Marketing Plan For Magazines

MARKETING PLAN MAGAZINES TRAVEL MAGAZINE

“SPIRIT OF LIVING” Term Paper of Marketing Management Paper Code: MGT 514

Submitted To: Mr. Rajan Girdhar Lecturer Marketing Management LSB

Submitted By Varun Puri R 322 A 09 10800464

Lovely School of Business Lovely Professional University

INDEX Acknowledgement Motive of Term Paper Introduction

to

Development Is NPD the same as innovation? Introduction Magazines STEPS IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT SWOT Aanalysis of Spirit of Living Magazine NPD Is Difficult to Manage

New

Product

Acknowledgment Through my gratitude towards my supporters yet I like to add a few hearts full for the people who were part of this project in numerous ways. People who gave understanding support right the project ideas were conceived.

First I want to thank to Mr. Rajan Girdhar, Lecturer Marketing Management, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara for assigning this term paper & I also want to give hands full gratitude to her for her help & guidance. I would like to thank all the faculty of Lovely Business School for having faith in me & for their kind inspirations & helping mw whenever asked.

Last but not least, I expand my heartiest gratefulness all people who have been directly or indirectly involved in this project & have given me their best wishes & all help that I needed for the completion of the term paper.

Varun Puri

PREFACE

This project is undertaken to fulfill the project work component of the M.B.A program in 1st Semester. My project guide from L.P.U is Prof. Rajan Girdhar. This project reveals the activities undertaken by a new firm in introducing a product Jeans into the market with special references to the activities like Product Development, Launching of Campaign, Product Pricing, Promotion and Advertisement of the product and finally its evaluation and control

NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT New product development is one of the most important processes for many companies, but also one of the least understood (and, perhaps, executed). Important because, as we will see, NPD is responsible for the revenues and margins that a company can achieve and its ultimate value. It is the least well understood process because few companies assign a single individual to be responsible for the whole process. Instead, it is usually driven through a series of functional “silos,” causing delays to build up and, often, the original market requirements to get lost.

But let’s start with a definition. Our definition of NPD starts with the identification of an opportunity in the market (“somebody needs a product to do this”) and ends with the successful launch of the product. In between are many activities to define the requirements, develop and test a product concept, fully define and develop the product, source for suppliers involved, plan the manufacturing and supply chain, and prepare marketing programs. On top of that, it’s about defining the product strategy, managing the overall product program, and monitoring all the projects and activities needed to drive the NPD process.

Is NPD the same as innovation? Innovation is clearly part of the NPD process, without it there would be no new products or no new ways to make, market, and sell them. But innovation would be useless without the ability to change how the company operates, to successfully introduce the new product. The job of NPD is not done until the product is in the market, shipped at the right time, delivered to the right customers, and in the right volumes. Top CEOs Recognize the Importance of NPD, the CEOs of top companies have long recognized the importance of NPD. Here are two recent examples: “The companies that know how to develop things are ultimately going to create the most shareholder value. It’s as simple as that.” Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO, General Electric MIT Technology Review, October 2003

“You only get a position in the future by investing,creating something new, and staying ahead of the competition. So it’s simple: invest or die.” Craig Barrett, CEO, Intel Business 2.0, January/February 2004

In order for a product launch to be successful, many different factors have to come together in just the right way. If one is wrong, it’s likely the whole launch will fail. For example: 

The product has to meet the customer’s requirements –it has to do the job.

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Increasingly, it has to meet the customer’s aspirations – it has to feel right.

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The manufacturer’s reputation for quality, reliability, and service may also be important.

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And, of course, it has to be available at the right time and the right price. The challenge of NPD is to make sure that all of these things are achieved all of the time.

Introduction Magazines,

periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a

regular schedule, containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three.

The various elements that contribute to the production of magazines vary wildly. Core elements such as publishing schedules, formats and target audiences are seemingly infinitely variable. Typically, magazines which focus primarily on current events, such as Newsweek or Entertainment Weekly, are published weekly or biweekly.

STEPS IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

IDEA GENERATION

SCREEENING

BUSINESS ANALYSIS

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

LAUNCHING A CAMPAIGN IN THE MARKET

PRODUCT PRICING

PROMOTION AND ADVERTISEMENT OF PRODUCT

CONTROL AND EVALUATION

Step 1 Idea Generation

The first vital step is to generate ideas for new products are from new ideas. Product ideas generation means fusion of perceived need with the recognition of a technical opportunity. That is the perceived need may be new or old –apparent or latent-currently partly fulfilled or unfulfilled. Though the basic input for the development new products are ideas, all ideas do not become products. The real difficulty is not in gathering these ideas but in identifying the “GOOD”ones. Unfortunately, good ideas are generally as plentiful as is often.

Sources of Idea Generation A.Internal Sources: These are in company sources of product idea generation.There are four such possible sources.These are. 1. Basic Research: Almost all large companies engage in some kind of basic or fundamental research.Research and development often are divided between the development of product ideas that have already passed the initial screening stages and research into areas of technology that give promising of producing totally new product concepts. 2. Sales People: Company sales representatives can be helpful source of new product ideas.These people are on the competetivee firing line.They know what customers want and what they are not getting.They are the firt one to learn about competitors new product.They are in everyday contact with customers and are thus in a good position to note customer needs and the extent of satisfaction. 3. Top Management: Top executives can play an important part in the generation of new product ideas.thier ideas are ought to be good as they know precisely about the company needs and resources.moreover, they are keen observers of technological trends and of competitive activity.

B.External Sources: External sources are those sources of product generating ideas that signify outside sources

1.Competitors: We must establish a formal procedure for monitoring the new product activites of its competitors.By the time a competitor has a new product, it is pretty late to be trying to do anything about it.Good inferences about competitive product development can be made on the basis of indirect evidence gained from salesmen, suppliers, resellers and even customers.Hiring away competitors employees, disassembly and analysis of competitors product are quite common though legally challenged. 3.Customers: we have to pay more and more attention to customers who constitute the focal point of mew products.consumers frequently generate new product ideas, or at least relly information regarding problems that new and improved products would help to solve. 4.Resellers: Resellers are component part of firms marketing system.they to have a stake in the manufacturers new product development activity.

Step 2

Screening New Product Ideas The new product idea generation stage aims at increasing the number of good new product ideas; it encourages every one and every sources to build a stock of such good many ideas. THE FIRST IDEA RUNING STAGE IS SCREENING. Screening is the stage of product development that eliminates the greatest number of ideas from further consideration. It is the critical part of the development activity. If a poor product idea is allowed to pass through, the screening stage, it wastes efforts, money and time in subsequent stages until it is later abandoned. New product screening is the development and use of criteria to evaluate the potential of new product ideas. The Screening Procedure: 1. The first task is to determine whether a given product idea is compatible with the company’s objectives. Four major objectives may be taken for rating purpose say profit, sales ability, sales growth and the company image. 2. The second task is to determine whether the new product idea is compatible with the company resources. These resources may be capital, technical, supply of materials, labors and other production facilities used. During the ideas generation stage we may get a numerous ides from the internal & internal sources, but it is not possible to implement the all ideas. Like some may say we need business magazine, some will ask for the current affair magazine, some say there is need of magazine related to the employment, some will say people like travel magazines & so on . In this stage we will screen these ides & select one of them for implementation. Now we are launching magazine based on travel & living named “Spirit of Living” many other magazines are available in market related to the same sector. In order to launch the new

magazine we have to screen our idea that relies much heavily on managerial judgment and experience. They make the sound ideas that promise commercial and technology opportunity. So keeping in mind the company objectives as well as resources I have chosen travel & living magazine which will be named Spirit of Living. The magazine Spirit Level will specialize in leisure travel & in addition it will include regular articles on Yoga exercises & its benefits and will als often features articles written by novelists, poets, artists, designers and non-travel journalists. It will be known for its travel photography. Other features include the SPIRIT OF LIVING 500, a list of the world's top 500 hotels, and Favorite Cities of India’s & other Countries. The magazine's website, SpiritofLiving.com will publishes original, web-only content and destination guides.

Step 3

Business or Market Analysis The third step in the process of new product development is that of business analysis. It is an in depth study of the estimated economic feasibility of a new product i.e. Spirit of Living Magazine. It is an attempt to predict the economic consequences of the product for the company as a whole. It is accessing the profitability of travel & living based magazine idea that helps us in deciding whether to introduce the product, continue the development and evaluation further or to drop idea. It is evaluation of the idea in depth to determine its financial, competitive, manufacturing and marketing viability in an accepted business environment. It is more rigid, critical and expensive exercise.

Steps in business analysis 

Demand analysisThe first step will be to estimate the demand for the travel magazines. Demand for these types of magazines is moreover balanced in men & women.

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Cost analysisA complete cost appraisal is necessary as a part of business analysis. It is rather difficult to anticipate all the cost that will be involved in a product since the idea of new magazine had not entered the development stage. However it’s generally possible to estimate a range of cost that will be incurred. Both manufacturing and marketing cost are to be included. Market cost includes all the advertisement expenses, distribution cost, and concession to consumers on subscription.

Competitive and industry analysis: Porter has given a five force model for industry analysis and its components are:

Rivalry The intensity of rivalry is influenced by the following industry characteristics:

1. A larger number of firms increase rivalry because more firms must compete for the same customers and resources. The rivalry intensifies if the firms have similar market share, leading to a struggle for market leadership. So many travel magazines are there in the market which can give a tough competition to the Spirit of Living Magazine. Like there is travel plus of India today, travel & leisure etc. 2. Low switching costs increases rivalry. When a customer can freely switch from one product to another there is a greater struggle to capture customers. If other magazine decrease the cost of its product then it became difficult to fetch the customers again.

Threat of Substitutes In Porter's model, substitute products refer to products in other industries. To the economist, a threat of substitutes exists when a product's demand is affected by the price change of a substitute product. A close substitute product constrains the ability of firms in an industry to raise prices. If any other business magazine low down the prices of its products then it will affect the demand for business today magazine.

Buyer Power The power of buyers is the impact that customers have on a producing industry. Buyers are powerful if they purchase a significant proportion of output i.e. business today magazine.

Supplier Power A producing industry requires raw materials - labor, components, and other supplies. This requirement leads to buyer-supplier relationships between the industry and the firms that provide it the raw materials used to create products. Suppliers, if powerful, can exert an influence on the producing industry, such as selling raw materials at a high price to capture some of the industry's profits. If the suppliers of information tend to charge high price from the producing industry it will affect the production and ultimately affect the customers.

Barriers to Entry / Threat of Entry It is not only incumbent rivals that pose a threat to firms in an industry; the possibility that new firms may enter the industry also affects competition. If any firm enters in competition with business today company there raises some threats to the company e.g. low down sales.

Step 4

Product Development Until the product development stage, the existence of the product is entirely theoretical. During the development stage, the product idea is converted into tangible physical product. So now we come to process of how to print the magazine & publish it.

The first step is selecting the paper on which it will be printed. Most magazines produced on a commercial scale are printed using a web offset process. The magazine is printed in sections, typically of 16 pages, which may be black-and-white, be in full colour, or use spot colour. These sections are then bound, either by stapling them within a soft cover in a process sometimes referred to as 'saddle-stitching', or by gluing them together to form a spine, a process often called 'perfect-binding'

Material to Be Included In this stage various type of material is selected, that we want to publish in our magazine. Our magazine will include following features 

Travel & Lisure Articles

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Yoga exercises & its benefits

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Articles written by Novelists, Poets, Artists, Designers and Non-Travel journalists.

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Travel photography.

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SPIRIT OF LIVING 500, a list of the world's top 500 hotels, and Favorite Cities of India’s & other Countries.

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The magazine's website, SpiritofLiving.com will publishes original, web-only content and destination guides.

Step 5

Launching Campaign in Market The next step will be launching a campaign in the market to encourage people to buy Spirit of Living Magazine. After the product development the next step is to launch our new product i.e. Magazine SPIRIT of LIVING in the market. And to make the general public aware of that magazine. We can launch various advertisements in printed media, on radio stations, telivision channels & etc. We can also partipate in trade fares in various cities by which we can make people aware the about the Magazine.

We can also offer special low introductory prices or special discounts on subscriptions & we can offer more discount on subscribing for more than one year.

Step 6

Product Pricing Product pricing The next step in new product development is product pricing. Now we have to decide the price of our product i.e. Spirit of Living. The price we charge our customers or clients will have a direct effect on the success of our business. All prices must cover costs and profits. The most effective way to lower prices is to lower costs. Review prices frequently to assure that they reflect the dynamics of cost, market demand, response to the competition, and profit objectives. Prices must be established to assure sales. Before setting a price for our product, we have to know the costs of running your business. If the price for our product or service doesn't cover costs, your cash flow will be cumulatively negative, you'll exhaust your financial resources, and your business will ultimately fail .In pricing the other factor that is also important is price of the competitors in the market.So we have to set the price for the handloom garments after having look at the price of the competitors who are producing the same product. Here in our case we will have to charge a very competitive price because there are large no. of giant groupslike India Today, the Hindu Group, Express Group etc. these groups are one of the oldest magazine publishers & they can fall their price tto weaken us

Step 7

Promotion and Advertisements of The Product Promotion is the business of communicating with customers. It will provide information that will assist them in making a decision to purchase a product or service. Though we can communicate with our present and potential customers in wide variety of ways, the most distinguishable categories are personnel and impersonal. Personnel communications relate to face to face meeting between the sales force of the company and the customers .On the other hand impersonal communication include-advertising, sales promotion, public relations we have to make a proper plan for promoting the handloom garments. Advertising is a very popular method for promoting a product. Advertisements in different medias like television, newspapers can be given for the handloom garments. Big hoardings in the city will help to promote the product. As we have launch the product for the first time special discounts can be given on the garments to encourage the customers to buy the product. 

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Above the line promotion: Promotion in the media (e.g. TV, radio, newspapers, Internet and Mobile Phones) in which the advertisement pays an advertising agency to place the ad. Below the line promotion: All other promotion. Much of this is intended to be subtle enough for the consumer to be unaware that promotion is taking place. E.g. sponsorship, product placement, endorsements, sales promotion, merchandising, direct mail, personal selling, public relations, trade shows

LOGISTIC AND SUPPLY CHAIN

A supply chain or logistics network is the system of organizations, people, technology, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities transform natural resources, raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to the end customer. In sophisticated supply chain systems, used products may re-enter the supply chain at any point where residual value is recyclable. Supply chains link value chains. A typical supply chain begins with ecological and biological regulation of natural resources, followed by the human extraction of raw material and includes several production links, for instance; component construction, assembly and merging before moving onto several layers of storage facilities of ever decreasing size and ever more remote geographical locations, and finally reaching the consumer.

CONTROL AND EVALUATION Control is a foreseeing action whereas earlier concept of control was used only when errors were detected. Control in management means setting standards, measuring actual performance and taking corrective action. Thus, control comprises these three main activities. 1. Measuring the actual performance with the standard performance: The producer must compare there actual performance with the standard performance and if he found any deviation he must take the corrective actions or to use the various techniques in order to popularize the product in the market. In this we can see that whether the customer need have been satisfied after buying our product or not. . 2. Taking corrective actions-This involves taking up of correct action. It means is customers are not satisfied with our product than they will not buy it again. So steps have to be taken to remove the grievances of customers. Moreover services like after sale services can be provided to the customers. Proper feedback must be taken from the customers. As we are to print articles & essays of various writers & journalits, we should be carefull about their conditions of printing, we should copywrite our design & trademarks so that no one can think of imitate us. SWOT Aanalysis of Spirit of Living Magazine STRENGTHS The company has an established name and reputation, it has something unique that people need and use. Its new prices are what really set it apart from the competition, its distribution methods are its strengths like one can get the magazine from book stalls in college, in schools even at bus stops, and even at internet. WEAKNESSES

Some people find it tough to understand what is exactly mentioned in the magazine , as it is not easy for a layman to understand at first instance , language and words used in it & sometimes it’s the information that to which one layman is not interested. OPPORTUNITIES Spirit of Living Magazine is now getting into a good stuff. They can have a better opportunity to get the news first and publish it in the magazine as early as possible to increase the sales. Further the company has to consider about introducing more relevant contents which other magazines are not providing. Other opportunities can be there if the company starts issuing the magazine in other languages too. THREATS The nastier part of the analysis- the company is likely to have more competitions from other magazine groups. The way of other company to popularize the product can be a threat for business today group. It results in reducing popularity of the magazine. Maybe new technology is going to pull out the carpet from under the business today’s feet, or for those matter new developments.

NPD Is Difficult to Manage One of the often heard comments is that the NPD process is difficult to manage and this is certainly true for two reasons: 

At the beginning of a project, the outcome and the work that will have to be undertaken are often uncertain.



For many groups in the company, such as supply chain management and manufacturing, NPDI is disruptive, causing them to interfere with processes that have been painstakingly optimized.

So NPDI is not “business as usual.” As a result, the NPDI process is out of control in many companies. A recent study by AMR Research asked companies if their NPDI process was under strategic control (are we developing the right products?) and financial control (are we

on time and within budget?) and found that less than one third could claim to be both ( Figure 3).

Figure 3: Is the NPDI Process Under Strategic and Financial C

The SWOT analysis won't produce or create anything for the company, it's merely a tool. For many of us, its main purpose will be to prop open our eyes and force us to lift our heads and see the bigger picture. Focusing on what the company good at and what needs improving is vital and the importance of seeing the opportunities and threats that are out there can't be overstated.

Refrences

www.wikipedia.com/magazines www.wikipedia.com/tra_magazines www.indiatoday.com/t+l

ontrol? Source: AMR Research