Finding out the cause of sales-stickiness
Of
Times of India published Bengali news daily
Ei Samay

By

Saswata Biswas

June, 2015

Finding out the cause of sales-stickiness
Of
Times of India published Bengali news daily
Ei Samay

By

Saswata Biswas

Under the guidance of

Shri Rupak Sengupta Dr. Soma Arora
AGM,RMD Assistant Professor
Times Group IMT, Ghaziabad

June, 2015

Certificate of Approval

The following Summer Project Report titled " Finding out the cause of sales-stickiness of Times of India published Bengali news daily Ei Samay " is hereby approved as a certified study in management carried out and presented in a manner satisfactory to warrant its acceptance as a prerequisite for the award of Post-Graduate Diploma in Management for which it has been submitted. It is understood that by this approval the undersigned do not necessarily endorse or approve any statement made, opinion expressed or conclusion drawn therein but approve the Summer Project Report only for the purpose it is submitted.

Summer Project Report Examination Committee for evaluation of Summer Project Report

Name Signature

1. Faculty Examiner _______________________ ___________________

2. PG Summer Project Co-coordinator _______________________ ___________________

Certificate from Summer Project Guides

This is to certify that Mr. /Ms. Saswata Biswas, a student of the Post-Graduate Diploma in Management, has worked under our guidance and supervision. This Summer Project Report has the requisite standard and to the best of our knowledge no part of it has been reproduced from any other summer project, monograph, report or book.

Dr. Soma Arora Rupak Sengupta
Assistant Professor AGM,RMD
IMT, Ghaziabad Times Group Kolkata
Date 04.07.2015 Date 04.07.2015

Table of contents Page

Acknowledgement……………………………………………………………………………. 1
Abstract (maximum two pages)…………………………………………………………………...... 6
Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………………………. 5
List of Figures..……………………………………………………………………………………... 5
List of Tables………………………………………………………………………………………… 5

Figure 1 7 Figure 2 8 Figure 3 9 Figure 4 10 Figure 5 12 Figure 6 13 Figure 7 15 Figure 8 17

Table 1 7 Table 2 7 Table 3 8 Table 4 8 Table 5 9 Table 6 11 Table 7 12 Table 8 13 Table 9 14 Table 10 14 Table 11 15 Table 12 16 Table 13 16 Table 15 17

Abstract The cause of sales-stickiness
Of
Times of India published Bengali news daily
Ei Samay

By Saswata Biswas Ei samay is a Bengali news daily and a Times of India publication. It was first launched in 2012 and it was initially a huge success. It tried to capture a price sensitive market. And a six months subscription for only Rs. 175/- has been offered and the market responded like anything. But when the price was hiked a little the response was not good. They had to witness sales stickiness. So here are we looking for the causes of that. And as a brand management trainee some of the strategies are also given.
So, firstly we prepared a questionnaire.
And the online link is as follows:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1W8onJMItasc2C-KOXFZZ46xuRvYpYl8xXOi8GlC7eN8/viewform?c=0&w=1

And with a mixture of open and close ended questions we prepared our questionnaire and went for the market survey.
After the market survey report of whole Kolkata has been collected, some data analysis has been done to understand the happenings.

Areawise Report :
Saltlake and Newtown

As we have asked all the customers to know more about their feelings towards our product, a lot of findings emerged onto the stage. We reached to 159 customers which includes our 80 first time subscribed users and 79 random customers. This is the market where the brand consciousness was at its best. People are so much into this that they answered all questions in a flick. And sometimes the answers were so appropriate in terms of proper marketing jargons that it astonished me as a marketer. They know why they like which one and why not. So it was not a hard task to do in this market compared to others.

Subscribed user (sample size 80):
Table [ 1 ] TOTAL ABP | 76 | ei samay+ABP | | 49 | only ei samay | 4 |

Figure [ 1 ] They have answered the causes led them not to read it and sometimes they have said that we have retained it just to have two opinions on a news and perhaps just because it’s a time of india product though they are not happy about political stand or lay out of the paper. Whenever they have been asked that why you like ABP, the answer was like , “ I just feel like reading the paper “ . And a very surprising fact has been noticed that 76 out 80 subscribed user always used to read ABP. They wanted an extra one! And only 49 retained.

Table [ 2 ] poilitically | (not neutral) | | | | 21 | | I read ei samay…but don’t like the layout | | | 34 | | Like ABP | | | | | 76 | | I like ei samay | | | | | 4 | | | | | | | | |

Figure [ 2 ]

Random sample:

Sample size 79
Table [ 3 ] ABP(total) | | 65 | ABP and ei samay | 16 | ei samay(total) | | 28 | only ei samay | 12 | only ganosakti | 1 | 365(total) | | 4 | eisamay and 365 | 1 | Bartaman(total) | | 9 | abp and bartaman | 7 | 365 and bartaman | 2 |

And the total market is like:

Table [ 4 ] ABP | 65 | ei samay | 28 | bartaman | 9 | 365 | 4 | Ganosakti | 1 |

Figure [ 3 ]

And nothing varied much from the subscribed users database. 65 out of 79 like to read ABP. And all the other newspapers are mostly used as a secondary one. Here we can observe that ei samay has performed better than all other newspapers and sold 28 out 79 and only ei samay has been bought by 12 households. So it seems that this is a really brand conscious market and that’s why they have gone for mostly a single brand. We may call it a band wagon effect and a word of mouth kind of a thing. Because this demographic segment demands a very established brand as their primary status-feature. This market can only be captured after becoming a big brand and not before. The causes of staying behind are also not new.

Table [ 5 ] like to read ABP | 65 | politically neutral ABP | 39 | don’t like to read ei samay | 51 | not politically neutral ei samay | 23 | don’t know | 7 |

Figure [ 4 ]

South kolkata

South Kolkata is a vast area and a versatile market. It says ,’keep on guessing’. When you will vist south, you will see a mixture of saltlake and north-central Kolkata market. When you will go to some porch areas of south Kolkata like Jodhpur Park, Prince Anwar shah,Lake gardens, Golfgreen etc., you will notice the exact same kind of market like saltlake in terms of brand consciousness and high propensity to consume (buying capability) with more and more depth of social knowings. That’s why people here has gifted us a versatile market where newspapers like ebela,365 news, protidin etc. are also diverging the market. And it also suggests that one can count it as an opportunity. This market can be a lab-rat.

Table [ 6 ] | subscribed user | 110 | | | | | | | retained | 29 | | | moved to ABP | 25 | | | moved to bartaman | 34 | | | moved to 365 | 7 | | | moved to protidin | 5 | | | moved to ebela | 6 | | | moved to ajkal | 3 | | | | | |

Figure [ 5 ]

Now we can see an inclination of moving towards bartaman and that’s why when few more questions asked, the scenario became like this :

Table [ 7 ] don’t like to read ei samay | 54 | like to read ABP | 25 | like to read any other newspaper apart from ei samay | 7 | politically not neutral | 24 | like to read bartaman | 34 |

And when the sample was random, then the scenario was like :

Table [ 8 ] | random user | 113 | | | | | | | ABP | 52 | | | Bartaman | 22 | | | Ei samay | 19 | | | Ajkal | 3 | | | 365 news | 7 | | | e bela | 6 | | | protidin | 4 | |

Figure [ 6 ]

And,

Table [ 9 ] don’t like to read ei samay | 43 | like to read ABP | 49 | politically not neutral | 31 |

But when the market was a porch area, its been noticed that most of the households buy two or more than two newspapers everyday. So an overlapping data of 50 random samples of south Kolkata’s porch areas are as follows:

Table [ 10 ] random sampling | 50 | | | | ABP | | 39 | Ei samay | | 21 | bartaman | | 3 | 365 news | | 1 | e bela | | 0 | ajkal | | 0 | ganosakti | | 2 | protidin | | 0 |

And this pattern so matches with Saltlake that we can easily derive that ei samay is having an edge over bartaman in the market where buying capability is more and as well as brand consciousness.
There are places in south Kolkata like some places of Garia, ranikuthi,sonarpur etc. is far behind in terms of brand consciousness. Many of the people I surveyed had no idea about ei samay being a times of india publication before I met them.
So the niche market is yet to be penetrated.
**Imp: a new ad done by ei samay by saying ‘we are ahead of others in local news’ has been mocked infront of me by people. And it clearly suggests the belief towards the brand has not been created. But when they talk about ABP, they become very passionate. Why? It seems they think that ABP is the vigilante of Bengali language and news. That’s the trust they have gained from people. And ei samay clearly not done good in that case.

North kolkata

North Kolkata is really is a market of its own. It is very much ancient in choosing products just like new buildings. The market is a typical market which will never try to know about a product or service on its own. The promotion has to touch the heart of the market to penetrate. May be that’s why it behaves like this:

Table [ 11 ] | subscribed user | 71 | | | retained | 23 | | | moved to bartaman | 21 | | | moved to ABP | 22 | | | moved to protodin | 3 | | | moved to 365 | 2 | |

Figure [ 7 ]

And,

Table [ 12 ] price | 14 | like to read ABP | 18 | don’t like to read ei samay | 37 | politically not neutral | 17 |

Table [ 13 ] | random sample | 80 | | | ABP | 41 | | | Bartaman | 19 | | | ei samay | 13 | | | 365 news | 1 | | | Ajkal | 2 | | | protidin | 2 | | | ganosakti | 1 | |

Figure [ 8 ]

And,

Table [ 15 ] like to read ABP | 41 | don’t like to read eisamay | 61 | price | 13 | politically not neutral | 28 |

North Kolkata has a huge inclination towards ABP but surprisingly bartaman also growing in numbers these days. But some of the important observations which will make us think : * Price sensitive, niche market like tea shops, stationary shops etc. are mostly bartaman customers * Normal households are preferring ABP ever any others * Many people knew ei samay as a TOI publication after I met them So, brand consciousness is poor and it’s a kind of retro market which either goes for the heritage or the fire. To penetrate this one, might be more promotion needed.