Marketing Strategy Of Newspaper Education Essay

Marketing environment of today is not only competitive but equally volatile. Therefore the organizations have to put in everything into it not only to survive but to gain competitive edge. The advent of globalization has placed every premium on organization to shift their focus from competitive advantage to sustainable competitive advantage. It thus becomes important for organization to devise strategy on how to survive.

Strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal such as competitive advantage. It reflects the values, expectation, and goal of the organization. To achieve marketing objective of profitable satisfaction customers need, for an organization in high-growth &moderately competitive market along with economic growth, a well-developed marketing strategy is required. Such strategy considers portfolio of product and takes into account the anticipated moves of competitors in the market.

Marketing strategy

Marketing strategy is process of organization to concentrate it limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage with the ultimate goal of customer satisfaction. It is a method of focusing an organization’s energies and resources on a course of action which leads to increase sales and target market.

Marketing strategy is a wide term which combines product development, promotion, distribution, pricing relation dominance.

“Marketing strategy is a written plan which combines product development, promotion, distribution and pricing approach that will be achieved within a stated time frame. It determines the choice of the target market segment, positioning, marketing mix and allocation of resources.”

Marketing strategy is a process of selecting and analyzing a target market and creating as well as maintaining an appropriate marketing mix that will satisfy the target market. It is a long term plan to achieve certain objective. A marketing strategy is therefore a marketing plan to achieve marketing objective. It is detailed planning involving marketing research and then developing marketing mix to delight the customers. Developing strategy involves establishing clear aim & objectives around which the framework for policy is created. Having established its strategy, an organization can then work out its day-to-day tools and tactics to meet the objectives.

Marketing thus can be seen as the process of developing & implementing a strategy to plan & co-ordinate ways of identifying, anticipating & satisfying customers demand in such a way as to make profit. It is the strategic planning process that lies at the heart of marketing. It helps in integrating an organization’s marketing goals, policies and action plan into a cohesive whole.

“THE TIMES” newspaper

Position:

“The Times “is a Uk’s leading news paper covering national news. For much of its history it has been regarded as Britain’s newspaper of the record & is preserved in the British library. The Times began publication in 1785. At that time it was called as Daily universal Registered. Published in broadsheet for over 200 years, the newspaper switched to the tabloid format in 2004 in an effort to better serve the younger reader and to appeal to commuter using public transport.

This newspaper is owed by News Corporation; originally an Australian company reincorporated in the US in 2004 and moved its headquarters from Adelaide to New York city.

“The Time” is the original “times “newspaper, leading its name to many newspaper around the world, which include The Newyork Times, The Times Of India, The Times Of Malta, & The Irish Times. The newspaper covers the price in UK is 90ps on weekday and 1.50p on Saturday & 2pounds on Sunday which termed as “The Sunday Times”.

History of the news paper:

The Times was founded by John Walter on 1stJanuary 1785 as The Daily universal Registered, with Walter in the role of editor. Walter change the title after 940neditions on 1stjanuary 1788 to “The Times”. In 1803 John Walter handed over the ownership and editorship to his son of the same name John Walter sr. since then the ownership and editorship passed on to many. The Astor family sold “The Times “to the Canadian media entrepreneur Roy Thomson in 1966. Thomson merged “The Times “with Sunday times to Times newspaper limited, a subsidiary of news international. News International is entirely owned by the News Corporation group, headed by Rupert Mrdoch

on 3rdmay, 1966, The Times began printing news stories on the front page on the paper. The front page had previously been dedicated to advertisement and paid announcement, which had contributed significantly towards the cost of producing the newspaper.

The times were closed down from 1stdecember 1978 to 12thNovember, 1979, due to industrial dispute between the Thomson Corporation and print Unions. No times newspaper was printed during this period.

Since then the newspaper is printed from Monday to Saturday in compact tabloid formats as of December 2008, it has an average daily circulation of 6,00,962 copies. Long considered the UK newspaper of the record, The Times generally seen as a serious publication with high standard of journalism. The British Business Survey 2005 named The Times as the UK’s leading daily newspaper for business newspaper.

Importance of strategy in marketing newspaper.

Newspaper is unique business and in that competition is the minute-by-minute battle. News is something you don’t already know. With net able to supply the information almost instantly, newspaper has little choice but to put everything they publish everyday up on the internet in the hope to keeping people on their site and returning to their site the next day.

Strategies for marketing the newspaper have evolved over the years as the concept of cost per unit of circulation, with its inherent incorporation of cost per order and retention, has taken hold. More recently, acceptance of tiered subscription pricing strategies and the valuation of subscribers based upon advertising revenue have added another level of complexity and opportunity.

“The Times” as a newspaper has adopted various marketing strategies to be in competition and to satisfy its reader and also to attract the new reads.

Some of the various strategies adopted by “The Times”.

1. The marketing strategy of “the Time” as leader in the market was significant in the year 2003 led “the times” to revolutionize the newspaper industry by lunching the compact version of paper. The strategy of redesigning the paper from broadsheet to compact version was born out of the recognisation that with long working hours, extensive commuting habit & many media source there was a need for quality news in a convenient size.

Initially the compact version of paper was launch in London with TV & postal campaign targeting the busy professionals on move. The campaign idea was rooted in consumer’s truth, the commuter experience of trying to read broadsheet on train in rush hours. The campaign stressed the benefit of the new compact by illustrating how inconvenient the broadsheet can be.

The Time was the forefront of the compact version movement and this vision was rewarded by a significant growth in circulation & readership. The Times has enjoyed a substantial circulation increase since the launch, with sales growth in an otherwise declining market.

All communication was united by the campaign endline,”It’s not big but it is clever”.

2. “The Times” adopted the strategy of introducing new & innovative ideas for increasing its readership. The Times was the first to launch sport handbook,& now produces eight each year covering football, rugby, formulaone,golf,tennis &athletic .

The main aim of this move was to attract people with high interest in sports (sport fans).

Over last 2years The Times commitment to sport has developed significantly with an all star line-up writer from across the sporting spectram.

3. Times also sponsor various activity which includes Sky Business news and The Times bfi London Film Festival for which the newspaper is the lead sponsor. The Times also has a strong portfolio of dedicated sections throughout the week. Screen on Thursdays, a stand-alone film section, which carries the latest film reviews, industry news and gossip. On Friday, Bricks and Mortar presents the latest facts, figures and fantasies from the world of property. Also new in 2003 was the relaunched Saturday Times which included four new sections. The Knowledge, a weekly insider’s guide to life in London, The Eye, a guide to what’s on the big and small screens, Weekend Review, the intelligent read for high and low brow culture, and Body & Soul, a supplement dedicated to health and well-being. Body & Soul is the only section of its kind in the UK newspaper market.

Promotion strategy of “TheTimes”

The Times promotional strategy is to work closely with branding activity to reinforce the values of the product. As the brand campaign continues to focus on re-appraisal through key editorial areas such as sport, entertainment and health and well-being so too will the promotions. The Times promotional activity has traditionally been communicated through combination of TV and Radio advertisement which ensure targeting specific audience. A second element to The Times promotional strategy is developing and fostering alliance with appropriate partners.

For promoting their newspaper “The Times” for the first time in 17 years replaces its current tagline for “The Sunday times” as “Sunday paper” & will launch to coincide with paper’s full color redesign. It will be supported by 3million TV, press & outdoor ad campaign.

This is mainly done to focus on the diversity of Newspaper’s audience. According to director of the paper, this marketing strategy will help the newspaper to build customer loyalty rather than encourage one-off sales.

According to company’s marketing & sales director vanneck, the main basing marketing for Sunday times on the reason that people will buy it week-in week-out .they will sail the newspaper on the brand, content, & the sub-brand.

This will help the paper to build the brand loyalty.

Pricing strategy:

In the era when free newspaper are booming, paid -for newspaper are reconsidering their pricing strategy. Pricing is a key strategic tool in the battle for increased circulation. Different strategies are adopted by the newspapers to increase readership’s loyalty and profitability. Over the period of years “the times’ followed the various pricing strategy to compete with its rivals such as the guardian, the independent, the telegraph and many more.

In early 90’s “the times” as a market leader in the industry followed a ‘predatory strategy’. It reduced its price, the managers were of the opinion that this will help in increasing demand elasticity over a period of time and it would eventually rise sufficiently to componsatefor the price cut. This price cut strategy helped “the times” it increase its market share among other newspapers. In June 1994 the telegraph reacted to the growing share of market for “the times “by cutting its price and the independent followed. “The Times” soon responded to this by cutting its price further, although price settled down at slightly higher level soon after. By July 1998, “the times” price was 35p while that of Guardian ,the telegraph and the independent were 45p.”THE TIMES” sales was almost double than that of its competitors. This relative position stayed more or less unchanged for next five years. By 2002 there was slight decline in overall market for UK broadsheet. The sales of “the times” were running just over 7, 00,000daily. The decline in the newspaper ,market was mainly because of growth of internet and 24 hours TV news channels.

The nature of competition changed, as a result the price competition took back seat and the times, raised its price to 60p in 2005. Along with this it introduced a new format for their paper, this increased the sale to about 6, 60,000 per day. In 2007 the time further increased its price by 5p and was priced at 65p without having any effect to its daily sales figure.

The aggressive pricing strategy adopted by the times has a long lasting effect on sale pattern of UK’s newspaper industry.

Distribution channels:

Newspaper have a unique characteristics in that they are delivered to approximately 54,000 retail outlet worldwide every day, the content changes substantially from day-to-day and the demand for them will expire by lunch time on the day of the sale. Although some other product s might share one or two of these characteristics their combination in newspaper means that the process of getting this product from supplier to consumer is substantially different from other in the industry. As a result newspaper have a distribution system that is dedicated to that one product. Unlike supply channel for many product, which are retails driven, the supply chain for newspaper is publishers led. Publishers appear a strong degree of influence over

• pricing
• volume
• nature of services

Newspaper publisher print their newspaper by using print centers which are owned by the publisher directly or other provide printing services to publisher on agency basis. This newspaper prints are than supplied to wholesalers from there to retailers and finally to the consumers. In addition to delivery by wholesalers, some newspaper are supplied directly to consumer through subscription.

‘The Times” to reach to its customers directly, comes up with various subscription issues such as UK paper subscription, US paper subscription, E-paper subscription, overseas subscription, Times Archives etc. It also offer various discounts and offer on various subscription. Sometimes it gives gift vouchers along with subscription to attract the readers. Not only this “the times’ also offers complimentary membership to culture+, an art and entertainment program exclusive to subscriber of times and Sunday times. Some of the highs of this subscription includes

• free admission to hundred of galleries, museums and historical houses
• priority booking for the most of the talked about plays and shows
• exclusive offers from sky etc

It also offers various discounts to students for their subscription.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF “THE TIMES”;

SWOT stands for strength, weakness, opportunity, and threats, and it is one of the important tool to highlight the business present situation and where it could be in future. It is a strategic planning which specify the main objective of business and identifies the external and internal factors that are favorable and unfavorable for achieving the goal and objective of particular business. It mainly focuses on

Strength: attributes of business those are helpful in achieving the objectives.

Weakness: attributes of business those are harmful in achieving the objectives.

Opportunities: external conditions those are helpful in achieving the objectives.

Threats: external conditions those are harmful in achieving the objectives.

Strength: strength of the business are positive element. It gives business edge over the competitor. The main strength of “the times” as newspaper are

• Being a market leader, it has a key to their success as it boosts reputation in the market.
• Its marketing strategy has proved to be effective.
• “The Times” has an extensive customer base which is major strength regarding sales and profits.
• “The Times” has competitively high percentage of market share among other newspapers.

Weakness: weakness of a business is something which is needed to be improved as it may have negative impact on the business.

• Reputation is important for “the times’ as market leader. So it is important for it to come up with new product and services from time-to-time to be in the competition.
• Charging for their content on internet may have negative effect on their business.

Opportunity: These are external factors, changes, trends, or needs that could help the business to evolve and grow. For “the time” there are ample of opportunities available such as

• Capturing new market by offering new product such as overseas subscription, sports handbook etc can help “the times” to increase its readership.
• It can expand its online presence by improving and providing wide range of services through their websites.
• Forming strategic alliance could help “the times” to raise its circulation and increase its readership.

Expanding product line can also help “the time” to capture major market share among its competitors.

Threats: These are external factors which may restrict, damage, or put the business at risk. These are factors which are outside company’s control and may prove harmful for growth. The possible threats that can affect “the times” newspaper are

• Price war between the competitors may unsteady the pricing strategy of “the times”
• Raising operation costs could be the major downfall for “the times” as it affects the overall profits of the business.
• Many free journal available can affect the readership of the paper at large

E-business strategy of newspaper industry;

Once the strong print business sector, newspapers are now struggling with declining circulation, shrinking classified advertisement and proliferation of competition. But despite of significant challenges, the industry also finds itself at a crossroad that presents significant opportunity for this business to evolve and grow.

In past few years a number of interesting trends emerged, one of the most significant being digital media publishing and online monetization. Internet effect on newspaper is uninterested, how to accommodate the digital age remains one of the industry’s key dilemmas. Now the industry is changing the marketing strategy and the emergences of digital media from wireless device to e-reader to social network, almost all newspaper have their own website. Both TV & internet bring news to consumer faster n in more visual style than newspaper. This competing medium also offers opportunity to use moving image and sounds. This print business sector recognizes the opportunity of going global and continues to invest in growth by taking the advantage of digital media.

News is something you don’t already know but with net able to supply this information almost instantly, newspapers have little choice but to put everything they publish everyday up on internet in the hope of keeping people on their site and returning to their site next day. Popularity of newspaper website depends up on the content of the site. Normally the content of the website is splinted in to six areas which includes

1. The news stories
2. After week though- this are archive stories
3. Columnists & opinion pieces
4. E-mail services – giving people a concise rundown of stories that are likely to interest them direct to their inboxes
5. Digital facsimile of printed Newspaper
6. Finally there are add-ons – crosswords, competition games & the likes.

E-business strategies of “the times”;

The times group has used a variety of online strategies to increase their online readers.

1. In September 2008 they commissioned to build a James Bond themed Microsoft entitled ‘Be a bond baddie’

The main aim of the move was

• to promote Times online coverage of James Bond on their website
• give added value to PR of the time
• raise awareness for Times online readership
• generate large amount of traffic & repeats visitors.

Times online were thrilled with the result interim of traffic & uptake application.

the result was successful as number of registration exceeded expectation & site continues to experience the high volume of traffic with over 50,000nviews since launch.

Most overseas visitors to the website are directed to new paper as a default view which “rebalanced” away from domestic content & will feature more foreign news & comments. UK readers are able to switch back & forth between the two editions.

According to times editor, Robert Thomson, “going global was an important movement in the long & distinguished history of paper”

“Its primary aim is to give a traditionally less parochial front page” (peter Bale, online editor of times)

This strategy of going global was adopted with the intension of capturing the worlds market & developing a reader loyalty.

“The Times” is launching an internet television services. It now has a news agency style video feed which is a starting point for broader introduction of video service. It will help in generating more content & will help in becoming village seqarefor videos. It will also invite reader to send their video to the news site & will add future texture by providing link on the site. This will help the reader to get more & reliable information on video.

Newspaper industry very well incorporated the technological changes in their business. Having website has helped in increasing its readership significantly. But the cost of having such website is quite high. The struggle has always been how to make money by charging for content while also keeping as many as people returning to the site. And also course there is ever present back of the mind fear that the diverse online content will stop people buying newspaper.

To cope with this situation, “The Times”, in terms of overall UK market introduced a crossword &archive subscription services in 2008.Not only this they started charging for their online content.

The general manager of Times paper Paul Hayes said “the free ride is over & day of free content have gone.”

“The Times” was first to charge for their content on net. According to “The Times” manager, every aspect of site need to support itself with its own revenue stream & that is why they stared charging for its archives, for digital version of paper & its law report.

Despite of charging “The Times” has around 2million unique users.

The main aim of “the Times” is to be the best newspaper in the world. The goal is to deliver accurate, intelligent & engaging information to an ever large, ever more discerning audiances.The role of “The Times” as newspaper has evolved due to changes in information provision. Proliferation of satellite, TV channels, radio stations, & the internet has helped “the times” to satisfy every need of its readers.

Future of newspaper in 21st century;

The future of newspaper has been widely debated as the industry has faced down soaring newsprint price, slumping ad sales, loss of much classified ads, & drop in circulation. In recent years number of newspaper has slated for closure, bankruptcy or serves cutbacks. Revenue has plugged while competition from internet media has squeezed print publication.

The debate has been more urgent, as a Deeping recession has shaved profits & as once expensive growth in newspaper web revenue has leveled off forestalling what the industry hoped would become important source of revenue. The issue is whether the newspaper industry is being hit by cyclical trough, or whether new technology has reduced obsolete newspaper in their traditional formats. Facing these challenges, newspaper are considering combining to survive.

Newspaper industry has always been cyclical & the industry has weathered previous troughs.

But with television arrival & explosion of internet the first decade of 21stcentury increased the panoply of media choice available to reader while further cutting into newspaper’s begancy as source if news. Both TV & internet bring news to the consumer faster & in a more visual style than newspapers. This competing medium also offers opportunity to use moving image & sound. Technological revolution has meant that reader accustomed to waiting for daily newspaper can now receive up-to-the -minute update from web portals. This new revenue stream, newspaper’s website, often takes away fraction of sum generated by the previous ads & circulation driven revenue stream & so newspaper have been forced to curtail their overhead while simultaneously trying to entice news users. Expanding reach of broadband internet access, many newspapers have faced several problems such as falling ad revenue & plugging circulation.

Ultimately the newspaper of future may bear little resemblance to newsprint edition familiar to older reader. It may become a by bird, part print & part internet or perhaps eventually go fully digital. However the transition from print page to whatever comes next will likely be fought with challenges, both for newspaper and for its customers.

The “paper” in newspaper may go away but the “news” will still remain.

“The paper is dynamic, but it’s just a device.” Replacing it with pixel is better experience.(according to bill Keller, executive editor of Newyork times)

Many more changes may happen in the world’s fast growing Newspaper’s market. The world is becoming more digital but the technology has helped newspapers as much as the internet. Making technological changes work for them or instead of them, will decide whether newspaper remain vital or road kill on the information superhighway.

Newspaper had justified their existence with energy, creativity & integrity. Thus, as of now it can be concluded that newspaper has remained open & has welcomed technological changes. It has changed in every scene be it appearance, or marketing or using web according to time & advent of technology to serve its objective of providing information keeping in mind the interest of customers.