RESEARCH REPORT ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

THE WE EK

Journalism with a human touch

Submitted To: Submitted By: -

Declaration
The project report entitled is submitted to in partial fulfillment of post graduate diploma in management. The report is exclusively and comprehensively prepared and conceptualized by me. All the information and data given here in this project is as per my fullest knowledge collected during my studies and from the various websites. The report is an original work done by me and it has not formed the basis for the award of any other degree or diploma elsewhere.

Place : LUCKNOW Date :

AJAY SINGH

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The project report is a result of our rigorous and devoted effort and valuable guidance of Mr.sanjeev Sharma, Mr.Sandeep and it is the result of the traning in malayala manorama, it contains brief history of the organization and its mission / objectives. Malayala manorama is a well known name for its valuable services. The organization is maintaining the quality of the services throughout. I have done my project in malayala manorama, Lucknow. The focus of the project is overview of the various aspects of services basically in Consumer Buying behavior. This project as a summer traning is a partial fulfillment of two year MBA course. In this project we have strived to include all the details regarding the subject and made a sincere effort towards completion of the same.

In this course of training we learned various pratical aspects about the Consumer Buying Behaviour and we knew about the major benefits provided by malayala manorama to their consumers & to the society.

AJAY SINGH MBA IInd semester IPM, LUCKNOW

SECTION : A

INTRODUCTION

OBJECTIVES
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE 1. To study consumer behaviors on selecting a product of Malayala
manorama.

2. Consumer feedback about THE WEEK magazine.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVE 1. To identify buying triggers.

2.To identify consumer with the help of consumer interaction. 3.To promote the product. 4.To get feedback from consumer.

RESEARCH DESIGN
Quantitative research technique was used for the project. This was intentionally done because the units in which the factors were organized were in quantitative term.

Exploratory research design was used for this project. The main purpose of this research is to interact with consumer and to know the satisfaction level by the product. The major emphasis in such studies is on discovering of ideas and insight methods used this kind of research design are :-

SECTION: D

FINDING AND ANALYSIS

Q.1: Have you heard about THE WEEK magazine?

1. 2.

Yes No

78% 22%

Ques. 2:- Where did you first hear about of THE WEEK magazine?

A B C D

Word of mouth Advertisement Company demonstration News papers

60%

10%

20% 10%

QUES.3:- Have you used this magazine ever before? 1 2 Yes No 64% 26%

Ques.4:- Do you like this magazine ?

1 2

Yes No

56% 44%

Ques.4:- If you ever used this magazine what did you like the most about THE WEEK magazine?

1 2 3 4

Company Overview: Malayala Manorama and Company

Date of Establishment Revenue Market Cap Corporate Address Branches Management Team Owner Headquarters Website Overview 1888 Not Available Not Available K K Road, Kottayam, Kerala - 686001, India Not Available George Jacob Director Malayala Manorama Group Kottayam manoramaoline.com A wholly owned family enterprise, Malayalam Manorama is an ISO 9001 company. It is India's largest circulated regional newspaper. It has nine units in Kerala and three units outside Kerala. It is the first newspaper for which offices are connected on a high speed Wide Area Network using the fibre optic cable network of the DOT.

The product offering of Malayala Manorama & Company includes The Week, Bashaposhini, Karshakashree, Manorama Weekly, Manorama Annual, Vijayaveedhi , Vanitha, Vanitha Hindi, Kalikkudukka, Magic Pot, Balarama, Balarama Digest, Amar Chitra Katha, Thozhilveedhi, Knowledge Adventure CDROM, Hindi Year Book, English Year Book, Tamil Year Book, Malayalam Year Book, Bengali Year Book and Malayala Manorama Newspaper. The company publishes in five different languages.

Malayalam Manorama (Malayalam: ) is a popular Malayalam daily with a very strong readership in Kerala, India. The Manorama group, which manages the newspaper, also runs the Manorama Yearbook, largest circulated yearbook in the region. Malayalam Manorama, which first appeared on 14 March 1890, as a weekly, currently has a readership of over 16 million, with a circulation base of over 18[lakh]] copies. Malayalam Manorama is very popular among Christians and the supporters of the Indian National Congress party in Kerala. Manorama is acclaimed of its highly attractive page layouts. The Malayalam word "manorama" roughly translates to "entertainer". The Week (India), an Indian weekly is also brought out by the Manorama Group. Manorama Yearbook is yet another popular yearly publication by the Kottayam-based Manorama group.

History Of MALAYALA MANORAMA COMPANY LIMITED

A joint stock publishing company, destined to acquire the status of the first joint stock publishing company of Republic of India, was incorporated by in 1888 by Kandathil Varghese Mappillai at, then a small town in the Kingdom of currently, a part of Kerala state, India. The first issue of Malayalam Manorama was published on 22 March 1890 from the press owned by Malankara Metropoltan H.G. Joseph Mar Dionysius of the Orthodox Church. The name Malayalam Manorama was chosen by the poet, Raghavan Nambiar, Villuvarvattathu from Tiruvalla. Kerala Varma granted the symbol which is a part of the Travancore kingdom symbol. In a period of two years, from the date of incorporation until the publication commenced, the company witnessed several challenges. It also publishes an information oriented monthly called Tell Me Why.

Editions
Kottayam Thiruvananthapuram Kozhikode Kochi Thrissur Kannur Kollam Palakkad Malappuram Pathanamthitta Bangalore Mangalore Chennai Mumbai Delhi Dubai

 Bahrain The newspaper is criticised for its number of advertisement space. The newspaper is known for giving more importance to advertisements and less importance to news.The manorama group are also open promoters of capitalist policies and shows strong opposition to socialism.

Timeline
1888 Malayalam Manorama founded 1890 First issue of Malayalam Manorama was published on 14 March 1892 Publication of Bhashaposhini commenced 1901 Malayalam Manorama becomes bi-weekly 1904 Kandathil Varghese Mappillai, the key figure passes away on 6 July 1915 Malayalam Manorama commences publication of daily World War I supplements 1918 Malayalam Manorama becomes triweekly on 2 July 1928 Malayalam Manorama becomes a daily from 2 July 1929 On 29 May, Akhila Kerala Balajana Sakhyam formed 1930 Malayalam Manoramas first Annual Number appears 1937 Commencement of Malayalam Manorama Weekly from 8 August 1938 Travancore state proscribes Malayalam Manorama on 10 September An issue appears on 14 September from the state of Cochin- from the Kunnamkulam press of the Orthodox church. 1939 K. C. Mammen Mappillai was convicted and imprisoned on trumpeted charges of corruption and fraud 1941 Mammen Mappilla released after being absolved of all false cases 1947 From 29 November, Malayala Manorama re-commences regular publication 1950 Installation of the first rotary press 2007 Becomes the only regional language daily in India to cross 15 lakh copies.

Journalists
Prominent journalists who have worked with the Manorama daily or other Manorama publications include Vaikkom Chandrasekharan Nair, E. V. Krishna Pillai, E.V. Sreedharan, T. V. R. Shenoy, K. Gopalakrishnan, Babu Chengannoor, K. R. Chummar, Moorkoth Kunjappa, K. M.Tharakan, T. K. G. Nair, K. G Nedungadi, VKB (V. K. Bhargavan Nair) Others include Thomas Jacob and Joy Sasthampadickal who are currently working.

MAJOR PRODUCTS OF MALAYALA MANORAMA

MALAYALA MANORAMA DAILY

Largest circulated and read regional language newspaper daily in India. Circulation: 1.54 million(ABC Jan-jun 2007) Readership: 8.837 million (IRS 2007 Round 1) Cover price: Rs.3.50 (Sunday: Rs 4.00) Periodicity: daily Language: Malayalam

MALAYALA MANORAMA WEEKLY

Largest circulated weekly newspaper in India. Circulation: 6.17 lakhs (ABC Jan-jun 2007 ) Readership:22.94 lakhs (IRS 2007 Round 1) Cover price: Rs. 4.00 Periodicity: weekly Language: Malayalam

VANITHA : MALAYALAM
Largest read and circulated Womens magazine in India. Circulation: 4.79 lakhs(ABC Jan-Jun 2007) Readership: 30.67 lakhs(IRS 2007 Round 1) Cover Price: Rs. 14 Periodicity: fortnightly Language: Malayalam

BALRAMA:
Largest read and circulated childrens weekly in India. Circulation: 2.74 lakhs(ABC Jan-Jun 2007) Readership: 21.24 lakhs (IRS 2007 Round 1) Cover price : Rs. 8 Periodicity: weekly Language: Malayalam

VANITHA HINDI
One of the major womens magazine in India. Circulation:1.74 lakhs(ABC July- Dec 2007) Readership:7.90 lakhs (IRS 2007 Round 2) Cover price: Rs. 20 Periodicity: monthly Language : Hindi

Magic Pot
Largest selling magazine for nursery school children in India. Circulation: not available(ABC Jan-June 2007) Readership: 0.92 lakhs (IRS 2007 Round 1) Cover price: Rs. 12 Periodicity: Fortnightly Language: English

MANORAMA YEARBOOK: English

Largest circulated yearbook in India. Circulation: 2.44 lakhs (ABC Jan- Dec 2006) Readership: Not available in IRS/NRS Cover price: Rs. 130/ Periodicity: annual Language: English

AMONGST OTHER PRODUCTS ARE THE

THE WEEK MAGAZINE

 THE MAN

TELL ME WHY

 AND MANY MORE

THE WEEK MAGAZINE

The Week is Indias fastest growing G.I.E.M i.e. General Interest English Magazine. Its periodicity is one week. It has about 3.5 lakh readers and is under continuous growth in the number of readers. Cover price of this magazine is Rs. 20. The Week is fastest growing news magazine having a circulation both nationally and internationally. It is written and designed to be fast, clear and concise and easy to follow magazine for every educated home and concerned citizens. It is packed with latest news and views from every corner of India plus highlights from whole world.

THE WEEK CONTENTS

The Week magazine has a wide variety of contents which cover great range of articles from all the fields may be it is the: cover story, aperitif, letters,

current events, special reports, statescan, development , society, art and style, cinema, forecast, global village, etc the sexes

 time out biz buzz last word

COVER STORY
Column of cover story covers the most talked about topic of the week or any such topic which is very sensitive and needs to be given special attention, may be it is related to politics, society, business or art or style. This column covers a long description of the topic chosen and also interviews egarding the topic from eminent personalities of the concerned fields and also some other related information.

APERITIF
This is the column where small articles covering news from all over the country and which are worth mentioning are published. These articles are very small and are of just two or three sentences long. These articles give a brief idea of the various happenings which went by throughout the past week. This column also contains a sub-column called Power Point where Sachidananda Murthi,Resident Editor, Delhi, puts his words into ink on any specific issue. There is also a column of milestones which covers milestones set by the various personalities in different fields. Aperitif also covers one more sub-column point blank which covers the quotes as said by eminent personalities of the world and which has been found worth mentioning.

LETTERS
Column of Letters contains letters from the readers of The Week magazine regarding various queries related to any field.

CURRENT EVENTS

As the name suggests this column gives the information regarding the most recent events that took place throughout the world. Thus, this magazine acts as a very good informative diary for all the people who love to be updated with the newest information.

ART AND STYLE

This column is a very beautiful and very colorful column and depicts the imaginative power of the human kind and shows beautiful works of art and style by various artists, who may be fashion designers, interior designers, painters, various other technological designers. India is a place where art is worshipped and columns like this provides the worshippers with a sense of contentment when they get to see such beautiful imaginations personified on paper. Thus, overall, this is a very good column to make people be a fan of this magazine.

STATESCAN
Statescan contains an article on any specific news of particularly one state from all over India. The news may be of any kind whether it is political unrest in U.P. or attacks on non-maharashtrians in Maharashtra.

SPECIAL REPORT
Special report focuses mainly on drawing societys , administrators, officials and everybody else attention on a most sensitive issue which has to be taken utmost care of and which needs needs immediate actions to be taken to be brought onto the path required.

CINEMA

Cinema is the column which desires to fulfill the wants of Bollywood and Hollywood lovers and provides them with spicy news from all the corners of the world related to the cinema world.

SOCIETY
This column of The Week magazine brings to the front the various issues related to the society and thus develops peoples concern regarding that issue and hence makes the society a bit aware of any injustice being done to anyone, any environmental damage, any flaw going on in any system, any wrong being done to society, the various social evils or any other thing.

FORECAST
Forecast as the name suggests gives the horoscope of people belonging to different zodiac signs. The predictions are made by Mr. K.K. Vamanan Nampoorthiri.

THE SEXES
It is the column wherein the famous writer, Shobhaa De speaks about any issue putting her own views and her own thoughts into words.

TIME OUT
This column gives the news about the various events or shows or other things like seasonal wears etc. which have soon begun or are about to begin and thus forces people to go for these things as soon as possible and that is how the name goes like.

BIZ BUZZ

The column of Biz Buzz gives the news of the corporate sector and talks about the various changes going on in the bigger companies throughout the world, their CEOs, their General Managers and the growing competition and the job opportunities created, if any.

LAST WORD
Last Word is the column wherein people like Amjad Ali Khan, Mahesh Dattani and Jon Stock put their views regarding some issue, from India and the whole world, at the last page of The Week magazine. This is the article that ends up the weekly news magazine.

HEALTH

SUBSCRIPTION MAGAZINE

DETAILS

OFTHE

WEEK

Subscriptions for The Week magazine can be: Short term subscription. Long term subscriptions. Short term subscriptions are for a period of 6 months whereas long term subscriptions are for 1 year, 3years or 5years. Attractive gifts are given to the subscribers with these subscriptions. Subscriptions are the best way for the promotion of The Week magazine and these are helping a lot to build up the position of the magazine. The summer trainees were to do the promotion through the 6 monthly subscription plans. The various subscription plans are describe :

5 YEARS SUBSCRIPTION
Total issues of The Week magazine offered in 5 years(52*5): 260 New stand price of 260 issues(260*52) Rs. 5200 Discount on 5 year subscription(50% of 5200) Rs. 2600 Thus ,subscription cost of 5 year subscriptions (5200-2600) Rs. 2600 : : :

 Gift: GE Cordless Phone/leather bag pack , mrp Rs. 1395/1595 Balance amount Rs.1205/1005

: : :

Cost per copy (1005/260) Rs.3.86 Copies to be delivered through courier

3YEARS SUBSCRIPTION
Total issues of The Week in 3 years(52*3) 156 New stand price of 156 issues (156*20) Rs. 3120 Discount on 3 year subscriptions(45% of 3120) Rs. 1421 Subscription cost of 3 year subscription Rs. 1699 Gift : Beetel Caller ID Phone or 3 year subscription TMY/ Rs.995/720 1year TM Balance amount Rs.704 Cost per copy Rs. 4.51 Copies will be sent by courier : : : : : : :

1 YEAR SUBSCRIPTION

 Total issues of The Week in 1 year Newstand price of 52 issues Rs. 1040 Discount on 1 year subscription Rs. 441 Cost of 1 year subscription Rs. 599 Gift: TraveBag Rs. 240 OR 1 year TMW// Leather Wallet Rs. 240 Balance amount Rs. 399 Cost per copy Rs. 7.67

52 :

Copies will be sent by courier

6 MONTHS SUBSCRIPTION
Total no. of issues in 6 months 26 Newstand price of 26 subscriptions Rs.520 Discount on 6 months subscription Rs. 190 Cost of 6 months subscription Rs. 330 : : : :

 Gifts: I Manorama Yearbook and 1 Britannica Encyclopedia CD Rs. 330 Cost per copy almost free Copies will be sent by courier

: :

ANALYSIS
Q.1 AGE? 15-25 25-40 40-50 50-60

QUALIFICATION ? UNDER GRADUATE GRADUATE POST GRADUATE OTHERS

PROFESSION? STUDENT BUSINESS SALARIED OTHERS

MONTHLY INCOME? <25000 <50000 <75000 >75000

NOTE: The following pie charts show the percentage of people surveyed of different age group, qualification, profession and income group.

NOTE: In the Chart, Others include Doctors, practicing Chartered Accountants, Agents etc.

NOTE: In the chart, 0 income group include the students surveyed who do not earn.

SAMPLE SIZE:
The survey was conducted with the help of questionnaire taking 400 people as a sample size of every age group with different qualification and profession and of several salary package like 48% people surveyed are earning less than or equal to Rs.25000, 10% are earning less than or equal to Rs.50000, 4% of them are earning less than or equal to Rs.75000, 3% of them are earning greater than or equal to Rs.75000 while 35% of them have no earnings as they are students. The people surveyed are of different qualification like 16% of people surveyed are post graduate, 70% are simply graduates among whom there are 58% of the people

interviewed aged less than or equal to 25, 30% of the people aged less than or equal to 40, 10% of them are less than or equal to 50 and 2% of people are upto an age of 60 years. The survey includes the people of different profession too like 20% of the people surveyed are salaried people, 30% of them are in business, 45% are students while 5% of them includes Doctors, C.As etc.

Q.2 Do you know about Weekly News Magazines? (i)AWARE (ii) UNAWARE

Implication of the question

The purpose of this question to the people is to know about the awareness of the weekly news magazines among the public. This question helps to judge as to how many people are still unaware of the weekly news magazines.

SAMPLE SIZE:
According to the survey of THE WEEK magazine, which is done with the help of 400 people as a sample size of every age group with different qualification, profession and of several salary packages, it is found that-

89% of people interviewed said that YES they know about the weekly news magazines. 11% of the people interviewed said that NO they dont know about weekly magazines.

Findings
Thus, as per the survey results we found that majority of the people are having a basic idea of weekly news magazines. Also through the survey it was found that most of the salaried class people and students are aware of weekly news magazines either they are published in HINDI language or in ENGLISH language.

Recommendations
After analyzing the answers of the interviews I would like to recommend Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd. to make the remaining 11% of the population which includes businessmen as well, aware of the weekly magazines, especially THE WEEK magazine and thus to expand its sales.

Q.3 Do you read weekly news magazines? If YES, then which one of these? THE WEEK INDIA TODAY OUTLOOK OPEN Others

Implication of the question

The purpose of this question is to know the percentage of the people who read different weekly news magazines like The Week, India Today, Outlook, Open or others and which magazine is been read most by the readers.

SAMPLE SIZE:
Whole surveying on the 400 people of different age groups and qualifications, who have different professions and income, it was found that 74% of the people interviewed read weekly news magazines. 26% of the people surveyed do not read any weekly news magazine.

The percentage of the people who are customers of the different news magazines is likewise INDIA TODAY OUTLOOK THE WEEK OPEN Others 55% 23% 17% 3% 2%

Findings

Thus analysis of the answers given by the people surveyed, it was found that majority of the people are reading weekly news magazines. Also, the second part of the question shows that majority of the people read India Today; thereafter they read Outlook and then The Week magazine. Thus The Week magazine is lagging behind the two magazines and has to compete with these two major selling magazines.

Recommendations
Thus, through the study it can be recommended that the Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd. should concentrate on expanding its share in the weekly news magazines market and try to give the best product to the customers through the best features, it should also go for an extensive promotion program so as to acquire a larger market share.

Q.4 Do you know about The Week magazine? (i)YES (ii) NO

Implication of the question

This question has been included in the questionnaire to know as to how many people i.e. what percentage of North Indians are aware of the existence of The Week magazine, since it is a major publication in South India and has emerged

from the South Indian markets and still a lot of people find themselves unaware of this magazine.

SAMPLE SIZE:
Through the survey, it was found that 65% of the people said Yes, that they know about The Week ,magazine. 35% of the people show there unawareness about The Week magazine.

Findings
Thus as per the results of the survey it is found that majority of the people know about The Week magazine but still many of them do not have any information about this magazine.

Recommendations
After analysis of the survey it can be recommended that Malayala Manorama Company Limited should go about with advertisements and promotion programs especially in Northern region since many people react as if they have heard the

name of the company and the magazine for the first time where as on the other hand India Today and Outlook are quite popular with the people surveyed.

Q.5 store.

Would you like (i) to subscribe, or (ii) buy the magazine from a retail

Implication of the question

Through this question we aim to know the general mode through which the customers buy the magazine and we can thus know a better way to deliver the magazine.

SAMPLES
Through this question, it was found that _ 62% percent of the customers have the propensity of buying the books through subscriptions. 38% of the customers like to buy the magazine from a retail store.

Findings
Thus through this study we can find that majority of the customer find it beneficial to get the magazine subscribed rather than buying these from the retail stores.

Recommendations
Looking at the above analysis, I would suggest Malayala Manorama Company Ltd. to try to expand its business more into subscription and make the good promotional schemes so as to cover majority through the subscription.

Q.6 What other gift / discount will be better other than MANORAMA YEAR BOOK for 6 months subscription? (i) SUNGLASSES (ii) T-SHIRT (iii) SET OF PENS

(iv) DISCOUNT OF 20%

Implication of the question

This question implies you that how many % of the people wants these gifts & discount with the subscription by the company.

SAMPLES Through this question, it was found that _ 15% of peoples want sunglasses. 40% of peoples want t-shirts. 25% of peoples want set of pens. 20% of peoples want discount. 5% of peoples want Manorama Year Book

Findings
Thus through this study we find that more % of people want t-shirt more than any other things.

Q.7 The week Magazine provide us with information from different fields may be it is politics, art or science, society or fashion etc. do you find these contents sufficient enough to provide you with good information? (i)YES (ii)NO

Implication of the question

This question implies us to know as to what % of the people who read The week magazine are satisfied with its level of information and the various contents.

SAMPLE SIZE:
Through this survey, it was found that: 67% of people who read The Week magazine was satisfied with its matter content while, 33% of people are not satisfied with the matter content

Findings
Through this question it was analyzed that majority of the readers of The week magazine were satisfied with the contents of information of this magazine and that

they found this information as really useful, investing and sufficient enough to quench their thirst for knowledge while 33% of people still found the magazine unable to provide them with the required information.

Recommendations
After analyzing this data, I would like to suggest Malayala Manorama Company Limited to get the surveys and research work done at a large scale so as to find out what are the contents or the information in which the magazine is lagging behind and find out the ways to improve.

Q.8 Do the contents of The Week magazine bear any similarity to the contents of any other magazine? (i)Yes (ii) No

Implication of the questiion

Through this question, we can deduce as to how much percent of the people find uniqueness in The Week magazine and how much percent of the people find similarity in the contents of The Week Magazine.

SAMPLE SIZE:
Analyzing the answers to the above questions, it was found that 46% of the readers of the week magazine found that the contents of magazine were some or the other way similar to any other weekly magazine, whereas 54% of the people found the contents as different from others.

Findings
After analyzing the answers for the above questions it was found that nearly half of the population still feels that contents of The Week magazine have resemblance with any other weekly magazine and thus has still has space for making its own identity well established. Thus it has a lot of room to improve and be the best amongst the weekly magazines.

Recommendations

Thus, I would like to suggest Malayala Manorama Company Ltd. that it should go for innovating some of the contents of the week magazine which become a completely different and interesting taste for the readers so that they keep their loyalty with the magazine

Q.9 In your opinion, which feature of The week magazine attracts you most to read this magazine? Prompt delivery of the news. The column of COVER STORY every week. Column of cinema. Column of business.

Implication
The purpose behind asking this questioning is to know which feature of the week magazine is the cause of the inclination towards the week magazine and how can the company improve other features so as to make other features equally good.

SAMPLE SIZE:

 Analyzing the above question, it was found that, 60% of the readers of the week magazine found prompt delivery of the news as the best feature which attracts them to read this magazine. 20% of the readers found the COVER STORY column as the best part. 15% of the readers found the Business column as the best part. 5% of the readers found the cinema column as the best part.

Findings
Through the above analysis it was found that major feature of attraction for all the readers was the prompt delivery of actual news and that is a good sign for the future of this magazine.

Recommendations
I would suggest the Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd. to keep 100% accuracy in delivering the actual news as well as to make other columns such as the business column or the cinema column more attractive & appealing.

Q.10 Which type of subscription of The Week magazine would you like to have-

 Short term (6 months) Long term (1yr/3yr/5yr)

Implication of the question

The purpose of asking this question is to know of how much percent of the people find short-term subscriptions as beneficial for them and how much percent find long-term subscriptions as beneficial.

SAMPLE SIZE:
After going through the answers for the above question it was found that: 77% of the people wanted to have short-term subscriptions. 33% of the people wanted to have long term subscriptions.

Findings
After analyzing the answers for the above question it was found that most of the people wanted to have weekly magazines through the short term subscription sale while only 33% of the people wanted to have the magazine through the long term

sales. Thus, we can deduce that most of the people either do not have sufficient funds to go for long term subscriptions or they do not have enough loyalty towards the magazine.

Recommendations
Thus, I would like to suggest the Malayala Manorama company Ltd. that It should try to develop brand loyalty by providing good news as well as proper delivery of the magazine to the customers and also by catering to the needs of the readers.

Q.11 Do you feel that creating awareness among public about weekly news magazines through extensive promotion programs would lead to growth in weekly magazines usage? 1) YES 2) NO

Implication of the question

The purpose of asking this question is to know whether the extensive promotion programs are fruitful or not, and whether the promotion programs lead to an expansion of the business or not.

SAMPLE SIZE:
On analyzing the above question it was found that: 65% of the people surveyed said yes, the promotion programs would lead to a growth in the usage of weekly news magazines. While remaining 35%of the people said that they dont think that these promotional programs are of any use for the growth in the number of readers.

Findings of the question

Through the analysis of the above question it was found that majority of the people feel that extensive promotion programs are really beneficial to expand the market as well as to develop interest in the people towards weekly news magazines. While some people are still of the view that such programs are useless as far as the expansion of the market of weekly magazines is considered.

Recommendations of the question

After going through the analysis and findings of this question I would like to suggest the Malayala Manorama Company limited that it should keep on coming up with new promotional programs so as to make the existing readers loyal as well as attract new customers.

Q.12 Which medium of promotion would you like to suggest to the Malayala Manorama Company Ltd., whose product is the the week magazine, so as to be successful? Institutional sales Retail sale Subscription sale

Implication of the question

The purpose of asking this question is to know as to which medium of sales is most profit earning for the organization or which medium is preferred most by the public for getting the magazine whether it is through subscriptions or through retail or through institutional sales.

SAMPLE SIZE:
On analyzing the analysis of the answers for the above question it was found that:

40% of the people preferred to have the magazines through the subscriptions 38% of the people preferred to have the magazines through the the retail sale

 22% of the people preferred to have the magazine through the institutional sales.

Findings of the question

After analyzing the answers for the above question it was found that almost similar percent of the people that is nearly 40% of the people were in favour of promotion programs through the subscriptions and the same percent in favour of promotion through retail sales while only 20% of the people favoured promotion through institutional sales. Thus, it was found that most of the people feel that promotional programs are a better way to bring an increment in the sales of the magazine and thus this method can be considered as most effective way of promoting the sales further.

Recommendations of the question

After all the analysis I would like to suggest that for the promotion programs the company should go for promotional programs all throughout India and sub-urban areas where it still has to establish itself which would surely help it to grow faster.

Problems regarding sales promotion

The topic i.e. Sales promotion of The Week magazine has been chosen because of two particular reasons. The very first reason as to why this particular topic has been chosen is that I was given the task of getting the subscriptions done for The Week magazine during my summer training. These subscriptions were for a period of 6 months and while undertaking my task I had developed a keen interest of

knowing the popularity of this magazine since I did not get many people who were aware of this magazine and of those who were aware were not the readers of this magazine, though Malayala Manorama Company is the largest publication house of India and this magazine is very popular in South India. So in order to find an answer to these questions I went with up the topic. Also as I was to approach people regarding the subscriptions, it became easy for me to move about with the survey. The second reason as to why I chose this topic was that getting the subscriptions done for any magazine was a kind of promotional scheme and since I was to get the subscriptions done I was in a way promoting the sales of this magazine. And so choosing this topic as my summer training project was not a tough job.

Brief description about the project

The project has been made by conducting a survey of about 400 people. A questionnaire had been designed for the purpose and individuals were asked to fill the same. After this each question has been discussed with its implication or relevance to the topic. The answers to each question have been analyzed and then the respective findings have been discussed. Thereafter I have provided my recommendations on the analysis and the findings and have tried to suggest some

of mine viewpoints so as to promote the sales of the magazine and also to expand the market share. While working with the project it was found that:

Majority of the people have a know-how of The Week magazine but still a large percentage of the people are still unaware of the existence of this magazine as well as its belongingness to Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd.

Promotion programs through subscriptions have come out as the best way to expand the sales of The Week magazine whereas retail sales is also more or less desired the same way for expansion of the sales whereas institutional sales is not considered as the best method.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

PRIMARY METHOD:

Survey is done through QUESTIONNAIRE taking 4OO people as a sample size of every age group with different qualifications and professions and of several salary packages of both The Week readers and non-readers of The Week in mixed form in consideration.

2) SECONDARY METHOD:
Interview method is also adopted. This is done while interviewing various readers of The Week and other magazines. This stage occurs only after preparing QUESTIONNAIRE, i.e. after preparing questionnaire I asked, 400 customers of both non- WEEK readers and WEEK readers about The WEEK magazine, various questions mentioned in the questionnaire in order to accomplish my survey work.

FINDINGS
Through the survey it was deduced that most of the people are aware of the weekly news magazines, specially the salaried class and the students.

 Majority of the people surveyed are reading weekly news magazines and the most preferred magazine is India Today, thereafter people prefer reading Outlook and then comes The Week magazine, which is at the third position as found through the survey. Majority of the people have a know-how of The Week magazine but still a large percentage of the people are still unaware of the existence of this magazine as well as its belongingness to Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd. Some of the people found that the contents of The Week magazine as not so informative as are the contents of other magazines like Outlook or India Today. Majority of the people prefer having a subscription in comparison to retail buying. Also, the subscription periods favored by them are of the short term rather than of long term. People who prefer The Week magazine choose it because of prompt the delivery of this magazine. Promotion programs through subscriptions have come out as the best way to expand the sales of The Week magazine whereas retail sales is also more or less desired the same way for expansion of the sales whereas institutional sales is not considered as the best method.

RECOMMENDATIONS

 According to the analysis of the survey, I would like to recommend to the Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd. to make people aware of the The Week magazine so that at least all the people have a consideration of this magazine whenever they are to buy or subscribe the magazine. Some of the contents of the week magazine need to be innovated and made more attractive so as to make it a differentiated product in the weekly magazine market. Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd. should go extensive promotional programs as well as for advertisements through various Medias. Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd. should try to expand its sale through covering the magazine market through subscriptions especially short term subscriptions. I would suggest the Company to deliver actual news with 100% accuracy and to make the columns of business and cinema more attractive and appealing.

It should provide good service and properly deliver the copies to the customers and also cater to the needs of the readers. Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd. should come out with new promotional schemes especially through subscriptions so as to keep existing readers loyal as well as attract new customers The company should go for extensive promotion programs especially in suburban areas so as to maximize its sale since sub-urban areas give the space for a new market wherein most of the competitors are still to find a way.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://weekly.manoramaonline.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayala_Manorama http://freelance.afaqs.com/perl/news/interviews/index.html?id=275 http://www.emagazinecatalog.com/india-emagazines.php http://www.linkroll.com/Children-Education-Reference-and-Education-185086-magazine-listmens-magazinemagazinesubscriptionindianmagazine.html http://www.the-week.com/ http://digg.com/television/The_Week_magazine_Ad_Malayala_Manora ma_group http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayala_Manorama http://www.aboutus.org/The-Week.com

APPENDICES
QUESTIONNAIRE

NAME: ................................................ Q.1) AGE? 15-25 25-40 40-50 QUALIFICATION ? PROFESSION? UNDER GRADUATE GRADUATE POST GRADUATE OTHERS STUDENT BUSINESS SALRIED OTHERS MONTHLY INCOME? <25000 <50000 <75000 >75000

Q.2) Do you know about Weekly News Magazines? (i)YES (ii) NO

Q.3) Do you read weekly news magazines? If YES, then which one of these? THE WEEK INDIA TODAY

 OUTLOOK OPEN Others

Q.4) Do you know about The Week magazine? (i)YES (ii) NO

Q.5) The Week magazine belong to Malayala Manorama Company limited, the largest publication house of India. Do you know that? (i)YES (ii) NO

Q.6) The week Magazine provide us with information from different fields may be it is politics, art or science, society or fashion etc. do you find these contents sufficient enough to provide you with good information?

Q 7) Do the contents of The Week magazine bear any similarity to the contents of any other magazine? (i)Yes (ii) No

Q.8) Would you like (i) to subscribe, or (ii) buy the magazine from a retail store.

Q 9) In your opinion, which feature of The week magazine attracts you most to read this magazine?

Prompt delivery of the news. The column of COVER STORY every week. Column of cinema. Column of business.

Q 10) Which type of subscription of The Week magazine would you like to have Short term (6 months) Long term (1yr/3yr/5yr)

Q.11) Do you feel that creating awareness among public about weekly news magazines through extensive promotion programs would lead to growth in weekly magazines usage? (i)Yes (ii) No

Q.12 Which medium of promotion would you like to suggest to the Malayala Manorama Company Ltd., whose product is the the week magazine, so as to be successful? Institutional sales Retail sale Subscription sale

LIST OF BOOK STALLS PARTICIPATING IN DISPLAY SCHEME

SI.NO.

NAME OF BOOK STALL MORDERN BOOK STALL VISHAL PATRIKA SUBHASH PUSTAK BHANDAR PANDIT PUSTAK BHANDHAR S K PUSTAK BHANDHAR AMIT PUSTAK BHANDAR MANNU BOOK STALL TANDON BOOK STALL BHOLA BOOK STALL PARAG BOOK STALL KALA KUNJ BOOK STALL MODERN MAGZINE SHOP VIBHOR & RAINA BOOK

NAME VINOD ARORA VISHAL SONI DIXIT

PLACE JANPATH NEAR UMRAO CINEMA OPP. CHARBAGH CHOWK CHOWK DALIGANJ HAZRATGANJ HAZRATGANJ HAZRATGANJ HAZRATGANJ HAZRATGANJ KAPURTHALA KHURRAM NAGAR

AMIT MANNU RAMESH TONDON SRI RAM DIGVIJAY ARORA JI ADITYA KOTHARI

STALL VIRENDRA VERMA UMESH BOOK STALL URMILA BOOK CENTER CITY BOOK SHOP MAMA MAGZINE CENTER SAROJ MAGZINE CENTER BHANJA BANDHU BOOK CENTER RAJU MAGZINE CENTER BANSAL BOOK HOUSE GARIMA BOOK STALL MISHRA BOOK STALL VIBHOR BOOK DEPO GOPAL SHARMA BOOK STALL MODERN MAGZINE POINT TIWARI BOOK STALL YASH COMPETITION CENTER MISHRA BOOK CENTER SHYAM MAGZINE CENTER VERMA BOOK STALL SHYAM MAGZINE CENTER TIWARI COMPETITION & BOOK CENTER HARI OM STATIONERS & MAGZINE CENTER PREM BOOK STALL ASHIRWAD BOOK STALL SHIVAJI BOOK STALL

VIRENDRA UMESH RAJESH SINGH MUJAHID HUSAIN MAMA SAROJ

TEDHI PULIA RAIDAS MANDIR I.T BRIDGE JANKIPURAM SEC-Q ALIGANJ SHRI PLAZA VIKAS NAGAR VIKAS NAGAR VIKAS NAGAR KAPURTHALA BHOOTHNATH MARKET BHOOTHNATH MARKET MUNSHIPULIA MUNSHIPULIA VIVEK KHAND, GOMTI NAGAR VIVEK KAHND, GOMTI NAGAR HUSADIYA CHAURAHA, GOMTI NAGAR PATRAKARPURAM, GOMTI NAGAR PATRAKARPURAM, GOMTI NAGAR CHARBAGH I T CHAURAHA PURANYA CHAURAHA NAHRIA CHAURAHA NAHRIA CHAURAHA ALAMBAGH AMINABAD AMINABAD

SUNNY RAJU MISHRA ANUJ SHARMA RAJ KUMAR OM PRAKESH RAJENDRA SUDAMA MISHRA