Project Report

Study on marketing mix and competitive analysis of Outlook.

Name- Abhishek Mishra

Roll Number- 20202174

Intern designation- Marketing Intern

Company- Outlook Group

Name of Corporate Guide- Sadhana Tiwari

Designation of Corporate Guide- Assistant Manager

Company- Outlook Group

Name of the Faculty Mentor- Surya Narayan Mishra

Designation of the Faculty Mentor- Faculty of Marketing

KIIT School of Management

6th August, 2021.

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Certificate from Corporate Guide

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 Declaration

This is to declare that I, Abhishek Mishra, bearing Roll No 20202174 pursuing Master of Business
Administration degree from KIIT School of Management, deemed to be University,
Bhubaneswar, do hereby declare that the project report, titled “Study on marketing mix and
competitive analysis of Outlook.” has been prepared by me during the summer internship
period (18th May 2021 to 18th July 2021) in Outlook Group towards partial fulfillment of MBA
degree from KIIT School Of Management. This report being the result of original and authentic
work has not been submitted anywhere earlier for publication to any sources. This is completely
true and genuine work to the best of my knowledge and belief. The facts and findings presented in
this project are authentic and reliable.

Abhishek Mishra
Marketing Intern
20202174

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

With immense pleasure, I wish to present this project report for “Study on marketing mix and
competitive analysis of Outlook”. It has been an amazing experience for me to pursue my
summer placement training at Outlook Group which might not have potentially succeeded
without the goodwill and support of the folks around. While proceeding with the tedious work of
my project I got direct and indirect help from many people to whom I shall remain grateful and
pass my words of thanks.

As a student of KIIT school of Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar I am appreciative to

my college for giving me a chance to take a shot at this report.

I would like extend my sincere gratitude towards, Ms. Sadhana Tiwari, assistant manager at
Outlook Group, for giving me the topic and idea of the project.

I would wish to specific my sincere feeling to my guide, Surya Mishra sir, professor, KIIT
School of Management whose knowledge and support has driven me to attain my goals. He has
systematically been a supply of motivation, encouragement, and inspiration throughout the
completion of my project.

Finally, special thanks to my parents and other relatives, for their support and encouragement
throughout internship. A big cheer to all my friends and well-wishers for their constant support.

However, I settle for the only responsibility for any potential error of omission and would be
extraordinarily grateful to the readers of this project report if they carry such mistakes to my
notice.

Abhishek Mishra
Marketing Intern
20202174

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

SI.NO CHAPTER PAGE

NO.
1 Executive summary 6

2 Literature review 7

3 Introduction 9

4 Objective 11

5 Project Design and Methodology 12

6 Project Findings and Analysis 14

7 Recommendation 24

8 Conclusion 25

9 Learning from SIP 26

10 Reference 27

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 Executive Summary
The objective of this project was to find more about the marketing mix and competitive analysis
of Outlook.
Marketing Mix Competitive Analysis
4 Ps of Outlook Group i.e., Product, Price, Place  SWOT Analysis of Outlook.
& Promotion.  Net Promoter Score of outlook and its
 Customer relationship management competitors- Its Calculation and
along with its various stages. Importance.
 Extension of 4 Ps- Role of other  Customer perception of Outlook and
important elements like- People, Competitor Brands
Physical Evidence and Process in  Social media presence and engagement.
Outlook Group.

The project mainly talks about various products offered by Outlook Group, its pricing strategy,
different promotion campaign and promotional offers that the company has for its customer and
brand awareness. Further, the project also highlights competitive analysis of outlook and its
competitors. Since, India today is the market leader, the project discusses various aspects in
which outlook needs to work on like pricing, social-media engagements, customer perception
and its reputation in the market.

Readers from different demographics and profession were included in the survey done to find the
net promoter score and perception towards the brand and its competitors and accordingly from
the data collected and analyzed, I came up with required recommendations that the company can
implement to gain a competitive advantage against the current market leader.

Further in the tenure of the internship with outlook, I gained hands on some practical experience
ona probable upcoming product where we learnt to create social media calendar, posters and
other elements of advertising including building social media presence. In the course of the
internship and submissions of different task, I added creative creation and social media planning
to my skills- Ranging from types of posts to creating those posts.

I also learnt about the role of customer relationship management for a business and how different
stages of CRM- Customer acquisition, customer retention and customer development are
important for a business to grow and establish.

Apart from this, having a corporate guide throughout the project was helpful in giving insight
into how businesses work and how product, distribution and pricing is important to the
organization which will be helpful to me in any sector I go in.The main learning from the project
would be my knowledge enhancement on real life marketing mix of products, SWOT analysis of
print media and other related industry. Having a prior live project experience in the same brand I
inculcated skills required for business development and customer acquisition which will help me
in any sector requiring direct selling.

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 Literature Review
Marketing Mix

To begin with my task and this project, I reviewed a number of articles. At an elementary level,
marketing mix commonly constitutes of the 4 Ps of marketing and has a universal application as
mentioned earlier.
E. Constantinides in his article identified two main limitations of the Marketing Mix as a tool of
management, common in all examined domains, namely the model's internal orientation and lack
of personalization. Besides identifying several area-specific limitations, it also underlines the
need for further research on the issue. The weak point identified in the study seem to support the
frequently expressed suggestion that marketing scholars should focus their efforts in formulating
the conceptual foundations and marketing methodologies that better address the needs of
marketer of today and tomorrow.

A research paper by P.M Cain has put across an alternative approach to marketing mix modelling
which explicitly models both the short and long-run features of the data. Not only does this
provide more precise short-run marketing outcome but, when combined with evolution in
intermediate brand perception measures, allows an evaluation of the long-run impact of
marketing activities. This framework demonstrates two key issues. At first, if we wish to
measure long-run marketing revenues it is imperative that econometric models deal with the
evolving trend or baseline inherent in most economic time series: conventional marketing mix
models are not elastic enough to address this issue. Then, it validates that intermediate brand
perception data can be causally linked to brand sales and used to improve long-run business
performance. This directly addresses the skepticism over the use of primary research data raised
by Binet et al (2007).

A research work by Graham Jackson & Vandana Ahuja. The research is regarding the evolution
of the marketing mix and the importance of recognizing its pre-requisite, the customer mix,
clearly emphasizes an increasing need to communicate effectively with customers and the need
to spend on digital marketing communication. It stresses on the fact that fact that encouraging
people to buy particular products, change their attitudes towards brands or change their social
habits, and it should be part of every modern marketing communication campaign and with the
help of digital marketing campaign, it should ne planned to promote customer intimacy and to
encourage the customer’s participation in the process of gaining knowledge regarding the brand,
buying the branded product/service, liking it and developing loyalty towards it.

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Competitive Analysis

By the year 1914 the leading magazine publishers of Britain had successfully launched a range
of popular weekly titles for female readers which mainly focused on everyday women's fashions.
In contrast, the British operations of American publishers Hearst and Condé Nast sought to
develop premium magazines of high quality designed to attract affluent consumers – and the
advertisers who sought to reach these readers. This paper argues that the achievement of Condé
Nast's Vogue depended on two main factors: gaining authenticity in the world of high fashion
and forming close relations with their customers – both the readers and the advertisers – applying
market research and promotion techniques transferred from the United States.

Awuah and Gebrekidan (2008) addressed the development of competitive advantages that
recognition of key elements in competitive networks and establishment long-term relation with
the elements (cost leadership strategy) creates competitive advantages for firms.

In a paper published in 2007, Laura Davidson in her research concludes that Consumers of
specialty magazines appeared to have a strong attachment to the magazines they purchase;
however, the research did not show this to be the situation with readers of generic magazines.
Owing to this research it has been concluded that magazines do have the necessary attributes to
drive brand community formation (strong brand images, expressive hedonic nature, rich and
lengthy histories, are publicly consumed and highly competitive). Specifically, brand
communities are much more probable to form around specialty consumer magazines, such as
hobby and interest magazines. Consequently, the following managerial implications and
suggestions have more relevance for publishers of specialty magazines.

Based on a proposed model, Kaleka (2002) maintained that organizational resources and
capabilities and utilization of Porter’s triple strategies improve competitive advantages in
organizations. In their survey, Morgan and Hunt (1999) found that organizational based
marketing relation was positively and significantly effective in organizational resources. In their
study on Australian manufacturing industries, Yamin et al. (1999) showed that Porter’s general
strategies (cost leadership, differentiation, and centralization strategy) positively affected
competitive advantages and performance of the company.

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 Introduction
About the Company
Vision of the Company:
 Leadership through empowering individual ideas.
Mission of the Company:
 To be the greatest and the most profitable Magazine Publisher in India The Magazines
under the Outlook group comprises of 6 National issues:

Raheja Group:
Rajan Raheja began his career in the field of construction business. After building a significant
presence in the realty market, his Rajan Raheja Group expanded into manufacturing, financial
services and media — each venture with an aim to assume leadership in core areas.

The group is a chief media player in India, being the owners of Outlook magazine. Besides these,
they have a significant stake in the growing convergence business in India too, through Asianet
Satellite Communications Ltd. and Hathway Cable & Datacom Ltd.

After having started as a construction and real estate development company, Raheja Group now
includes the following businesses:

 Manufacturing companies  Media  Insurance

 Hotels  Retail & Wholesale  Software

Outlook Group:
Year founded 1995
Owner Rajan Raheja Group
Based in New Delhi, India
Languages English & Hindi

Outlook Group is one of the top names in the print industry. It is owned by prestigious Raheja
Group. They are publishers of very well-known titles like Outlook English, Outlook Hindi,
Outlook Business, Outlook Money, and Outlook Traveller. They provide magazines in the
printed form as well as the digital version. With the use of up-to-date technology Outlook help
people get the latest news in printed form at their very own doorstep.
The Outlook Group is one of the leading publishing house in our country with 5 mainstay titles.

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Project Topic:
Study on marketing mix and competitive analysis of Outlook:

Marketing is without any doubt the most vital part for the growth of any organization. It would
not be wrong to say that marketing mix is the foundation model for business mainly centered on
the product, price, promotion and place often known as the 4 Ps of marketing.

In the current times, marketing mix is much more than the 4 Ps of marketing because it’s highly
limited and specific. At the core of marketing is the establishment and development of long‐term
customer relationship. Currently, marketing mix is the dominant marketing management model
but market developments, and trends, as well as changing environment are likely to affect the
future of marketing mix.
A marketing mix relevant to the current customer needs and a detailed competitive analysis is the
key to the growth of any organization and is an important function of the marketing plan of any
organization.
Competitive analysis is nothing but identifying competitors and evaluating their strategies to
determine strength and weakness relative to the brand. A competitive analysis helps a company
gain competitive advantage over its competitors. A competitive advantage is advantage over
competitors gained by offering consumers greater value than competitors offer.

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 Objective
Primary Objective:
 To have an understanding about the products and the pricing strategy in detail
 To understand the marketing mix of the company (Outlook).
 To understand the strengths and weakness of the company and its competitors

The primary objective of my research was to know more about marketing mix and competitive
analysis including customer relationship management and digital marketing strategies of the
company and competitor brands. To know this, following points were to be researched on:
 Product portfolio that the company offers.
 Pricing strategy.
 Promotion strategy and Customer Relationship Management.
Customer Relationship Management would include:
i) Customer Acquisition
ii) Customer Development
iii) Customer Retention
 Digital Marketing Strategy of the company.
 Distribution and Delivery
 Competitive Advantage of outlook
 Customer perception of the brand and its competitors

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 Project Design and Methodology
Research includes defining and understanding problems, formulating hypothesis or proposed
solutions, collecting, analyzing and evaluating data, making deductions and coming to
conclusions, and lastly carefully testing the conclusions to check whether they fit the formulating
hypothesis.
 Step 1: Product Training and Knowledge.
This step includes an over view of all the magazines of outlook India group in detail. To
understand how one magazine distinguishes from the other, in terms of features, target
customers, readership, and distribution/circulation. Since, outlook is a print media; we get
to know the add-on thing how a print media operates, how costing plays an important role
in sales and marketing.
 Step 2: Identification of segments.
The Indian market is very enormous, thus, catering the wants and requirements of diverse
customers. Hence, in second step identification of readers segment is must.
 Step 3: Literature review.
For an in-depth knowledge of the project topic
 Step 4: Tele- Calling
This step involves calling people where we have earlier done sales to and other leads to
understand the satisfaction of consumer.
 Step 5: Contacting existing, potential and ex magazine readers to do a primary survey
The survey is executed to know the current market trends in each segment and to analyze
competitor’s products in that particular segment.
 Step 6: Analyzing the data:
Analysis of collected data to come up with findings and recommendation on the basis of
primary data
 Step 7: Searching for secondary data:
One of the most important steps, in this step we study different sources and websites.

DATA COLLECTION
Sources of Data
The sources for collecting the data include both primary and secondary. Mainly secondary data
has been used for the preparation of the report.
 Primary data
The source of data collection for the research is primary data which is collected from the
Questionnaire. For collecting the primary data, the online survey was done through
questionnaire, which was personally given to different people and was filled through
interacting with different age groups, location, and occupation.

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  Secondary data
For theoretical overview, secondary data was gathered from different websites and
research papers.
Research Design:
The methodology to be used will be a Descriptive Research Design.
Sampling Methods:
The methods of selecting samples from the population are:
 Non Probability sampling
 Probability Sampling
In this research, the first method i.e. the Non Probability Sampling has been used, this is because
of the time constraints and also to gather as maximum information as possible.
 Sampling technique:
Initially, a rough draft was prepared keeping the objectives of the research in mind. A
verification was done in order to know the accuracy of the questionnaire through
different study. The final questionnaire was made only after certain important changes
were done. Thus, the sampling came out to be convenient. This is a type of non-
probability sampling.
 Sampling Unit:
The respondents of the survey who were asked to fill out questionnaires are the sampling
units. These comprise of people from different walks of life in India.
 Sample Size:
The sample size was restricted to only 160, which comprised of people from different
locations of India.
 Questionnaire:
A structured questionnaire is designed and the customer preferences would be determined
using the survey and observation method.
Limitations:
The marketing mix framework was particularly useful in the early days of the marketing concept
when physical products represented a larger portion of the economy. Today, with marketing
more integrated into organizations and with a wider variety of products and markets, some
authors have attempted to extend its usefulness by proposing a fifth P, such as packaging, people,
process, etc. Today however, the marketing mix most commonly remains based on the 4 P's.
Despite its limitations and perhaps because of its simplicity, the use of this framework remains
strong and many marketing textbooks have been organized around it. Also. As far as competitive
analysis is considered there is a lack of some data of competitors or lack of reliable sources.

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 Project Findings and Analysis
Marketing Mix of Outlook
Outlook is India’s premier fully loaded newsmagazine. For over twenty-five years, continues to
consistently drive the news, provoke, engage and thrill its readers.
 Products
Magazines

Weekly Magazine:
 OUTLOOK WEEKLY
Outlook weekly is an English Weekly magazine.
In the world over and in India, Outlook is recognized as a credible journalist source – like
BBC, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, and NYT etc.
Monthly Magazine:
 TRAVELLER MONTHLY
Outlook Traveller, country’s No. 1 travel magazine, has been the standard bearer for
travel writing in our country for well over a decade. In a fast changing environment, it
has kept the quality of content chief in its coverage, even as it has progressed, adding new
elements while firming up its core.

 MONEY MONTHLY
India’s first and only magazine for Personal Finance, Outlook Money has persistently
helped its readers make wise investments. Its stories are focused on giving the reader a
precise and actionable tip that they can use to make their money grow. Outlook Money
acts as the money manager of the readers, enabling them invest well, borrow wisely and
spend smartly.

 BUSINESS MONTHLY
Outlook Business is an insightful, thought provoking, gripping, detailed business
magazine which delivers fresh perspective, coupled with an all-inclusive approach.
Outlook Business is a dedicated Business Magazine for Decision Makers. Outlook
Business integrates a global perspective in all its content.
Fortnightly Magazine:
 Outlook Hindi:
Outlook Hindi is the only National magazine in Hindi Language, which has original
Hindi content and not translated from English publication. Established in the year 2002,
Outlook Hindi tracks an extensive range issues from Politics, Economy, Finance,
Education, Health, Development, Foreign Affairs, Cinema, Theater, Literature, Satire,
Spiritualism, Astrology and lot of exclusive items with colorful Photo Features.

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Travel Guide
 Outlook Traveller Gateway:
The guides are in-depth and written from a traveler’s point of view giving details on
places to visit, best season to visit, how to reach, where to stay, shop and eat, contact
details of hotels etc. These guides are very popular among people with a passion for
traveling. Each title has a shelf life of 2-3 years after which the company come out with a
fresh edition.
Special Editions
 Outlook also comes up with special edition issues time and again for special occasions
and events. Example- Outlook came up with a special edition on LGBTQ+ community
after the verdict if section 377.

 Price
Prices vary from mode of subscription and product type. Hence, customers have the liberty to
choose from the various options that they have.
 Digital Issue
Issue Type Plan Price Discount Percent
Digital Only Subscription 1 Issue Plan Rs. 45 36%
Digital Only Subscription 1 Month Plan Rs. 199 29%
Digital Only Subscription 3 Month Plan Rs. 499 45%
Digital Only Subscription 6 Month Plan Rs. 799 56%
Digital Only Subscription 12 Month Plan Rs. 1099 70%

 Print Issue (Magazines)

Term For 1 Year For 2 Years For 3 Years For 5 Years
Outlook Weekly Rs. 2499 Rs. 4799 Rs. 6649 Rs. 9549
Traveller Monthly Rs. 1099 Rs. 2149 Rs. 2849 Rs. 4449
Money Monthly Rs. 549 Rs. 1049 Rs. 1449 Rs. 2149
Business Monthly Rs. 999 Rs. 1699 Rs. 2199 Rs. 3300
Hindi Fortnightly Rs. 549 Rs. 1049 Rs. 1449 Rs. 2149

 Outlook Traveller Gateways

Outlook Traveller Gateways coming with a range of prices. Price of each issue ranges
anywhere between Rs. 95 to Rs. 495.

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 Place
 Headquarters:
Head Office: AB-10, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi-110 029, India
 Websites
 Outlook Magazine: https://www.outlookindia.com/
 Outlook Business: https://www.outlookbusiness.com/
 Outlook Traveller : https://www.outlookindia.com/outlooktraveller/
 Outlook Money: https://www.outlookindia.com/outlookmoney/
 Outlook Hindi: https://www.outlookhindi.com/
 Apps
 Android-
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.outlookgroup.outlookmags
 Apple Store-
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/outlook-magazines/id1072098929

 Social Media Handles:

Facebook Instagram YouTube Twitter

Outlook Magazine 1.1 million Likes 81.4k Followers 165k Subscribers 233.4k Followers
Outlook Traveller 221k Likes 229k Followers 3.15k Subscribers 201k Followers
Outlook Business 79k Likes - 11.6k Subscribers 6.6k Followers
Outlook Money 141k Likes - 2.49k Subscribers 16.9k Followers

 Promotion
 As a part of its promotional strategy, Outlook group has implemented lucrative offers at
different stages of Customer Relationship Management throughout the customer life
cycle. The offer provided are as mentioned below:

Customer Relationship Offer Provided

Management Stage

Customer Acquisition Duffle bag / Trolley bag

Customer Retention Extended Subscription

Customer Development Discounted price after the subscription period ends.

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  Different Promotional Offers at Outlook & Invitation based offers

 Direct Discount on MRP

Product Discount for 1 Discount for 2 Discount for 3 Discount for 5

year subscription year subscription year subscription year subscription
Outlook Weekly 31.34% 34.07% 39.11% 47.53%
Traveller Monthly 38.94% 40.30% 47.24% 50.56%
Money Monthly 8.5% 12.58% 19.5% 28.36%
Business Monthly 16.75% 29.20% 38.91% 45%
Hindi Fortnightly 8.5% 12.85% 19.5% 28.36%

 Ads and Free Trials

 Awards & Conclaves:

Outlook organizes awards and events and this too serves as a great promotional
instrument for the company. Some of the awards organized are listed below:

Outlook Traveller Awards

The Outlook Traveller Awards are the standard of quality in the travel and tourism
industry and felicitate the best of the best each year. With over 25 different categories,
the awards take a 360⁰ view of the tourism sector and the way it has been growing over
the years.

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 Outlook Money Awards
Outlook Money Conclave brings together thought leaders and captains from the industry
to harness cutting-edge ideas and disruptions that are changing the face of financial
services. Outlook Money Conclave was an Exchange where the best of ideas was listed.

 Social media is also a huge and important platform to reach the customers, it helps
companies in informing potential and existing consumer about its existing and upcoming
products and thus is a great promotional tool for any company.

 Physical Evidence
Although outlook doesn’t distribute its product through owned stores but it reaches its
customer through banners and posters in different book stores to increase brand
awareness.
Outlook Gateways are sold on all leading bookstores like Crossword, Landmark, and
Odyssey etc.
Time and again Outlook sets up standalone independent set ups in public places to
promote and sell Outlook products.

 People
Employees have an important role to play with many of them being dedicated to bring
regular business. Besides the employees, there are as many as 2000 interns in the
company helping promote and bring in revenue to the company

 Editor-In-Chief: Ruben Banerjee

 Managing Editor: Sunil Menon
 Chief Executive Officer: Indranil Roy
 Publisher: Sandip Kumar Ghosh
 Senior Vice President: Meenakshie Akash
 Vice Presidents: Shrutika Dewan, Diwan Singh Bisht
 Circulation & Subscription: Gagan Kohli, Kapil Dhal (North), G. Ramesh (South) &
Arun Kumar Jha (East)
 Digital: Amit Mishra

 Process
To live up to the expectations of the customers, employees at outlook group is divided
into two type of process.
The two processes are:
 Organizational Process
 Process of Sales

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 Competitive Analysis of Outlook Magazine
Competitive analysis is nothing but identifying competitors and evaluating their strategies to
determine strength and weakness relative to the brand. A competitive analysis helps a company
gain competitive advantage over its competitors. A competitive advantage is advantage over
competitors gained by offering consumers greater value than competitors offer.

 SWOT ANALYSIS of Outlook.

Strengths:
 Outlook Travaller is the no. 1 travel magazine in India.
 Strong social media presence of outlook traveler.
 Brand name of Outlook is huge.
 Experienced and efficient staff.
 Promotional offers.
 Gifts along with subscription.
Weakness:
 High price for some potential customers
 Frequent delay in deliveries impact brand image.
 Readers find too many ads
Opportunities:
 Opportunity to get into unexplored segments. Example- Outlook can launch its
own magazine line dedicated to working women, fashion, entertainment or
technology. This will enable them to capture new market and increase revenue.
 A lot of existing and upcoming opportunities in the digital spectrum
Threats:
 High competition from competitors
 The current market leader- India Today which already has a huge market share.
 Increasing usage of free apps and digital platforms

 Customer Perception:
We did a primary survey among readers to find out readers preference among top
magazine companies-
I. India Today
II. Outlook Magazines
III. The Week

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 When given a choice between the three customers 50.6% of the customer chose India
Today whereas Outlook was a close second with 41.9% customer choosing Outlook as
their preference. This is also the case in reality as well.

However, when the same set of people were asked for their preference based on the price
of the product, the numbers changed. India Today dropped from 50.6% to 48.1% whereas
Outlook’s preference increased from 41.9% to 43.1%.

 Net Promoter Score

The Net Promoter Score is an index fluctuating between a range from -100 to 100 that
measures the willingness of customers to recommend a company's products or services to
others. Based on global Net Promoter Score (NPS) standards, any score above 0 is
“good”. This means the majority of the customer base is more loyal.

To calculate net promoter, score a primary survey was done. I collected 160 responses.
NPS = Percentage (%) of promoters – Percentage (%) of detractors

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  NPS of ‘Outlook Magazine’ = (28+22) - (20+16+3+3+1+3)
31.25 - 28.75 = 2.5

 NPS of ‘India Today’ = (40+23) – (15+6+6+3+2+4)

39.37 – 22.5= 16.87

 NPS of “The Week” = (20+6) – (5+1+3+7+18+22)

= 26- 56= -30

According to the above calculation, we find that India Today has the highest NPS according to
our survey followed by Outlook Magazine and the Week. This gives India Today a competitive
advantage over Outlook.

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Reason for their respective NPS:
 India today has an NPS of 16.87- This can be due to the fact that it has the highest
readership of over 8 million and hence the highest brand recall.
 This also shows that the brand recall and brand loyalty of India Today is more than that
of outlook
 The primary reason of getting a magazine subscription for readers is in-depth journalism.
According to the primary survey done, for 87.5% of the people, content was a deciding
factor in buying magazine

Hence, the company needs more in-depth journalism to enhance their NPS which
would further help them gain a competitive advantage over India Today.

 Social Media

Social Media Platform Outlook India Today

Facebook 1.1 Million Likes 10 Million Likes
Instagram 81.2k Followers 2.1 Million Followers
Twitter 233.3k Followers 5.7 Million Followers
YouTube 165k Subscribers 4.83 Million Subscribers

The follower count of India Today is more on every social media platform
However, judging solely on the follower count would not give a true and fair view of the
engagement of followers with the account. Hence, we tried finding out the engagement
rate of India Today and Outlook taking any one social media for reference. We selected
Instagram to find the engagement rate

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India Today:

Outlook India:

Here we see that India Today has an engagement rate of 0.16% whereas Outlook
has a lower engagement rate of 0.02%.

However, a positive sign is customer seemed to be content with the expectation that they
have of Outlook Magazine. Company has the advantage of increasing their quality to win
over more customers

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 Recommendation
 Have a more dedicated social media team with a focus to increase engagement of the
existing social media account
 New product line with focus on any of the topics mentioned below
 Working women
 Fashion
 Technology
 Entertainment
This will diversify risk and bring in more potential consumer. Hence, generating more
revenue.
 Consider reducing price. In our primary survey 50% of the respondents felt they would
get a subscription if the prices were lower

 Get the best of articles each month as people were more inclined towards the content of
the magazine then promotional offers and gifts.
 Spend more on promoting Outlook products as there is still a lack of product awareness
among people.

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 Conclusion
With the advent of new technology and introduction of its application. Marketing mix has
evolved from its traditional 4 Ps model and not restricted to any specific limitation like before. It
is now a lot more personalized. An apt marketing mix and strategy helps create a brand image
which in lieu ensures a long-term growth and highly loyal readers will purchase every issue of a
magazine, even when the content does not immediately appeal to them, and are more trustful
towards information and recommendations given by that publication. In this sense, impulse
purchases of other magazine brands (which id outside their “loyalty” set) act as additional
sources of information rather than as a substitute information source. The research discovered
that attachment to specialty magazines considerably influences other, magazine‐related, product
purchases. This is also true in case in case of outlook. Having a strong brand image with a varied
range of product has helped them be one of the largest selling magazines across the nation.

This research gave a clearer understanding on contributes to magazine brand management by

developing a deeper understanding of the concept of magazine loyalty, something that has been
previously overlooked by magazine researchers. I found that there exists a high degree of
competition amongst the players in the print industry and the firms that enjoyed economies of
scale advantage dominated the industry. Competitive firms had to compete on other competitive
edges like quality, content, distribution strategies, marketing segmentation gaps and cost focus
strategies to gain market share. Social responsibility was also acknowledged by all the firms
except one but their main focus tor competitive strategies was profitability and increased market
share presence. If we consider outlook their competitive strategy lies in customer relationship
management mainly consisting of customer acquisition, customer retention and customer
development and during the project work further competitive analysis can be done keeping in
mind these points. Acquiring and retaining customer is the bigger goal for any print brand to
ensure future loyalty.

Based on investigating all the articles, the results showed that among several available methods,
a majority of businesses employ Porter’s triple strategies, namely differentiation, centralization,
and cost leadership, to gain competitive advantages. Among the triple strategies, the strategy of
differentiation has drawn the highest attention.

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 Learning from SIP

During the 2 months of this SIP and while proceeding with the project, I learnt various aspects of
management in general and marketing in particular.
Starting from Customer Relationship Management, we learnt about the various stages involved
in customer life cycle and how a business can use them for their own growth.
I also learnt about Net Promoter Score and its importance. Further, collecting the data required
and eventually calculating it.
We also got a practical exposure to digital marketing and the various aspect of digital audit
report and its analysis. My learning extended to product and brand management along with
competitive analysis of business.
My learning involved using our creativity and applying it for advertisement enabling us to
express our thoughts and knowledge freely. I also learnt to create creatives for such
advertisements.
All the learning involved in-depth market research, studying trends and application of theoretical
knowledge throughout the internship and this project.
Having a prior live project experience in the same brand I inculcated skills required for business
development and customer acquisition which will help me in any sector requiring direct selling.

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 Reference
 http://www.emerald.com.kiitlibrary.remotexs.in/insight/content/doi/10.1108/0144333071
0757249/full/html
 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1362/026725706776861190
 https://www.market.science/wp-content/uploads/Limitations-of-conventional-marketing-
mix-modelling1.pdf
 http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/handle/11295/21466
 http://www.emerald.com.kiitlibrary.remotexs.in/insight/content/doi/10.1108/0144333071
0757249/full/html#idm45083801093280
 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00076791.2011.617209
 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/dddmp.2016.3
 http://www.ijashss.com/article_84369_53251b62a882bfdaed5ffbd4b99f5f91.pdf

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