a Director of the United News of India. He has been Director of The Press Trust of India (PTI), a Council member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), and was one of the youngest past presidents of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS). He has developed several business publications like Express Computer in imparting information in development of modern technology. One of his initiatives, a North American edition of The Indian Express, is a reflection of his commitment to disseminate information about India to the millions of Indian living abroad. He has created an atmosphere of freedom and independence for editorial teams of all Express publications. His only stipulation, be just, be free of bias, be dauntless in the spirit of the Express founder Ramnath Goenka and live up to the Express ethos of Journalism of Courage. It is his commitment to editorial independence that has made the Express Group the first choice of editorial professionals across the country.

VISION
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Journalism Of Courage: - The Editorial Vision

"Our philosophy the to is to cover all the news

that able

other

newspapers for

would

either reason. is to

not be able to access, or would not be publish, our whatever also However, philosophy

publish all such news in a balanced and fair manner." "We always has have sharp opinions a and we

always take a stand on issues. The Indian Express never had missionary position on anything. It's either one way or the other. This is by and large our philosophy"

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MISSION

Indian Express is competing for bigger subscriber base while trying to justify advertising expenditures by their advertisers. The main challenge of this campaign is to increase circulation and readership of Indian Express & Sunday Express. The mission is to expand the market share of Indian Express by creating a new market and by taking bites from competitors market share. The vision is to stand at a respectful position in this marathon and also keep up with the pace of the changing needs of our valued readers. The procedure is to meet prospective readers of main-line newspapers on one-on-one basis and convince them to start reading our publication. The agenda is to win more and more readers to our cause. In addition of being backed-up by a strong product, we need to deliver 100% of ourselves.

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SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTH Indian Express and Financial Express both have got strong brand image, so company can encase this for other segments also. The investigative stories of the Indian Express differentiate itself from its competitors.
Direct marketing used by the circulation department can cover

potential market. WEAKNESS The promotional schemes are not planned and implemented well. In case of Financial Express- high price as compared to the competitors. No free gifts given to the readers. There are very less supplements with the main news paper. No information about education in paper. Newsprint quality.

OPPORTUNITIES Currently company is giving 50% off on Financial Express, which helps the company to expand the market. There were around 80% Gujarati medium schools and only 20% English medium schools in 1990, but these figures have changed to 80% English medium and 20% Gujarati medium schools.
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THREATS High competition from Times Of India, which affects the readership of Indian Express group.
In the state of Gujarat there are only 8 to 10% of English readers.

ABOUT INDIAN EXPRESS NEWSPAPER

The Indian Express is the newspaper that makes national impact everyday. Award winning exclusive stories that shake the establishment and exposes those who bring-out corruption and malpractices in the system. It is 20 pages daily, packed with news, information, analysis, business, edit, sports & entertainment. It has 18 main pages and the rest 2 pages are for Gujarat news line, which covers local and regional news. It gets published from the following places: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Ahmedabad Chandigarh Delhi Jammu Kolkata Lucknow Mumbai Nagpur New York (Weekly)

10. Pune 11. Vadodara.

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USP: Bringing to light story that is a part of journalistic legend. The school of investigative journalism. No sexy sound bites, no talking heads discussing ethics in a studio. No spy cameras, no faking identities. Only what they teach on Day One in the newsroom: get out, get the facts.

Cost of the news paper

Indian express:Rs. Saturday Sunday express: Rs. 5.00 on Sunday. 2.50 from Monday to

18 PAGES OF MATTER COVERS News Covers regional news. National Network Countrywide news. Editorial Page. --Editors contributions, Letters to the editor. International.
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Business. Sport.

EXPRESS MONEY
It is a 4-page tabloids supplement every Monday covering news from the capital market. It specially covers the news from the following area: Stock Market. Insurance Banking Investment Financial Planning Data Lifestyle.

The Sunday Express - AT A GLANCE

Bringing Sunday reading back in fashion. Fills a gaping niche for a comprehensive Sunday reading. 34-pages of in-depth and enjoyable content. Best stories from across the country. Contributions from the editorial team in New York, London, Moscow, Washington, Chicago and San Francisco.
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Exclusive tie-ups with The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. Contents News.
The Sunday Story. The big investigative news pieces.

A sweeping exclusive on the weeks top story.

Major stories on lifestyle and has sub-sections

such as Travelogue, Books and Arts & Culture. Book reviews, special columns.

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EDITORS
SHEKHAR GUPTA:
Gupta who writes a weekly column, National Interest, in the Indian Express, also has a programme, Walk the Talk, on NDTV 24x7, Indias most popular television news channel in English. The weekly show features conversations with newsmakers from politics, society, sports and entertainment. His works Include Assam: A Valley Divided, published in 1984. Gupta, who worked as a Research Associate at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), was also a member of the Council.

RAJ KAMAL JHA:

Raj Kamal Jha (b. 1966) is the author of The Blue Bedspread which was nominated in and had won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, 2000, for Best First Book (Eurasia region) and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Jha was recently a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He was also a fellow at the prestigious Yaddo Residency in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 2005

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SANDIPAN DEB

Sandipan Deb is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, Sandipan spent three years in corporate India before shifting to journalism. He has been Executive Editor of A&M (Advertising and Marketing) and Senior Editor at Business Today. Sandipan is the author of The IITians, the first book on Indias premier engineering institutes and its alumni.

OM THANVI:

He is known for his social and cultural concerns. He has personally been engaged in theatre, literature and environmental activities. Has keen interest in history and anthropology; particularly in music, cinema, painting, architecture and language. Om Thanvi is a recipient of the prestigious Haldighati Award for Journalism, constituted by the Mewar 10 Foundation, Udaipur.

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

THE BIO-DATA OF THE UNIT

NAME OF UNIT ADDRESS : : THE INDIAN EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS INDIAN EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS 407, Dwarkesh Complex, R.C.Dutt Road, Alkapuri, Vadodara - 390 007 PHONE NO FAX E-MAIL WEB : : : : 0265-2352853, 0265-2352852 0265-2352509 circulation.ahd@expressindia.com www.expressindia.com

LOGO FOUNDER

: : Ramnath Goenka
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EDITOR IN CHIEF BRANCH MANAGER PRODUCTION HEAD SPACE MARKETING Exe. CIRCULATION

: : : : :

Shekhar Gupta Mr. Mahesh Patel Mr. Maria Das Mr. Manish Rathod Mr. Virendra Gaekwad Mr. Pintu Dhodya

Chapter-3

MARKETING DEPARTEMENT

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The newspaper costs around 14 to 15 rupees, and as we had discussed earlier that its selling price is around 2.5 rupees. So to get profit from this there should be a source of revenue. This revenue is generated from two sources:

1) Circulation. 2) Advertisements.

Thus there are two departments in marketing: 1) Circulation department, which takes care of sales of the newspaper, and 2) Space marketing, which allocates the space for the advertisements.

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A) CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT:

Circulation department is responsible for the circulation of the newspaper in the whole region, which comes under the preview of the respective editions. Activities of the circulation department

Following are the activities of the circulation department:

1 2 3 4

Recruit agency Dispatch news papers Collection of payments Promotional and branding activities.

A. Events B. Customer contact program C. Trade activities.

This is a very important department for the newspaper as this is only the one, which is responsible to create brand awareness in the customers mind, and also the one who is responsible to maintain a direct relationship with the suppliers, newspaper agencies and the customers.

These people also carry out all the promotional activities. The Indian Express uses sources like hoardings, television and magazine ads, organizing events, etc. for its promotion. NDTV India, a news channel, is used for the promotion of the Group. On the occasion of the Environment Day a event was organized at Vadodara in cooperation with the ONGC. During the launch of Financial Express (Ahemdabad edition) hoardings were used.

DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL:
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Production Department
Vans

Center Agent Vendor Stalls

End Customer
As above shown, distribution channel starts from the distribution. Production department supplies copies to the distributors. There are vans with the company to distribute the copies from the production center to the different distribution points. After that distributor supplies it to the Agent then through vendors or Cash stall then ultimately it goes to the customer. The van owners, who take a newspaper from the production house to the distribution centers, are on a contract basis. These vans take both the city and up country editions to their respective centers. All the newspaper should reach the centers before 3:30 in the morning. Here at Vadodara there are two major centers:

1) Station 2) Raopura
At Raopura, The Indian Express had an agency named CHITRA AGENCY which is responsible for the distribution of the newspaper to different vendors or hawkers.
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The vendors come around 4 a.m. in the morning and take their respective copies from the agent. The vendor had to give his code number, which has been given to him by the publication, and total number of copies he wanted. He will also give the remaining copies of the previous day paper so that he can get back that much amount back. Figure shows the type of invoice prepared by the agent.

For inserting the supplements into the main newspaper

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

VENDOR CODE NO._________________ NO. OF COPIES.

contract is given to people who takes 2 paisa for inserting one supplement. These vendors then distribute the copies to their wardboys. They are called so because their wards (areas) where they had to distribute the paper are pre decided by the vendor.

The Agent gets 5% commission on the sell of each copy. Thus he gets 17 paisa per copy (5% of Rs. 2.5).

DISPATCH DEPARTMENT:

DISPATCH 10 DEPARTMENT

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UP COUNTRY CHANNEL (VADODARA DISTRICT)

CITY SUPPLY

C I R C U L A T I O N

AGENTS (UP COUNTRY) RAOPURA SUBAGENTS (REMOTE AREAS) STATION

READERS

HAWKERS

READERS

HAWKERS:
You may not even know the name of your vendor but remember, he makes sure you know something about the world. He is the unsung hero of the world of news and letters.
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They sneak in the world through your door. They make sure the world comes calling at your doorstep with a pinpoint accuracy. In the wee hours when the world sleeps they venture out, taking their rickety cycles out, honking their way through the streets. To the nearest depot, actually a collection center for most local newspapers.

Then the process of sorting the newspaper begins, colony-wise, block-wise, row-wise and so on. Within this classification comes the intricate task of putting newspapers in order. Some want the paper that people trust; others vouch for the one that claims truth must prevail. The hawkers get around 28% commissions. Thus they buy the newspaper at Rs. 1.80 from the agent and sell it at a cover price of Rs. 2.50 and get a profit of 70 paisa.

B) SPACE MARKETING DEPARTMENT:

We know that the elder son is more responsible than the parents in the home to earn. In the same way, Space Marketing Department is the department that earns the revenue and is responsible for it, while the Editorial department is important for the organization by the readers point of view. The editorial section is written by reporters and other journalists at the direction of editors and may also be compiled from wire service reports.

ACTIVITIES OF SPACE MARKETING DEPARTMENT

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Marketing/Sale space of various publications of Indian Express Group and its other products, collect advertisements and in turn generate revenues. Collect the advertisement by fieldwork. Media and Scheduling the ads like 1. When to publish 2. How to Publish 3. What space require for that advertisement. 4. On which Page it should be print 5. According to place and space the rate of that advertisement is decided. 6. Collection of payments of advertisement from the customers.

A mock-up of the page, essentially a blank form showing where the stories will run and where pictures and advertising will be inserted, is called the "dummy." The makeup editor has already met with the space-marketing department to determine how such pages will be laid out with ad space. The dummy has rough notes for headlines, story insertions, and graphic elements such as photos and tables of statistics. It also shows the date of the edition as well as a page and section number. After the news editor has determined the placement of the story on the page in questionas well as the other items set to run there the dummy is sent on to a composing room.

DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF ADVERTISEMENTS

The advertising content of a newspaper can be divided into two parts, (1) Classifieds (2) Display.

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Classified ads are small, text-only items obtained via telephone and set into the format by the classified advertising representative. Sales representatives employed by the newspaper who actively solicit local businesses for this larger, more visually oriented ad space obtain display ads. In addition to these other categories are tenders, financials, appointments, etc. Display, financial and tenders have higher rates, while classifieds and appointments have lower rates. The vernacular newspapers have the display category revenue higher than the others. The front page, the last page and the 3rd page are the main pages where the advertisements are printed. These pages are also more costly as compare to other. The charge for printing an advertisement varies from day to day. It also varies for different newspaper. The maximum advertisement height is 49 cm. without date line and the maximum breadth is 33.2 cm. The minimum height is (3*4) cm. 60 col. cm. (20*3, 30*2); 100 col. cm.; strip (12*8). Any advertisement on the front page can be taken in the below mentioned size only.

ADDVERTSEMENT COST:
PUBLICATIONS B&W RATES COLOUR RATES

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Ahmedabad

Ahemdabad Newsline Inside page Front page pointer 150 225 Front page 200 Back page 175

Rajkot (Saurashtra-Kutch) Newsline

80

120

Baroda

Vadodara Newsline Front page Back page 150 175 155 200 165

CLIENTS:
Around 35 to 40% market share in terms of advertisement revenue comes from the government. Thus they are the major clients for the Indian Express. The state government releases their ads through DIPR (Department of Information and Public Relationship), while the central government releases their advertisement through DAVP (Directorial of Audio Video and Publicity). This means that the government gives their ads to these organizations and they published them in the daily newspapers. Other organizations release their advertisements through Advertisement Agencies. Also the publisher does not take direct advertisements but gets it through the ad agencies because of payment securities. There are three types of advertisement agencies:
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1) Non-accredited: They are not registered at INS (Indian Newspaper Society) 2) Provisional accredited: Once they apply for registration it takes 6 months 3) Accredited: They can published or release their ads across the whole country in any publications. In a newspaper there is about 60% editorial material and about 40% advertisement material. This is the standard set for the advertisement content for the Indian Express.

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Chapter-4

Conceptual Approach towards Brand Perception

4.1.1 Introduction. A successful brand is the most valuable resource a company has. It is being said that, in the coming years companies will include a statement of value to their balance sheets to include the intangibles such as Brand. Consumers associate the value of a product with the brand. For example, the brand name of Tata Motors, Maruti-Suzuki, HUL etc, are

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indisputable in India. It is customers perception that makes the value of the brand and ultimately contributes to competitive advantage. 4.1.2 Brand and its Importance. The American Marketing Association defines a brand as "a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors". (Marketing Management, Kotler). Ancient history provides evidence of the importance of brands. Earlier it used to be like, maker of certain product like wine, put their name on the barrels of the wine. That name made all differentiation to their counterparts. It still exists in our on Indian locality as some Kirana store bears the name as their Brand. People buy from that particular Kirana store in the trust that, they will get quality product at affordable price. Importance to consumers Can evaluate his/her brand among identical product of all competitors. Simplify decision making. Reduce risk is invaluable.

4.1.3 Brand Equity & its Model. The value directly or indirectly accrued by these various benefits is often called brand equity (Kapferer, 2005; Keller, 2003). Brand equity has been studied by marketer and researcher with different perspective. Customer-based approach view brand equity from the perspective of both consumer and organization. It was first developed by Kevin Lane Keller which depicts the process that goes into building strong
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brand. It basically describes six dimensions of brand equity: Brand salience, brand performance, brand imagery, consumer judgments, consumer feeling and brand resonance.

Fig (2): Customer based brand equity model; by Kevin Lane Keller.

These are the six dimensions:

Brand salience relates to how often and easily the brand is evoked under various purchase or consumption situations. Brand performance relates to how the product or service meets customers' functional needs. Brand imagery deals with the extrinsic properties of the product or service, including the ways in which the brand attempts to meet customers' psychological or social needs.

Brand judgments focus on customers' own personal opinions and evaluations. Brand feelings are customers' emotional responses and reactions with respect to the brand.
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Brand resonance refers to the nature of the relationship that customers have with the brand and the extent to which customers feel that they are "in sync" with the brand.

4.2.1. Brand Perception. Though brand is the most important thing to any company, its value is derived from the words and perception of the consumers. Consumers decide with their purchases, based on their brand knowledge, which brands have more equity than other brands. Brand knowledge is nothing but status of brand in the mind consumer based on thoughts, feeling, images, beliefs, attitudes, experiences and so on. This brand knowledge affects how consumers respond to products, prices, communications, channels and other marketing activity increasing or decreasing brand value in the process. This ultimately helps in formation association with any particular brand. Two particularly important components of brand knowledge are brand awareness and brand image. Brand awareness is ability of the consumers brain to recall or recognize under different conditions. Brand awareness can be characterized by depth and breadth. The depth of brand awareness relates to the likelihood that the brand can be recognized or recalled. The breadth of brand awareness relates to the variety of purchase and consumption situations in which the brand comes to mind. Brand image is defined as consumer perceptions of and preferences for a brand, as reflected by the various types of brand associations held in consumers' memory. These associations range along a number of different dimensions, such as their strength, positivity, uniqueness, and abstractness. Strong, favorable and unique brand associations are essential as sources of brand equity to drive consumer behavior.

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4.2.2. Measuring Brand Perception.

Why
1. Customer perceptions drive business. It is consumers perception that indirectly values to the company. One consumers perception perpetuate to other through word of mouth. This ultimately leads to increasing or degrading consumer base based on the positive or negative word of mouth, respectively. 2. Companies dont get around to listening. Most organizations would agree with the importance of understanding market perceptions, but they never seem to find the time or dollars to engage directly with their customers and other key stakeholders to find out what theyre thinking, or whats important to them. Instead, they continue on in the hope that what they hear from their sales and customer service reps offers a complete and accurate picture of what their customers are thinking and saying to others.

What
1. Brand perception study (BPS) simplifies the process of getting to the customer. BPS helps in figuring out perception of consumers on any particular brand through qualitative & quantitative research. The study focuses on three key areas of brand perception: 1. Overall impression 2. Willingness to recommend 3. Performance, based on standard and client-specific product/service criteria a) Best alternative (competitor) and how do they compare
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b) Level of importance of each criterion 2. Net Champion Score (NCS) offers a quick indicator of the brands health. NCS is the total score that is calculated (for the above key area of the brand perception) by some company over a period of time in order to find the health of the brand.

When
The entire processfrom MR proposal and survey and to final report takes about six weeks. Full results are made available to the client hard copy and online (in tables, charts and full text).

Who
There are some agencies existing in both Indian and global marketplace which do this work. These agencies constantly observe the different market scenario in order to find out its implication on different existing brands and brand perception.

How
1. Qualitative Research Before starting to identify the kind of brand perception, it is equally important to figure out the kind of brand association a consumer have with the brand. Qualitative research techniques are often employed to identify possible brand associations and sources of brand equity. Qualitative research techniques are relatively unstructured measurement approaches whereby a range of possible consumer
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responses are permitted. Because of the freedom afforded both researchers in their probes and consumers in their responses, qualitative research can often be a useful "first step" in exploring consumer brand and product perceptions. Following the few qualitative research techniques can be useful in this regard: Free Association This is the technique to identify the kind of brand association a consumer have with the brand and later perception about the brand. It involves the free association task where question is asked what comes to mind when they think of brand. Answers to these questions helps to clarify the range of possible associations and assemble a brand profile. To better understand the positivity of brand associations, consumers can be asked follow up questions as to the favorability of associations they listed or, more generally, what they like best about the brand. Similarly, consumers can also be asked direct follow-up questions as to the uniqueness of associations they listed or, more generally, what they find unique about the brand. Thus, additionally useful questions include: 1) What do you like best about the brand? What are its positive aspects? What do you dislike? What are its disadvantages? 2) What do you find unique about the brand? How is it different from other brands? In what ways is it the same? These simple, direct measures can be extremely valuable at determining core aspects of a brand image. To provide more structure and guidance, consumers can be asked further follow up questions to describe what the brand means to them in terms of "who, what, when, where, why, and how" type of questions such as: 1) Who uses the brand? What kind of person? 2) When and where do they use the brand? What types of situations?
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3) Why do people use the brand? What do they get out of using it? 4) How do they use the brand? What do they use it for? This technique can be the part of the In-depth Interview, which basically involves the one on one interview. It may have structured and unstructured form of questionnaire based on the experience of the interviewer. Projective Techniques It may seems simple to carry out a survey with a structured researched questionnaires, but when it comes to actual results there may be find some deviation from what had been found in the survey. Consumers may or may not figure out their own perception and association with the brand in true form. So, in that case projective technique is the best and simplest method to figure out their true perception. The idea behind projective techniques is that consumers are presented with an incomplete stimulus and asked to complete it or given an ambiguous stimulus that may not make sense in and of itself and are asked to make sense of it. In doing so, the argument is that consumers will reveal some of their true beliefs and feelings. Thus, projective techniques can be especially useful when deeply rooted personal motivations or personally or socially sensitive subject matters may be operating. Projective techniques often provide useful insights that help to assemble a more complete picture of the perception and their relationship with the brand. These are the few way of projective technique: word association, sentence Completion, and storytelling. Brand Personality Another way to figure out the perception and the kind of relationship with the brand is brand personality.Brand personality is
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the human characteristics or traits that can attributed to a brand (Aaker, 1997). Brand personality can be measured in different ways. Perhaps the simplest and most direct way is to solicit open-ended responses to a probe such as: If the brand were to come alive as a person, what it would be like, what would it do, where would it live, what would it wear, who would it talk to if it went to a party (and what would it talk about)." Observational Approaches This may not be an effective way study the brand perception of consumer, but it may give some insight on the impact of their perception on buying pattern. In this, consumers can be observed without being noticed as they shop or as they consume products to capture every nuance of their behavior.
2. Quantitative Research

Although qualitative measures are useful to identify and characterize the range of possible associations to a brand, a more quantitative portrait of the brand often is also desirable to permit more confident and defensible strategic and tactical recommendations. Whereas qualitative research typically elicits some type of verbal responses from consumers, quantitative research typically employs various types of scale questions so that numerical representations and summaries can be made. Quantitative measures are often the primary ingredient in tracking studies that monitor brand knowledge structures of consumers over time.

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CHAPTER 5

Market Research

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5.1: Market Research With the recent Herculean growth in the field of technology and science, the news paper readers have considerably reduced and people have now started using internet as their innovative medium to get them informed about the latest happenings around the globe, as a result of which selling newspapers has become more challenging for the news paper companies. Each and every reader has different tastes and to fulfill the flavors of a mass audience is a phenomenal challenge 5.1.1 Management Decision and Market Research Problem Management Decision Problem What could be the brand enhancing factor for brand The Indian Express in Baroda? Market Research Problem What sort of perceptions people of Baroda have about the brand The Indian Express. 5.1.2 Market Research Problem & Market Research Components

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Now that I have identified what is to be learned and what information I want to obtain i.e. what questions to ask, what variables to study in the previous step. To get the answers to the issues raised in the previous step I have to lay out a research design for obtaining the information. In this project my objective is to analyze the perception about the brand The Indian Express among the general news paper readers. So I have identified what is to be learned and I have designed a questionnaire based on the information that I want to obtain. The first part of the research design is to decide on the type of research that will work best for the purpose and information that is sought. I have decided to use the descriptive and qualitative (In-depth) type of research for my project. Market Research Component: What Factors affect the Purchasing Decision of the Newspaper? Sub Components: Criteria influencing a Reader to buy an English Newspaper (Price, Content or Both)

Customers perception on Annual Offer Schemes of The Indian Express Newspaper Relative Comparison of the Indian Express Newspaper with other Major Players

5.1.3 Information Required Readers basic understanding of different brand of newspaper:

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This can be done by asking them simple correlation with any film star or cricketer.

Which section do the customers read or start with and how they feel about that on comparative basis with different newspaper: This question will give us the taste or interest of the customer This will tell us whether the customer is interested in:

Current affairs Political news

Business & Finance Entertainment Sports Health articles Educational articles

Editorials Others

Content and photographs : This question will tell us about the ability of the customer to understand the details from the paper and will tell us whether the customers like to have pictorial representation of the news, which will further make it easily understandable.

Annual Subscription Scheme : This is the most important part of the survey as this will tell us whether the customer is aware of our annual subscription scheme
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(Rs 599 per year) or not and will also tell us whether the scheme is an attractive deal or not i.e. whether the customer is interested in the scheme or not.

5.1.4 Research Methodology The Market research project was carried out in two phases. In the first phase primary data was collected from the customers through questionnaires (direct, telephonic and mailed) prepared for the purpose. The second phase consisted of analyzing the Primary data with SPSS (Statistical Package for the
Social Sciences) tool and does the findings and Analysis.

5.1.4.1 Sampling Technique Target Population Sampling Technique Sample Size : English Daily readers in Baroda. : random sampling : 200 (including 20 vendor interviews)

5.1.4.2 Data Collection The second part of the research design involves laying out a plan to collect the information within the research method selected. To gather research marketers have three choices:

Acquire Pre-existing research.

Undertake new research themselves. Out-source the task of new research to a third-party, such as a market research company.
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The first option is associated with Secondary research and the last two options are associated with the Primary research. The datas that I collected for the research are mentioned in the questionnaire. Further, I used the Quantitative & Qualitative data collection type of Primary research. 5.1.4.3 Questionnaire Development & Pre - Testing The final questionnaire was developed. I first decided the objectives of the questionnaire and then went step by step in designing the questionnaire. The objective of the questionnaire was to translate the information needed regarding the newspapers into a set of specific questions that the respondents can and will answer. While designing the questionnaire I also concentrated in minimizing the respondent fatigue, boredom, incompleteness and no response. The process followed for preparing the questionnaire was as follows:

First, I specified the information needed. Then, I decided on the content of personal information Then the question was designed keeping in mind the respondents inability and unwillingness to answer

Then the question structure was decided, i.e. to have openended questions or close ended questions or both.

After the questions were framed, these questions were arranged in proper order under each heading.

Then the questionnaire was reproduced to the Project guide, Mr. Ramanath GP Maiya, Regional Sales Manager, The Indian Express for inspection and pre-test.

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After the pretesting was done, the final questionnaire was prepared which had to be passed to the respondents.

CHAPTER 6

Project 3: Frontline Sales & Promotion

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6.1: Frontline Sales & Promotion 6.1.1 The selling process

The selling process of newspapers in India involves various steps like: 1. Prospecting and Evaluation: This is the stage where potential customers are found and evaluated. It is first necessary to identify that the potential customer has the willingness, ability and authority to buy the product. This would involve first generating sales leads. In the case of newspapers customers could be Financial Institutions, IT employees, students preparing for their CAT examination MBA students and other institutions like Hotels, Airlines etc. 2. Pre approach: In this stage the process of approaching the client is decided. This involves deciding on the approach establishing objectives of the sales call and preparing for a presentation. We need to analyze what are the product features in which the customer will be interested and focus on those during presentation. This stage involves deciding whether it will be enough to do a simple cold call or to set up an appointment which is needed in case we want to set up a Stall. Like in the case of setting up stalls in academic institutions where a larger section of our targeted population can be met, it becomes essential
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that we first fix up an appointment with the facilities manager asking his permission to do promotional activities.

3. Approach: This stage involves getting in initial contact with the customer by meeting him and generating interest in the product. Once the salesmen (we) are with the customer they would make a presentation making him aware of the characteristics of the paper, the discount and the magazines that are on offer. While selling to Financial Institutions sales representatives focus on presenting the various Business magazines that the customer will get if he subscribes. While pitching to younger customer salesmen focuses on the weekly magazines (like EDEX) which are more enticing to them. While making presentations to corporate the focus is on the operational efficiency and convince the Facilities Manager that the implementation will be starting in 2 weeks time from when the employees start signing up for the subscription.

4. Handling Objection: The most common objection which is encountered during the selling is the fact that most customers who are regular readers of others newspapers are very loyal and are unwilling to change. This is the time when distinguishing features of the products need to be highlighted for example Business Standard highlights the fact that it has has various sections like the BS 200 which gives the complete analysis of the 200 companies that were traded the most on the stock exchange the previous week. This section on
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the paper is something unique only to Business Standard. Also 'The Compass' which is a small segment in the Business Standard Newspaper assists people in making their investment decisions as to which sector they should invest their money in was also of interest to people who were more investment focused.

Some of the customers are worried about the implementation time this is where sales person had to tell the customers about how we will be ensuring that they get a regular supply of their business standard by interacting with their vendors and start the delivery of their newspaper to their home in 2 weeks.

5. Closing: At this stage the customer is more or less aware of the product and has made up his mind to either go ahead with the sale or not. If the subscription are attractively priced most customers prefer to go for the plan offered and want to first get a look at the service being provided. Thus most people will either back out at the middle of the presentation, while others stick around to try and see what they are getting for their money. By the time salesman pops the final question whether the customer wants to pay by cash or cheque the customer usually has made up his mind.

6.1.2 Problem Definition Process

The circulation and sales of The Indian Express was to be increased and when compared with the competitors the readership was comparatively down among adults in the city of Bangalore.

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6.1.3 Scope & Objective:

Creation of Awareness on the readership is what every newspaper concern is looking forward at knowing the tastes of different customers and the buying habits of them. The objective of the project was to Create Awareness of the Annual Offer prevailing and to do Promotion (Annual Offer) and Sales of the same to Young Adults in Bangalore.

6.1.4 Frontline Sales Process Strategy

The project was divided into parts which include Colleges and Wards. So the strategies followed were also differently adopted for each category

1. Strategy for College

The strategies adopted for colleges were different from Ward

Campaign. The head of the institution was met personally and the need was communicated.

After getting the permission letter from the head of the

institution, we give order for extra copies of newspapers to be printed for the free sampling programme.

The printing press should be informed well in a day of advance

if in need of extra copies. We normally targeted the college hostels for our sampling. For a couple of days, we made arrangements for the sample to be put in each door step, and then a kiosk was put in the college campus where students and the faculties could actually subscribe to The Indian Express.
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Awareness was created among the teachers and the actually

acted as gate keepers for us by informing the students about the stall put and about the offer. And the orders were taken.

2. Strategy for Wards

This starts with the approach of deciding first the location of campaigning. Teams were divided for doing the campaign in different part of the city.

After deciding the location, number of copies decided for free

distribution. Free distribution was done with explaining the product to the

prospective customer. As the people might have experienced the paper by then, it for them to take decisions. The follow up was done and

was easy

order was taken.

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CHAPTER 7

Data Analysis & Results

7.1 Data Analysis & Results

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7.1.1 Market Research Problem 7.1.1.1 Descriptive Research 1) Age of the Respondent ( N = 82)

Fig (1) The age wise ratio response that the most number of responses came from the age group of 18 to 25(50 People), which is in the range of our target age group.

2) Sex of the Respondent ( N = 82)

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Fig (2) The sex wise ratio of 70 males and 10 females among the target size of 82 says that more males were interested in responding to the questionnaire. 3) Qualification of the Respondent

Fig. (3) 4) Occupation of the Respondent

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Fig (4) 5) Place of Buying newspaper

Fig (5)

Out of 82 respondents, 42 were subscribing newspaper at home. This suggests that door to door campaigning could be more useful in enhancing the brand awareness or to increase the circulation also. 6) What do you prefer reading most in your newspaper?
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14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 13 10 5 3 1 The Indian Express 1 6 4 1 2 4 3 1 Otherrs 3 1 3 Current Affairs Political News Business and Finance Entertainment News Sports News Educational News Times of India Editorial Article

Fig (6) Current affairs most preferred section for reading among readers of The Indian Express. Compare to Others than Times of India readers are more satisfied reading current affairs in The Indian Express. 7) Satisfaction Rating a) Content
25 20 15 10 5 0 The Indian Express Tim of India es Others 5 5 1 14 7 7 VeryGood Good Fair 22

Fig (7) Out of 10 express readers 5 (50%) said content of the newspaper is very good and good, respectively. Whereas, Times reader 14 (32%) out of 37(100%) said times have very good content and 22(59%) said it has only Good content. So, here Express readers are more satisfied with content of the newspaper and hence better perception compared to Times of India. b) Images

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25 20 15 10 5 0 The Indian Express Times of India Others 4 1 4 1 3 1 20 VeryGood 13 6 8 1 Good Fair Poor VeryPoor

Fig (8) In terms of Images Times has better satisfaction compare to any other newspaper. 20 people out of 82 said Time of India provide better image quality. Whereas, Only 1 person has said The Indian Express has very good images.

c) Color
Out of 10(100%) express reader, 1(10%) said it has color of the newspaper is very good, 4(40%) said it has Good color, and 5(50%) said Fair. Whereas, out of 37(100%) Times reader 21(57%) said Very good, 14(38%) said good and rest said fair. This clearly shows that people want The Indian Express to be more colorful. (Rate your satisfaction of color of newspaper)
25 20 15 10 5 0 The Indian Express Tim of india es Others 1 4 5 21 14 4 7 4 Very Good Good Fair 2

Fig (9)

d) Layout
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20 15 11 10 5 1 0 The Indian Express Times of India Others 7 2 7 1 3 6 6 18

Very Good Good Fair Can't Say

Fig (10) Compare to 11(30%) Times reader, only 1(10%) Express readers said it has very good layout.

e) Design
16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 13 9 14 10 7 5 1 The Indian Express Tim Of India es 2 1 Others Very Good Good Fair Can't Say

Fig (11) Compare to 14(38%) Times reader, 9(90%) Express reader said it has Good design. Whereas, no one (0%) said it has very good design. Altogether, readers have good perception of design of The Indian Express

f) Analysis of the News

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14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 The Indian Express Times of India Others 4 2 6 4 2 2 4 1 8 11 12 8 Very Good Good Fair Poor Can'tSay

fig (12) When asked about analysis of the news, The Indian Express fared better than any other newspaper. Out of 10 express reader, 4(40%) said it Very Good compared to 8(22%) of Times Reader and any other reader.

g) Price of the newspaper

20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 19 16 VeryGood Good 6 4 1 The Indian Express 1 1 Others 4 Fair Can't Say

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Tim Of India es

Fig (13) 60% of the express readers expressed their satisfaction with the price of the newspaper. Whereas, 43% of Times readers are satisfied with the price of their newspaper.

h) Current Affairs

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30 25 20 15 10 5 0 The Indian Express Times Of India Others 5 5 7 2 1 3 2 10 VeryGood Good Fair Cant Say 27

Fig (14) In terms of current affairs, 5(50%) out of 10 express reader replied positively by saying it very good. Where as Times of India is having this about 7 in out of 37. So, people who are reading The Indian Express believe that current affair is better in The Indian Express.

i) Political News
25 20 15 10 5 0 The Indian Express Times of India Others 4 6 8 4 1 3 5 6 2 2 21 Very Good Good Fair Very Poor Can't Say

Fig (15) When asked about the Political News in the newspaper they have been reading. Readers said it very good, compare to 4(40%) out of 10 express reader and 8(21%) out of 37 Times reader. j) Business & Finance

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12 10 8 6 4 2 0 The Indian Express Times of India Others 1 1 5 5 3 1 11 8 4 5 1 4 10 Very Good Good Fair Poor Can't Say

Fig (16) 5 out of 7 express reader said business & finance is Good in The Indian Express which is greater than any other newspaper, in terms of percentages.

k) Sports News
25 20 15 10 5 0 The Indian Express Tim of India es Others 2 6 3 1 1 20 13 7 3 Very Good Good 5 Fair Can't Say

Fig (17) Again, Times is peoples first choice when comes to Sports news. 20 out of 35 Times reader said it very good. Whereas, only 2 out of 11 express readers. l) Editorials

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16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 15 Very Good 8 5 4 1 The Indian Express Times of India 7 3 4 3 1 1 Others 7 3 Good Fair Poor Can't Say

Fig (18) For Editorial, The Indian express is first choice of the people. As, compared to 5(50%) out of 10 express reader said it very good, & 8(22%) out of 37 Times reader said it very good.

m) Advertisements
20 15 10 6 5 1 0 The Indian Express Tim of India es Others 3 5 2 1 18 12 7 VeryGood Good 5 1 1 Fair Poor Can"t Say

Fig (19) Times of India is first and for most choice for advertisement.

7.1.1.2 Qualitative Research (N=100)

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1) What is the first word that comes to your mind when you think of following newspaper

Fig (21)

Times of India has been regarded as more glamour oriented, as 26% of the respondent said when they think about TOI Ads & photographs is the first word that comes to their mind. It is worth noticing, only 1% said it knowledgeable newspaper.

What is the first word come to your mind when think of The Indian Express?
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S ales
6% 8% 13% 16% 15% 4% 5% 10% Standard Langauge 23% Articles Knowledge Expressive Interesting Boring Good

Fig. (22) 23% of the respondents responded positively, by saying when they think of The Indian Express Articles is the first word that comes to their mind. 15% of them also believe that it is knowledgeable newspaper. This suggests article especially editorials are widely acceptable among its reader. But, only 5% of respondents said it interesting. 2) In your opinion, The Indian Express best represent:
S eries1
45.00% 40.00% 35.00% 30.00% 25.00% 20.00% 15.00% 10.00% 5.00% 0.00% 42.27%

20.62% 15.46%

17.53% Series1 4.12%

Youth

Voice of Societ

Anti establishm ent

Unbiased Reporting

Others

Fig (23) In the opinion of respondents 42.27% believe The Indian Express represent voice of the society. Whereas, 20.62% said it represent anti10

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establishment view. Organization itself believes The Indian Express represent its ant-establishment stand. The contradiction between organization view and readers view may be because most of the readers are new subscriber and they have not noticed properly the rebellious tone of the newspaper (as clear from the previous question, where only 6.19% respondent see it Rebel). 3) What do you think of The Indian Express newspaper?

Fig (24)

General thinking about the newspaper is as simple and Informative newspaper, as 24.19% respondent said. Whereas, 14.52% respondent feels its a newspaper of different taste and also been simple & effective in raising public issues. 4) What do you dislike most in The Indian Express?

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S eries1
40.00% 35.00% 30.00% 25.00% 20.00% 15.00% 10.00% 5.00% 0.00% Paper and Lesslocal Print coverage Quality Picture Quality Font size Form at Nothing Others 12.94% 8.24% 1.18% 1.18% 14.14% Series1 36.47% 32.94%

Fig (25)

Paper & print quality have been most disliking factor of The Indian Express newspaper along with less local coverage and low picture quality. 36.47% of the respondents said they do not like the paper & print quality of the newspaper being provided. 12.94% respondent said it has less local coverage, here perception differs as Expresso is being provide to serve local news to people still people believe local news coverage in The Indian Express is not good enough. People see it as national newspaper which serves more of national and international news. Here, other comprises sports news, technology & research, and section for children whom people perceive is not good enough in The Indian Express.

5) What do you find unique about The Indian Express?

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S ales
Analysis of News 8% 28% 10% 9% 6% 6% 4% 4% Edex Editorial Form at Langauge Prespective Mast Head Nothing

18% 7%

Fig (26)

Edex is unique in The Indian Express, as people perceive it. 10% said it is unique in this newspaper, While 9% said Editorial & 8% said analysis of news in The Indian Express is unique

6) Have you ever noticed advertisement of The Indian Express?

S ales
7% Yes No Missing

39.00% 54%

Fig (27)

7) If yes, do you remember anything special about that Advertisement?

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Fig (28)

Out of 39% who did notice advertisement or promotion of The Indian Express, only 27% were able to remember something about that promotion or advertisement. This shows promotional activities have been successful at some extent.

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CHAPTER 8

Discussions and Conclusion

8.1 - Circulation & Distribution Problem

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8.1.1-Suggestions and Recommendations

1. Fixed Salary System Practiced with Sales Executives.

The salary system followed is of the fixed rate which does not seem to be much effective, as most of them switch to the competitors for their living. One better way to be suggested is that the follow up of an addition with the fixed salary based on the sale they make as this can be a motivation for the executives. What I suggest is a Fixed salary + variable salary (Based on Sales).
2. Hawkers Role.

Hawkers have a highly influential role in promoting or depromoting the brand name to customers. They are the ones who have direct contact with the end customers. If not dealt carefully, there is a chance of the business to be converted to the competitor. A suggestion for improving their commitment is to hold Periodic meeting with Hawkers and give Incentives like some useful gifts and awards for Motivation. 2. Content Single sentence from one of the reader.. .Best one comparing to other newspaper. This is to improve knowledge Branch Manager, Corporation Bank, Chickkabanavara 3. Paper & Printing (Picture) Quality Here quality means brightness. This has been the major complain so far. People are satisfied with the content part of the newspaper, but expressed

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disappointment in terms of paper and printing quality. If this issue is addressed, it will certainly help in increasing circulation. 4. Sports Coverage Its been said first impression is the last impression, so by making their sports experience good circulation and brand name can be increased among younger generation. Some of the students said in my interaction with them that sports news need a little improvement in terms of coverage specially Cricket. 5. Technology & Research based news Interaction with readers has also revealed that people like to read scientific research based news which they say less in content in The Indian Express. They also said, in The Hindu there is separate sheet for only Technology and Scientific research on weekly basis.
6. Entertainment news coverage

In people (youth) view, The Indian Express (TIE) covers less news related to entertainment (film review, star coverage, Sudoku, funny cartoons etc). Some people suggested, Expresso Should contain entertainment news apart from local news. 7. Local news coverage Some reader complaint, local news coverage in the third page contains more advertisement less news. 8. Color factor Compare to other major newspaper operating in Baroda, The Indian Express (TIE) is not very colorful. Because of that, according to the readers makes it less appealing.
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8.1.2 Frontline Sales & Promotion 1. Free book of customer choice. 2. Conduct Events in Housing Flats. 3. Promotions should be geared up during important functions of the Companies like annual functions.

8.2 Learnings
1. Opportunity to learn how a Newspaper Industry works in a whole. 2. Learned on how to deal & differentiate the customers. 3. Learned how to work with different staff members.

APPENDIX 1
Descriptive Research Dear Respondent,
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As a part of our academic evaluation, we are required to undertake a detailed research study on a topic of our own choice. I have chosen my topic as A study of Brand perceptions of THE INDIAN EXPRESS in Baroda, India. I will be grateful if you would fill out this questionnaire and assist me in completing this study appropriately. Thank You Descriptive Research 1. Name: ______________________________ 2. Age: 18 25 36 -- 45 55 and above Male Female 26 35 46 55

3. Gender:

4. Educational Qualification: PUC Graduate Post Graduate Professional Degree 5. Occupation: Government Private Employee Retired Employee Self Employed Student

6. You prefer buying newspaper at Newspaper Mart Subscribe at Home Others If others, specify
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7. Which English Newspaper do you read? The Indian Express (IE) The Hindu Times of India If Others, specify 8. What do you prefer reading most in your preferred newspaper? Current affairs Political news Business & Finance Entertainment Sports Health articles Educational articles Editorials Others If others, please specify 9. Rate your satisfaction with the following features of your preferred newspaper. Very Good Content Images Color Layout Design Length (Article) Coverage Analysis
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Good

Fair

Poor Very Poor

Cant Say

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Price Timeliness Comments 10. Rate your satisfaction with the following features of your preferred newspaper. Very Good Current affairs Political news Business & Finance Entertainment Sports Health articles Editorials Educational articles Advertisements Comments 11. If you read IE, how often do you read it? Daily Few times a week Weekend Only Seldom Other Comments Good Fair Poor Very Poor Cant Say

12. How do you find supplements provided by NIE? Very Good Good Fair
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Poor Very Poor 13. Which supplements are you aware of? Which ones do you read? 14. If you indicated Poor or Very Poor, please could you tell us what is that you do not like? 15. Are you aware of the The Indian Express e-newspaper on internet? Yes No If Yes, comment 16. If you had cause to complain, how was the situation resolved? Extremely unsatisfactory Unsatisfactory Average Very satisfactory First class

APPENDIX 2
Qualitative Research Dear Respondent, As a part of our academic evaluation, we are required to undertake a detailed research study on a topic of our own choice. I have chosen my topic as A study of Brand perceptions of THE INDIAN EXPRESS in Baroda,

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India. I will be grateful if you would fill out this questionnaire and assist me in completing this study appropriately. Thank You Exhibit-1 (Projective Technique) 1. If the following newspapers were cricketers which cricketer would they be? Hindu Times of India The Indian Express 2. If the following newspapers were film stars which film stars would they be? Hindu Times of India.. The Indian Express. 3. What is the first word that comes to your mind when you think of the following newspapers? Hindu Times of India.. The Indian Express 4. Which of the following words (one or more) would you think best describe The Indian Express? (Tick your options.) Sincere Sophisticated Conscientious Reliable Successful Co-operative
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Competent Open Agreeable Innovative Intelligent Organized

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Systematic Creative Efficient Friendly Rebel

Practical Effective Punctual Polite

5. In your opinion, The Indian Express newspaper best represent: Youth Voice of society Anti- establishment Unbiased Reporting Others If Others, specify

Exhibit-2 (In-Depth Interview)

1. What do you think of The Indian Express, (IE) (in a sentence or

two, please)?

2. What do you like about The Indian Express?

3. What are its positive aspects in your view?

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4. What do you dislike about The Indian Express?

5. What do you find unique about The Indian Express?

6. In what ways, is it similar to other brands of newspaper in Bangalore?

7. In your opinion, who read The Indian Express most? (What kind of

person?)

8. How it is useful to reader?

9. Do you like to have pictorial representation of the news?

10.If yes, then why? Or if No, then why?

11. Are you aware of the various sales scheme of The Indian Express?

12. If yes, did you buy any of them?

13.If yes, then why? Or if No, then why?

14. Have you ever noticed advertisement of The Indian Express? Do

you remember anything Special about that advertisement? (in a sentence or two, please)
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15. If No, then could you suggest some ways to promote the brand name

of The Indian Express?

16. Have you ever recommended The Indian Express to your close

friends or relatives?

17.If yes, then why? Or if No, then why?

18. Do you know about the relaunch of The Indian Express in 2008?

19.If yes, what is the most important think you remember about that?

20. Any suggestions on how we can improve your IE experience?

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