Paritosh_SIP_Outlook_ report.doc.pdf

HOW SALES PROMOTIONAL SCHEMES AFFECT
THE SALES
At
OUTLOOK PUBLISHING INDIA PVT LTD
SUBMITTED
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
OF THE POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA
IN MANAGEMENT
CHANDRAGUPT INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT PATNA
BY
PARITOSH RAJ
CHANDRAGUPT INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT PATNA
1

SYNOPSIS
Outlook is a part of the Raheja group which made its beginning in the
construction business and after that the group diversified into manufacturing,
financial services and entered in print media. Outlook was first issued in
October 1995 with Vinod Mehta as the editor in chief. Outlook printed various
magazines like Outlook weekly, Outlook traveller, Outlook money, Outlook
business and Outlook Hindi. It covers contents from politics, sports, cinemas.
Currently the editor is Rajesh Ramachandran. The circulation of magazine is
more than 425,000.
The Project “How Sales promotional schemes affect the sales at Outlook
group of magazines” is an attempt to find out how customers perceive different
promotional schemes offered by the Outlook magazine and to detect how to
increase number of subscribers and generate revenue for the company. A Sales
promotion is a marketing technique that is designed to entice a customer to take
a specific actions such as to make a purchase or show interest in the products.
The main objective of the study is to understand perception and preferences of
potential customers/ non-subscribers about outlook and various promotional
schemes and to understand how promotional offers affect the sales. This study
also focussed to find the reasons for non-renewal of magazine subscription.
I was assigned the task to call customers regarding the renewal of magazine
subscription. The challenge was to convince the customers to buy the
subscriptions and generate their interest in subscription renewal by explaining
them about the different promotional schemes. I was regularly contacting the
existing customers. Most of the customers did not want to renew their
subscription instead of the available offers. This was one of biggest problem in
the company.
I took a sample of 200 existing customers and 75 potential customers to study
the reasons for non-renewal of magazines. The questionnaire was designed to
know the perception and interest of the above two categories of customers
towards the promotional offers.
In my analysis I found that majority of the customers were reluctant to renew
their subscription due to untimely and non-delivery of magazines. These
customers were not interested in renewal even after getting gifts and offers.
Significant number of customers were not interested to renew because they
preferred news from online sources and did not want to pay for the magazines.
Many customers wanted other gifts than the gifts offered at Outlook.
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The company should resolve its delivery issues as soon as possible. Untimely
and non-delivery of magazines is a very serious issue and leads to customer
dissatisfaction. Company should introduce various types of free gifts to attract
customers because many customer demand for other gifts which are offered by
the outlook. Outlook needs to improve the core product attributes.
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DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the Summer Internship Project entitled “How sales
promotional schemes affect sales at outlook publishing” submitted to
Chandragupt Institute of Management Patna in partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the award of Post Graduate Diploma in Management is my
original work and has been prepared by me under the general supervision of my
Industry Mentor Mr Ashish singh and Faculty Supervisor Prof.Vijaya. I have
not submitted the work earlier, either to any other Institute or University for the
award of any diploma, degree or certificate. I have followed the CIMP
guidelines to prepare the report. I have also given due credit to the sources of
data, theoretical analysis, text and other materials by citing them in the text of
the report and producing the details in the reference section
Place: (Signature of the Student)
Date: ...../....../……… (Name of the Student)
(Roll no: ...………..)
4

CERTIFICATE BY FACULTY GUIDE
This is to certify that the work incorporated in this Summer Internship Project
entitled
“...............................................................................................................................
........................,” by Mr./Ms………………………………………………..…
bearing Roll no…….………………., comprises the results of his/her
independent and original investigations carried out under my supervision and
guidance in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Post
Graduate Diploma in Management. To the best of my knowledge, the work has
not been submitted earlier, either to any other Institute or University for the
award of any diploma, degree or certificate.
Place: (Signature of the
Faculty Guide)
Date: ...../....../……….. (Name of the
Faculty Guide)
5

CERTIFICATE BY INDUSTRY MENTOR
6

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Behind every achievement lies an unfathomable sea of gratitude to those who
have extended their support and without whom it would never have come into
existence. To them we say our words of gratitude.
I would like to express my gratitude to CIMP for giving me this opportunity to
undergo Summer Training at Outlook India Pvt. Ltd.
I would also like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to it for encouragement and
valuable insight, guidance and facilities at all phases of the project.
I would also like to acknowledge the support and guidance Mr. Ashish Singh,
Team leader, Outlook India Ltd and my faculty guide without their help and
encouragement, it would have been practically impossible to complete this
project.
Last but not least, I am also thankful to the entire faculty of CIMP for giving
me this valuable opportunity.
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TABLE OF CONTENT
1. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION…………………..09
1.1 GROUP COMPANIES………………………09
1.2 OUTLOOK GROUP………………………....11
1.3 MAGAZINES………………………………..12
1.4 INDUSTRY PROFILE………………………14
2. CHAPTER 2: OVERVIEW………………………...17
2.1 OBJECTIVE…………………………………17
2.2 PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT……………...17
2.3 WORK AT OUTLOOK……………………..18
3. CHAPTER 3: ORGANISATION STRUCTURE….27
3.1 STRUCTURE………………………………..27
3.2 ORGANOGRAM…………………………....28
3.3 ACHIEVEMENTS…………………………..29
4. CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY….30
4.1 METHODOLOGY………………………….30
4.2 DATA/ SAMPLING………………………...30
5. CHAPTER 5: ANALYSIS………………………...32
6. CHAPTER 6: FINDINGS…………………………42
6.1 PORTER’S FIVE FORCES………………....43
6.2 SWOT………………………………………..45
7. CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION…………………….45
7.1 LEARNIINGS……………………………….45
7.2 RECOMMENDATIONS…………………....46
7.3 LIMITATIONS……………………………...46
8. CHAPTER 8: REFERENCES………………….....47
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INTRODUCTION
The Rajan Raheja Group is led by Mr. Rajan Raheja.
Rajan Raheja Group started with the construction business or Real Estate
Development business. The company diversified into manufacturing and
financial services. Most of the companies have a leading position in terms of
Market share, Technology, Brand value and Profitability. Rajan Raheja Group
also entered in print media and holds a renowned position.
Rajan Raheja group has:
 H&R Johnson (India) Limited has a renowned name in ceramic tiles in
India.
 Exide is a very significant brand of batteries in the automotive and
industrial field.
 Co-promoters of Supreme Petrochemical Ltd along with Supreme
Industrial Ltd, largest processor of plastic materials in India.
 The group has agreement with Oberoi Hotels as co-promoters of Trident
Hotels and luxury resort, which is ranked as one of the 25 best villa in
the world.
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 Prism Cement Ltd has a huge production capacity of around 2.5 million
tonnes of cement.
 The group is also a Co-promoter of Sonata Software Ltd which is one of
the leading software companies in India.
 Co-promoters of RMC Readymix (India) Pvt.Ltd. along with RMC
Group in United Kingdom which is the world’s largest manufacturer of
Ready-mixed concrete.
 Hathway Cable &Datacom Pvt.Ltd. has extensive cable network in 6
major cities and 7 large towns across India.
 Globus Stores Pvt. Ltd. is one of the largest apparel brand chain.
RAJAN RAHEJA GROUP COMPANIES
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About the Company: OUTLOOK PUBLICATIONS
Owner- Mr. Rajan Raheja
Editor in chief- Rajesh Ramachandran
Date of establishment- October 1995
Headquarter address- AB-10, S.J. Enclave, New Delhi, India
Branches- Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, New Delhi
Outlook is a general interest Magazine launched in October 1995 by Raheja
Group.
In October 1995, group company Hathway Investments Private Limited entered
the print media. OUTLOOK, a weekly newsmagazine was headed by Mr Vinod
Mehta.
OUTLOOK was successful and in no time it carved a significant niche for itself
among insightful readers who respect its in-depth, investigative reporting as
well as its beautiful visual presentations.
Today, OUTLOOK is the preferred magazine of 1.6 million readers in India,
and sells more than 11.3 million copies over year.
OUTLOOK is one of India's four top-selling English weekly newsmagazines.
Currently it has several magazines like OUTLOOK Business, OUTLOOK
Money, OUTLOOK Traveller, OUTLOOK Hindi alongwith the OUTLOOK
weekly. OUTLOOK also offers different guidebooks of general interest.
Outlook magazine published on Friday so it covers all news and events which
takes especially on Friday,
According to Indian Readership Survey reports 2017, Outlook English
magazines were at 7th
position among the Indian English Magazines with
around 425,000 Readership.
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ABOUT PRODUCTS OF THE OUTLOOK GROUP
There are mainly five types of Magazine Published by Outlook,
namely:
1. OUTLOOK WEEKLY: It’s a weekly general English magazine first
published in 1995.It generally features contents from politics, sports,
cinema and stories of broad interests.
2. OUTLOOK BUSINESS: It covers the business news and targeted on
decision makers focuses on important business issues and development
providing ways for making decisions related to business. This is fortnightly
Magazine by Outlook.
3. OUTLOOK MONEY: In July 1998 OUTLOOK published “Intelligent
Investors” which was later renamed as OUTLOOK Money from 2002
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which was personal finance magazine offering strategies for investors. Its
statement is – Invest rightly, borrow wisely and spend smartly.
4. OUTLOOK TRAVELLER: It’s a monthly magazine focusing mainly on
travel reader. It was started publishing from June 2001 Outlook traveller
focuses on exploring places unvisited and unexplored to the readers. It
contains approx.40 % domestic and 60 % international places to visit.
5. OUTLOOK HINDI: Outlook Hindi is a biweekly Magazine. It brings latest
News in Hindi on Sports, Business, Bollywood, Lifestyle, Education and
Entertainment.
Apart from this OUTLOOK also provides GETAWAY in which various
types of Guide books are available such as:
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 Unmissable of India
 Romantic holidays
 Magazines specializing in different states of India.
 Wildlife etc.
INDUSTRY PROFILE
PRINT MEDIA:
Print Media, is one of the most important factors coming through in the way a
nation works. Newspapers, magazines, books etc. are read by lots of people and
are certainly one of the most trusted mediums of National and International
News.
India has a vast array of Print Media with Thousands of Magazines and
Newspapers in circulation. Top Notch Journalism, great reporting, press unity
and a very strong network is what makes Print Media so significant and
successful even today in the age of Television and the Internet. It is also said
that Print Media also helped literacy and undoubtedly enhanced the General
Knowledge of the average person in India
The newspaper with the largest Circulation in India is Dainik Jagran, having
near about Two million readers. Next comes Times of India, an English
newspaper, followed by Dainik Bhaskar, another Hindi Newspaper.
The Indian Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry is a sunrise sector for the
economy and is making high growth. Proving it to the world, the Indian M&E
industry is on the cusp of a strong phase of growth, backed by rising consumer
demand and improving advertising revenues. The industry has been largely
driven by increasing digitization and higher internet usage over the last decade.
Internet has almost become a mainstream media for entertainment for most of
the people.
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The Indian media & entertainment sector is expected to grow at a Compound
Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14.3 per cent to touch Rs 2.26 trillion (US$
33.9 billion) by 2020, while revenues from advertising is expected to grow at
15.9 per cent to Rs 99,400 crore (US$ 14.91 billion), digital advertising will
grow at 33.5%.
Print media is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.6 per cent. India is one of the
highest spending and fastest growing advertising market globally. The country’s
expenditure on advertising is estimated at 15.5 per cent in 2016, and is expected
to grow by 11.2 per cent in 2017.These advertisements are facilitated by the
print media.
Readership Survey
Indian Readership Survey- IRS
The Readership Studies Council of India (RSCI), formed jointly by the Media
Research Users Council (MRUC) and the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC),
has announced the launch of the world’s largest continuous survey of media
usage, product consumption and ownership – Indian Readership Survey (IRS).
‘All India’ level, targeting a total of 3.30 lakh respondents, across 91 Individual
Districts and 101 District Clusters. The Indian Readership Survey is one of the
most definitive surveys for print media; consumer demographic profiling and
product consumption habits, anywhere in the world. India is one of those unique
markets where the print medium is growing consistently even though we are on
the brink of a digital revolution. After consultations with all relevant
stakeholders we have finalized our research design and begun the field work.
IRS is the only industry recognized readership and consumer profiling survey in
the country and the team has worked hard to ensure it meets the high standards
expected of it. After consultations with all relevant stakeholders we have
finalized our research design and begun the field work.
About RSCI
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The Readership Studies Council of India (RSCI) is an industry body formed
jointly by the Media Research Users Council (MRUC) and the Audit Bureau of
Circulations (ABC) to bring out the Indian Readership Survey (IRS).
About MRUC
The Readership Studies Council of India (RSCI) is an industry body formed
jointly by the Media Research Users Council (MRUC) and the Audit Bureau of
Circulations (ABC) to bring out the Indian Readership Survey (IRS).
About ABC
ABC, founded in 1948, is a not-for-profit organization certifying circulation
figures for member publications, through a process of audit.
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OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:
1. To understand profile of current subscribers of Outlook; whether they want
to renew their subscription and reason for non-renewal.
2. To understand perception and preferences of potential customers / non-
subscribers about outlook and various promotional schemes.
3. To understand how promotional offers affect the sales.
4. To understand which magazine of the Outlook group is preferred the most.
5. To identify the measures to retain the subscriber of Outlook magazine.
6. To compare the sales promotion schemes of Outlook India today.
PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT
The main purpose of this project is to understand the consumer base of
Outlook magazines and generate revenue by increasing number of subscriber.
In order to do so the target market needs to be surveyed thoroughly so as to
understand what exactly the customer is looking for in the product that will
satisfy customers need and requirements. After converting prospect into
customer, it is essential to retain these customers so as to create brand loyalty.
This can be done by using various promotional schemes. This research has also
been conducted to understand where Outlook stands few years from now and
also finding out ways and methods to improve the sales of Outlook magazines.
During my internship tenure, I was provided with lead data daily for sales and
analysis purpose. I used to call different types of existing customer for offers
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according to the requirement of and try to convince them to take the online
subscription.
WORK AT OUTLOOK
 The duration of the internship at Outlook was of two months.
 There was online portal called knowledge jockey and in that particular Id
was made under supervised leader.
 I had given lead data on a daily basis for sales and analysis purpose.
 In the first week of the internship a proper training was given regarding
the work to be performed.
 In the second week the task of convincing and selling magazines to
personal contacts was assigned.
 In the third week learnt how to pitch calls to customers and started calling
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through company leads.
 From the fourth week on words the task was to call, convince and sell
magazines through calling existing customers and taking care of the
follow ups.
 From the fifth week on words additional task of customer complaints
redressal was assigned.
 In the last few weeks worked on data collection and analysis. Helped and
trained new interns.
Work done in different phases:
Phase 1: Product Training and Knowledge
Overview of all the magazines of Outlook India group in detail was provided
to us. This helped us know how one magazine distinguishes from the other, in
terms of features, content, readership, and circulation.
Since outlook is a print media; we get to know how a print media works, how
promotional and discount schemes play an effective role in sales and
marketing.
We were provided with the detailed information on the different
promotional schemes i.e. free gifts (4 in 1 bags, stroll bags, digital
subscription, guide books etc.) and discounts provided by the company.
Phase 2: Calling
During these 2 months, we did the only warm calling. We were provided with
the database in the form of excel sheets of existing customers
We had to call them and pitch the offers according to the type of client for the
subscription
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Phase 3: Generation of sales
If the customer is interested in any of the offers, assisting them for the
payment. The payment could be done through online medium and offline
medium as well The online medium comprises of the options are:
 Credit card
 Debit card
 Net banking
 Cash wallets
 RTGS
But if the customer doesn’t want to pay through online medium, offline
medium is also available.
Which comprised of payment through:
 Cheque
 Cash
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Figure: Knowledge jockey window containing the KJcode and summary of the transaction
through a particular Knowledge jockey Id.
SALES PROMOTION
• Sales promotion, a key ingredient in marketing campaigns, consists of a
collection of incentive tools, mostly short term, designed to stimulate
quicker or greater purchase of particular product or services by customers
or the trade.
• These are designed to entice a customer to take a specific action such as
to make a purchase or request more information about the product.
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• Sales promotion usually occurs for a limited period of time create a sense
of urgency.
• Examples of sales promotion include coupons, discounts, gifts etc.
SALES PROMOTIONAL SCHEMES AT OUTLOOK
• FREE GIFTS
• DISCOUNTS
• FREE DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION
• FREE GUIDE BOOKS OR EXTENSION ON MAGAZINES.
A.GIFTS OFFERED1.Parker pens
2. 4 in1 Bag Sets
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3.Tool kit
OUTLOOK offered tool kits for 3 year of outlook weekly subscription and Four
in One bag set for subcription of five years.
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DISCOUNT OFFERS
C.FREE GUIDEBOOKS AND FREE DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION
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After a customer select a particular magazine, a window appears (My deals)
which summarises the discounts offered and the assured gifts. The customer has
an option to either select a guide book or extension of subscription period.
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D.FREE DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION OF THE MAGAZINES ARE
GIVEN FOR THE SAME PERIOD AS THE PRINTED
MAGAZINES.
COMPARISION OF DIFFERENT PROMOTIONAL SCHEMES
OFFERED AT OUTLOOK WITH THAT OFFERED BY INDIA
TODAY.
The main competitor of Outlook group of magazine is India Today .
PROMOTIONAL SCHEMES AT INDIA TODAY
Free gifts
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India today offers steam iron for 3 years of magazine renewal and vaccum
cleaners for subscription period of 5 years.
DISCOUNT OFFERS AND DIGITAL SUBCRIPTION
India today charges extra for providing digital copies of magazines along with
printed magazines. For one year it takes rupees 2340 for subscription of printed
magazine only and it charges rupees 2933 for both the printed and digital
magazines.
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ABOUT THE ORGANISATION
In October 1995, group company Hathway Investments Private Limited
entered the print media. OUTLOOK, a weekly news magazine headed by
Lt.Vinod Mehta, galvanized a sluggish market reeling under the impact of
satellite TV.
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
Every company has a particular organizational hierarchy. Following is
the hierarchical structure of Outlook.
Culture of the Company: - Outlook group is one of the important part
of print and media industry. The culture of company which can be said is
trustworthy, loyal to its subscribers.
ORGANOGRAM
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Owner (Rajan Raheja)
Editor in Chief (Rajesh Ramachandran)
Vice President
Asst Vice President
General Managers
DY General Managers
National Heads
Regional Managers
Senior Managers
Associate Manager
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DEPARTMENTS:- The Company has many departments to which important
departments are
1. Finance, Accounts and Audit
2. Human Resources
3. Marketing
4. Digital Marketing and Sales
5. Digital Ads and Promotions
RECOGNITION AND AWARDS:
Outlook has won many awards and accolades since its inception. Followings are
the one of the many innumerable contributions of Outlook to the print and
media industry.
 Department of Tourism, Government of India Award, National Tourism
Award 2001- 2002 awarded to OUTLOOK Traveler for Excellence in
Publication.
 OUTLOOK Traveller " 100 Holidays in the Hills" won the 2004, PATA
Gold Award
 In 2002-2003 the Government of India recognized "OUTLOOK Traveler
Getaways" as the “Best Travel Publication".
 Weekend breaks from Delhi was in the BESTSELLERS top three, non-
fiction category for 14 consecutive weeks in North India.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
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Sources of Data collection – Two types of data has been collected for the
project. These data are primary data and secondary data.
Primary data – Primary data was collected through questionnaire. It included
structured questions, both open ended and close ended.
Secondary data – Secondary data consisted of the lead that was given by the
company.
Sample size – The sample size was different for different categories. These
categories are as follows:
 Category A (Old subscribers) – This segment consists of old subscribers
of the magazine who are the genuine customers of all the magazines
published by Outlook group. Sample size of 200 was chosen.
 Category B (Non-subscribers) – These are the people whose response
have been taken randomly in order to get an idea about the image of
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Outlook magazine in the eyes of people and their interest and knowledge
about different promotional schemes. Sample size of 75 respondent was
taken.
Purpose of segmentation
 Category A – The response of this segment of subscribers have been
recorded in order to arrive at the renewal rate and how promotional
schemes affect the buying behaviour and also, the response of this
segment of customer would help in analysis of the services provided by
the group and check the customer satisfaction level and accordingly
suggests measures for improvement thus, helping in enhancing the
renewal ratio.
 Category B –The response of this particular segment is very important in
order to arrive at the overview of magazine and their perception about
outlook magazines and its promotion schemes.
Sampling technique – The sampling technique used for this project is
random sampling and convenience sampling. Response was collected
through questionnaires and telephonic interviews.
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
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Category A: Old customers
Profession
 15.7% respondents were Doctor
 9.1% respondents were Engineer
 11.6% respondents were Businessman
 20.2% respondents were Serviceman
 13.6% respondents were Student
 31.3% respondents were Others
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Subscribers of different type of outlook magazine
 51.5% respondents were subscriber of Outlook weekly
 29.5% respondents were subscriber of Outlook traveller
 21.5% respondents were subscriber of Outlook business
 22.5% respondents were subscriber of Outlook money
 13% respondents were subscriber of Outlook hindi
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Interest in subscription renewal
 90.5% subscriber were not interested to further renew magazine
subscription.
 Only 9.5% subscriber were interested to renew magazine
subscription.
Preferred period of subscription renewal
 Majority (68.4%) of the respondents wanted to renew their
subscription for the period of only 1 year.
 15.8% of the respondents wanted to renew their subscription
for the period of 2 years.
 Very few (5.3%) of the respondents wanted to renew their
subscription for the period of 5 years.
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Interest in extension of subscription period with additional discounts and
offers
 93.1% subscriber were not interested to extend
subscription with discounts and offers.
 6.9% subscriber were interested to extend subscription
with discounts and offers. Mainly promotional offers were
available for subscription of magazine for the period of 3
and 5 years.
Interest to subscribe other magazine types than already subscribed with
special offers and discounts
 90.5% subscriber were interested to subscribe other magazines
with special offers and discounts.
 9.5% subscriber were not interested.
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Major reasons for not renewing the magazines
 23.8% of the respondents were not interested in reading
magazine because they get information from online sources.
 38.7% of the respondents were not interested in renewing the
magazine due to delivery issue.
 11% of the respondents were not interested in renewing the
magazine due to not got the promised gifts.
 16% of the respondents were not interested in renewing the
magazine because of multiple calling.
magazine because of not able to read due to old age.
magazine because of do not like the gifts offered and want
another gifts.
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Gender
 78.7% of the respondents were male.
 21.3% of the respondents were female.
Age group
 49.3% of the respondents were between 16-25 years.
 2.7% of the respondents were above 50 years.
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Qualification
 69.3% of the respondents were graduate.
 14.7% of the respondents were post graduate.
 16% of the respondents were undergraduate.
Profession
 46.6% of the respondents were students
 23.3% of the respondents were businessman.
 27.4% of the respondents were serviceman.
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Annual Income (In lakhs)
 48% of the respondents were of the income (0-5) lakhs.
 36% of the respondents were of the income (5-10) lakhs.
 13.3% of the respondents were of the income (10-20)
lakhs.
Interested in reading Outlook magazine
 80% of the respondents were not interested in reading the
Outlook magazine.
 20% of the respondents were interested in the outlook
magazine.
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Awareness of promotional offers by Outlook
 58% of the respondents were interested in learning about the promotional
offers offered at outlook.
 41.8% of the respondents were not even interested in any offers.
Preference among different types of schemes
 57% of the respondents wanted free gift vouchers.
 33.3% of the respondents wanted discount offers.
 9% of the respondents wanted free guide books
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Preferred mode of subscription
 91.9% of the respondents were wish to take Outlook
magazine through online subscription.
 8.1% of the respondents were wish to take Outlook
magazine through offline subscription.
Preference of different Outlook magazine
 37.8% of the respondents were prefer Outlook weekly.
 35.1% of the respondents were prefer Outlook traveller.
 10.8% of the respondents were prefer Outlook money.
 8.2% of the respondents were prefer Outlook Hindi.
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FINDINGS
CATEGORY: A
• Most of the existing customer were reluctant to buy new magazine
subscription due to untimely delivery of magazines, some customers even
did not receive a single copy of magazine.
• The company blamed courier services for untimely and non-delivery of
magazines.
• Approximately 11% of the customers did not received the gifts promised
to them. This creates bad impression among customers.
• Approximately 9% of the respondents were not interested in renewing the
magazine because of did not like the gifts offered and wanted other gifts.
• About 10 % of the customers were irritated due to multiple calling and
wanted their numbers to be removed from the data base.
• Serviceman were the largest group of professionals reading the
magazines. Businessman mainly subscribed for Outlook business
magazine. Other group of professionals had random choices regarding the
magazine types. Many others did not give their occupation related
information.
• Among the five magazines of Outlook Weekly and Traveller are the most
demanded ones.
• Most of the customers interested in subscription renewal wanted it to be
renewed for only 1 year.
• Merely 6.9% of the interested customers wanted to extend their
subscription period with gifts and discounts.
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CATEGORY: B
• 20 % of the respondents have interest in outlook magazine.
• 58.2% of the respondents have awareness about the promotional schemes
at outlook.
• Majority of the respondents preferred gifts over other offers provided.
• About 90% of the respondents would prefer online mode of subscription.
• Outlook weekly and traveller are the most preferred magazines.
• Promotional schemes of Outlook magazine and India today have similar
promotional schemes. However, Outlook provides free digital
subscription free and India Today charges extra for digital subscriptions.
Porter’s five forces analysis of Outlook
1. The threat of new entrant: India is a country of 130 crore population, out of
which 60% are youth, therefore the customer base is very large. Hence there are
no national and international brands that are targeting to Indian market. The
threat of new entrant is high.
2. The threat of substitute: Magazines can be easily substituted by newspapers,
digital media etc. The threat of substitute is very high.
3. Bargaining power of suppliers: The raw material magazine
industries need is paper. Prices of paper can affect the company’s
profits.Therefore, in magazine industries, raw material plays a very
important role. Hence the bargaining power of suppliers is very
important which can influence the competition.
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4. Bargaining power of buyers: Buyers do have an upper edge here as
the buyer can shift from one alternative to another and it provides
bargaining opportunities to the customers.
5. Industry rivalry: Magazines like India Today, readers digest are the
biggest rivals of Outlook. These are very strong competition.
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SWOT Analysis
Strength
 Published on Fridays so it covers all special news and events which take
place especially on Friday. News of stock market as it closes on Friday,
new movies released on Friday.
 It has distinguished and specialised magazine like Outlook traveller,
Outlook weekly, Outlook business and Outlook money.
 It has largest market share.
Weakness
 Outlook does not pay much attention on customer retention.
 Customer loyalty is very low.
 Multiple calling due to duplication of data.
Opportunities
 Outlook can increase its product line by launching new magazines.
 Offering good promotional schemes to retain their customers and also to
attract new customers.
 Outlook has greater market share so it can start news channel.
Threats
 India Today is its main competitor having a well-known name.
 Outlook does not pay much attention on customer retention.
 Customers demand e-magazine instead of print magazine.
Learning
• Got insights of work culture of outlook magazines.
46

• Learnt how to pitch calls to different customer.
• Enhancement of communication and convincing skills.
• Got an idea how to complete target-oriented task.
Recommendations
• The company should resolve its delivery issues as soon as possible.
Untimely and non-delivery of magazines is a very serious issue and leads
to customer dissatisfaction. Customer care should be made more
responsible.
• Gift delivery problems should be resolved. Company should tie up with
renowned courier services.
• Company should introduce various types of free gifts to attract customers
because many customers demands for other gifts which are offered by the
outlook.
• Many customers get irritated due to frequent multiple calling. The
frequency of these calls should be reduced. Tracking of call history
should be made prompt.
• The company should provide refined data to employees to avoid multiple
calling to the customers in frequent manner.
• Customer care should be very prompt in handling customer complaints.
Limitations
• The limitations of cold calls as people always do not have free time to
respond to telephonic interviews.
• Language barriers were very evident as sometimes respondents did not
know even English or Hindi.
• Same working hours as that of the customers.
47

REFERENCE
www.outlookindia.com
www.indianewspapersociety
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlook_(magazine)
http://subscription.outlookindia.com/newoffer/readers.html
https://www.magzter.com/IN/The-Outlook-Group/Outlook/News/
48

Paritosh_SIP_Outlook_ report.doc.pdf

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