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Abstract:

This case critically analyses the changing scenario of business dynamics in book reading1.
Crossword a brand from India which started as a platform for book selling finding difficult in
recent time to survive in the market with people accessing books online or purchasing books
online. The company is always tried to work on the innovation model to survive in the market
.To be there in market in such a competitive environment how the company should go ahead.
The marketing team is not clear that what should be, the focus of their marketing plan.
Should they start giving more emphasis to other divisions or book should be the basic source
of their revenue model? They are also not clear that investing on communication will give
them good return.

Key word: innovation, marketing plan, marketing, strategy

Introduction: Ms. Sonia, Director of crossword marketing, re-examined the marketing plan she had
presented to her manager Mr. Chirag Deshpande. It was October 2017, and for the last two months
with the help of her colleagues, Ms. Sonia developed the plan for 2018. She was confident about the
growth with a 12% increase in unit sales – up to 2% from the year 2017. However, Mr. Chirag found
Sonia’s plan conservative. As the other divisions were not doing well, he was under pressure to give
results. He said that Indian book market is still has huge potential as half of Indian are very much
concerned about their children’s growth, and they very much believe in book reading habit as good
habit. So there is a potential in this market as it is growing with CAGR 19.3 percent3. From his
experience in the previous company, he was sure that the increase in promotion by 12% could
accelerate the market demand. He is confident about 25%- 30% growth rates from a sector. Ms. Sonia
was worried that Mr. Deshpande does not understand that majority of Indians now make their
purchase through online portals. She was also concerned that if she spends some amount on
advertising is it going to give her return?? On a hectic Tuesday afternoon, after some meetings, the
Director marketing Ms. Sonia was sitting in her plush corner office and looking at the sales figure for
the latest release of the book ‘The Rise and Fall of Nations’ by Ruchir Sharma. It didn’t look very
promising though. Digitization and Digital Revolution had caused a paradigm shift in the way
customers now react to a new book release. As she pondered on the Sales report and waited for his
colleagues to join him for the regular tuesday meeting she reflected on how Crossword one of the
biggest retail Bookstore had transformed with the changing times, since 2006 when Crossword got the
6th most admired retailer in India2, there has been a lot of shift in the way they perform their core
business. However to keep in pace with current trends of E-tailing Ms. Sonia assigned senior
marketing head, Mr. Aditya, to strategize and think over on how Crossword would innovate to
improve the sales growth and meet the current consumer requirements.

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1. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/e-book-market

2. https://www.crossword.in/about_us

3. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/media/entertainment/media/indian-book-
market-to-touch-rs-739-billion-by-2020-survey/articleshow/49996781.cms?from=mdr
The company: Crossword was not just about selling books anymore but a lot beyond this they are
more into the overall customer experience. Since its inception in 15th Oct 1992 in Mumbai as a place
for book reading, today explored to become India India's most prominent book retail outlet .There
were few well-known bookstores like Higginbotham’s in Bangalore, Strand in Mumbai, Om in Delhi
who competed with crossword but none of them have a national presence for the expansion company
took the franchise mode in 1996. Presently crossword has 94 stores all across India.

Crossword always positioned them as a community center to educate, enlighten & entertain people
and not a retail bookstore2. The vision statement of the crossword is to build a community center
through Book and related products and also to educate, enlighten & entertain individuals through their
products. Crossword is a customer-centric brand where there is a lot of emphasis on Customer
experience.

Growth sentiment came for the company in the year 2000-2004 when the retail market was growing,
and the company's insight was changing. The Year 2004-2008 was a high growth learning stage phase
for the company with expansion on the number of stores. 2008 was a recession phase, but it was a
good phase for the company, sales grew & business shown positive moves. Challenges started from
2012 onwards with the presence of few book retail outlets. Reliance timeline & Odyssey came into
market and sales took up a deep down for crossword. 2014 onwards company got the advantage as all
competition closed, almost no direct competition was there, an online market also stabilized .2014
onwards business started channelizing 2014 is a consolidation phase for the industry where the
concentration was on profitable store opening, good location with right size store with approx. 3000-
3500 square foot area. Steady expansion & successful organization became the theme. A company
tried with two ties/3 tier cities, but traction was not there rental & costs are almost the same, but
business does not show any decisive moves.

From 1992to 2017 the business or society, in general, have witnessed a paradigm shift in consumer
behavior and approach. To survive and realign the company with a new set of consumer’s crossword
has always evolved with time. A change in consumer behavior towards technology is a shift in the
human mind which continuously seek convenience and which is fundamental to being human.

In the current market context, the conquest for convenience powered on a set of technologies, digital.
As more consumers are exploring the digital platform for a reading book the physical store and
holding a book physically and pleasure of reading has changed & this shift has given a challenge to
this industry. In Indian market where book retailing is also done for second hand book, illegal copies
of book available at cheaper cost .India Book Market Report highlighted economic parameters for
publishing industry and the size of the book market, the study also looked at governmental
frameworks and policies, and the impact of amended laws on book publishing, book-buying
behaviours and book consumers’ characteristics across different types of publishing. It is also
observed in the present market that book purchased online are much cheaper in price. So, to realign
the business company has adopted various approaches4.

________________________________________________________________________________

4.https://www.nielsen.com/in/en/insights/article/2016/read-all-about-it-indias-book-market-is-
poised-for-growth/
Although crossword is famous and known for books yet its business is catered by a variety of other
products such as music, movies, toys hardware & accessories, gifting, home adornment, console/ pc
games, stationary, cafe, apparels, etc.( See Exhibit1). Apparels is a slightly separate category in
comparison to books and other products. Clothing is a very impulsive category, and crossword

chooses to sell only merchandised garments. Hence crossword focusses on comic characters
merchandize apparels majorly. Comic character appeals is a new category business, and in a few years
alone, it brings in more than 5% of the market2. (see exhibit1)

Crossword offers the stores in 3 formats as given below (see exhibit 2)

 Flagship:-The biggest store for a particular city which will merchandise a more extensive
range with an increased focus on in-store customer experience. Size of the stores is mostly
more than 8000 sqft.
 Brand: -Midsize stores which are located either in high streets or within shopping malls.
These stores are functioning with the intention of improving proximity to customers and
cashing in on the footfalls already generated at these places. Size of this format stores is
between 3000 to 6000 sqft.
 Corner: -Small Stores within Hypermarkets of large departmental stores fall under this
category., these stores stock the bestsellers across categories. Size of these stores is between
500 to 3000 sqft. Corner stores Cater to mostly impulse buyers.The top 12 stores based
majorly across the top tier cities contribute to 85% of the profitability. Talking about the
pricing policy crossword followed
 High-Low Pricing

Crossword follows high-low pricing as they reduce the price of their products very occasionally. To
attract more customers, these retailers advertise frequently.

 Coupons

Coupons are documents that entitle the holder to a percentage price reduction from the actual price of
a product or service at stores like the crossword. Crossword also issues these coupons in leading
newspapers to bring in new customers and generate positive sales in the short run.

 Multiple-Unit Pricing

Multiple-unit pricing occurs when the price of each unit in a multiple-unit package is less than the
cost of each group sold individually. For example, Crossword offers three books as a bundle for a
certain amount (Rs 1000), which would be less than three books bought separately (399*3, i.e., Rs
1197). Another example could be offering three DVDs for Rs 85 whereas if one purchases them
individually, it would cost much more.

 Odd Pricing

Odd pricing refers to the practice of setting retail prices that end in a different number or just under an
even rupee value. For example, crossword bookstore sets prices like Rs. 399, Rs 495, etc. Through
odd pricing, crossword tries to make customers feel that they are paying less for the products offered
by the store. Pricing plays a vital role in retailing and especially at stores like the crossword. Pricing is
one of the critical attracting elements to increase sales and revenue5. Pricing also needs to be useful as
it explains the interrelationship between the objectives of the retail store and the components of the
retail mix. A pricing strategy should help retailers earn a profit and, at the same time, benefit the
customers. Crossword thus follows an effective pricing strategy which brings in the number of
customers and thereby increasing sales and revenue.

PROMOTIONS:

Crossword uses both ATL and BTL5 techniques of Promotion crossword promotional activities. They
have several brand campaigns which are launched annually.

 Crossword Events

Started in 1998, the aim is to be a point of social and cultural interaction for its customers. Crossword
events form a community center where customers can meet their favorite authors and celebrities. It
also promotes young & budding authors by showcasing their work for customers.

 CROSSWORD BOOK AWARDS:

Largest Indian Literary award regarding categories covered. Crossword rewards the best literary
works in the Fiction, Non-Fiction, Translation, and Children’s Category & Popular. Crossword Book
Award is open only for Indian Writers. Currently celebrating its 13thYear since the beginning of the
awards. Winners include noted writers like Amitav Ghosh, William Dalrymple, Suketu Mehta,
Vikram Chandra, Vikram Seth & many more.

Various other children events organized at CROSSWORD are:

 Design your SUPERHERO

 Coloring competition
 Children’s hour held every Sunday across select outlets

Apart from that, the organization took a particular concern on the ambiance of the store. They created
zones for reading & playing, so the person feels a new set of energy and get engrossed in the store.
The store also took particular interest in training their employee by involving them in a various skill
development program. Unobtrusively helpful staffs assist them in finding the right book, the right CD
or the right gift for the right occasion. Facilities like the Crossword Gift Vouchers, the friendly
‘Return, Exchange & Refunds’ policy, the Cafes within the stores and the unique store experience
make it easy and enjoyable for customers to shop at Crossword. To keep in pace with time they
started with loyalty card & till date company has given 4.5 lacs card to customers and they are also
rewarding customer through the Crossword Book Rewards Program with points, discounts, exclusive
discounts & offers. ‘Rewards,’ a monthly e-newsletter with reviews of new books, news about in-
store events and bestseller lists, is currently mailed to these Members2.

5. https://www.omniaretail.com/blog/-price-the-most-important-p-in-the-marketing-mix

6. https://www.business2community.com/marketing/everything-need-know-atl-btl-ttl-advertising-
01902793
Mr. Deshpande had confined to Sonia that company’s senior management had decided to tie
a higher proportion of 2018 employee compensation to regional performance. They planned
to reward for regions that met or exceeded sales figure and to reorganize those that
underperformed. Sonia understood the pressure on Mr. Deshpande. Mr. Deshpande has given
two days to produce a revised growth plan that came close to his goal of 25% unit sales
growth. She was determined to meet her objective. She was wondering what message the
young customers will get attracted.

Which particular product line they should focus? And how quickly would those with
growing disposable income perceive a need for more products related to reading? Sonia
reviewed her initial projections & she was curious to quantify the effect of product mix
changes. She opened her i- pad to build a projected sales based on her 2017 plan and one for
the scenario Mr. Deshpande had suggested. Would an increase in promotion necessarily lead
to higher revenues and profitability?

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Annexure:

Exhibit 1: Distribution Model of Crossword.

Exhibit2: Distribution strategies