SUMMER INTERNSHIP programme AT BUSINESS STANDARD

PROJECT REPORT ON CRITERIA USED BY CUSTOMER IN SELECTING A FINANCIAL DAILY

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SUBMITTED BY GOHIL NANCY K ROLL NO.36 DHARMSINH DESAI UNIVERSITY NADIAD

SUBMITTED TO MR. KUNAL PANCHAL MARKETING HEAD BUSINESS STANDARD, JULY,2011

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all I would like to thank my University for giving me this opportunity to work in the real world and know the complexities and to learn the practical aspects of the organization. This project was an excellent opportunity for us to relate our classroom course to the real business life

am also very thankful to my Company guide Mr. Kunal Panchal & Mr.Manoj

Thomas, marketing department, who always supported me during my core calling. They were always by my side whenever I faced any problem. So I am utmost grateful to both of them for teaching the practical scenario in the corporate world. I would also like to thank my Faculty guide Prof.Pathik Vairya for providing guidance in preparing my sip project Last but not the least I would like to thank all those people who had directly or indirectly helped me in preparing this project report and gave their valuable time.

INDEX
SR. NO 1. TOPIC EXECUITVE SUMMARY
4

PAGE NO. 4

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

HISTORY PRODUCT PORTFOLIO DEPARTMENT DETAIL ABC AUDIT SALES & DISTRIBUTION SWOT ANALYSIS RESEARCH METHODOLOGY QUESTIONNAIRE DATA INTERPRETATION & ANALYSIS FINDINGS RECOMMENDATION BIBLIOGRAPHY

5 6 11 16 18 21 24 25 36 38 39

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
PROJECT TITLE- CRITERIA USED BY THE CUSTOMER FOR SELECTING A FINANCIAL DAILY

Organization Company Guide

Business Standard Kunal Panchal (Ahmedebad) Manoj Thomas (Vadodara)

OBJECTIVES The main objective of the study is: To find out the brand preference among the business newspaper.
To find out the attributes which influence the consumer to purchase business

daily. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Market research consist of the systematic collection, recording, analysis, Interpretation and reporting of information about various facts of a phenomenon under study. SOURCE OF DATA Primary Data Secondary Data
SAMPLING METHOD -

Simple random sampling method & convenience sampling were used in this study.
SAMPLE SIZE : 100 Respondents. SAMPLING UNIT: STOCK BROKERS,INDIVIDUAL

INVESTORS,BANKERS,CAs, STUDENTS,BANKERS

HISTORY

Business Standard started in 1975 by the Ananda Publication group in Kolkata, the paper was hived off as a separate company in 1996, and then bought by Mumbaibased financial investors, after which it began a phase of rapid expansion with the launch of new editions. T.N. Ninan has been the editor since 1993, after he moved over from the editorship of The Economic Times. It is published from 12 centers in India - Mumbai New Delhi, Kolkata , Bangalore, Chennai , Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Pune, Kochi and Bhubaneswar. Business Standard is being sold by 210000 copies every day across the country. It circulated in more than 1000 towns across the country. Business standard is published Monday to Saturday from all locations and on Sunday it published from Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.
Apart from a business newspaper, BS publishes several periodicals, including BS Motoring, Indian Management, Fund Manager, Banking annually, BS 2000 and regional language business newspapers BUSINESS STANDARD in Hindi. The Hindinewspaper is published simultaneously from seven centers Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Bhopal, Patna and Kolkata. The Gujarati newspaper is published from three centers Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Rajkot. The company sees content creation, content processing and content management as its core competence. It offers complete outsourcing solutions for organizations which want to bring out in-house or private publications but lack the people and/or resources to do it cost-effectively.

PRODUCT PORTFOLIO
About BUSINESS STANDARD Newspaper (Ahmedabad Publication) 7

 A newspaper which is published from MON to SAT (Sunday edition published only at Delhi and Bombay) Price at the weekdays is Rs. 3/- and on Saturday is Rs. 6/ The size of the newspaper is 50, or 51 or 52 cms in length and 32.9 cmsin width. Supplements with newspaper: Monday: Tuesday: Saturday: The Smart Investor The Strategist Weekend

8 pages on Sock Market.

Six full pages on stock details both in Graphical and alphabetical method BS 200, in which evaluation of top 200 companys share details is published by calculating 22 key parameters Formulae specifications. Mutual Fund details on full page coverage Insurance schemes on half page Guidelines about the details on stocks in the beginning of the segment for easy understanding: How to read stock pages and the abbreviations. The accent west section for Gujarat Individual industry news on individual full page coverage. Collaboration with the international newspaper FINANCIAL TIMES London Provides 3 magazines free annually. The Banking Annual BS 1000 Fund Manager

Editions from Monday to Friday have a main edition of about page with colored pages in front and the rest are in black and white. The following areas are focused:
National and International news Economy and Policy news Infrastructure news Companies news Editorial pages Crossword, Sudoku Education News Business law

Section II is the MONEY AND MARKETS Stock market news Money and currencies Metal and intermediates news Commodity news BS 200 Share prices in alphabetical order Mutual fund and Insurance

ABOUT SUPPLEMENTS

MONDAY: THE SMART INVESTOR

Past weeks analysis of stock markets Primary markets Secondary markets Future tip for trading in shares Issues related to stock market

TUESDAY to FRIDAY: THE STRATEGIST

Theories and practices of business management. Brand related news Notes by management thinkers Book worm Quiz column

SATURDAY: WEEKEND
Life and fashion Living Entertainment Motoring

ABOUT MAGAZINES
A magazine is a periodical publication containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising and/or purchase by readers. They are often printed in color on coated paper, and are bound with a soft cover.

1) THE BANKING ANNUAL

Banking Annual, the one-spot information provider of everything related to banks. Banks do not only provide you security but many more things. To get an all-round view of banks functioning and provides with all. Banks valuation Banker of the year Innovation bought and emerging in near future Datas related to banks 10 their future action, banking annual

2) BS 1000 BS 1000 is a detailed guide to Indias top 1000 companies. The issues of BS 1000 mention those depressing times, providing data on the impact of the slowdown on corporate, the deterioration in their financials, how they coped with crisis. Not just bad phases but also the success stories are mentioned. It also peeks into the future, where, which industries are booming, with what phase, with what strategies, etc. are discussed. Below are the main features: BS awards. 1000 best companies ranking and performance of the leaders of the country 1000 companies growth, gross profit, net profit, etc 2) FUND MANAGER Fund Manager, as the name suggests that it gives a full insight to the funds investment. It focuses on facts and figures on mutual funds. The fund manager seeks to rank mutual funds schemes and also rate the best fund manager of the year. Below given are the few additional features of the Fund Manager: Risk return rating over 600 funds Futures of new fund offerings Best fund pick

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 ABOUT OTHER STAND MAGAZINES

MOTORING Motoring is a stand monthly magazine. It gives all the information related to cars and bikes. It gives information about upcoming models, features and specialties of them. The entire edition has something special in them. Certain experts interview related to the automobile industry. Motoring is considering the best magazine for all the information in automobile industry, because in that magazine all related news like which are the competitor for any new launched car, what are the factors which can win in competition, so its full encyclopedia for the person who is fen of automobile. INDIAN MANAGEMENT It is also a stand monthly magazine. It is made especially for the management students. The students get all the information they need through the magazine. It is a one point access to cutting edge ideas in management. It focuses on the best B-schools of India with the articles like the B-school Roadmap, what matters the most courses, faculty of infrastructure, when you go for B-school hunting, etc provide the all kind of answers to the mind of a b-school seeker.. Also there are so many B-schools are ranked by BS, so that it becomes easy to select best B-school for student. In this magazine all good and Best B-schools are considered and comment are given about that institute. It gives: Superior management coverage Delivers latest management theories Opinions from thought leaders Global trends and innovations Insights from carefully analyzed case studies Book reviews. 12

DEPARTMENT DETAILS
A brief department detail to give an idea of where the things are placed in BUSINESS STANDARD is as follows:

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 MARKET DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT / CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT

This department is responsible for the circulation of the newspaper in the whole region. This department also looks after the daily back room operations which include giving print orders for the regular supply of subscription, complementary copies and sponsored copies are also being distributed by this department. They also check the dispatch and payment received for the month. And also looks forward to expand the market of the newspaper by adding more customers to its list. They are the people who not only think about selling the newspaper but also how to promote it. SPACE MARKETING DEPARTMENT It is the major source of revenue generation for any media industry. Because the actual cost of the newspaper goes up to 18/- to 20/- Rs. And sold at Rs. 3/.So the advertisements are the medium to compensate for the cost generated. I was taught about the marketing department contact different corporate for advertisement and the channel through which the advertisement comes and are prepared and how the space is allotted depending upon the space given by the editorial department. There is an agent in between the client and the publisher, which helps in making the arrangements of ads.

How this media get advertisement from clients?

Actually this media have their agents who collect contract from the clients and then these agents decide what the expectation of client is; and on that bases agent selects any media. Advertisement is generally designed by agent but only circulated by media. But sometimes media also design some advertisement, but they get client from only agents. EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT

Editorial department is considered as the backbone of the print media because without any good matter to publish and which is not edited nicely it is just a crap for the readers. Readers want to have the columns with good
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matter, so without having an effective and efficient editorial team no newspaper can grow.

This department collects the news mainly from the News Agencies and they have their own network to publish the articles too. The news can be by telephone, fax or through internet or other communication medium. This news is edited and then send to Mumbai and Delhi for the adjustment. The group Managing Director of Business Standard is MR. A. K. Bhattacharya

SCHEDULING DEPARTMENT This department deals with the scheduling of the edited matter and the advertisements. It is the work of this department to adjust and frame the edited matter with the advertisement, by allotting the empty space to advertise, which matter and advertisement should be in which page is the looked out by scheduling people. For this scheduling, the department forms dummy A-4 size adjustments of the editorials and the ads in that paper to know the place of the same in the original size paper.

SYSTEMS DEPARTMENT The systems department is responsible for communication network as well as all the technical related problems in the company. All the branches of Business Standard are linked with V_SAT and with the dedicated leased line along with the Head Office. The most important work of the system department is to connect all the telephone line with EPBX system and connect all the branches to the head office with Hot Lines, which helps to reduce STD cost of the company. The system department at Ahmedabad receives a facsimile copy of newspaper every day and forwards its printout on the butter paper to the production department. 15

 PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT

After receiving the facsimile copy on the butter paper from the systems department, the work of production department starts. This butter copy is framed on the aluminum plate. This plate is then fixed in the printing machine and then as per the printing orders the printing starts. Machine which is used for the production is known as Film Processor which costs approximately Rs. 2.5 lakh. The machine is divided into four different units i.e. Developer Unit, Fixed Unit, Wash Unit, and Dryer Unit. Production Department is used mainly four colors for the hard copy, which are Black, Yellow, Cyan and magenta. Some colors are used at the time of the final printing of the newspaper at press. Raw material for this department is paper and aluminum plate. Print comes in the form of reel. The cost of reel is Rs. 10000.

DISPATCH DEPARTMENT Dispatch department is responsible for the regular dispatch of the total number of copies at various destinations at the right time. It is also responsible for no. of copies to be delivered at each center i.e. local or upcountry. There are about 46 upcountry and 6 in Ahmedabad. The distribution at these centers is very important to be on time. Even the commission has to be taken off. The function of function department is to generate rush mail and put it on the parcel. Rush mail shows the number of the copies in the parcel and its destination address. With this a route control statement is also there for each taxi driver, which shows the number of parcels for each and every destination, comes under his route. There are also two other departments without which the company cannot run smoothly. Those departments without which any firm is incomplete.i.e. the Financial Department and Human Resource Department

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 FINANCIAL DEPARTMENT This department is responsible for all the financial matters. Matters are related to employees salary, operational expenses and other sundry expenses. It is also responsible for the reducing the cost of the publication. HUMAN RESOURCE DEPARTMENT This is the department responsible for the HR supply in the company. For Business Standard, this department is not in Ahmedabad, but it is in Mumbai. It means that the Business Standard has a centrally located HR department who takes care of the supply in any of the branch.

All these departments identify the need of the customer i.e. the quality and pricing demanded by the customers. In this industry this strategy is very important as the selling price of the newspaper is always less than its cost of production. The main reason for this type of pricing is to create awareness and generate reading behavior amongst the audience of the newspaper. Hence all these departments are interlinked and proper cooperation and coordination is a must in newspaper industry. This helped me in getting a better understanding of teamwork, and the importance of every second, because newspapers are published daily and a delay of single second or a minute mistake can lead to a blunder.

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ABC AUDIT
What is ABC and how it is working?

ABC: The main function of ABC is to evolve, lay down a standard and uniform procedure by which a member publisher shall compute its net paid sales. The circulation figure so arrived at is checked and certified by a firm of Chartered Accountants which are approved by the Bureau. The Bureau issues ABC certificates every six months to those publishers whose circulation figures confirm to the rules and regulations as set out by the Bureau. From a modest beginning it has grown to remarkable proportions. ABC's membership today includes 411 Publishers of national and regional importance, 151 Advertising Agencies, 51 Advertisers & 20 New Agencies and Associations connected with print media and advertising. It covers most of the major towns in India. Facts and figures which are checked and certified by an independent body are a very important tool in the hands of the advertising business community. The details of ABC certified circulation figures are available online to all members of the Bureau at no extra cost. An Advertiser would like to know the facts and figures before investing his money in advertising. An Advertiser ought to know how many people buy a publication and in which area. The ABC gives all these vital facts every six months. The ABC figures are not the outcome of opinions, claims or guesswork, but they are the result of rigid, in-depth and impartial audits of paid circulations of member publications by independent and leading firms of Chartered Accountants working in accordance with the rules / procedures prescribed by the Bureau. The Policy formation body of the Bureau is the Council of Management consisting of elected representatives from publishers (8), advertisers (4) and advertising agency 18

(4) members of the Bureau. To assist the Council of Management an Executive Committee is appointed by the Council, to guide and oversee the day-to-day working of the Bureau. The Executive Committee consists of Publishers, Advertisers and Advertising Agency Members of the Council. The Council of Management and the Executive Committee meets regularly as often as required. The Chairman is elected annually by the council of management. Few important issues to take care as per ABC certification: Trade terms to agents on subscription copies should not exceed In case of dailies-40% of the subscription price In case of weeklies-45% of the subscription price Publishers have to maintain the full record of subscribers with their address, name and signature. There are two types of panels for auditing: Auditors Panel Publishers Panel

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SALES AND DISTRIBUTION

A sale is a transaction, dealing, trade or what? Sale can have different meanings but what is the most important thing in it, is to understand the importance of it. Without sale no revenue can be generated but just earning revenue is not to sale, it is the right type selling to the right customer with the right attitude. Customer relationship is most important, maintaining the brand image is also important. Delivering on the brand promises becomes a moment of truth in any customer relationship. This moment of truth can be either positive or with negative impact on the customers perception about your brand. There might be great marketing communication and a highly superior product, but the buying experience always stands between the seller and the customer. If the customer has a negative impact about the product then it is a direct deterioration of the brand equity. Hence, sales and distribution is a vital activity. Sales hence comprises of the outcome of what all which was done to manufacture that product. Success of selling department is the success of the company.

Business Standard is the product where the maximum demand would be in the early morning. It is highly perishable product. The product should reach the customer in due time otherwise the importance is lost. Hence time management is something very vital for the sales and distribution people. Hence I can mainly divide the supply of the newspaper in two main category:

Pre press activity Post press activity

Pre-press activity involves all the editorial departments work where they have to collect the news and it has to be given to the production department in a prescribed limit. This time limit is said as the cut off time or releasing time.

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Post-press activity is the distribution. Business Standard has divided Gujarat in two main section, i.e. Ahmedabad and upcountry market. This upcountry market has about 46 centers.

Business Standard gets involved in many kinds of sale activity. They are:

o Subscription Sale :
A one year or two year by subscription by paying fixed amount is sale by subscription

o Cash Sales:
Customers when paying the amount to purchase a newspaper directly to the book stall in cash then the sale is said to be a cash sales.

o Line Sales
Line sale is the in which it is post paid billing. When the customer gets the Business Standard copy through the vendor and pays in the end of month, it is line sale

o Institutional Sales
Few corporate, hotels and colleges take copy in bulk, which is said to be as institutional sale. Business Standard has the responsibility till the delivery at their doorstep and further distribution is on the company or the institution concerned

o Corporate Sales
In corporate sales, executives have to do cold calling or they have to take appointment from the concerned person and then after meet, executive must convince the client. If it is big corporate and staff are such that, they read financial daily at their home, then for bulk subscription they have to try.

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DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL

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SWOT analysis of Business Standard

STRENGTH
Systematic approach covering all sectors. Nominal price Monotonous approach of Headlines Separate Money & Market section with 8 pages No own publication house

WEAKNESS
Outlook is not that vibrant i.e Not creative

OPPORTUNITY
Can give an extra page on Ahmedabad related news Can introduce a new segment on Sunday Potential Market

THREAT
Continuous monotonous approach. Low Pricing Strategy Toughest Competition From Economic Times The

Availability

Segregation of news In supplements Over view of the whole week is Provide general awareness in terms of investment.

Display of ads sometimes creates a fuss. News are sometimes very

Can have tie-ups with renowned brands for ads.

given in weekend lengthy.

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SWOT analysis of economic times

STRENGTH
WIDESPREAD NEWS

WEAKNESS
NEWS SOMETIMES HIGHLY EXAGGERATED

OPPURTUNITIES THREATS
INFORMATION ON SMALL & MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISE HIGH PRICE ON SUNDAY INREASING READERS OF BS

HIGHLY PROMOTED THROUGH TIMES OF INDIA

LESS OPINION & INTERVIEWS

PROVIDE DIFFERENT FEATURE TO GENERATE TO REVENUE

LESS INDEPTH ANALYSIS OF STOCK COMPARED TO BS

DISTRIBUTE CHANNEL QUITE STRONG

LACK OF DETAIL & INDEPTH ANAYSIS

CAN TARGET LOCAL MARKET AS IT IS AVAILABLE IN LOCAL LANGUAGE

YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

REPETITION OF NEWS BETWEEN ET & TOI

2 PAGES DEDICATED TO LOCAL NEWS

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SWOT analysis of MINT

STRENGHT
LOW SUBSCRIPTION FEES STRONG BRAND NAME OF WALL STREET JOURNAL STRONG BRAND NAME OF WALL STREET JOURNAL QUICK OVERVIEW, BRIEF NEWS

WEAKNESS
NOT A COMPLETE FINANCIAL NEWSPAPER NO COVERAGE OF LOCAL NEWS NEW ENTRANT LACKS EXPERIENCE

OPPURTUNITIES
CAN INCREASE THE MARKET SHARE BECAUSE A BRAND NAME

THREATS
INTEREST LOST DUE TO LESS FINANCIAL NEWS

MORE ATTRACTIVE THREATS FROM THAN OTHER GIANTS LIKE ET & BS CAN ALSO TARGET GENERAL MARKET

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SWOT analysis of FINANCIAL EXPRESS

STRENGHT
ECONOMIC VIEWS & OPINION

WEAKNESS
QUITE COSTLY

OPPURTUNITIES
EASY LANGUAGE SO CAN ATTRACT MORE CUSTOMER

THREATS
NICHE MARKET SO CAN BE PENETRATED BY OTHER COMPETITORS

RICH IN CONTENT

LACK OF PROPER DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL

BRING UP SUPLLEMENT HELPFUL FOR INVESTMENT

WEAK BRAND IMAGE

BELONGS TO STRONG BRAND INDIAN EXPRESS OLDEST FINANCIAL DAILY

NARROW TARGET MARKET

HIGH PRICING

HIGHLY SUBJECTIVE CONTENT NO INFORMATION ABOUT WEST ZONE

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SWOT analysis of BUSINESS LINE

STRENGHT
SALE IN SOUTH DUE TO AGRIBUSINESS NEWS COVERS LOGISTICS &

WEAKNESS
MANY PEOPLE RECEIVES PAPER ON 2ND DAY LIMITED TO SOUTHERN

OPPURTUNITIES
PROMOTE THEIR PAPER IN OTHER REGION INCREASE CIRCULATION IN GUJARAT

THREATS
DELAY IN REACHING CUSTOMERS THREAT FROM BIG PLAYERS LIKE ET & BS

TRANSPORT NEWS REGION PRICE DO NOT VARY MUCH LIMITED TO SOUTHERN REGION MAXIMUM NUMBER OF EDITION

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Competitors
Competition is something which any company cannot avoid. Staying in a democratic country and ruling as monopoly is not possible. What the only way is to face a deal with competition. Competition can be severe and can be mild. The intensity will depend on your own firms position and your competitors position. The following are the competitors of Business Standard. The Economic Times The financial Express Business Line Mint

Comparison of Business Standard with its Competitors

S R. N O. 1

PARAMETER

BUSINESS STANDARD

ECONOMIC TIMES

BUSINESS LINE

FINANCIA L EXPRESS

MINT

Price

Weekdays 3 Rs. Weekend -6 Rs.

Weekdays 3.5 Rs. Saturday 8 Rs. Sunday 10 Rs.

Weekdays 4 Rs. Weekend -3 Rs

Mon to Fri 4 Rs. Sat- 6 Rs. Sunday 8 Rs.

MON to FRI RS.3 SAT RS.5

GROUP

Kotak Mahindra Group

The Times Group

The Hindu

Indian Express

WALL STREET JOURNAL

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Stock market analysis

BS 200, 8 full page of share details Only Business

Six pages

Six Pages

Six pages

3-4 PAGES

News

Business + General 20-22

Business + General 20-24

Business

Business + General

Pages (Avg.)

24-28

18-20

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Color of pages

Pink

Pink

White

Pink

White (tabloid)

No. of location of Publication

12 cities

11 cities

14 cities

10 cities

6 cities

9.

USP

BS-200

BRAND EQUITY

AGRI BUSINESS, LOGISTICS

Economist & EXPERT OPININON

WALLSTREET JOURNAL, TABLOID PAGES

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PROJECT RESEARCH ON CRITERIA USED BY COSTUMER IN SELECTING A FINANCIAL DAILY

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research methodology states how a research study is undertaken. It includes specification of research design, source of data, the method of primary data collection, sampling design and analysis of the procedure adopted.Research methodology states what procedures were employed to carry out the research study.

TARGET AUDIENCE Corporate executives Investors and Stock brokers Businessmen Bankers Management students and professors Chartered Accountants & other Professionals

SAMPLE SIZE 100 RESPONDENTS DATA COLLECTION Simple random sampling & convenience sampling method

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Questionnaire
Name: Contact No: Occupation : Organization:

1. Which of the financial daily do you read? The Economic Times Business Standard Business Line Financial Express Mint

2. How often do you read the newspaper? Glance Only those features that is useful to you Only supplements Entire newspaper

3. Do you think General Newspaper does the work of a Financial daily Strongly agree Agree Neither agree or disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree
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4. Rate the following attributes that keeps you attracted to your newspaper? (5 for highly preferred & 4 for next & so on) - price 1 2 3 4 5 - content of the newspaper 1 2 3 4 5 - language 1 2 3 4 5 - additional information 1 2 3 4 5 - Free gifts 1 2 3 4 5

5. Is your newspaper in accordance with your occupation? i. Yes ii. No

6 .Does your newspaper provide you with information that is useful in your occupation & career? i. Yes ii. No

7.Which type of information do you look for in a financial daily ? (rank them) stock market investment tips corporate news politics economy law, rules & its analysis local news opinion of experts other general news
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8. How would you rate the content of the newspaper ? -Giving more information on that sector that is related to you. - Providing with updated news - Covering unique & different type of news - Language

9. Is your newspaper meeting up to your expectation i. ii. iii. Satisfied Moderate Dissatisfied

10. What are the reason for your dissatisfaction ? (rank them) Content of the news Price Repetition Irrelevant news Language

11. Do you have any suggestion for our newspaper ?

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DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

WHICH OF THE FINANCIAL DAILY DO YOU READ?

Financial daily
8% 7% 30% 15%

BS ET MINT FE BL
40%

Interpretation and Findings:

This question is formed to know the newspaper which they are currently reading. It can be seen that ET has capture the most readers with 40% & thus becoming the market leader. Following ET is BS with 30% readers, which constantly keep on increasing. Mint is slowly increasing reader as it has 15% readers while other minority newspaper such as FE & BL readers percentage seem to be negligible.
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How frequently do you read the newspaper? Just a Glance Only those features that is useful to you Only supplements Entire newspaper

Format of reading
10% 5% 30% Just a Glance features only supplements 55% entire newspaper

Interpretation and Findings:

From this question we come to know the readers rate of reading that is what sort of format do the respondents follow in reading the newspaper. It can be seen that 55% of respondents are reading those news & features that is useful to them. 30% of the respondents only take a glance of the newspaper irrespective of the usefulness. 10% of the respondents are reading only supplements this could be because of their liking & habits. The remaining 5% are reading the entire newspaper.
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Do you think General Newspaper does the work of a Financial daily Strongly agree Agree Neither agree or disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree

Comparison of general newspaper & financial daily

0% 15% 11% strongly agree 24% 50% agree neither disagree strongly disagree

Interpretation and Findings: The purpose behind this question was to find out readers view about a financial daily. It can be seen that most of the respondents agree with the statement and this gives the nod that a financial daily & general newspaper are supplements to each other. While there are people who sees the difference between this two newspaper as consider them on different page.

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Rate the following attributes that keeps you attracted to your newspaper? (5 for highly preferred & 4 for next & so on) - price 5 4 3 2 1 - content of the newspaper 5 4 3 2 1 - language 5 4 3 2 1 - additional information 5 4 3 2 1 - Free gifts 5 4 3 2 1

Attributes
3% 5% 15% price content 10% language additional information free gifts 67%

Interpretation and Findings: Most of the respondents (67%) gives maximum weightage to the content of the newspaper while other attributes are given low rank in comparison. Thus it can be seen that people prefer content over the price factor . They give more importance to the service & are ready to pay for a quality service. Thus the customer of this market are not price oriented but rather quality oriented one.
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Is your newspaper occupation? i. Yes ii.

in No

accordance

with

your

Accordance to occupation & career

11%

yes no 89%

Interpretation and Findings: From this one, we came to know that all most 90% of the respondents newspaper is accordance with the newspaper. And thus people only prefer those newspaper from which they can avail benefit & which can help them in their occupation.

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Does your newspaper provide you with information that is useful in your occupation & career? i. Yes ii. No

News & information used in occupation & career

19%

yes

no

81%

Interpretation and Findings: Respondents prefer those type of newspaper which can help them in their occupation & in their career. It can be seen that 81% of respondents use their newspaper in their occupation & career for various decision at various stages. As most of the target market compromises of the stock brokers & individual investors, this question suits them the best. This people get maximum help out of a financial daily for their routine business

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Which type of information do you look for in a financial daily ?(rank them) - stock market - investment tips - corporate news - politics - economy - law, rules & its analysis - local news - opinion of experts - other general news

Most looked out information

1% 0% 7% 6% 43% 18% 0% 5% stock market investment tips corporate news politics economy law, rules & its analysis local news opinion of experts 20% other general news

Interpretation and Findings: The respondents gives first priority to news that is related to stock market, this is because most of the respondents where stock brokers. The second priority is given to investment , as people need such information so they can make a sound a decision related to their investment.
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How would you rate the content of the newspaper ? -Giving more information on that sector that is related to you. - Providing with updated news - Covering unique & different type of news - Language

Content of the newspaper

10% 4% Giving more information on that sector that is related Providing with updated news 30% 56% Covering unique & different type of news Language

Interpretation and Findings: Here the respondents where asked to rate the content of the newspaper. From this it can be seen that 56% of the people are only interested in those type of news or information that is useful to them or related to that sector. And so BS should identify the news that most of their customer is looking for & should provide them in their newspaper so as to maximize the sales. Following the above, 30%,10%,4% is given to updated news, language & unique news respectively. So there is section of people who also looking for updated news, & simple language. Thus the newspaper should work on all this above factors to pertain the readership.
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Is your newspaper meeting up to your expectation iv. v. vi. Satisfied Moderate Dissatisfied

Expectation
3% 21%

Satisfied Moderate 76% Dissatisfied

Interpretation and Findings: The basic idea was to know whether the respondents are satisfied with the current newspaper or not. It can be seen that all most 76% of the respondents are satisfied with their current newspaper while there are 21% of the respondents who are at moderate level which means they are neither satisfied or dissatisfied with their newspaper. There exist a chance of converting this readers by attracting them to our newspaper by providing them a superiority service than the current one. The remaining 3% are dissatisfied with their paper among which 2 are present BS reader, 1 is of Mint. So BS should find out the reasons for their dissatisfaction & should solve them so as to pertain the customer before they move to the competitors.

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What are the reasons for your dissatisfaction? (Rank them) Content of the news Price Repetition Irrelevant news Language

Reasons for dissatisfaction

0% 0% 0%

Content of the news price Repetition Irrelevant news Language 100%

Interpretation and Findings It seems that all those who are dissatisfied with their newspaper has given the reason to be the content of the newspaper. This means that newspaper is not able to meet their customers perceived value & so the difference between the actual & the expected one is the dissatisfaction . It can be also be interpreted that those BS readers who are not not satisfied with newspaper are also blaming the content of the newspaper

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Do you have any suggestion for our newspaper ?

Increase the Font Size

Readers wants larger fonts so as to make it easier on their part to read the newspaper without straining their eyes.

Improve the content of the newspaper

Readers are asking for better quality in terms of the content of the newspaper.

Provide with updated news

Readers are demanding more updated news, rather than the one that is already know.

Regional language
There exist customer who wants the paper in vernacular language as they are not able to understand English language.

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FINDINGS

INDIVIDUAL

INVESTORS

&

STOCK

BROKERS

ARE

THE

MAJOR USERS OF BUSINESS STANDARD. FOR THE REGULAR BS READERS, BS200 SEEMS TO BE THE MOST PREFRRED ARTICLE. BUSINESS STANDARD IS THE SECOND MOST PREFERRED NEWSPAPER IN THE AREAS SURVEYED. CONTENT OF THE NEWSPAPER IS THE MAJOR FORCE BEHIND ATTRACTING THE CUSTOMER CUSTOMERS ORIENTED. READERS ARE ONLY INTERESTED IN THOSE NEWS & OF THIS SECTOR IS NOT MUCH PRICE-

INFORMATION THAT IS USEFUL TO THEM. THERE IS STILL A PART OF THE MARKET WHO ARE NOT AWARE ABOUT BUSINESS STANDARD CUSTOMER CAN EASILY SHIFT TO COMPETITORS & THUS IT IS IMPORTANT TO HOLD BACK THE PRESENT CUSTOMER
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 HARDCORE LOYAL READERS OF ET NEWSPAPER ARE NOT EASILY CONVERTED TO OTHER NEWSPAPER. THE NEWS COVERAGE IS A DOMINATING FACTOR IN

NEWSPAPER PURCHASE AS WELL AS READING. MOST OF THE READERS FEEL THAT THE LACK OF THE NEWS COVERAGE MAY LEAD THEM TO CHANGE THE NEWSPAER THEY READ. MOST OF THE TARGET MARKET IS MOVING TOWARD

ONLINE NEWS & THUS NARROWING THE MARKET. LANGUAGE SEEMS TO BE ANOTHER PROBLEM AS BS IS NOT AVAILABLE IN LOCAL LANGUAGE. AGGRESSIVE MARKETING EXECUTED BY THE MINT SEEMS TO BE CATCHING UP AS IT IS SLOWLY INCREASING THE READERS & PENETRATING THE MARKET THE FONT SIZE OF THE STOCK PAGES IS ARE VERY SMALL & NOT READABLE ENOUGH FOR THE CUSTOMERS. COMPETITION AMONG THE VENDOR ALSO SEEMS TO BE A PROBLEM AS IT RESULTS IN DECREASE BS READERS

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RECOMMENDATION
This are the following suggestion and recommendation which can help the firm to improve the product.

Increase Brand Awareness by various means Increase the font size of stock detail Add the news on agriculture, logistics and transportation Improve print quality Give more job related advertisements Come up with new creative advertisements Build proper positioning in the minds of the readers
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 Publishing their Club and giving membership to regular customers. Make some events with corporate to spread awareness of BS Collaborate with B-schools to provide copy of BS daily at their home.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
WEBSITES: WIKIPEDIA BUSINESS STANDARD REFERENCE BOOKS : MARKETING MANAGEMENT BY PHILIP KOTLER

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