A SUMMER INTRENSHIP PROJECT REPORT ON MARKETING

AND RESULT DEVELOPMENTAND A STUDY OF CONSUMER

BEHAVIOUR AT

THE TIMES OF INDIA

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award

of the Degree of Master in Business Administration (session
2020-2022)
MBA 3RD SEMESTER

SUBMITTED TO SUBMITTED BY:

Vipin Yadav
SFS 27 MBA
UNI. Roll no.4120314

1
 PREFACE

As a part of MBA Curriculum and in order to get practical knowledge to the field of
marketing, Human resource and to gain experience of the Industry, I have done my Summer
Internship at Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. with the profile on an Intern. The basic objective
was to enhance my knowledge through practical exposure. True learning is born out of
experience and observation practical experience is one of the best types of leanings that one
can remember throughout the life. After II semesters in learning theoretical aspects of
administration and management, the day come to apply these in corporate world in content of
modern industrial enterprise that has to go through its different terminal to achieve that
corporate goals. The main object of practical training is to develop practical knowledge and
experience and awareness about industrial environment and business practices in the student
as a supplement to theoretical studies of administration and management in specific area like
HRM. It increases the skill, ability and attitude of a student to perform specific job in
industrial environment.

Fortunately, I got golden opportunity to visit and complete my six week training at THE
TIMES OF INDIA. Here, I got chance to see the functioning HRD departments and imbibe a
lot learning of the subjects.

THE TIMES OF INDIA is a wide Organization producing News papers, the main products
include Times of India, Economic Times, Radio Mirchi etc. It has developed in many fields.
Today guess is a legend in the world of business and organization at a home and abroad.

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 ACKNOWLEDMENTS

I take this opportunity to extend my sincere thanks to UNIIVERSITY SCHOOL OF

MANAGEMENT, KURUKSHETRA UNIVERSITY KURUKSHETRA and The Times of
India Group for offering a unique platform to earn exposure and garner knowledge in the
field of Sales and Marketing. First of all, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to my project guide
Mr. RAKESH SUKHIJA, Deputy Manager, Results and Market Development at Times of
India, Chandigarh for having made my summer training a great learning experience by giving
me his guidance, insights and encouragement which acted as a continuous source of support
for me during this entire period. I would also like to thank MR. NAVNEET THAKUR of
TOI, Chandigarh for his help and guidance in sales and all my colleagues for their sincere
cooperation. Without which the success of this project wouldn’t had been possible. I would
also like to express my profound gratitude to my faculty guides for there constructive
support during the summer internship period, which leads to successful completion of my
internship at Times of India, Chandigarh.

Place:- Chandigarh VIPIN YADAV

Date:- SEPTEMBER 15,2021 MBA,2020-2022

3
 DECLRATION
I hereby declared that project tittle ”RESULT AND MARKETING DEVELOPMENTs of the
Times Of India Group Newspaper” is an original piece of research work carried out by me under
the guidance and supervision of Mr. Rakesh Sukhija, Deputy Manager Result and Marketing
Development at Times Of India, Chandigarh and prof. Saloni P. Diwan and it was not submitted to
any other organization, university or institutions or published any time before . The information has
collected from genuine and authentic sources. The work has been submitted in partial fulfillment of
the requirement of MBA to our college.

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ORGANIZATION CERTIFICATE

5
 CONTENT
PREFACE……………………………………………………………..
ACKNOWLEDMENT…………………………………………………………...
DECLRATION…………………………………………………………………...
ORGANISATION CERTIFICATE ……………………………………..
CHAPTER 1
 ORGANSATIONAL PROFILE.................................................................
 COMPANY PROFILE…………………………………………………….
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE.....................................................................
CHAPTER 2
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .........................................................................
OUTCOMES ......................................................................................................
LIMITATION ......................................................................................................
CHAPTER 3
FINDINGS……………………………………………………………………..
SUGGESTIONS……………………………………………………………….
CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………
BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………
QUESTINARIE………………………………………………………………

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 CHAPTER 1
ORGANISATINAL PROFILE
INTRODUCTION TO BENNETT, COLEMAN & CO. LTD.

INDUSTRY: Mass Media

FOUNDED: 4TH NOVEMBER 1838
FOUNDER: INDU JAIN (CHAIRPERSON)
SAMIR JAIN (VICE- CHAIRMAN)
VINEET JAIN (MANAGING DIRECTOR)

PRODUCTS OFFERED:
PUBLISHING
BROADCASTING
RADIO
FILM
ENTERTAINMENT
ONLINE REPORT

7
 COMPANY PROFILE

The first edition appears on November 3, 1838 known as "The Bo9mbay Times and Journal
of Commerce", later to be known as “The Times of India “.

8
The first edition appears on November 3, 1838 known as "The Bombay Times and Journal of
Commerce". The issue is published twice a week. Dr. J.E. Brennan the first editor also
Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. Rs 30/- is the annual subscription. 1846 The
newspaper experiences proprietary changes and Dr. George Brit appointed editor. 1850
Shareholders decide to increase the share capital and the paper converted into a daily

1855
Telegraph Services opens up in India shortly afterwards, the paper signs an agreement with
Reuters for raising news coverage and lowering subscription rates. That old tie was renewein

2006 with the pact between TIMESNOW & Reuters

1861
Editor Robert Knight amalgamates The Bombay Times, Bombay Standard and Bombay
Telegraph & Courier to form 'The Times of India' and gives it a national character.

1880

The Times of India Weekly edition launched. The

Times of India weekly edition launched, to meet the need for a weekend paper. This later

9
 came to be known as the Illustrated Weekly of India in 1923.The Times of India Weekly
edition launched.

1890
Editor Henry Curwen buys TOI in partnership with Charles Kane.

1892

Following the death of Henry Curwen, T. J. Bennett becomes the editor and enters into a
partnership with F.M. Coleman to form a joint stock company - Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.
(BCCL).

1902

The paper moves in to its current office opposite CST. It

started out at the Parsi Bazar and then moved on to Churchgate where things got so bad that
editor Bennett had to complete his editorial elsewhere after the ceiling fan collapsed in his
room.

1907

10
-Editor Stanley Reed revolutionaries news production by extending the deadline to midnight.
Until then any news that came in after 5pm was held over for the next day. TOI's first price
war under editor Stanley Reed: price cut from 4 annas to 1 anna; circulation rises 5 times.

1923
Evening News of India launched.

1929
Evening News of India launched. The Times Of India Illustrated Weekly renamed The
Illustrated Weekly Of India.
1930
The Column "Bombay 100 Years ago" published.

1940
First time news items appeared on the front page.

1946
For the first time the paper transfers to Indian ownership. Seth Ramakrishna Dalmia buys out
Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. for Rs. 2 crores.

11
 1948
Sahu Jain Group become the owners of the company. Shanti Prasad Jain is the first
Chairman of the group.

1950
❖ Navbharat Times launched
❖ The TOI Crest changes from the lions to elephants
❖ Dharmayug, Hindi weekly pictorial magazine launched
❖ Frank Moraes succeeded Ivor Jehu to become the first Indian editor (1950-57) R K
Laxman’s common man cartoon starts.

1952
Filmfare- first film magazine in English launched.

12
 1959 Femina - first women’s magazine in English launched

Recent Developments
Recent development/Investments FDI inflows in the information and broadcasting sector
(including print media) stood at US$ 9.4 billion between April 2000 and December 2020.
• In April 2021, Zee Entertainment signed a deal with Tokyo Broadcasting System
Television (TBS) in Japan to produce diverse content for India and Japan and the global
market.
• In April 2021, In Mobi Exchange launched in-game ads to target premium mobile users
with advertisements such as electronic advertisement boards, in-game sports stadium, e-
sports arena, hyper-casual gaming room, etc.
• In February 2021, BookMyShow launched a pay-per-view video streaming service—
BookMyShow Stream. The platform aims to offer customers >2,000 movies by end-2021.
• In February 2021, Vodafone Idea Ltd. (Vi) launched the pay-per-view streaming service on
Vi Movies and TV app to offer content as part of a contract with Hungama Digital Media
Entertainment.
• In February 2021, Inox Leisure expanded its footprint in Kolkata, West Bangal; launched
Metro INOX, a multiplex with digital features such as paper-less ticketing & check-ins, and
touchscreen-enabled interactive food-ordering.
• In January 2021, Entertainment Network (India) has entered into a brand and content
licensing agreement with a Dubai-based radio broadcaster—Dolphin Recording Studio LLC’
(DRS)— for use of the company's trademarks and content. The Hindi/Urdu language radio
station is officially branded as 'Suno FM' by DRS. It will now be rebranded on mutually
agreeable terms and conditions as 'Radio Mirchi/Mirchi’.
• In March 2021, Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI)
signed an agreement with the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) to adopt
ATSC standards, a first-step towards initiating the development of next-generation
broadcasting standards for India

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 Government Initiatives
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is set to approach the Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, with a request to Fastrack the
recommendations on broadcasting, in an attempt to boost reforms in the broadcasting sector.
The Government of India has agreed to set up National Centre of Excellence for Animation,
Gaming, Visual Effects and Comics industry in Mumbai. The Indian and Canadian
Government have signed an audio-visual co-production deal to enable producers from both
the countries exchange and explore their culture and creativity, respectively.
On February 25, 2021, the government outlined the Information Technology (Intermediary
Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 to establish a progressive institutional
mechanism and a three-tier grievance redressal framework for news publishers and OTT
platforms on the digital media.
In February 2021, the digital entertainment committee of the Internet and Mobile
Association of India (IAMAI) finalized a code of conduct to form the basis for self-regulation
code for OTT content. The code has been endorsed by 17 OTT platforms including Netflix,
Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, ZEE5 and Voot.
In February 2021, Prasar Bharati (India) and PSM (the official State Media of Maldives)
inked an agreement to facilitate collaboration and capacity building in the field of
broadcasting.
Digital audio–visual content including films and web shows on over-the-top (OTT)
streaming platforms, as well as news and current affairs on online platforms, have been
brought under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in November 2020.

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 Road Ahead
Indian M&E industry is on an impressive growth path. The industry is expected to grow at a
much faster rate than the global average rate.
Growth is expected in retail advertisement on the back of several players entering the food
and beverages segment, E-commerce gaining more popularity in the country, and domestic
companies testing out the waters. Rural region is also a potentially profitable target.
In the late 20th century, mass media could be classified into eight mass media industries:
books, the Internet, magazines, movies, newspapers, radio, recordings, and television. The
explosion of digital communication technology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries made
prominent the question: what forms of media should be classified as "mass media"? For
example, it is controversial whether to include cell phones, computer games such as and
video games in the definition. In the 2000s, a classification called the "seven mass media"
became popular. In order of introduction, they are:
1. Print (books, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, etc.) from the late 15th century 2.
Recordings (gramophone records, magnetic tapes, cassettes, cartridges, CDs, and DVDs)
from the late 19th century
3. Cinema from about 1900
4. Radio from about 1910
5. Television from about 1950
6. Internet from about 1990
7. Mobile phones from about 2000
Each mass medium has its own content types, creative artists, technicians, and business
models. For example, the Internet includes blogs, podcasts, web sites, and various other
technologies built atop the general distribution network. The sixth and seventh media,
Internet and mobile phones, are often referred to collectively as digital media; and the fourth
and fifth, radio and TV, as broadcast media. Some argue that video games have developed
into a distinct mass form of media.

While a telephone is a two-way communication device, mass media communicates to a large

group. In addition, the telephone has transformed into a cell phone which is equipped with
Internet access. A question arises whether this makes cell phones a mass medium or simply a
device used to access a mass medium (the Internet). There is currently a system by which
marketers and advertisers are able to tap into satellites, and broadcast commercials and
advertisements directly to cell phones, unsolicited by the phone's user. This transmission of
mass advertising to millions of people is another form of mass communication.
Video games may also be evolving into a mass medium. Video games (for example,
massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), such as RuneScape) provide
a common gaming experience to millions of users across the globe and convey the same
messages and ideologies to all their users. Users sometimes share the experience with one
another by playing online. Excluding the Internet, however, it is questionable whether players
of video games are sharing a common experience when they play the game individually. It is
possible to discuss in great detail the events of a video game with a friend one has never
played with, because the experience is identical to each. The question, then, is whether this is
a form of mass communication.

Characteristics

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 Five characteristics of mass communication have been identified by sociologist John
Thompson of Cambridge University

•“Comprises both technical and institutional methods of production and distribution" – This
is evident throughout the history of mass media, from print to the Internet, each suitable for
commercial utility
•Involves the "commodification of symbolic forms" – as the production of materials relies on
its ability to manufacture and sell large quantities of the work; as radio stations rely on their
time sold to advertisements, so too newspapers rely on their space for the same reasons
•"Separate contexts between the production and reception of information"
•Its "reach to those 'far removed' in time and space, in comparison to the producers"
•"Information distribution" – a "one to many" form of communication, whereby products are
mass produced and disseminated to a great quantity of audience.

Mass vs. mainstream and alternative

The term "mass media" is sometimes erroneously used as a synonym for "mainstream
media". Mainstream media are distinguished from alternative media by their content and
point of view. Alternative media are also "mass media" outlets in the sense that they use
technology capable of reaching many people, even if the audience is often smaller than the
mainstream.
In common usage, the term "mass" denotes not that a given number of individuals receives
the products, but rather that the products are available in principle to a plurality of recipients.

Print media
Outdoor media
Outdoor media is a form of mass media which comprises billboards, signs, placards placed
inside and outside commercial buildings/objects like shops/buses, flying billboards (signs in
tow of airplanes), blimps, skywriting, AR advertising. Many commercial advertisers use this
form of mass media when advertising in sports stadiums. Tobacco and alcohol manufacturers
used billboards and other outdoor media extensively. However, in 1998, the Master
Settlement Agreement between the US and the tobacco industries prohibited the billboard
advertising of cigarettes. In a 1994 Chicago-based study, Diana Hackbarth and her colleagues
revealed how tobacco- and alcohol-based billboards were concentrated in poor
neighborhoods. In other urban centers, alcohol and tobacco billboards were much more
concentrated in African-American neighborhoods than in white neighborhoods.

Purposes
Mass media encompasses much more than just news, although it is sometimes
misunderstood in this way. It can be used for various purposes:
• Advocacy, both for business and social concerns. This can include advertising, marketing,
propaganda, public relations, and political communication.
• Entertainment, traditionally through performances of acting, music, and TV shows along
with light reading; since the late 20th century also through video and computer games.
• Public service announcements and emergency alerts (that can be used as political device to
communicate propaganda to the public).

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 Journalism
Journalism is the discipline of collecting, analyzing, verifying and presenting information
regarding current events, trends, issues and people. Those who practice journalism are known
as journalists.
News-oriented journalism is sometimes described as the "first rough draft of history"
(attributed to Phil Graham), because journalists often record important events, producing
news articles on short deadlines. While under pressure to be first with their stories, news
media organizations usually edit and proofread their reports prior to publication, adhering to
each organization's standards of accuracy, quality and style. Many news organizations claim
proud traditions of holding government officials and institutions accountable to the public,
while media critics have raised questions about holding the press itself accountable to the
standards of professional journalism.

Public relations
Public relations is the art and science of managing communication between an organization
and its key publics to build, manage and sustain its positive image. Examples include:
• Corporations use marketing public relations to convey information about the products they
manufacture or services they provide to potential customers to support their direct sales
efforts. Typically, they support sales in the short and long term, establishing and burnishing
the corporation's branding for a strong, ongoing market.
• Corporations also use public relations as a vehicle to reach legislators and other politicians,
seeking favorable tax, regulatory, and other treatment, and they may use public relations to
portray themselves as enlightened employers, in support of human-resources recruiting
programs.

• Nonprofit organizations, including schools and universities, hospitals, and human and social
service agencies, use public relations in support of awareness programs, fund-raising
programs, staff recruiting, and to increase patronage of their services. • Politicians use public
relations to attract votes and raise money, and when successful at the ballot box, to promote
and defend their service in office, with an eye to the next election or, at career's end, to their
legacy.

Publishing
Publishing is the industry concerned with the production of literature or information – the
activity of making information available for public view. In some cases, authors may be their
own publishers.
Traditionally, the term refers to the distribution of printed works such as books and
newspapers. With the advent of digital information systems and the Internet, the scope of
publishing has expanded to include websites, blogs, and the like.
As a business, publishing includes the development, marketing, production, and distribution
of newspapers, magazines, books, literary works, musical works, software, other works
dealing with information.
Publication is also important as a legal concept;
(1) as the process of giving formal notice to the world of a significant intention, for example,
to marry or enter bankruptcy,

17
 (2) as the essential precondition of being able to claim defamation; that is, the alleged libel
must have been published.

Software publishing
A software publisher is a publishing company in the software industry between the developer
and the distributor. In some companies, two or all three of these roles may be combined (and
indeed, may reside in a single person, especially in the case of shareware).
Software publishers often license software from developers with specific limitations, such as
a time limit or geographical region. The terms of licensing vary enormously, and are typically
secret.

Perspectives
2021 media and entertainment industry outlook.
Three strategies to consider in the year ahead.
Since spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has been accelerating structural challenges and
trends that have long faced the media and entertainment (M&E) industry.
Key strategies for a bold recovery Heading into 2021, telecommunications, media, and
entertainment industry leaders should consider three key strategic opportunities both to
recover from the COVID-19 crisis and to boldly position themselves to thrive in the future:
1. Renewing the focus on customers’ needs by taking a more nuanced approach to customer
engagement.
2. Converging and remixing entertainment experiences through new service offerings and
entertainment bundles—and by adopting new strategies that can enable business agility.
3. Repositioning to monetize advanced wireless networks through new products, services,
and business models.

Research
• Supply
Of the more than 70,000 newspapers printed in India, around 90% are published in Hindi and
other vernacular languages. There are over 800 private satellite TV channels, permitted by
the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
• Demand
The demand for regional media is growing at a faster pace than that of English language
print media. In the electronic media, the highly-fragmented viewership has led to an
increasing preference for niche channels.
• To Barriers Entry
High, for broadcasting since it is very capital-intensive. Low for content providers.
• Bargaining power of suppliers

Low as the number of suppliers is high. There is an increasing number of content providers .
• Bargaining power of customers
High, as a variety of entertainment sources are available.
• Competition
High in print media, especially in Hindi dailies and regional print media too. Competition is
also high amongst broadcasters especially for general entertainment channels
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 Conclusion

India has a growing and constantly changing newspaper market, with daily circulation up
from 150 million in 2002 rising to 264 million in 2014; it is expected to continue to rise in the
coming years. However, the newspaper industry in India hasn’t always enjoyed increasing
readership. India’s newspaper industry has faced restrictions because of state censorship, a
lack of investment and the challenge of language were all barriers faced by the industry.
The years between 1991 and 2006 belonged to the television and Internet in India and this
changed the habits of the nation, seeing the country’s population hungry for more media
choices.
The rapid expansion of the Internet was accompanied by a newspaper revolution. Growth in
technology and the importing of new printing equipment meant that it was becoming
commercially viable for newspapers to be printed in a variety of regional languages rather
than predominantly either in Hindi or English.
The availability of newspapers in different languages has meant that India’s newspaper
market appeals to millions of non-English speakers. It is predicted that by 2017, the revenues
for non-English papers will overtake that of English newspapers for the first time ever.
Increasing literacy rates across India has driven the localization of newspapers, made possible
by the changes in printing technology. The increasing literacy rates in rural areas of India has
seen the investment in newspapers grow, and often, the greatest increase in circulation of
newspapers has been in areas with increasing literacy rather than increasing economic power.
By reading a newspaper people, who had been previously denied, have been given an
opportunity to be involved in civic and political participation. Kerala is one such example.
Throughout the twentieth century, this was an area with some of the highest literacy rates in
India. There was also a strong sense of political involvement amongst the people, and the
newspaper readership per 1000 was well above the national average for India, yet the average
income for Kerala was below the Indian national average.
This shows that rather than newspapers being a sign of the elite, they are now seen as a mass
medium, and a way for Indian citizens participating in national affairs.

Market Analysis

Newspapers have become products like any other consumer, industrial or service products.
They have unique features which other products do not have. The newspaper industry in
India is witnessing intense competition from within and from outside like electronic and
internet media. This has tremendous bearing on circulation and advertisement revenues.
There is more and more focus on marketing and innovations in marketing strategies. Reviews
of some of these strategies are focused in the paper. The authors have presented a case study
of TIMES OF INDIA GROUP for innovations in marketing strategies, which are product,
price, promotion and distribution related. A survey has been conducted by the authors on a
recent innovation in marketing strategy of TRIMMING and SLIMMING the size of the
newspaper. The data collected from 357 readers of Bangalore are analyzed. The readers in
general are not only positive to these changes but also have observed them keenly. Such
understanding of sensitivity of readers is crucial for the success of marketing strategies.

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 Marketing Mix

The term "marketing mix" is a foundation model for businesses, historically centered around
product, price, place, and promotion (also known as the "4Ps"). The marketing mix has been
defined as the "set of marketing tools that the firm uses to pursue its marketing objectives in
the target market".
Marketing theory emerged in the early twentieth century. The contemporary marketing mix
which has become the dominant framework for marketing management decisions was first
published in 1960. In services marketing, an extended marketing mix is used, typically
comprising 7 Ps, made up of the original 4Ps extended by process, people, and physical
evidence. Occasionally service marketers will refer to 8 Ps, comprising these 7 Ps plus
performance.
In the 1990s, the model of 4 Cs was introduced as a more customer-driven replacement of the
4 Ps. There are two theories based on 4 Cs: Lauterborn's 4 Cs (consumer, cost, convenience,
and communication), and Shimizu's 4 Cs (commodity, cost, channel, and communication).
Given the valuation of customers towards potential product attributes (in any category, e.g.
product, promotion, etc.), and the attributes of the products sold by other companies, the
problem of selecting the attributes of a product to maximize the number of customers
preferring it is a computationally intractable problem.

The correct arrangement of marketing mix by enterprise marketing managers plays an

important role in the success of a company's marketing:

1. develop strengths and avoid weaknesses.

2. strengthen the competitiveness and adaptability of enterprises.

3. ensure the internal departments of the enterprise work closely together.

Emergence and Growth

The origins of the 4 Ps can be traced to the late 1940s. The first known mention of a mix has
been attributed to a Professor of Marketing at Harvard University, Prof. James Culliton. In
1948, Culliton published an article entitled, The Management of Marketing Costs in which
Culliton describes marketers as 'mixers of ingredients'. Some years later, Culliton's colleague,
Professor Neil Borden, published a retrospective article detailing the early history of the
marketing mix in which he claims that he was inspired by Culliton's idea of 'mixers', and
credits himself with popularizing the concept of the 'marketing mix'.[13] According to
Borden's account, he used the term, 'marketing mix' consistently from the late 1940s. For
instance, he is known to have used the term 'marketing mix' in his presidential address given
to the American Marketing Association in 1953.

Although the idea of marketers as 'mixers of ingredients' caught on, marketers could not
reach any real consensus about what elements should be included in the mix until the 1960s.
The 4 Ps, in its modern form, was first proposed in 1960 by E. Jerome McCarthy; who
presented them within a managerial approach that covered analysis, consumer behavior,

20
 market research, market segmentation, and planning. Phillip Kotler, popularized this
approach and helped spread the 4 Ps model. McCarthy's 4 Ps have been widely adopted by
both marketing academics and practitioners.

The prospect of extending the marketing mix first took hold at the inaugural AMA
Conference dedicated to Services Marketing in the early 1980s, and built on earlier
theoretical works pointing to many important limitations of the 4 Ps model. Taken
collectively, the papers presented at that conference indicate that service marketers were
thinking about a revision to the general marketing mix based on an understanding that
services were fundamentally different from products, and therefore required different tools
and strategies. In 1981, Booms and Bitner proposed a model of 7 Ps, comprising the original
4 Ps extended by process, people and physical evidence, as being more applicable for
services marketing.

Since then, there have been a number of different proposals for a service marketing mix (with
various numbers of Ps); most notably the 8 Ps, comprising the 7 Ps above, extended by
'performance'.

4P’s of Marketing

The “4 P’ s of Marketing” refer to the four key elements comprising the process of
marketing a product or service. They involve the marketing mix, which is a set of tools that a
company uses to influence consumers into buying its product. The marketing mix addresses
factors such as:

• Understanding the needs or desires of consumers

• Identifying the cause of the failure of the current product offering.

• Finding ways to solve said problems and change public perception of the product/service.

• Creating distinguishing characteristics to increase competitive advantage.

• Understanding how the product interacts with consumers and vice versa.

21
 The individual who conceptualized the 4P’s of Marketing was a Harvard University
professor named Neil Borden. In 1964, Borden introduced the idea in one of his published
articles called “The Concept of the Marketing Mix.” he mentioned that many companies
could use the framework to increase the likelihood of their success when advertising their
products.

The group publications in this space – TOI, Economic Times, Mumbai Mirror, Bangalore
Mirror, Pune Mirror and Ahmedabad Mirror – had a combined non- duplicated average issue
readership of 68.8 lakh, giving the Times Group a 52.2% share of the market for English
dailies.

Marketing Mix

1. Product
A product is any good or service that fulfills consumer needs or desires. It can also be
defined as a bundle of utilities that comes with physical aspects such as design, volume,
brand name, etc. The type of product impacts its perceived value, which allows companies to
price it profitably. It also affects other aspects such as product placement and advertisements.

Companies can change the packaging, after-sales service, warranties, and price range, or
expand to new markets to meet their objectives. Marketers must understand the product life
22
cycle and come up with strategies for every stage in the life cycle, i.e., introduction, growth,
maturity, and decline.
2. Price
The price of a product directly influences sales volume and, consequently, business profits.
Demand, cost, pricing trends among competitors, and government regulations are crucial
factors that determine pricing. Price usually reflects the product’s perceived value rather than
its real value. This means that pricing can be increased to promote exclusivity or reduced to
create access.
Thus, pricing involves making decisions in terms of the basic price, discounts, price
alteration, credit terms, freight payments, etc. It is also important to analyze when and if
techniques like discounting are required or appropriate.
3. Promotion
Promotion involves decisions related to advertising, salesforce, direct marketing, public
relations, advertising budgets, etc. The primary aim of promotion is to spread awareness
about the product and services offered by a company. It helps in persuading consumers to
choose a particular product over others in the market. Promotional efforts include the
following:
• Advertising: A means of selling a product, service, or idea through communicating a
sponsored, non-personal message about the product.
• Public relations: Involves management and control of the flow and matter of information
from one’s organization to the general public or other institutions.
• Marketing strategy: Involves identifying the right target market and using tools such as
advertising to penetrate the said market. Promotion also includes online factors such as
determining the class of search functions on Google that may trigger corresponding or
targeted ads for the product, the design and layout of a company’s webpage, or the content
posted on social media handles such as Twitter and Instagram.

4. Place (or Distribution)

Place involves choosing the place where products are to be made available for sale. The
primary motive of managing trade channels is to ensure that the product is readily available
to the customer at the right time and place. It also involves decisions regarding the placing
and pricing of wholesale and retail outlets.
Distribution channels such as outsourcing or company transport fleets are decided upon after
cost-benefit analysis. Small details such as shelf space committed to the product by
department stores are also included .
Extensions to the 4 P’ s of Marketing
New marketers recommend expanding the 4 P’ s of Marketing to include services as well.
They include:
• People: Servicing involves a direct interaction of service providers and consumers, which
increases the scope for subjectivity. Appearances, communication, discretion, consumer
interaction, behavior, and attitude of service are important aspects.
• Physical Evidence: Atmosphere, layout, and design of the workplace can largely impact the
brand image of a product.
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 • Process: Standardized procedures are usually adopted in cases of policy, procedures,
systems, and consumer involvement to create continuity while delivering services

SWOT Analysis of Times of India

SWOT analysis of The Times of India analyses the brand/company with its strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities & threats. In The Times of India SWOT Analysis, the strengths
and weaknesses are the internal factors whereas opportunities and threats are the external
factors.
SWOT Analysis is a proven management framework which enables a brand like The Times
of India to benchmark its business & performance as compared to the competitors and
industry. The Times of India is one of the leading brands in the media & entertainment sector.
The table below lists the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), top The
Times of India competitors and includes The Times of India target market, segmentation,
positioning & Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

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25
 Competition Analysis
“Create and build brands with differentiated content to capture relevant audiences and market
the value of these to advertisers to help them sell and strengthen their brands”. Core
competency and sustainable competitive advantage
• A strongly dedicated and innovative product development team.
• Largest infrastructure for advertising and circulation sales.
• A strong sales team and strong business strategies.

Strengths
• World’s largest newspaper.
• Strong brand image
• Easy brand recall useful in a competitive market with numerous dailies; high brand loyalty.
• Weekly paper called Ascent is widely regarded as excellent platform and also a must read
for potential recruiters and job seekers.
• Times of India- widely circulated daily newspaper.
• Largest infrastructure for advertising and circulation sales.
• Very good newspaper printing quality.

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 Weaknesses
• Some people have the perception that TOI publishers more celebrity/entertainment news.
• Very less distribution channel in rural and small cities in India.
• Less information about stock market.
• Late circulation in small cities.
• Lack in covering useful news for competitive student.

Opportunities
• Expanding organized distribution channels in small cities and rural areas.
• Has a limited presence in Southern India as compared to the rest of India.
• Huge opportunity in regional languages space.
• Better usage and interaction with online mediums.
• Personalized newspaper editions.
• Value addition. • Digital Space media.
Threats
• Tough competition with competitors
• Competitors- Hindustan Times, The Hindu
• Regional newspapers.
• Increasing digital media growth.

Competitors of Times of India

The top 10 competitors in The Times Of India's competitive set are Hindustan Times, The
Hindu, Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd., Times Internet, Verse, Dainik Bhaskar Group,
Oneindia, The Indian Express, The Tribune Papers, HT Media and VCCircle.

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 Customer Analysis

A customer analysis (or customer profile) is a critical section of a company’s business plan or
marketing plan. It identifies target customers, ascertains the needs of these customers, and
then specifies how the product satisfies these needs.
Customer analysis can be broken down into a behavioral profile (why your product matches
a customer’s lifestyle) and a demographic profile (describing a customer’s demographic
attributes).
A customer profile is a simple tool that can help business better understand current and
potential customers, so they can increase sales and grow their business. Customer profiles are
a collection of information about customers that help determine why people buy or don’t buy
a product. Customer profiles can also help develop targeted marketing plans and help ensure
that products meet the needs of their intended audience.
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 Behavioral Analysis
(Customer Buying Criteria)
A behavioral analysis of customers (or psychographic profile) seeks to identify and weigh
the relative importance of factors consumers use to choose one product over another. These
factors, sometimes called buying criteria, are key to understanding the reasons that customers
choose to buy your product (or service) versus the products offered by your competitors. The
four major criteria that customers use to distinguish competing products are: price, quality,
convenience and prestige.
In consumer transactions, price and quality tend to be the dominant factors. However with
business-to-business (B2B) transactions (also called industrial marketing), service issues such
as reliability, payment terms, and delivery schedule become much more important. The sales
transaction in an industrial marketing scenario also differs from consumer marketing in that
the purchase decision is typically made by a group of people instead of one person, and the
selling process can be much more complex (including stages such as: request for bid,
proposal preparation and contract negotiations).
By identifying customer needs through market research and analysis, companies can develop
a clear and concise value proposition which reflects the tangible benefits that customers can
expect from the company’s products. And once the primary buying criteria have been
identified, marketing efforts can influence the customer’s perception of the product along the
four main dimensions (price, quality, convenience and prestige), relative to the competition’s
product.
Behavioral Analysis
(Purchase Process and Patterns)
Occasionally, customer behavior analysis requires a more in-depth understanding of the
actual decision-making process of the customer purchase. This may be especially true in an
industrial marketing scenario.
The newspaper industry works to inform people about current events happening all around
the world. The newspaper industry is globally moving from traditional print technology to
digital technology as everyone seems to generally prefer digital and mobile platforms.
However, print media continues to be an attractive platform for image advertisers and
premium segment readers in the global market.
Diversifying revenue streams have become a big priority for publishers all over the world as
traditional business models face pressure to generate revenue.
Digital publishing, diversified business models, changing distribution channels, strategic
partnerships, and convergent platforms are driving the newspaper industry globally. Virtual
reality is another area where publishers are starting to look at. Publishers are also focusing on
building in-house data and analytics capabilities.
According to official sources, the daily paid circulation of newspapers was 60 million in
2000, and in 2016, that number had plummeted to 33.5 million which further went down to
28.6 million in 2018. As a result of this, publishers are turning their focus towards more
consumer-centric business models which can outpace the digital platforms revenue by a good
margin. Many newspapers are currently downsizing or going online because of internet
reading subscribers rising globally.
Despite digital transformation print revenues are accounting for revenues over 80% of the
market, globally revenues from print fell by over 1% only. Publishers are embracing
creativity, experimentation, and new initiatives in the market. Furthermore, emerging
imperative, especially for newspaper publishers are to play up their long-standing association
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 with high-quality information. It is also observed that trust in journalists and quality
journalism is on the rise, particularly compared to online platforms.
However, in the present scenario, advertisers are placing advertisements on social media
than digital newspapers which can restrain the growth of the market. So, newspapers, in order
to fund their operations, are looking to adapt with subscription models to the digital world.
Scope of the Report
The newspaper industry report provides a basic overview of the industry, including
definitions, classifications, applications, and industry chain structure. The report also
provides development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development
status.
Key Market Trends
Digital Newspapers and Advertising Markets are Expected to Grow Faster in the Newspapers
Industry
Newspaper companies are expanding capabilities across different channels spanning from
mobile, advertising technology, video, digital audio/podcasts, and data analytics/data mining.
Digital platforms are acting as a medium between publishers and readers. Newspapers of all
the media and entertainment segments are struggling with the digital content as they compete
directly with the volume of content that is available for free online and other sources.
Digital platforms are continuously deriving revenues from digital readers in the market.
Digital revenues are forecasted to grow at a higher rate than the print revenue in the
newspaper market. Digital advertising revenues from the advertisers are also projected to
grow at a growth rate of over 5% in the market. The big giants, like Google and Facebook,
are also disrupting the digital advertisement market by their services and are gaining a large
market share.
Publishers are getting better insights from websites for their customers, distributors, and
stakeholders. Publishers with the digital-first model are investing significantly in building in-
house data and analytics capabilities to exploit the digital market.
Asia Pacific is the Largest Market for Newspaper Industry
The Asia-Pacific was the largest region in the newspaper market, accounting for over 30% of
the market in 2018. The key factor behind the growth of the Asia-pacific market is the growth
of print and digital media in India and China. Other factors supporting the growing market
are developing economy, middle-class population, and education in these markets. As more
populations in these countries get educated, they will demand more newspapers to read and
also browse through online content in the process, thus, helping the market to grow both by
the print and digital technology.
The Indian market, when compared to other countries, has a steady growth in the print
newspaper industry, while in other markets, it has been mostly overtaken by the digital
market. Countries, like the United States and the United Kingdom, have shown a negative
growth rate for the print newspaper industry, as more people have shifted onto digital
platforms. However, consumers in the market are getting more and more aware of fake news
from internet sources and are getting back to sources that can provide news in an authentic
and convincing manner where they can build their trust.

Competitive Landscape
The newspaper industry is fragmented and is competitive in nature as there are many
publishers competing in the market. The impact of trust on the performance of news and the
revenues of news media companies worldwide is undeniable. More publishers are increasing
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their efforts to boost revenues from readers as advertising revenues are dwindling. Publishers
are increasingly forming ad alliances all over the world to compete with tech giants, such as
Google, in the market.

Job analysis is a systematic process of collecting the information on nature of a job, qualities
and qualifications required to a job, physical and mental capabilities to required to a job,
duties and responsibilities, physical and mental effort required to perform a job, necessary
skills required to perform a job, working conditions and environment for a job, in order to
describe job description and job specification, for recruitment and selection of employee,
improve job satisfaction, employee safety and to build up employee motivation etc.

There are also some outside resources that provide useful information about job searching
and resume writing, everyone can read essay writing service reviews to choose the best
services to write an application essay or resume.

What Is a Job?
A group of homogeneous tasks related by similarity of functions. When performed by an
employee in an exchange for pay, a job consists of duties, responsibilities, and tasks
(performance elements) that are
(1) defined and specific, and
(2) can be accomplished, quantified, measured, and rated. From a wider perspective, a job is
synonymous with a role and includes the physical and social aspects of a work environment.
Often, individuals identify themselves with their job or role (foreman, supervisor, engineer,
etc.) and derive motivation from its uniqueness or usefulness.
Job Analysis
Job analysis, contains a simple term called "analysis", which means detailed study or
examination of something (job) in order to understand more about it (job). Therefore job
analysis is to understand more about a specific job in order to optimize it. Job analysis is a
systematic process of collecting complete information pertaining to a job. Job analysis is
done by job analyst who is an officer have been trained for it.
Job analysis is a procedure through which you determine the duties and responsibilities,
nature of the jobs and finally to decide qualifications, skills and knowledge to be required for
an employee to perform particular job. Job analysis helps to understand what tasks are
important and how they are carried on. Job analysis forms basis for later HR activities such as
developing effective training program, selection of employees, setting up of performance
standards and assessment of employees (performance appraisal) and employee remuneration
system or compensation plan.
The intention behind job analysis is to answer questions such as:
▪ what is the need of the job to exist?
▪ What physical and mental activities does the worker undertake?
▪ When is the job to be performed?
▪ Where is the job to be performed?
▪ How does the job performed by an employee?
▪ What qualities and qualifications are required to perform the job?

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 Job analysis is a detailed examination of
(1) tasks that make up a job (employee role),
(2) conditions under which an employee performing his/her job, and
(3) what exactly a job requires in terms of aptitudes (potential for achievement), attitudes
(behavior characteristics), knowledge, skills, educational qualifications and the physical
working condition of the employee.

Its objectives include

(a) to determine most effective methods for performing a job.
(b) to increase employee job satisfaction.
(c) to identify core areas for giving training to employees and to find out best methods of
training.
(d) development of performance measurement systems, and
(e) to match job-specifications with employee specifications while selection of an employee.

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 PROCEDURE FOR JOB ANALYSIS
Job analysis is done by using two approaches one is work oriented approach and second one
is employee oriented approach
1. Work oriented approach
This approach focus on the actual task involved in a Job. this approach mainly concentrate on
duties, functions and responsibilities involved in a job.
Example
Job of court manager in Courts (judiciary), task oriented approach of job analysis
statement include
▪ The Court Manager shall function under the control and guidance of the Chief Justice in the
High Court, and the District Judge in the respective district Courts.
▪ He shall work on policies and standards, based on applicable directives of superior Courts,
establish the performance standards applicable to the Court (including on timeliness,
efficiency; quality of Court performance; infrastructure; and human resources; access to
justice; as well as for systems for Court management and case management.
▪ He will carry out an evaluation of the compliance of the directives of the Court with such
standards; identify deficiencies and deviations; identify steps required to achieve compliance,
maintain such an evaluation on a current basis through annual updates.
▪ He will in consonance with the rules and policies of the court and in consultation with the
stakeholders of the Court including litigants, the Bar, ministerial staff, Executive Agencies
supporting judicial functions such as prosecutors/police/ process service agencies prepare,
submit and update annually a 5-year court-wise Court Development Plan (CDP), for approval
of the court.
▪ He will monitor the implementation of the approved CDP and report to the District Judge
and the High Court with the progress.
▪ He will ensure that statistics on all aspects of the functioning of the Court are complied and
reported accurately and promptly in accordance with systems established by the High Court.
▪ He will ensure that reports on statistics are duly completed and provided as required. ▪ He
will ensure that the processes, procedures, policies and standards established by the High
Court for Court Management are complied with and that they safeguard quality, ensure
efficiency and timeliness and minimize costs to litigants and to the State; and enhance access
to justice.
▪ He will ensure that case management systems are fully compliant with the policies and
standards established by the High Court for case management and that they address the
legitimate needs of litigants in terms of quality, efficiency and timeliness, costs to litigants
and to the State. Standard systems for case management shall be developed by the High Court
time to time.
▪ He will ensure that the Court meets standards established by the High Court on access to
justice, legal aid, alternative dispute mechanisms and are user friendly. ▪ He will ensure that
the Court meets quality of adjudication standards established by the High Court.
▪ He will ensure that Human Resource Management of ministerial staff in the court comply
with the Human Resource Management standards established by the High Court.
▪ He will ensure that the core systems of the court are established and function effectively
(documentation management; utilities management; infrastructure and facilities management;
financial systems management (audits, accounts, payments);
▪ He will ensure that the IT systems of the court comply with standards established by the
High Court and are fully functional.
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 ▪ He will feed the proposed National Arrears Grid to be set up to monitor the disposal of
cases in all the Courts, as and when it is set up.
▪ The Court Manager shall be responsible in implementation, managing data entry initiation,
services roll-out and monitoring of the e-Court Project in the respective Districts/High Court.
▪ He shall perform all other administrative functions and duties as may be assigned by the
Chief Justice in the High Court and the District Judge in the District Court from time to time.
▪ He shall report to the Chief Justice/ District Judge or any other Judge/ officer nominated by
the Chief Justice/ District Judge and shall perform the duties as assigned to him from time to
time.
2. Employee oriented approach
This approach focus on examining of human attributes needed to perform the job perfectly.
human attributes have been classified into knowledge, skills, attitude and other
characteristics.
Knowledge is the information people need in order to perform the job. Skills are the
proficiencies needed to perform each task.
Abilities are the attributes that are relatively stable over time.
Other characteristics are all other attributes, usually personality factors.

Example

▪ The Court Manager shall have M.B.A. Degree or Advanced Diploma in General
Management from a recognized University/institution of India.
▪ He shall have minimum 10 years experience in the field of management,
experience/training in I.T Systems Management, H.R. Management, Financial Systems
Management.
▪ He shall not be more than 40 years of age.
▪ He should have excellent communication skills.
▪ He should have excellent Computer application skills.

Organizational structure and design :-

Job analysis helps the organization to make suitable changes in the organizational structure,
so that it matches the needs and requirements of the organization. Duties are either added or
deleted from the job.

Recruitment and selection :-

Job analysis provides information about what the job entails and what human characteristics
are required to perform these activities. This information, in the form of job descriptions and
specifications, helps management decide what sort of people to recruit and hire.

Performance appraisal and training/development :-

Based on the job requirements identified in the job analysis, the company decides a training
program. Training is given in those areas which will help to improve the performance on the
job. Similarly when appraisal is conducted we check whether the employee is able to work in
a manner in which we require him to do the job.
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 Job evaluation :-
Job evaluation refers to studying in detail the job performance by all individual. The
difficulty levels, skills required and on that basis the salary is fixed. Information regarding
qualities required, skilled levels, difficulty levels are obtained from job analysis.

Promotions and transfer :-

When we give a promotion to an employee we need to promote him on the basis of the skill
and talent required for the future job. Similarly when we transfer an employee to another
branch the job must be very similar to what he has done before. To take these decisions we
collect information from job analysis.

Career path planning :-

Many companies have not taken up career planning for their employees. This is done to
prevent the employee from leaving the company. When we plan the future career of the
employee, information will be collected from job analysis. Hence job analysis becomes
important or advantageous.

Labor relations :-
When companies plan to add extra duties or delete certain duties from a job, they require the
help of job analysis, when this activity is systematically done using job analysis the number
of problems with union members reduce and labour relations will improve.

Health and safety :-

Most companies prepare their own health and safety, plans and programs based on job
analysis. From the job analysis company identifies the risk factor on the job and based on the
risk factor safety equipments are provided.

Acceptance of job offer :-

When a person is given an offer/appointment letter the duties to be performed by him are
clearly mentioned in it, this information is collected from job analysis, which is why job
analysis becomes important.

TOI MARKETING JOB RESPONSIBILITY

Job Summary
Responsible for going door-to-door and selling merchandise or services. Sets up and
demonstrates product, negotiates sale, and completes paperwork. May check up on clients
repeatedly.

Primary Responsibilities

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 ▪ Travel to different neighborhoods and suburbs going door-to-door with the goal of selling
merchandise or services such as life insurance, vacuum cleaners, knives, or magazine
subscriptions.
▪ Sets up and demonstrates product and shows how customer can maximize product features.
▪ Show a presentation on product features.
▪ Convince client to purchase product using a script or persuasive technique.
▪ Distribute product samples.
▪ Hand out pamphlets.
▪ Write up orders for merchandise.
▪ Negotiate prices and create tickets.
▪ Take payments such as cash, credit, or check.
▪ Travel by foot, truck, automobile, or bicycle to deliver or sell merchandise or services.
▪ Make change.
▪ Develop prospect list or lead list.
▪ Circle back and check on customers who are in the position to buy the product.
▪ Develop constructive and cooperative working relationships with others.
▪ Work an assigned territory, often up to 30-50 houses or locations per day.
▪ Win back or upgrade current or former customers.
▪ Assist with installation of product.
▪ Tell customers why product is better than competitors.
▪ Suggest specific product purchases.
▪ Clean up demonstration area before leaving.

Self Evaluation and Meeting Targets:

1. Develop an Effective Strategy
A lot of new sales leaders in the D2D industry are successful reps and field managers who
have steadily worked their way up the company ladder. Most of them have found success in
the field because of their confidence, optimism, personality, and endurance. They’re typically
good on the porch, too, and understand what it takes to handle an area and a conversation.
These are all great attributes, of course, and they have some benefit when a salesperson is
making the transition to sales leader or VP of sales. Unfortunately, these positions require a
lot more, and all-star reps are often unprepared for the job’s demands.
In fact, studies have found that “72% of new sales leaders in our sample arrive in a company
with no defined sales strategy.” Instead, these leaders often fall back on their previous sales
experience and end up trusting their gut or trying to come up with quick patchwork solutions
that don’t address the roots of the problem and create new problems altogether.
As a result, the turnover for these positions is unproportionally high and “no other member of
the executive suite fails as often as the sales leader.”
Other maturity models report similar findings. Notice Qvidian’s analysis of the immature,
underprepared “Chaotic Level” company: “A Chaotic level does not allow the organization
much, if any, scalability of efforts. Often heroic efforts are required just to make goals, and
sales reps feel uncertain and uneasy of pipeline forecasts. These ad hoc efforts, while
providing short-term wins, do not allow for the scalability required to achieve any true
business impact.”

What are the key indicators that a business is immature? They don’t have a defined sales
process or analytics system. They’re overconfident in the ability of individual salespeople,
36
 they’re building off of previous door-knocking success, and their leaders are basically
winging it because hey, they’ve sold a lot.

How do you get out of this mode? The same study that identified those problem areas
prescribed three key “Recommendations for Improvement”: “create a high level sales
process,” “focus on defining a process and infrastructure,” and “audit available content.” For
companies going door to door, that would look something like this:

Build a top-level sales process.

You need to be planning for and tracking the sequence of events that takes someone from
being a prospect to a customer. You need a sales process that is trainable and measurable
while also being adaptable to different areas and porch scenarios. Most importantly, it will act
as the framework for almost all of your data gathering, which is the most crucial part of
progression for your program. For example, sales process data can inform you that your reps
are making a lot of contacts at the door but struggling to close in the house. Now you know
what specific actions you ought to take in order to improve instead of trying to craft a one-
size-fits-all approach. Have you mapped out the key stages of this process? Do you have
strategies for each of these stages?

Reinforce your process with sales-specific technology.

This includes effectively rolling out a CRM that is mobile-ready and specific to the needs of a
door-to-door or field sales company. This means territory management, geographically-based
lead tracking, real-time communication, and compatibility with the custom data reporting that
adapts to your sales process.

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 Build a library of top training materials

What are you doing to build knowledge for your reps and managers? What training resources
do you have? What tools are you providing your salespeople with for when they’re on the
porch? This is especially important for companies with seasonal hiring patterns, since you
want to give new employees every chance to learn and succeed quickly. You need to have
enough content and materials to reinforce the pillars of your sales process. This content needs
to be scalable, repeatable, and trainable. Create video walkthroughs or whiteboard
presentations about key parts of the sales process and rep success. Continue to create content
that addresses specific company needs as they arise.
You also need to help individual reps develop a strategic approach to their work. Like the
eager yet inexperienced sales leader, it doesn’t matter how motivated a rep is if they’re going
to approach their work without a plan. A lot of very motivated reps like to go on the attack
and knock a lot of doors, but that will not produce results if they aren’t speaking to the people
on the other side of those doors.

Make sure your sales processes and trainings encourage a strategic approach to the field that
is, like the larger company processes, based on data that is being constantly gathered,
adjusted, and refined.

2. Hire and Train Door-to-Door Elite

If you’re in charge of hiring people, that typically means that you’ve found success in D2D
yourself. You know what it takes to be great, but now you’re stuck with an entirely new
problem. How do you find others who will be just as good (if not better) and will stick around
and grow into important influencers invested in the long term growth of the company? A
great D2D sales company is a great recruiting company. So what does that greatness look
like?
First off, you need to realize that you’re not going to hire a superstar every time. If you
think you have found one, be careful. It’s not hard for someone to seem golden during one
interview and you don’t want to be fooled.

Even if you think the candidate does have a lot of great experience working in the field for
other companies, you have to realize that success doesn’t always translate. What worked for

38
them at previous companies probably won’t work as well for you. In fact, their success will
probably make them stubborn; after all, what reason do they have to follow your approach
when they’ve figured out their own?

It’s also possible that the rep’s previous company might have had much better-developed
training and selling systems than you do, and that system was the key reason they killed it.
Your ideal hire is a blank slate with the right attitude and transferable skills (such as being
personable, having a different sales background, learning quickly and often, being goal-
oriented, etc) that you can train in your specific process.
Recruiting is very much like selling, so apply your sales abilities to the hiring process. The
product or service you are selling is career growth, income-earning opportunity, lifestyle,
corporate culture, and other benefits unique to your company.

Here are characteristics of a hiring process that will build off of your previous sales
experience and help you find the right people:

Do it in person

Maybe this is an obvious suggestion, but you should be keeping it in mind the entire hiring
process. You want all your other interactions (emails, phone calls, etc.) to point toward a
face-to-face conversation. You’ll want to keep honing your phone and email skills until
you’ve got a 50-70% “show rate.”

Have recruits do the recruiting

Birds of a feather flock together, so incentivize your team to recruit. When you’ve found a
strong candidate, ask about their friends. Chances are they share similar goals, attitudes, and

39
 skillsets. A little friendly competition never hurt, either, and bringing a candidate’s friends
onboard could mean a group with built-in motivation and unity.

Don’t over-hype
You might be tempted to use a high-excitement, embellished offer in order to make some
quick hires, but those candidates rarely last or have a positive experience with the company.
When they turn over, you’re back at square one. Instead, be transparent and make it clear
what your expectations are and how you plan on compensating those who meet them. It may
take longer to hire someone but it’s worth it in the long run.

Bring in the best

Along with being clear about your expectations, be clear about all the benefits of working
with your company and everything people have accomplished. If you’ve got reps who have
experienced a lot of success with your company, show them off! They can help candidates
begin with an optimistic attitude and appropriate expectations.

Optimize the process

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The group interview is a great way to get to know candidates more quickly and measure how
they interact with each other-- allowing you to weed out the rude, self-centered, or bored
candidates while also discovering the personable, excited, and respectful ones. Running a
successful group interview can make a huge improvement in your hiring process.

Start out strong

Don’t let your new hires feel abandoned on day one. This is a make-or-break opportunity to
set the tone for the hire’s entire experience with the company. If you’re not taking advantage
of these first hours with a rep, you’re going to ruin chances at success. If done properly, you
couldn’t pay your reps to leave because they’re invested and excited about the opportunity.
There are several resources offering advice for new-hire training. Some of these are less
door-to-door specific, but you can certainly apply the basic principles to your situation.

3. Know Your Reps

You always need to be aware of the needs of your teams. Each rep has a unique set of
concerns and obstacles that are factoring into their performance levels. It isn’t that most
leaders are actively ignoring their team’s needs, but they do struggle to be aware of them.
And when they are aware, they tend to have an attitude of frustration towards those needs
instead of an attitude of service and a desire to facilitate constant improvement.
You can start improving your awareness levels when you have a clearly defined sales and
reporting process. Until then, you’re going to waste your efforts and be frustrated by
disappointing sales numbers that remain unchanged or are consistently worsening, despite
your best efforts.

When addressing the key attributes of high performing sales teams, Qvidian observed that
“At this level, sales operations leaders are strategic advisors to leadership, and have real-time
access to dashboards and predictive monitoring systems to manage key
performance indicators as well as mitigate risk.”

Dashboards and indicators are the key to diagnosing performance problems. Let’s say, for
example, that you’ve got one rep who is struggling everyday to meet even small sales goals.
If that’s all you knew about them, you might mistakenly think that they are just being
apathetic or lazy. If you invest effort into learning more, however, you might find that this
rep is one of your hardest workers-- he’s just lacking in training or understanding.
Even smarter data can tell you why he’s not your best. In this case, it turns out that he’s great
at getting presentations but absolutely terrible at closing them. This presents you with a lot of
options: you could develop or assign training programs that address his issues, match him up
41
 with someone that you know is strong at closing for a day, or help him role play scenarios
that are tripping him up.

KPI-driven and real-time data is the key to handling situations like this one and the
thousand others that you’ll encounter on a daily basis.
4. Keep Everyone Motivated

Whether they’re there for the summer or year-round, a lot of reps arrive excited to make
some money. Of course, that motivation doesn’t last and as obstacles present themselves,
enthusiasm wanes and sometimes disappears altogether.

This is the reality Zig Ziglar was referring to when he remarked that “People often say that
motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing - that’s why we recommend it daily.” This
is particularly true for the D2D industry, where reps are often isolated and depend on their
own self-will to continue throughout the day, away from direct supervision or interaction.

Part of it is the generation you’re working with. Reps for the last few years have been
coming from the Millennial generation and out of this generation (as Gallup Polls discovered)
only 29% feel engaged at work.

Gallup also discovered two main characteristics of effective millennial management-- job
clarity and accountability. But what do those general terms look like through a door-to-door
lens?

Job clarity

When job expectations are clear, the rep knows what the company is trying to accomplish and
what they need to do in order to help make it happen. Make your company goals transparent--
even invite participation in setting them-- and break them down to make clear each
individual’s responsibility. Give opportunities in team meetings for individual reps to conduct
the setting, reporting, and adjusting of goals.
Accountability

It may seem like an obvious part of the business process, but millennials are about twice as
likely to feel engaged when they also feel that they are being held accountable. This means
that, for a lot of businesses, that isn’t happening.

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For D2D sales this is best accomplished in real-time. Instead of collecting numbers from your
reps at the end of the night or the end of the week, you can collect numbers constantly,
holding your employees perpetually accountable. This allows you to recognize and affect rep
behaviours in the middle of a day, preventing them from spiralling or amplifying their
successes.
Eventually, accountability becomes the foundation of your team and company culture. It will
permeate everyone’s attitudes and you won’t even have to ask for improved tracking and
reports from your team because they will have realized that it is one of the things that most
contributes to their success and they’ll do it because they want to.

You can make this happen and take your accountability system to the next level by
gamifying your sales activity so that reps can find social gratification in their personal
improvement and competitive achievements.

4. Gamify Intelligently

Unfortunately, companies often make the mistake of clumsily gamifying their sales and
actually having a negative impact on morale. Door-knocking reps already have a sense of
alienation, since they often spend the day alone. If you pit them against each other just for
competition’s sake, you risk discouraging a majority of your team just for the sake of
rewarding guys who are likely already performing well.
Instead, focus on team-wide goals with your competition. Take the data you’ve been
gathering in previous steps to figure out the key behaviour that you most want to target and
organize contests that encourage behavioural changes-- the kind that accomplish key
initiatives and take your company to new levels.
Keep everyone going strong Lottery games are great if you want to motivate a lot of people
consistently. For example, if you offer a reward for the first person who closes three accounts

in a day, everyone will stop once someone reaches that.

Create a culture of winning

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 Studies have shown that employees value and respond strongly to praise and recognition, so
don’t reward them privately. Make a big deal out of accomplishments at team dinners or
other meetings specifically set aside for celebrating personal and team achievements.

Encourage collaboration
Direct your reps’ motivation not just toward a goal, but toward each other. If you run
individual competitions, then you’re probably going to reward the same couple of reps each
time. Team competitions give everyone an opportunity to win and encourage everyone to
improve and make a unique contribution, regardless of their previous performance levels. For
a struggling rep, going from two sales a week to four would probably never win solo
competitions, but that’s a big improvement that has the potential to factor into a team victory.

Schedule them often and consistently

If you only hold competitions sporadically then you’re missing out on real opportunities. You
want reps to have the chance to anticipate a competition, strategize their performance, and set
goals for improvement. inconsistent with the timing and nature of your competitions.

44
 CHAPTER 2
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Task
As a part of the Summer Internship Program we have been assigned to book subscriptions for
the various magazines published by World Wide Media and sold and distributed by Times Of
India.

Research Methodology

Objectives:

• To predict and explore the customer demands in terms of Price, Quality and Services for
magazines published by World Wide Media (WWM).
• To find out the reasons why subscribers are not renewing or discontinuing their
subscription.
Problem definition:

What are the various aspects in which World Wide Media is lacking behind in fulfilling the
customers demand?

Research methodology:

This Exploratory research has been conducted through primary data. The data will be
qualitative as well as quantitative. The data has been collected through personal interview,
door to door visit and telephonic interview.

Research design:
• Geographical location: The geographical location taken for the purpose of data collection
and the research in Panchkula city.
• Sample size: The sample size for collecting primary data 150 respondents. The sampling
will be done through Random Technique.
Table

Reader 100
Non-Reader 50

• Data collection method: The data has been collected through personal interview, door to
door visit and telephonic interview.
• Target group: The respondents consist of existing subscribers, discontinued subscribers and
non-readers.
Limitations:
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 • The field work for the purpose of research was limited to some part of the Panchkula city
only. Therefore it may not represent the overall consumers as perceptions of the consumers
may vary place to place due to demographic factors.
• The sample size is 150

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

1. Sample Size Distribution:

Reader 100
Non- Reader 50

Readers include Existing subscribers (during the SIP) and Expired subscribers. The Expired
subscribers are divided into two parts, 1) Discontinued subscriber, who doesn’t want to renew
their subscription and 2) Continued subscriber, who have renewed their subscription.

2.Reason for not-reading:

Among the Respondents covered under Non-reader criteria, 20% said that they are not able
to afford a magazine, 24% do not read due to non-availability of time, 22% prefer to read
online and the remaining 34% are not interested in reading magazines.

3.Rating upon features:

Respondents were asked to rate the features with number between 1 to 10.

46
 ENTERTAINMENT
10 OUT OF 10 6 OUT OF 10 7 OUT OF 10 8 OUT OF 10 9 OUT OF 10

16%
24% 2%

14%

44%

It shows that only 16% subscribers are fully entertained by the magazines who gave 10 out of
10. The highest 44% subscribers gave 8 out of 10. They are less entertained than other 24%
subscriber who gave 8 out of 10. Therefore it shows that maximum percentage of population
want more entertainment in the magazines.

A) Information:
Survey indicates that all the respondents are well satisfied with the information delivered
through the magazines. They are giving 8, 9 and 10 out of 10.

GOSSIP
BLANK, 6%
10 OUT OF 10 , 7%

8 OUT OF 10, 37%

9 OUT OF 10, 18%

7 OUT OF 10, 32%

B)

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 It shows that customers are demanding less gossip in the magazines. They rated this feature
with 7,8,9 and 10. The personal interviews on this topic also shows their demand to avoid
gossiping.

UPDATES
10 OUT OF 10 BLANK 5 OUT OF 10 6 OUT OF 10 7 OUT OF 10 8 OUT OF 10 9 OUT OF 10

16%
18%

3% 5%
2%
1%
C)
The contents in the magazines are well updated as the diagram shows that 55% respondent
gave 9 out of 10. Only a few percentage of respondent think that magazines are not well
updated.

PRICE
9 OUT OF 10 BLANK 6 OUT OF 10 7 OUT OF 10 8 OUT OF 10

27%

45%

3%
2%

23%

D)

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 In case of price, survey shows that 27% are highly satisfied and another 45% are less
satisfied than the first one. By seeing other responses we can say that subscribers are well
satisfied with price of the magazines. But still their demand is to decrease the price due to
human behavior of expecting more than what they get.

SERVICES
7 OUT OF 10 8 OUT OF 10 9 OUT OF 10 3 OUT OF 10
4 OUT OF 10 5 OUT OF 10 6 OUT OF 10

23% 26%

19%
21%

6%

2% 3%
E)
Services is one of the main factor which helps in maintaining the customer loyalty and
keeping the readership size constant. The survey shows that there are less percentage of
people who are well satisfied with the services who give higher rating. Their demand is to
improve the services including the distribution system and customer care system.

LANGUAGE
9 OUT OF 10 10 OUT OF 10 BLANK 6 OUT OF 10 7 OUT OF 10 8 OUT OF 10

24%
36%

11%

5%
21%
3%

F)
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Customers are well satisfied with the language used in the magazines. Maximum percentages
of the respondents give higher rating.

QUALITY VS PRICE RATIO

10 OUT OF 10 BLANK 5 OUT OF 10 6 OUT OF 10 7 OUT OF 10 8 OUT OF 10 9 OUT OF 10

2%
11% 1%

5%
39%

13%

29%

H)

When the respondents were asked about the quality Vs price, good responses have received
from them. There are maximum percentages of people who are highly satisfied with the
quality of the magazines relating with price.

4.Renewal Call:
During the internship period, 50 renewal calls has been done. Out of which 26% i.e. 13
renewals have been collected. The remaining 74% has denied renewing their subscription.
The reasons for denying are discussed.

50
 REASONS FOR DISCONTINUATION
SERVICE COST
DECREASE OF INTREST AND USABILITY SHIFTING
DUE TO CONTENT ONLY SUBSCRIBED FOR GIFTS

8%
5%

13% 39%

32%
3%

A)
Reasons derived from the survey, for the discontinuation of the subscriptions,
• Decrease of interest and usability: 32% of the respondent said that they have stopped
their subscriptions due to decrease in interest. Also the usability.
• Shifting: There are two types of shifting observed, 1. To other TOI magazines. 2. To other
publishers.
• Due to contents: 5% subscriber thought that the full contents comes in an issue are not
necessary for him/her. They need only a part or few pages of the magazine. For which they
think that it is none other than wasting of money by buying the whole. Therefore they now
prefer internet for their need.
• Service: The last but the main reason for which people are not ready to renew their
subscriptions. As maximum percentage i.e. 39% of the respondents have stopped their
subscription only because of services problem. There are three types of service problems
derived.
1. Delivery: Customers were getting issues lately or never got some issues. In case of
fortnightly magazines, they were getting two issues at a time. Also some were not getting
issues in a proper condition i.e. damage of packaging, crashed papers etc.
2. No response in problems: When the subscribers faced the above mentioned problems,
they were not responded well from the sales department. Their problems were not solved.
That’s why this became a big reason for discontinuing subscription.
3. Representative: Another problem in services is due to representatives. At the time of
renewal no representative were came to collect. They were interested but due to available
publishers they have shifted to others. Again in this case, they have got calls from sales
department for renewal, appointments for collection were also fixed, but still they didn’t
come to collect. Thus TOI have lost some subscriber

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 CHAPTER 3

FINDINGS
• Magazines are well entertained, updated and well informative.
• The price according to the quality of the magazines is satisfactory.
• Subscribers have high demand in the improvement of services.
• There is a tough competition among magazines in Panchkula.
• Maximum people prefer Hindi rather than English.
• Subscription schemes attract more customers.
• Schemes with gift are playing a good role in increasing readership as there are a lot of
customers who have subscribed only for gift.
• There are a big number of boutiques and designers in Panchkula and most of them deals
with Indian traditions. That’s why the contents should specific customer centric.
• Peoples are highly interested in magazines but low awareness about the schemes.

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 SUGGESTIONS

• Improvement of Services:
The first and foremost recommendation that can be suggested from the findings of the
research is the improvement in services. As there are high demand of the magazines of
WWM. The customers now have huge options for selecting a magazine, as there are so many
producers of magazines in different language and increased usage of internet. Therefore a
small problem faced by a customer may lead to losing that one.
• A better distribution channel:
I would also like to recommend that by implementing a better distribution channel, TOI can
increase its market share.
• A better renewal reminder system:
A better renewal reminder system can also be implemented. There is a system of reminder
but customers are complaining that they are not getting the reminder alarm. • Appointment
of new staff: TOI can also improve their services by appointing new staff as ‘Customer care
Executive’ by giving well training so that they will be able to respond the customers well
who have problems. Because currently customers are not well responded.
• A Hindi version of Femina: There is also a demand from the target group in Panchkula is a
Hindi version of Femina. By doing this they can get readers from others magazines like
Gruhsubha etc.

53
 CONCLUSION
The summer internship project plays an important role in management education where
students get a golden opportunity to apply his knowledge and learning gained from classroom
lectures in practical business environment. The SIP program also helps in gaining knowledge
and developing the confidence level to work. I have also learnt a lot by my Internship at
Times of India Group, Chandigarh. This research has been done to study sales and promotion
of magazine in Chandigarh towards Times Group’s magazines. The people in Panchkula still
preferring printed contents despite of technology adaption. In posh areas like Sector 11,
Sector 15, Sector 16 etc. people prefer English magazines rather than Hindi. But maximum
areas still prefer to read a Hindi magazine. There is high demand and high awareness about
TOI newspaper in Panchkula. But less people are aware that TOI has magazines also. And
there are some people who are aware about it but they are not aware about the subscription
schemes. They are interested in subscribing. When they came to know about the schemes,
they immediately bought subscriptions. But still there are some areas where awareness about
these magazines is very low. Customer loyalty towards TOI magazines is very high. Survey
shows that only 26% of the customers don’t renew their subscription. But this is only
happening mainly because of service problems. TOI is not able to provide accurate service to
all customers. There are some other reasons also, but if TOI works on improving services of
delivery or customer relationship or improving the quality of responding towards the
customers’ problems with better solutions, than obviously no reader will leave TOI.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Ali S., . “A Study of Consumer Behaviour & Loyalty In Print Media – Challenges &
strategic prescriptions with Special reference to English, Hindi, Marathi News Paper readers-
Mumbai”. ABHINAV. 1 (4), pp.64-70

2. ArcGate . Indian NEWSPAPER Market Overview. [ONLINE] Available at:

http://arcgate.com/blog/2010/09/29/indian-NEWSPAPER-market-overview/.

3. World Wide Media . About Grazia. [ONLINE] Available at: Available at:
http://grazia.co.in/about-us.

4. World Wide Media. BBC Good Homes. [ONLINE]

https://www.facebook.com/goodhomesNEWSPAPERindia/info.

5. World Wide Media (). About Lonely Planet. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://www.facebook.com/LonelyPlanetNEWSPAPERIndia/info.

6. Times Group . About Hometrends. [ONLINE] Available at:

http://www.timesgroup.com/brands/publishing/Newspaper/home-trends-english.html

. 7. Times Group . About BBC Knowledge. [ONLINE] Available at:

http://www.timesgroup.com/brands/publishing/Newspaper/bbc-knowledgeenglish.html

. 8. Ernest & Young . Indian NEWSPAPER segment: Navigating new growth avenues.
[ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ey.com/IN/en/Industries/Media--- Entertainment/Indian-
NEWSPAPER-segment.

9. Vital Business Media . Go East, young journalist: India publishing market is hot.
[ONLINE] Available at: http://www.emediavitals.com/content/go-east-youngjournalist-india-
publishing-market-hot.

10. Times Group. About us. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.timesgroup.com/bccl/about-

us.html.

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 Questionnaire
1. Do you read Newspaper? Yes / No

2. If No, then Why?

Non-availability of time

Online preference

Non-interest

Affordability

3.Which type of Newspaper you prefer to read?

Fashion and lifestyle

Interiors and design

Travel

Automobile

Bollywood and movie masala

Sports

Other

4. Name of the NEWSPAPER you read/subscribed._____________________________

5. How do you like this NEWSPAPER? Please rate the features.

Entertainment 1--------10

Information 1--------10

Gossip 1--------10

Updates 1--------10

Price 1--------10

Services 1--------10

Languages 1--------10

Quality vs Price 1--------10

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6. What would you like to do to improve the quality and services of a NEWSPAPER?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

7. References

___________________________

___________________________

8. Reason for discontinuation:

________________________________________________________________

Name:-

Contact No:-

Address:-

THANK YOU FOR YOUR VALUABLE TIME AND EFFORTS

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