Sales and Promotion of Times of India Group Magazine in Lucknow

SUMMER TRAINING PROJECT REPORT
ON
A STUDY ON SALES AND

PROMOTION OF TIMES OF INDIA
GROUP MAGAZINE IN LUCKNOW
Towards partial fulfillment of
Master of Business Administration (MBA)
(Affiliated to U. P. Technical University, Lucknow)
Industry Guide:
Mr. Arvind Singh
(Deputy Manager)
TOI, Lucknow
Faculty Guide:
Dr. Pooja Bhatia
(H O D)
BBD NITM, Lucknow
Submitted by:
Aamina Bano
Roll no: 1505470001
M.B.A. 3rd Semester
SESSION 2016-2017
DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT
Babu Banarasi Das

National Institute of Technology & Management
Sector 1, Akhilesh Das nagar, Faizabad Road, Lucknow (U. P.), India
A Study on Sales and Promotion of The Times of India Magazine in Lucknow city
Certificate
Declaration
I hereby declare that the project report entitled A Study on Sales and Promotion of The
Times of India Magazine in Lucknow city is the produce of my sincere effort. This
Summer Internship Project Report is being submitted by me at BABU BANARASI
DAS NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY& MANAGEMENT, Lucknow for
the Partial fulfillment of the course M.B.A. and the report has not been submitted to any
other educational institution for any other course.
Aamina Bano
Roll no.- 1505470001
DATE:
M.B.A 3rd Semester

B.B.D.N.I.T.M
Acknowledgement
I take this opportunity to extend my sincere thanks to BBDNITM, Lucknow 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. ARVIND KUMAR , Deputy Manager, Results and Market
Development at Times of India, Lucknow 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 Miss SUCHITA KHANNA of TOI, Lucknow for her help and guidance in sales
and all my colleagues for their sincere cooperation. Without which the success of this
project wouldnt had been possible. I would also like to express my profound gratitude to
my faculty guide Prof. Dr. Pooja Bhatia (HOD BBDNITM)
for herconstructive
support during the summer internship period, which leads to successful completion of my
internship at Times of India, Lucknow.
(Aamina Bano)
Preface
The research project program is the integral part of MBA curriculum during the course of
management; the research is expected to use and apply their academic knowledge and
gain a valuable insight into corporate culture with all its environment operational
complexities.
The research offers a valuable opportunity to the researcher to meet their academic
knowledge to the real world situation. I have undertaken commercial department to study
about the various activities A STUDY ON SALES AND PROMOTION OF TIMES
OF INDIA GROUP MAGAZINE IN LUCKNOW
In this report I have put my finest efforts to compile the data with utmost accuracy and
hope this report will give complete satisfaction regarding the various aspects of
recruitment & selection activity.
(Aamina Bano)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Theory and practice are the two eyes of the management education. Management
education without practical training at an organization remains incomplete. The training
prescribed by the BBDNITM, Lucknow student have various objectives like helping the
student to acquire knowledge, give an opportunity to know the difference between theory
and practice, enable the student to interact with experienced and knowledgeable persons
of business world .
As a student of MBA , I got an opportunity to undergo on a training. The training title is
A STUDY ON SALES AND PROMOTION OF TIMES OF INDIA GROUP
MAGAZINE IN LUCKNOW.
I successfully completed my training report within the specified time. It was really a
thrilling experience for me with senior officials of Industry and to interact with different
members, employees of the organization. It was an experience of enjoyment through hard
work and dedication.
Through this finding of this report, I hope that the Industry in India as well as outside the
country will benefit.
TABLE OF CONTENT
Certificate
Declaration
Acknowledgement
Preface
Executive summary
1. Introduction
1-45
2. Company Profile
46-62
3. Objectives of the study
63-64
4. Research Methodology
65-67
5. Problems And Limitations
68-69
6. Data Analysis
70-84
7. Findings
85-86
8. SWOT Analysis
87-90
9. Recommendations
91-92
10. Conclusion
93-94
11. Bibliography
95-97
12. Annexure
98-102
INTRODUCTION
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
Introduction
Print media is one of the most powerful and cost effective medium to transfer information
and knowledge. The print media industry in India is more than a century old. Also it is a
well established industry. This industry mainly comprises of publishing newspapers and
magazines. India has the second largest population and one of the fastest growing
economies in the world. Along with these the increasing level of income of peoples and
the robust competition in this industry help print media in its growth. Producers are
increasing day by day, new entrants from outside India is also a factor of tough
competition. Indian readers prefer Hindi magazines rather than English magazines. In the
case of Times group also the readership of Hindi Femina is higher as compared to
English magazines. Ernst & Young said in their survey report Indian magazine segment:
Navigating new growth avenues, it has been said that out of the 20 most read magazines
in India, only three magazines are in English, while the remaining are in Hindi and other
regional languages. This survey also said that more than 300 million literate individuals
do not read any publications. According to ArcGate, the dramatic effects of internet and
globalization in current scenario are playing high impact on media industry. Even people
are now consuming news and information from internet through computers or mobiles,
the popularity of print media is not decreasing. To avoid declining of market share in
front of other media the producer must able to produce high quality printed content and
magazines. They also need to make the contents available on mobile and web platforms
to provide a choice to its subscribers to explore the contents anytime anywhere. Dr
Saukat Ali, in his paper A Study of Consumer Behavior & Loyalty In Print Media
Challenges & strategic prescriptions with Special reference to English, Hindi, Marathi
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
News Paper readers-Mumbai, says developing customer loyalty & retaining readership
can be a huge challenge for the publishers. There are huge options available to readers
now. Therefore publishers are busy to create something very special and innovative in
contents or subscription schemes to impress upon the readers. They should address the
needs and demand of consumer to strengthen their loyalty and readership.
The revenue of magazines consists of subscription sales, trade sales and mainly from
advertising. More than 70% of the total revenue comes from advertising. The Times of
India Group, being the market leader in the industry is also stepping with the current
growth and development of the demography. World Wide Media, a subsidiary of TOI
Group is producing high quality magazines in India and worldwide. But still they are
facing some problems. They are losing subscribers. By having an opportunity to be a part
of the group, by acting as an summer intern, this research has been done with the
objectives, To explore the customer demand in terms of price, Quality and Services. To
find out the reasons for discontinuing subscriptions. What drives a customer to adopt a
product? His demand and needs. The product must be able to fulfill the needs and wants
of the customer. When a product has less demand in comparison with other products?
Thus what a customer a wants? This study is mainly to explore the customers demand
for the magazines of World Wide Media (WWM) in terms of price, quality and services.
We can say, to explore what customer wants from the publisher and what publisher gives
to the customer. It is also being taken to find out the lacks behind fulfilling the demand.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain
what they need and want, through creating, offering and exchanging products of value
with others.
-
Philip Kotler.
Marketing includes all those activities having to do with effecting changes in the
ownership and possession of goods and services. It is that part of economics which deals
with the creation of time, place and possession utilities and that phase of business activity
through which human wants are satisfied, by the exchange of goods and services for
some valuable consideration.
-
American Marketing Association.
Marketing is the process of discovering and translating consumer wants into product and
service specifications and then in turn helping to make it possible for more and more of
consumers to enjoy more and more of these products and services.
Marketing consists of analyzing marketing opportunities, researching and selecting target

markets, designing marketing strategies, planning marketing programs and organizing,
implementing and controlling marketing effort.
Companies have to identify long and short term marketing opportunities and research the
selected market by measuring and forecasting attractiveness of the given market. Having
selected the market, the companies need to develop a differentiating and positioning
strategy for the target market. The marketing strategy must be transformed into marketing
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
programs by deciding on marketing expenditures and the marketing mix. The final step is
organizing the marketing resources and implementing and controlling the marketing plan.
Marketing Mix
Marketing mix is the set of marketing tools that a firm uses to pursue its marketing
objectives in the target market.
McCarthy has popularized a four factor classification of marketing tools known as the
4Ps of the marketing mix. They are:
Product
Price
Place
Promotion
Product:
Product stands for the firms tangible offer to the market, including the product quality,
design, features, branding and packing. It deals with new product development, product
life cycle, product mix, product lines, branding and associated services to a product.
From the customers point of view, it helps in satisfying the customers needs and wants.
Price:
Price is the monetary value of the product. Price deals with selecting the pricing
objectives, setting the price, discounts, allowances, payment policies and credit terms. It
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
is very important to the customers as it decides the cost the customer has to pay to gain
the product value.
Place:
This marketing tool stands for the various activities the company undertakes to make the
product accessible and available to the customer. It involves market size, channel
selection and management, storage and physical distribution with the ultimate purpose of
efficiently supplying the companys offer to the target market. To the customer, this
marketing tool refers to convenience.
Promotion:
Promotion stands for various activities the company undertakes to communicate and
promote its products to the target market. It involves communication programs i.e. direct
marketing, advertising, sales promotions, public relations and motivation of sales force.
To the customer this tool provides knowledge and information.
The Promotion Mix of a company includes the following tools;

Advertising:
It is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or
services by an identified sponsor.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
Direct Marketing:
It refers to the use of mail, telephone and other non-personal contact tools to
communicate with or solicit a response from specific customers and prospects.
Personal Selling:
Face to face interaction with one or more prospective purchasers for the purpose of
making a sale refers to personal selling.
Public Relations and Publicity:

It refers to the variety of programs designed to promote and or protect a companys
image or its individual products.
Sales Promotions:
The short-term incentive to encourage trial or purchase of a product or service refers to
sales promotion. Whereas advertising offers a reason to buy; sales promotion offers an
incentive to buy. Since sales promotion directly push up the sales, increasing number of
companies are undertaking sales promotion activities.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
Sales Promotion
Sales promotion refers to the short-term incentives to encourage sales of a product or
service. It consists of a diverse collection of incentive tools, mostly short-term, designed
to stimulate quicker and greater purchase of products or services by consumers.
Purpose of Sales Promotion

Sales promotion tools vary in their specific objectives. They may be used to attract
new customers, to reward loyal customers and to increase the repurchase rates of
occasional users. Sales promotion usually targets brand switchers because non-users and
users of other brands do not always notice a promotion. Sales promotions are thus also
seen as a tool for breaking down loyalty to other products.
Sales promotions also let manufacturers adjust to short term changes in supply and
demand and differences in customer segments. They also let manufacturers to experiment
by varying prices. Sales promotions also lead to greater consumer awareness of prices.
To use sales promotion, a company must set objectives, select the right tools, develop the
best program and implement it and evaluate the results.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
Objectives of Sales Promotion
The specific objectives set for sales promotions will vary with the type of the target
market. For consumer promotions, objectives include encouraging purchasing of larger
sized units, building trial among non-users and attracting switchers away from the
competitors brands. For trade promotions, objectives may include; including retailers to
carry new items and higher level of inventory, encouraging off-seasonal buying, ofsetting competitive promotions, building brand loyalty of retailers and gaining entry into
new retail outlets. The sales force promotions help in encouraging support of a new
product or model, encouraging more prospecting and stimulating off-seasonal sales. But
most importantly, sales promotion should be focused on consumer relationship building.
Sales Promotion Tools

Many tools can be used to accomplish sales promotion objectives. Descriptions of the
main promotional tools are as follows;
Consumer Promotion Tools
The main consumer promotion tools are as follows;
Samples:
They are offers of a trial amount of a product. It consists of inviting prospective
purchasers to try the product without cost or at a lower cost in the hope that they
will buy the product. Samples may be free or discounted.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
Coupons:
Coupons are certificates that give buyers a saving when they purchase a specified
product. Coupons can be mailed, placed in advertisements or included with other
products.
Rebates:
Rebate is also known as cash refund offers. Rebates are offers to refund part of the
purchase price of a product to its customers who send a proof of purchase to
the manufacturer. These are like coupons except that the price reduction occurs
after the purchase and not at the point of sale.
Price Packs:
Cents-off deals or price packs offer consumers savings by way of reducing prices
that are marked by the producer directly on the package.
Premiums:
These are the goods offered either free or at a low cost as an incentive to buy
a product. Premiums may be in-pack or on-pack (outside the pack).
Prizes:
They are offers of chance to win something such as cash, trips or goods by luck or
through extra efforts. Contests of talent and sweepstakes or draws the most popular
prize offering promotions.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
10
Tie-in Promotions:
Tie-in promotions involve two or more brands or companies that team up on coupons,
refunds or contests to increase their pulling powers.
Cross Promotions:
Cross promotions involve using one brand to advertise non-competing brand.
Advertising Specialties:
These are useful articles imprinted with an advertisers name, given as gifts to
consumers.
Patronage Rewards:
They are cash or other awards for the regular use of companys products or services.
They are values (in cash otherwise) that are proportional to ones patronage of a
certain vendor or a group of vendors. They aim at building brand loyalty.
PoP Promotions:
Point of purchase (PoP) includes displays and demonstrations that take place at the
point of purchase or sale.
Trade Promotion Tools

More money is spent by companies on trade promotion (58%) than on consumer
promotions (42%). The major trade promotion tools are as follows;
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
11
Discounts:
It is also known as price-off or off-invoice or off-list. Discounts price cut off the list
price on a particular quantity purchased during a stated time.
Allowances:
They are the amount offered in return for an agreement by the retailer to feature the
manufacturers products in some way; displays, advertising or otherwise.
Free Goods:
Free goods are the extra merchandise offered to middlemen who buy a specific
amount of a product.
Companies also offer push money and specialty advertising items to the middlemen.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
12
Business Promotion Tools
Companies spend huge amount on promotions focused on industrial consumers. The
major business promotion tools are as follows;
Trade Shows and Conventions.
Sales Contests.
Clearly, sales promotions play an important role in the total promotion mix. To use it
well, the marketer must define the sales promotion objectives, select the best tools, design
the sales promotion program, pretest and implement the program and evaluate its results.
The importance of consumer sales promotion in the marketing mix of the soft drink
category throughout the world has increased. Companies spend considerable time in
planning such activities. However, in order to enhance the effectiveness of these
activities, manufacturers should understand consumer and retailer interpretations of their
promotional activities. The study here pertains to consumers perceptions regarding sales
promotion. Some past researches have suggested that promotion itself has an effect on the
perceived value of the brand. This is because promotions provide utilitarian benefits such
as monetary savings, added value, increased quality and convenience as well as hedonic
benefits such as entertainment, exploration and self-expression.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
13
Broadly speaking most of the companies using Marketing Mix which includes
Price
Place (Channel of Distribution)
Product
Promotion
These are the four basic pillar of marketing mix. Most of the marketing strategies are
built on the basis of these criteria.
Promotion is one of the important elements of marketing mix. There are so many
elements of promotion such as
Advertising
Direct Marketing
Public Relations
Sales Promotion
Traditionally, sales Promotions have been used by marketer to increase sales in the short
term. However, in the last few decades this communication tool has evolved and now is
considered from a strategic point of view. For this reason, it is necessary to realize new
studies in this area and study how consumers evaluate sales promotions.
Sales promotions have grown in both importance and frequency over the past few
decades. Although an accurate estimate for total sales promotions expenditures does not
exist, we can be sure that the trend is up.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
14
Sales promotion serves three essential roles: It informs, persuades and reminds
prospective customers about a company and its products. Even the most useful product or
brand will be a failure if no one knows that it is available. As we know, channels of
distribution take more time in creating awareness because a product has to pass through
many hands between a producer and consumers.
Therefore, a producer has to inform channel members as well as ultimate consumers

about the attributes and availability of his products. The second purpose of promotion is
persuasion. The cut throat competition among different products puts tremendous
pressure on their manufacturers and they are compelled to undertake sales promotion
activities. The third purpose of promotion is reminding consumers about products
availability and its potential to satisfy their needs.
From these elements Sales Promotion is the element which is in the focus of this project.
Further Sales Promotion is quite broad term it includes
Consumer Oriented Sales Promotion

Trade Oriented Sales Promotion
Sales Promotion from the Consumers point of view

Long-term impact
In order to understand ability of the promotions to increase long-term sales, respondents
were asked about continuity of purchase of a brand after the withdrawal of promotion.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
15
Majority of the respondents indicated that they would not continue. But some of said
they would. Thus, it could be inferred that promotions in this category (low involvement
products) might encourage trial and brand switching but not long term loyalty.
Preference of Schemes:
Price off was the most preferred type of scheme. Maximum customers ranked price-offs
as number one or two.
Perceived Quality:
Majority of respondents had a perception that the quality of the promoted brands
remained the same during promotion, while some of them felt that it was inferior to
before. It can be inferred that promotions were not leading to negative brand quality
perceptions. It is found that some customer strongly preferred to buy their regular brand
and said that sales promotion would not weaken their loyalty towards the brand.
Sales promotion from the retailers point of view:

Perceptions on Scheme Preference
It was found that retailer perceived price offs as a better form of sales promotion activity.
Price offs in their opinion had relatively a greater impact compared to any other form of
sales promotion activity like Bonus packs, Premium, Contests etc. Retailers preferred
price offs the most, then bonus pack, premium, contests, in order of importance.
Perceptions about Buying Roles
Retailers viewed that the person who came to the shop (who may be a maid, son,
daughter, daughter-in-law and child) was the decider of a toilet soap brand and not the
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
16
Income provider (e.g. head of the family). It could be inferred that visibility of
information about the sales promotion activity at the point of purchase could result into
the purchase of a promoted brand.
Perceptions about their role in decision-making
Retailer had relatively very low influence in affecting choice. It could be inferred that
visibility and awareness about the scheme were the critical success factors so that pull
could be created.
Perceptions about Response to Sales Promotion Offers
They believed that younger age-groups were more experimental in nature, amenable to
trying new brands, and sought/looked for or asked whether there were any) sales
promotion schemes running on any toilet soap at the time of purchase.
Perceptions about Communications of Sales Promotion Schemes

Retailers perceived that role of word of mouth and television advertising played an
important part in providing information inputs to consumers regarding sales promotion
activities.
Dealer-Retailer Dynamics
At the time of sales promotion activities, dealers had tendency to push unwanted stocks
onto the smaller retailers. In fact these retailers preferred to stock variety of brands and
wanted payment for shelf and window display to increase traffic into their store.
However, supermarkets and big retailers were pampered and given special services and
given better margins and better allowances.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
17
Margins
It was found that in sales promotion schemes margins varied from 6 to15% depending of
the size of the retail outlet, bargaining power of a retailer, quantity ordered by him etc.
Mostly margins were linked to size of the volumes that were ordered.
Nature of POP
Retailers indicated that most of the POP (Point of Purchase) materials were meant for
brand advertisement and not for giving information regarding the schemes. Thus it could
be inferred that companys follow up was not adequate.
Servicing during duration of Scheme
In stock-out situation during the running of the sales promotion schemes, smaller retailers
had to wait for replenishment of stocks till the next scheduled weekly visit by the dealer
salesman but big retailers were serviced on telephonic request for replenishment of
stocks. This clearly indicated the disparity in treatment.
Gifts for Retailer motivation

Companies at times were rewarding retailers by giving free gifts like thermos flasks or
clocks if they sold more than certain quantity in a given period. Companies were making
a half-hearted effort to motivate retailers.
Perceptions about mass media announcements

Retailers viewed that whenever sales promotion scheme was announced on TV, it created
pull and they were more than willing to stock such brands. Hence there was very little
awareness leading to unsold stock till 6 months.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
18
Handling Problems
Many a times retailers had to handle various sales promotion offers simultaneously in a
category and also across categories and there was no formal communication planning
either from the dealer or the company. Remembering each offer and handling was a
problem especially for a small retailer which was often an as one-man show.
Why do Sales promotion schemes affect sales?

There are three mechanisms behind these facts. It is Purchase quantity, Brand switching
and Category expansion.
First, consumer can increase the quantity they buy just because the product is on sale.
Second, consumers are inducing to purchase another brand different from the one they
would have purchased when there is no promotional incentive.
Finally, consumers total consumption of the product category is increased by the

promotion. However, in the long term this positive effect may be diluted because a
promotional campaign has no permanent effect in the sales of the firm
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
19
Sales Promotion Strategy
Sales are the lifeblood of a business, without sales there would be no business in
the first place; therefore it is very important that if a business wants to succeed, it should
have a sales promotion strategy in mind. The primary objective of a sales promotion is to
improve a companys sales by predicting and modifying your target customers
purchasing behavior and patterns.
Sales promotion is very important as it not only helps to boost sales but it also helps a
business to draw new customers while at the same time retaining older ones. There are a
variety of sales promotional strategies that a business can use to increase their sales,
however it is important that we first understand what a sales promotion strategy actually
is and why it is so important.
A sales promotion strategy is an activity that is designed to help boost the sales of a
product or service. This can be done through an advertising campaign, public relation
activities, a free sampling campaign, a free gift campaign, a trading stamps campaign,
through demonstrations and exhibitions, through prize giving competitions, through
temporary price cuts, and through door-to-door sales, telemarketing, personal sales
letters, and emails.
The importance of a sales promotion strategy cannot be underestimated. This is because a
sales
promotion
strategy
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
is
important
to
MBA, Department
business
boosting
its
20
sales.
When developing a sales promotion strategy for your business, it is important that you
keep the following points in mind.
Consumer attitudes and buying patterns
Your brand strategy
Your competitive strategy
Your advertising strategy
Other external factors that can influence products availability and pricing
There are three types of sales promotion strategies:
A push strategy
A pull strategy
A combination of the two
A Push Strategy:
A push sales promotion strategy involves pushing distributors and retailers to
sell your products and services to the consumer by offering various kinds of promotions
and personal selling efforts. What happens here is that a company promotes their
product/services to a reseller who in turn promotes it to another reseller or to the
consumer. The basic objective of this strategy is to persuade retailers, wholesalers and
distributors to carry your brand, give it shelf space, promote it by advertising, and
ultimately push it forward to the consumer. Typical push sales promotion strategies
include; buy-back guarantees, free trials, contests, discounts, and specialty advertising
items. Time Magazine use such type of strategy for maximum time.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
21
A Pull Strategy:
A pull sales promotion strategy focuses more on the consumer instead of the
reseller or distributor. This strategy involves getting the consumer to pull or purchase
the product/services directly from the company itself. This strategy targets its marketing
efforts directly on the consumers with the hope that it will stimulate interest and demand
for the product. This pull strategy is often used when distributors are reluctant to carry or
distribute a Time Magazine product. Typical pull sales promotion strategies include;
samples, coupons, cash refunds or rebates, loyalty programs and rewards, contests,
sweepstakes, games, and point-of-purchase displays.
A Combination of Two Strategies:
A combination sales promotion strategy is just that; it is a combination of a push
and a pull strategy. It focuses both on the distributor as well as the consumers, targeting
both parties directly. It offers consumer incentives side by side with dealer discounts.
The Short term Impact of Promotions:
Lets have look at the impact of promotions on purchase behavior during the promotional
period i.e. the week or the month when the promotion was being run. The majority of the
empirical studies have focused on the impact of promotions in the short term. The key
findings across the studies are discussed below.
Temporary price reductions (price off) substantially increase sales:
There is ample evidence to show that promotions lead to dramatic increases in sales of
promoted brand in the short term. Studies have consistently reported high sales effects
and high price elasticity of brands which are on promotion. The economic rationale for
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
22
the promotional response is clear temporary price cuts increase the value of the product
to the consumer and it leads to immediate action. Sales boost can be quantified on the
basis of brand switching, primary demand expansion and consumer stockpiling during a
promotion.
Sales Promotion leads to brand substitution with the product category:

The sales bump during the promotional period into sales due to brand switching,
purchase time acceleration and stockpiling. Studies on brand switching have shown that
brand switching effects within a category are asymmetric such that promotions on higher
quality brands impacts weaker brands disproportionately. During a promotion, higher
quality brands induce a large number of consumers to switch to them as compared to
lower quality brands. One explanation advanced for this finding by researchers is that
large share brands have higher brand equity and attract switchers more than low share
brands
Sales Promotion leads to purchase acceleration/stockpiling effects:
In response to a promotion, consumers may buy more quantity of the product
category or buy at an earlier time than usual (purchase acceleration effect). If consumers
buy extra quantity during a promotion or earlier than normal, then they are not in the
market to buy products once the promotion is over. Thus purchase acceleration is
demonstrated through
A lengthening of inter purchase times after a promotion. Purchase acceleration was more
likely to be exhibited in increased purchase quantity than in shortened inter purchase
times. Results showed that consumers mostly made up for the large quantity purchased
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
23
by waiting longer until purchasing again. Results indicated that heavy users tended to
accelerate purchases more than light users. There was negligible difference in the
acceleration propensities of high versus low income groups.
Sales Promotion leads to primary demand expansion for a category:
While it was traditionally assumed that consumption rates remain fixed during
and after a promotion, but from this project I came to know that promotions also have a
primary demand expansion effect. When a primary demand expansion occurs, promotion
induced increase in purchase quantities does not significantly extend the time till the next
purchase in the category occurs, thus indicating that there has been an increase in
consumption promotions induced consumers to buy more and consume faster. It is found
that promotion induced inventory temporarily increased consumption rates within the
category e.g. in categories such as bacon, salted snacks, soft drinks and yogurt exhibited
primary demand expansions as a result of promotion while bathroom tissue, coffee,
detergent and paper towels exhibited stockpiling only.
Sales Promotions affect sales in complementary and competitive categories:

From this project it is found that promotion not only increases sales of main
product but it also lead to increase in sales of complementary categories. Found strong
cross relationships between products of the promoted product category indicating brand
substitution behavior. They stated that retail price promotions work as a form of implicit
price bundling whereby the consumer surplus is transferred from the promoted item to
non promoted items. Also found that retail price promotions create significant
complementary and substitution effects within the store.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
24
The Long term Impact of Promotions:
Strategies are builds to reap the benefits for longer period of time; same is true in sales
promotion strategies. Let us see impact of promotions effort and study the impact over a
longer time period e.g. 4-6 months or even a few years after a sales promotion campaign.
The result showed that consumer promotions for leading brands of established packaged
products had no after-effects on the brands sales or repeat buying loyalty. The extra sales
of a brand while promoted came virtually all from the brands existing long-term
customer base for which the experience of buying the promoted brand was nothing new.
It is found that although the short term effects of promotions are strong; these promotions
rarely exhibit long term effects. It is observed that each sales component generally lacked
a permanent effect and the effect of promotion was short lived and increase in promotions
affected consumers stockpiling decisions in the long run. They found that the combined
short and long-term elasticity of promotions was zero. The stockpiling induced by a
promotion was essentially offset by reduced demand in the long term. Thus increased
sales were more a result of sales borrowed from the future than increased consumption.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
25
Current issues in Sales Promotion
The issue of sales promotion has been receiving increasing attention from both
advertising and marketing professionals and academicians. This increase of attention can
be explained by two major interrelated factors: first, the nature of sales promotions - it
brings certain measurable (as opposed to advertising) impact on sales, which attracts
many marketing managers; it also has been proven by time to be the effective collection
of techniques to increase sales. However, the phenomenon of sales promotion is not
studied very widely.
Sales promotions expenditures for most of the companies are increasing, however with
the total promotional budgets staying relatively the same it can be assumed that the
increase of expenditures on sales promotion come at the expense of decreasing
advertising budgets.
There are several reasons explaining this phenomena: Increased brand parity and price
sensitivity of consumer - with more brand choices available to the consumer and with the
fact that product differences are becoming less and less apparent, consumers are
becoming more and more reliant to the price and price incentives. This goes hand in hand
with another reason of increasing sales promotions budget - decreased brand loyalty.
Consumers are getting used to the fact that almost always at least one brand category is
on sale or on a sales promotional offer. Another reason is coming from the routs of
corporate culture and the reward and promotion strategy within corporations - in the
conditions of severe competition there is increasing pressure on brand managers to
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
26
show fast results in terms of increased sales and nothing is as effective in short run as
sales promotions to achieve this goal. Another explanation has to do with the consumer
responsiveness to money saving options - for example the results of NCH Consumer
Survey indicate that on average 80.5 percent of consumers in US used coupons over the
period of 1996-1999. (Shimp 1993). One more reason for increasing sales promotion
importance is that many product categories on the market are in the mature stage and
according to the product life cycle theory, sales promotions are extremely effective in
maturity stage of the product helping to boost sales. (Blattberg, Neslin 1990). Finally the
reason that is very relevant to highly competitive markets, where companies find
themselves constantly fighting for the smallest piece of market share - "prisoner's
dilemma" spiral - which is very similar to a price war situation. Manufacturers are
locked into defensive reactive escalation of sale promotional expenditures. If one
company cuts its sales promotions, it will suffer short-term loss, chances are that
competitors will take advantage of that, if the company increases its sales promotional
expenditures short term increase of sales might be very small because competitor reacts.
(Blattberg, Neslin 1990)
Because of highly practical importance of sales promotion the number of publications in

trade press on sales promotion has increased dramatically over the past decade. However
the same is not true for academic press. Though there is a certain increase of articles on
the topic in the academic journals, there still are a lot of potential areas for research that
didn't receive enough attention. The purpose of this paper is to reveal what is really
known and proven about sales promotions, to systematize knowledge already available,
discuss different models available in literature and to identify possible directions of future
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
27
research. Please note that this paper is not intended to discuss the issues relevant to each
particular element of sales promotion, rather it is focused on the general issues and
characteristics shared by all (or most) of the components.
Uncertain Definitions of Sales Promotions
Systematization of knowledge on sales promotion I believe should start from

systematizing the definitions of concept. There is lack of conformity in methodology and
hence in the definition of what can be considered sales promotion. (Kotler 1983, Levy
1971, Shimp 1993). The word "promotion" comes from a Latin word meaning "to move
forward". So, in this case any tool(s), method(s), technique (s) that stimulates the growth
of the sales can be considered a part of sales promotion. However this is not that simple.
There are number of different definitions focusing on various characteristics of sales

promotion. This diversification as it will be shown later plays very important role in
identifying objectives and models for promotions.
1. "Sales promotion consists of a diverse collection of incentive tools, mostly short-term

designed to stimulate quicker and/or greater purchase of a particular product by
consumers
or
the
trade."
(Kotler,
1988)
2. "Sales promotion is the direct inducement or incentive to the sales force, the distributor
or the consumer with the primary objective of creating and immediate sale" (Shultz,
Robinson
1982)
3. "Sales promotion is the methods or techniques for creating public acceptance of or

interest in a product, usually in addition to standard merchandising techniques, such as
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
28
advertising, and personal selling; generally consisting of the offer of free samples, gifts
made
to
purchaser
etc.
(Random
House
Unabridged
Dictionary
1983)
4. "Sales promotion represents those marketing efforts that are supplementary in nature,
are conducted for a limited period of time and seek to induce buying " (Davis, 1981)
b. Sales promotions are all marketing activities that attempt to stimulate to quick buyer
action or attempt to promote immediate sales of product" (Shimp, 1993)
All those definitions are stressing different aspects of sales promotions and all of them
are correct ones. There are several common characteristics that might be drown out of
these definitions. (Blattberg, Neslin 1990)
A) Sales promotions are action focused - the emphasis is on consumer to make some
action in a limited period of time.
B) Sales promotions are marketing events - they all happen within marketing strategy
of the company/ organization. As early as in 1967 researchers were concerned that
interaction of the promotions with other elements of marketing mix should not be ignored
(Engel 1967). Because promotions include so many difference tools and mechanisms
there is an ongoing threat of viewing sales promotional techniques in isolation from other
marketing mix elements.
C) Sales promotions are designed to have a direct impact on behavior. It is argued in

the literature that while advertising goes through the process of cognition and then
influences an action, promotion is believed to work directly on behavior. Also, sales
promotion gives extrinsic reason to buy a product, whereas advertising focuses to internal
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
29
qualities or brand equity of the product. A common assumption is that advertising, wordof-mouthor the salesperson has infromed the consumer about the product, while sales
promotion gives them additional reasons to buy.
Taking into account the points discussed above the summarized definition of sales
promotion can be presented as follows:
"Sales promotion is an action-focused marketing event whose purpose is to have a

direct impact on the behavior of the firm's customers". (Blattberg, Neslin 1990). One
of the aspects that is not reflected in this operational definition is the short-term effect of
promotion, this issue is still under discussion and will be addressed later in the paper.
Forms and Objectives of sales promotion
There are many sales promotional techniques (and the number is still growing with the
development of new ways to reach consumers), but they can apparently be reduced to 12
classical and widely used. The rest of the techniques usually include some kind of
combination of these 12 most used techniques of sales promotion.
1. Sampling - the use of various distribution methods to deliver actual or trail size
products to consumers with the purpose to initiate trial.
2. Coupons - A promotional device that provides a price-off to consumer upon

redeeming the coupon
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
30
3. Trade incentives - incentives that are given to retail managers and sales people for
performing tasks such as displaying merchandise or selling certain lines of merchandise.
4. Trade allowances - deals that are offered to retailers for performing activities in
support of manufacturer brand
5. Price-offs - promotion which entails a reduction in the brand's regular price.
6. In, on, and near-packs (and reusable containers) - specially designed pieces that
retailers give to consumers who purchase the promoted product.
7. Free-in the mail premiums - a promotion in which consumers receive premium item
from the sponsoring manufacturer in return for submitting a required number of proofs of
purchase.
8. Self-liquidating premiums - a method where the consumer mails in a stipulated

number of proofs of a purchase along with the fee to cover manufacturer's costs of
shipping and handling of premium item. From manufacturer's point of view this form of
promotion is cost free, and therefore the name is self-litigating.
9. Contests and sweepstakes - a form of consumer oriented promotion in which winners

receive prizes, cash, or merchandise.
10. Refund offers - A cash reimbursement to the consumer by the manufacturer whose
product the consumer has purchased.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
31
11. Bonus packs - Extra-quantities of a product that company gives to consumers at a
regular price.
12. Stamp plans and continuity premiums - type of promotion where the consumer is
getting rewarded for continues use or repetitive purchase of a product/service, f.ex
frequent flyer programs.
These techniques can be trade or consumer oriented.
Because sales promotional tools are so varied in form, no single unified objective can be
identified for them. There are three major contributions of sales promotions that have
practical influence of the objectives of promotion: (Kotler 1988)
1. Communication - promotions gain attention and usually provide information that may
lead the consumer to the product
2. Incentive - they incorporate some concession, inducement or contribution designed to

represent value to the receiver
3. Invitation - promotions include a distinct invitation to engage in the transaction now.
Within these three major goals that sales promotion help to accomplish, specific
objectives might be reach of new users, reinforcement loyalty of old users, increase
product usage, introduction of new product, increase distribution channels, Obtain trade
support and improve or built trade relationship. For quick reference please see Table 1.
Table 1: Source: Shimp T, " Promotional Management and Marketing Communications"
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
32
As it is mentioned in the beginning of the paper, the primary objective is to identify

common traits of sales promotional techniques and not each of its elements separately.
So, I'll proceed talking about the objectives of sales promotions and what sales promotion
can do for the company and what it can't do.
What sales promotion can do? Myth vs. Reality
This part of the paper organized as following - each point is presented and then analyzed
in respect of the research done in that area. Most of the points are very logical
assumptions that anyone in the marketing and advertising believes in, however I couldn't
trace the research done to justify some of those points, that is the reason that several of
the issues are just mentioned without overview of the research findings in the area. These
are potential white spots of sales promotion and would the research be conducted some of
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
33
the very interesting findings may come out. Some of this points have been proven
practically by the industry, but that kind of research was beyond the scope of academic
literature review.
Consumer oriented deals
1. Sales promotion can obtain trial of the product.
"Innovate or Die" nowadays may be the slogan for many companies, especially in food
and health industry. This view is reflected in the number of new products introduced
yearly; New Product News reports that in 1990s, there were 13,244 introductions with
10,301 introductions coming from food categories. In 1999, the comparable figure for the
food category was 9,814, with the highest introductions in condiments, candy, bakery
foods, dairy products, and beverages. The evidence is clear: retailers are confronted
yearly with large numbers of introductions in a wide variety of categories. (Desiraju
2001) Obviously in these conditions one of the best ways to get your product noticeable
to consumer and to make them switch from other brands is sales promotions techniques.
2. Sales promotion can encourage repeat usage of the product or increase product
usage by loading consumers.
The first part of this argument is supported by Neslin, Quelich, Henderson 1982 - the
results of their research show that acceleration of purchase quantity is stronger among
heavy users that light users.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
34
3. Invigorate the use of mature product
4. Sales promotion can affect purchase acceleration - Here two aspects of purchase
acceleration should be considered - increased quantity and decreased interpurchase time.
(Neslin, Quelich, Henderson 1982). However there is a very important question - how
these two aspects will influence (counteract) each other due to the stockpiling effect. As
it was shown in the above mentioned research (see also Gupta 1988), purchase
acceleration is predominantly exhibited in increased purchase quantities rather than
shortened interpurchase times.
5. Sales promotion can introduce a new or improved product or different packaging
6. Sales promotion can be used to neutralized competitive advertising or sales

promotion
7. In general sales promotions can built on brand sales more rapidly than
advertising. At was discussed earlier in this paper sales promotion tend to produce sharp
and fast increase in sales of the brand. This however was opposed by the issue of short
term and long term impact of the promotion, discussed later on in the paper. In addition
to that one issue that is worth discussing here is cost /sales ratio for advertising and
promotion. Empirical study has shown that variation in the firm level ratio of advertising
and promotion is the function of market share, market growth rate and the interaction
between the two. And though replication of the study did not confirm the results of the
original research, this is still considered as one of the possible explanations of the
variations of the levels of advertising and promotional expenditures for different
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
35
companies.
(Balasubramanian,
Kumar
1990,
Ailawadi,
Farris,
Parry
1997;
Balasubramanian, Kumar 1997)
Trade oriented Deals
9. Sales promotion can obtain feature pricing, displays, and other dealer in-store
support
10. Sales promotions can help to increase or reduce trade inventories
11. Sales promotion can help to expand distribution.
What sales promotions can't do
Consumer oriented deals
1. Sales promotion cannot built brand loyalty or enhance brand image.
While the first part of the statement is now perceived as axiom, there are disputes over
the fact whether sales promotions have negative effect on brand equity and brand
evaluation. The classic research done by Dobson, Tybout and Sternal (1978)argued that
use of promotion decrease the brand evaluation. This was supported by self-perception
theory - psychological model of response to sales promotion suggested by Sawyer and
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
36
Dickson (1984). However the further research on this issue (Neslin and Showmaker
1989; Scott Davis, J. Inman, L. McAllister 1992) shows the absence of the negative effect
on the brand evaluations. It is actually suggested that with low involvement product
category promotions might actually have positive influence on brand evaluation Scott
Davis, J. Inman, L. McAllister 1992).
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
37
2. Sales promotion cannot reverse a declining sales trend
According to research done probability of repurchase after purchasing on deal will vary
according to the type of sales promotion and the cues that these promotion sent.(Sawyer
and Dickson 1984)
3. Sales promotion can not change basic consumer non-acceptance of the product
4. Sales promotion can not compensate for inadequate levels of consumer

advertising
5. Sales promotion cannot overcome product problems in pricing, packaging,

quality or performance.
Trade
1. Sales promotion cannot compensate for a poorly trained sales force
2. Sales promotion cannot overcome poor product distribution
3. Sales promotion cannot compensate for a lack of consumer advertising
Effectiveness and success factors of sales promotion
Sales promotions are most effective
1. On new brands enjoying and improving competitive trend

2. In conjunction with a sales drive to increase store distribution
3. When used only occasionally
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
38
4. In addition to - rather than a replacement of brand advertising.
These four conditions were taken from J.O. Peckham's list from "Wheel of Marketing"
published in 1977. (Shuhltz 1982). The real challenge is now to see whether these
conditions have changed resulting in sales promotions being effective in other situations
and not effective in those described above over time. No research was found not confirm
these conditions.
Research (based on empirical study of most successful sales promotional campaigns)

indicates that several variables are playing a very important role in determining the
effectiveness of sales promotion. One of the main correlate of successful promotions is
greater sales force support and trade support (Hardy 1986). Other factors that are
considered somewhat less important relative to sales force and trade support is incentive
level that that particular promotion gives (Hardy 1986).
How to evaluate effectiveness
One of the approaches to evaluate sales promotions recently discussed in the literature
recently is based on the fact that sales promotion is merely an alternative element of a
company's communication package, so the extrapolation of the concepts of
communication into the sales promotion sphere is very appropriate. As with advertising
and other forms of media, promotions speak directly to the consumer and the major
function then becomes the one of communication. Determining the effectiveness of a
particular promotion can be a matter of how well the plan communicates with the
intended consumer. In other words, companies can gain a better understanding of their
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
39
customers and the effectiveness of their promotional plans by understanding the
communication elements triggered by their plan. (Gardener, Trivedi 1998)
Models / Measurements of Sales Promotions
As I mentioned in the beginning of my paper the effects of sales promotion are more
measurable than for example effects of advertising, especially nowadays with all the
scanned data available through retailers. The possibility of measuring to predict sales
promotion was first mentioned by Lee Adler in as early as 1963. He presents one of the
first methods/models of measuring effectiveness of sales promotion, where he correlates
the objectives of each form of sales promotion with the specific method of measurement.
(Lee Adler, 1963). However, surprisingly enough quantitative analysis of sales promotion
activities have not led to the same level of sophistications that found in advertising
decision making models. The reason for that might be that for a long time sales
promotion was perceived as playing secondary role to advertising and personal selling;
some early definitions of sales promotion presented in the beginning of this paper clearly
indicate that. In spite of this there are several classical models of sales promotion that
were developed decade or two ago but are still used analyzing sales promotions.
The Kuehn-Rohlov model
This is the learning brand-switching model that are designed to evaluate promotions in
several ways - first they show who is attracted by the promotions, and then separate the
ones that have higher pre-purchase probability. The authors also demonstrate how to use
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
40
the model to study the relationship among deal type, brand, and product-to-product
repurchases for both new buyers and for existing customers.
Rao-Linnen Model
This model was developed on the base of the franchise-retail environment, and though it
is still not clear whether the model can be used outside franchise-retailing environment it
has number of crucial characteristics. One of the most important characteristics of this
model is that is able to deal with multiple simultaneous promotions and shows how joint
effects of multiple simultaneous promotions can be handled. It is the first model that
deals with the joint competitive effects and the joint effects of several promotions
simultaneously.
Little's Brandaid Promotional Model
This is part of the Brandaid aggregate marketing model developed by Little. He actually
looks at two contracts - promotional time and promotional response function. The idea
behind the model is that when consumers know that there is a promotion coming they
might
postpone
the
buying
of
the
product.
One of the aspects that receives increasing attention in the promotional modeling in
promotional expenditures. How much to spend on sales promotion relative to advertising
was the topic of several researches done for the last 20 years.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
41
Other important considerations in sales promotion
One of the areas of sales promotion that are still under discussion and that deserve to be
mentioned separately due to its high importance is long-term effects of sales promotion.
Many years it was argued that promotional activities have only short-term effect on sales
and brand preferences whereas advertising essentially builds on brand equity. However
some modern research challenges this view. There is some published work that studies
the long run effects of promotions and advertising.
Another important aspect of sales promotion is customer's attitude towards sales

promotional activities. Again, one of the spread conceptions is that consumers really they
don't remember promotional offers, don't understand the effect and benefits of all the
promotional activities. Number of findings in research prove this case, for example Scott
et all (1992), Dickson and Sawyer (1990) found that consumers in our study appear to
remember information about promotions very poorly, they were not able to identify the
depth of the price cuts.
Dickson and Sawyer (1982) suggested number of psychological models of consumer

response to promotional activities. The implications of this models give an insight into
short-term versus long-term communication effect of sales promotions. In respect to the
issue of consumer response a research done by Fox, Reddy and Rao 1997 should be
mentioned. They studied repetitive promotional stimulus and consumer response to that.
Market trends influence on sales promotion
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
42
In 1987 Douglas Haley identified 10 trends of the market that have showed influence of
promotional strategy of companies. Some of those trends are valid till now.
1. Promotion Proliferation - there are many forms and combinations of sales

promotions techniques that are being used nowadays. Their relative importance might
change over time but the fact is that they are growing both in terms of the money spent on
them and in variety, that includes uses of new media and new forms of communications.
2. Scanned data - nowadays we possess incredible amount of very valuable information

obtained via scanners in the retailing stores. The industry have the technology to track the
purchases, however it hasn't really discovered the ways to use this data very efficient.
This definitely presents a real challenge for future research.
3. Decreasing response time - this works both for the consumers and for the companies.
With the improving communication channels and the increase of the speed of
communication process (here one might argue - with the increase of pace of life in
general) consumers are responding faster to the promotional offers, if they are interested.
The same principle holds for the competitors' response. - companies tend to react faster to
the promotional offers of their rival, decreasing therefore the amount of return on the
initial promotional offer of competitor (see the prisoner's dilemma's spiral).
4. On-line promotions - New challenge
While writing about the sales promotion nowadays, one can't ignore the issue of
increasing sales promotional activities online. This is very important and valuable
component of dot.com operations. As indicated in Table 2
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
43
Coupons and other type of promotions have very important role in driving traffic to the
website and in overall company's operations. There are reasonable amount of research
published in the area of online sales promotion, however most of them carry over the
same problem as research on sales promotion in general - research done in the area of
sales promotion focus on particular element of promotional mix - for example online
coupons or frequent mile programs. Yet, there is a clear need for developing general
theoretical base and models for online promotions.
Potential areas of research
1. Combining attitude data with scanner data: Unfortunately now scanner data lack
consumer attitudes data which is considered to be more stable and long run predictors of
choice than are short run marketing activities. In this respect two important directions are
being developed now. First, some companies already are beginning to collect attitudinal
data from scanner panel members. Second, models for combining stated preferences with
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
44
revealed preferences are being developed, this combination of psychometric and scanner
data will provide invaluable insights into consumer choice behavior.(Gupta 1993)
2. Cross-category analyses: Most of the research studies to date, with a few notable
exceptions, have estimated and validated their models using a single data set. According
to Gupta extending such analyses to multiple categories will provide at least three
benefits. First, it will establish better generalizability of results across different product
categories. Second, it will allow to study consumers' choice of a shopping basket. Thrid,
such analyses will be useful to understand the store choice and traffic issues.
4. Optimal decisions: The empirically based models are primarily descriptive in nature
and though "what-if" simulations can provide a sense of "good" or "bad" decision
strategies, this is not always true and as efficient as we want that to be. So one of the
possible directions of research to develop normative models that use the results of the
descriptive models as the basis to generate optimal marketing mix decisions. (Gupta
1993),
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
45
COMPANY
PROFILE
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
46
COMPANY PROFILE
20 August 2013 front page of the Kolkata edition of The Times of India
Type
Format
Daily newspaper
Broadsheet
Owner(s)
The Times Group
Publisher
The Times Group
Editor-in-chief
Jaideep Bose
Founded
3 November 1838; 177 years ago
Language
English
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
47
Headquarters
Circulation
Mumbai
3,057,678 Daily(as of Jul - Dec 2015)
The Economic Times
Navbharat Times
Sister newspapers Maharashtra Times

Ei Samay
Mumbai Mirror
OCLC number
Website
23379369
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
The Times of India (TOI) is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. It is the thirdlargest newspaper in India by circulation and largest selling English-language daily in the
world according to Audit Bureau of Circulations (India). It is the oldest English-language
newspaper in India still in circulation. The BBC ranked the The Times of India among the
world's six best newspapers.
It is owned and published by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. which is owned by the Sahu
Jain family. In the Brand Trust Report 2012, The Times of India was ranked 88th among
India's most trusted brands and subsequently, according to the Brand Trust Report 2013,
The Times of India was ranked 100th among India's most trusted brands. In 2014
however, The Times of India was ranked 174th among India's most trusted brands
according to the Brand Trust Report 2014, a study conducted by Trust Research
Advisory.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
48
Beginnings
The Times of India issued its first edition 3 November 1838 as The Bombay Times and
Journal of Commerce. The paper published Wednesdays and Saturdays under the
direction of Raobahadur Narayan Dinanath Velkar, a Maharashtrian Reformist, and
contained news from Britain and the world, as well as the Indian Subcontinent. J.E.
Brennan was its first editor. In 1850, it began to publish daily editions.
In 1860, editor Robert Knight (18251892) bought the Indian shareholders' interests,
merged with rival Bombay Standard, and started India's first news agency. It wired Times
dispatches to papers across the country and became the Indian agent for Reuters news
service. In 1861, he changed the name from the Bombay Times and Standard to The
Times of India. Knight fought for a press free of prior restraint or intimidation, frequently
resisting the attempts by governments, business interests, and cultural spokesmen and led
the paper to national prominence. In the 19th century, this newspaper company employed
more than 800 people and had a sizeable circulation in India and Europe.
Bennett & Coleman ownership

Subsequently, The Times of India saw its ownership change several times until 1892
when, Thomas Bennett and Frank Morris Coleman, who later drowned in the 1915
sinking of the SS Persia, acquired the newspaper through their new company, Bennett,
Coleman & Co. Ltd.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
49
Dalmiya ownership
In 1946, Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd was sold to sugar magnate Ramkrishna Dalmia of
the then-famous industrial family, the Dalmiyas, for Rs 20 million, as India was
becoming independent and the British owners were leaving. In 1955 the Vivian Bose
Commission of Inquiry found that Ramkrishna Dalmia, in 1947, had engineered the
acquisition of the media giant Bennett, Coleman by transferring money from a bank and
an insurance company of which he was the Chairman. In the court case that followed,
Ramkrishna Dalmia was sentenced to two years in Tihar Jail after having been convicted
of embezzlement and fraud.
But for most of the jail term he managed to spend in hospital. Upon his release, his sonin-law, Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain, to whom he had entrusted the running of Bennett,
Coleman & Co. Ltd. rebuffed his efforts to resume command of the company.
Jain family (Shanti Prasad Jain)

In the early 1960s, Shanti Prasad Jain was imprisoned on charges of selling newsprint on
the black market. And based on the Vivian Bose Commission's earlier report which found
wrongdoings of the Dalmia - Jain group, that included specific charges against Shanti
Prasad Jain, the Government of India filed a petition to restrain and remove the
management of Bennett, Coleman and Company. Based on the pleading, Justice directed
the Government to assume control of the newspaper which resulted in replacing half of
the directors and appointing a Bombay (now Mumbai) High Court judge as the
Chairman.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
50
Under the Government of India

Following the Vivian Bose Commission report indicating serious wrongdoings of the
DalmiaJain group, on 28 August 1969, the Bombay High Court, under Justice J.L. Nain,
passed an interim order to disband the existing board of Bennett Coleman and to
constitute a new board under the Government. The bench ruled that "Under these
circumstances, the best thing would be to pass such orders on the assumption that the
allegations made by the petitioners that the affairs of the company were being conducted
in a manner prejudicial to public interest and to the interests of the Company are correct".
Following that order Shanti Prasad Jain ceased to be a director and the company ran with
new directors on board, appointed by the Government of India, with the exception of a
lone stenographer of the Jains. Curiously, the court appointed D K Kunte as Chairman of
the Board. While a freedom fighter and a man of impeccable integrity, Kunte had no
prior business experience and was also an Opposition member of the Lok Sabha.
Back to the Jain family

In 1976, during the Emergency in India, the Government transferred ownership of the
newspaper back to Ashok Kumar Jain (Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain's son, Ramkrishna
Dalmia's grandson and the father of Samir Jain and Vineet Jain). The Jains too often
landed themselves in various money laundering scams and Ashok Kumar Jain had to flee
the country when the Enforcement Directorate pursued his case strongly in 1998 for
alleged violations of illegal transfer of funds (to the tune of US$1.25 million) to an
overseas account in Switzerland.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
51
The Times in the 21st century

In late 2006, Times Group acquired Vijayanand Printers Limited (VPL). VPL previously
published two Kannada newspapers, Vijay Karnataka and Usha Kiran, and an English
daily, Vijay Times. Vijay Karnataka was the leader in the Kannada newspaper segment
then.
The paper launched a Chennai edition, 12 April 2008. It launched a Kolhapur edition,
February 2013.
TOIFA Awards
Introduced in 2013 and awarded for the second time in 2016, "The Times of India Film
Awards" or the "TOIFA" is an award for the work in Film Industry decided by a global
public vote on the nomination categories.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
52
The first edition appears on November 3, 1838 known as "The Bombay Times and
Journal of Commerce".later to be known as The Times of India .
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 subscritption rates. That old tie was renewed in 2006 with
the pact between TIMESNOW & Reuters
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
53
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
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, Colemen & Co.
Ltd. (BCCL).
1902
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
54
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
Editor Stanley Reed revolutionises 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
The Times Of India Illustrated Weekly renamedThe
Illustrated Weekly Of India
1930
The Column "Bombay 100 Years ago" published
1930
The Column "Bombay 100 Years ago" published First movie review 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.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
55
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
Laxmans common man cartoon starts.
1952
Filmfare- first film magazine in English launched
1959
Femina- first womens magazine in
English launched
1961
The Economic Times launched
1962
Maharashtra Times launched
1965
Femina Miss India contest started.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
56
1987
Printing of The Times of
India from Kandivili Press
in
Mumbai.
1988
Times of India completes 150 years.
Special stamp released by P &
1991
BBC features Times of India among world's six great newspapers
1994
Bombay Times, the sassy colour supplement that chronicles the changing lifestyle mores
of a globalising city is launched.
1996
Times of India carry its first colour photograph.
Times of India crosses 1 million mark in
circulation.
1998
BCCL enters into music market with Times Music.
1999
Indiatimes.com launched
1999
BCCL enters music retailing business with Planet M and radio
broadcasting business with Radio Mirchi
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
57
2000
TOI crosses the 2 million mark in circulation.
2001
TOI goes all color and storms Delhi by being
"Number One"
2003
President APJ Abdul Kalam visits TOI to
inaugurate Times Foundation
2004
Television business launched with the launch of a lifestyle and
entertainment
channel called ZOOME Paper launchedTimescape- the Times Group Intranet launched.
Launch of the jobs portal
Times Jobs http://www.timesjobs.com.
TimesJobs.com pioneered the concept of job fairs in India,

branded as Big Leap.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
58
2005
MT Largest read Marathi Newspaper in Mumbai IRS
survey
TOI Goes daily full colour
Mumbai Mirror launched
TimesMatri.com - Launched in August - re-launched as
SimplyMarry.com in December 2006.
2006
TIMES NOW TV News Channel launched
ET first newspaper available on cell phone
Mumbai Mirror Afternoon edition launched
Offers Mumbai Mirror or Maharashtra Times as complimentary
copy with TOI at a price of Rs.4/- TOI The only English
language daily to feature among the top 10 with a readership of 131.4
lakhs- IRS Survey by Hansa ResearchTimes Group MD, Mr Vineet
Jain awarded the scroll of honour for being the new age media guru - Hero Honda Indian
TV Academy AwardsTimescape the Times Group
Intranet portal re-launched - now powered by SAP
Netweaver BCCL goes live on SAP
systemMagicBricks.com launched in October 2006 targets the Online Real Estate
Space Smart Hire launched April 2006, is witnessing stupendous growth with its focus
on providing organisations with end-to-end recruitment solutions. Ads2Book.com The
Worlds Only Global Ad Booking Engine - Relaunched in August 2006With intensive
R&D, the Net-2-Print classifieds booking system Ads2Book.com was created and
imbued with AI (artificial intelligence) that assisted users through the entire process of
Creating, Booking & Paying for their Print Classified Ads, all from the comfort of their
desktop.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
59
2007
TOI the Indian Corporate Elites No. 1 newspaper - A CNielsen Report
Whats Hot- a new weekly magazine delivered free with TOI on every Friday
Times Group bags 5 gold and 1 silver at the ABBY Awards
TOI prints 2 city editions., one at 11pm and second 12.30 am
BCCL wins SAP ACE 2007 Awards for Customer Excellence in the best media
sector implementation The Economic Times- Gujarati Edition launched
Good Life World - launched April 2007is the future of Internet in India, the
concept of Click & Brick is just the right impetus the Online Industry needs, as
users are either to busy to log on to the net for their personal needs or are not
savvy enough and need help. The Good Life World Centre allows users to access
the services offered by Times Business Solutions portals from the Centre and
make offline payments for online services, thus ensuring ease of access and
complete financial security.
Businesses are in:

Publications,Finance,Music,Retailing,Media,Radio,Internet products,Events,
Charitable Trusts,Education.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
60
Mission of TIMES OF INDIA:

The Times of India Group is the aggregator of content in any
form in the infotainment Industry. We collect & sell content to
right target audience.
The Mantra
YOU ARE EMPOWERED
STAGES OF GROWTH
To empower the reader to live the life of their dreams.

To facilitate better decision.
To provoke Thought
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
61
Global Experience.
Love for the community
Adopt the Readers worldwide view.
Liberate the mind
Cheerfulness in the circus of life.
We grow at this stage because:
OUR CENTRAL VALUE IS YOU!
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
62
Objectives of the
study
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
63
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The present study on impact of performance appraisal system was undertaken
with the following objectives:
To find whether the existing appraisal system in the organization exactly

measures the employees performance.
To find whether the feedback from the appraisal system assists in the employees
Performance Appraisal.
To determine the gaps in the existing system.
To determine what type of appraisal did the employees really looking for.
To find is there is any opportunities provided for the employees to improve their
performance.
The main objective of this research is to study and compare the Performance
Appraisal Technique and measure the satisfaction level of the employees with the
Performance Appraisal Technique.
To know the present system of performance appraisal
To know the extent of effectiveness of the appraisal system
To identify and know the area for improvement system.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
64
Research
Methodology
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
65
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
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 and also to collect renewal from the expired subscribers.
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 Lucknow city.
Sample size: The sample size for collecting primary data 150 respondents. The
sampling will be done through Random Technique.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
66
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.
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
67
Contact for more

Shrikrishna Computer Chinhat Lucknow
Mo no- 9554444951
[BBDNITM, Lucknow]
MBA, Department
68

Sales and Promotion of Times of India Group Magazine in Lucknow

Diunggah oleh

Informasi Dokumen

Hak Cipta

Format Tersedia

Bagikan dokumen Ini

Bagikan atau Tanam Dokumen

Opsi Berbagi

Apakah menurut Anda dokumen ini bermanfaat?

Apakah konten ini tidak pantas?

Hak Cipta:

Format Tersedia

Sales and Promotion of Times of India Group Magazine in Lucknow

Diunggah oleh

Hak Cipta:

Format Tersedia

SUMMER TRAINING PROJECT REPORT

A STUDY ON SALES AND

Babu Banarasi Das

M.B.A 3rd Semester

3. Objectives of the study

5. Problems And Limitations

American Marketing Association.

Marketing consists of analyzing marketing opportunities, researching and selecting target

The Promotion Mix of a company includes the following tools;

Public Relations and Publicity:

Purpose of Sales Promotion

Sales Promotion Tools

Trade Promotion Tools

Trade Shows and Conventions.

Therefore, a producer has to inform channel members as well as ultimate consumers

Consumer Oriented Sales Promotion

Sales Promotion from the Consumers point of view

Sales promotion from the retailers point of view:

Perceptions about Communications of Sales Promotion Schemes

Gifts for Retailer motivation

Perceptions about mass media announcements

Why do Sales promotion schemes affect sales?

Finally, consumers total consumption of the product category is increased by the

Sales Promotion Strategy

Consumer attitudes and buying patterns

Your brand strategy

Your competitive strategy

Your advertising strategy

A combination of the two

Sales Promotion leads to brand substitution with the product category:

Sales Promotions affect sales in complementary and competitive categories:

Current issues in Sales Promotion

Because of highly practical importance of sales promotion the number of publications in

Uncertain Definitions of Sales Promotions

Systematization of knowledge on sales promotion I believe should start from

There are number of different definitions focusing on various characteristics of sales

1. "Sales promotion consists of a diverse collection of incentive tools, mostly short-term

3. "Sales promotion is the methods or techniques for creating public acceptance of or

C) Sales promotions are designed to have a direct impact on behavior. It is argued in

"Sales promotion is an action-focused marketing event whose purpose is to have a

Forms and Objectives of sales promotion

2. Coupons - A promotional device that provides a price-off to consumer upon

5. Price-offs - promotion which entails a reduction in the brand's regular price.

8. Self-liquidating premiums - a method where the consumer mails in a stipulated

9. Contests and sweepstakes - a form of consumer oriented promotion in which winners

These techniques can be trade or consumer oriented.

2. Incentive - they incorporate some concession, inducement or contribution designed to

3. Invitation - promotions include a distinct invitation to engage in the transaction now.

Table 1: Source: Shimp T, " Promotional Management and Marketing Communications"

As it is mentioned in the beginning of the paper, the primary objective is to identify

What sales promotion can do? Myth vs. Reality

Consumer oriented deals

1. Sales promotion can obtain trial of the product.

5. Sales promotion can introduce a new or improved product or different packaging

6. Sales promotion can be used to neutralized competitive advertising or sales

Balasubramanian, Kumar 1997)

Trade oriented Deals

10. Sales promotions can help to increase or reduce trade inventories

11. Sales promotion can help to expand distribution.

What sales promotions can't do

Consumer oriented deals

1. Sales promotion cannot built brand loyalty or enhance brand image.

4. Sales promotion can not compensate for inadequate levels of consumer

5. Sales promotion cannot overcome product problems in pricing, packaging,