GL BAJAJ INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH

GREATER NOIDA

2018-20

Summer Training Report

on

A STUDY ON READER SATISFACTION RATING

FOR “OUTLOOK MAGAZINE”

Submitted towards the partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the
degree of Post Graduate Diploma in Management

Submitted by:
Submitted to:
Aman Katiyar
Dr. Arpita Srivastava
GM18023

1
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The internship opportunity I had with Outlook India Pvt. Ltd was a great chance for
learning and professional development. I have been provided with great opportunities. I
am also grateful for having a chance to meet so many brilliant people and professionals
who led me though this internship period.

Bearing in mind previous I am using this opportunity to express my gratitude and thanks
to my Company Guide Mr. Muzaffer Ali ( Asst. Manager, Outlook India Pvt Limited.)
who despite being extraordinarily busy with his duties, took time out to hear, guide and
keep me on the correct path and allowing me to carry out my project at their esteemed
organization and extending during the internship period.

I express my gratitude and thanks to my Faculty Guide Ms. Arpita Srivastava for guiding
me with all the rules and regulations of internships and clearing the doubts whenever
required. I choose this moment to acknowledge his help gratefully.

I perceive as this opportunity a milestone in my career development. I will strive to use

gained skills and knowledge in the best possible way, and I will continue to work on their
improvement to attain desired career objectives.

Hope to continue cooperation with all of you in the future.

(Aman Katiyar)

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 DECLARATION

I Aman Katiyar student of PGDM from GL Bajaj Institute of Management and Research,
Greater Noida hereby declare that I have completed summer internship on the project
titled “A study on reader satisfaction rating for outlook magazine” as part of the course
requirement.
The project duration was from 1st May 2019 to 30th June 2019.

I further declare that the information presented in this project is true and original to the
best of my knowledge.

Aman Katiyar
Place: Greater Noida

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 ABSTRACT

This project will deal with the parameters and factors that contribute to the customer
satisfaction. Satisfaction is consumer’s fulfillment response. It is a judgment that a
product or a service feature or the product or service itself provides pleasurable level of
consumption related fulfillment. Customer satisfaction is the act of just doing enough to
be acceptable to a customer. The company must operate on the philosophy that it is trying
to deliver a high level of satisfaction to the other stake-holder within the constraints of its
resources.

The present report is prepared for the partial fulfillment of PGDM Program (G.L.Bajaj
Institute of Management) and as a part of curriculum. The survey is an attempt to
determine the perception of the customers of Outlook group towards the magazine.” To
pursue research, the respondents are chosen randomly from the customer’s database of
the Outlook group and the questionnaire is filled through Google link, form.

The Project “measuring customer satisfaction” is an attempt to find out the factors and
causes which affect the degree of satisfaction among the customers of Outlook
Magazines. In this tough time of competition magazines industry is going a long way in
developing, formulating and implementing promotional strategies to cope up with this
tough competition. Though there are many aspects which can be improvised in the
services of Outlook magazine. Strategies are formulated not only keep up with cut throat
competition but also to meet the highly volatile consumer preferences.

Marketing is very necessary for every organization. It helps organizations in determining

what product and services may interest customers and also strategies for use in product
development, sales and promotions.

Finally some suggestions with respect to the survey for the future improvement are given
to improve the survey because their competitors have also taken up the surveys.

At the end of the report limitations, conclusion of the research and Appendix which
includes questionnaire, Bibliography, that has the technical terms of the report.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

S.NO TOPICS

1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

2 ABSTRACT

3 INTRODUCTION

4 COMPANY PROFILE

5 LITERATURE REVIEW

6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

7 DATA INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS

8 FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

9 RECOMMENDATIONS

10 BIBLIOGRAPHY

11 ANNEXURE

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 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

6
 INTRODUCTION

Indian magazine print media Market overview

Print media in India is more than a century old and well established industry. The print
industry mainly comprises of newspaper and magazine publishing. Book publishing is
smaller but significant in terms of revenue. Even though it's a mature industry, new
magazines are being launched every year. India has been one of the fastest growing world
economies since the past three years. Robust consumption and rising income levels have
helped the growth of print media. New titles that focus on niche topics continue to launch
in the market. The revenue sources for a magazine are subscription, single copy sales and
advertisement. Approximately 73 per cent of revenue comes from advertising and 27 per
cent from circulation.

The magazine industry is going through a tough phase in India just like in other countries.
Newspapers have added supplements to their main issue and infringed on the content
covered by magazines earlier. Television channels have launched in different genres that
didn't exist a few years back. And with the increased penetration and adoption of the
Internet in the country, more people are now consuming news and stories on different
topics on the web and mobile. There is still a demand for high quality print content and
magazines need to deliver on that need to avoid losing market share to other mediums. In
addition, they also need to explore and distribute their content on the web and mobile
platforms to give choice to their subscribers to consume content from anywhere and at
any time.

India has 49,000 publications, but annual revenues total just $1.1 billion. Most lack
technology, marketing, and capital to grow which has resulted in a handful of
publications dominating the market with the Times of India Group being the market
leader. Distribution is critical for a magazine since it has to be readily available and
marketed to consumers. Big publications have strong distribution network set up.

 Retail: magazines are available in retail outlets for sale. The retailer gets a
commission on the sale price.

 Subscription: publisher signs up subscribers directly or through partners and

delivers the issues.

 Selective Distribution: Special sponsored copies are distributed in airplanes and

hotels.

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The print industry in India is highly fragmented due to the large number of local
languages. Regional language publications own 46 per cent of the market share, Hindi
language publications cover 44 per cent and the remaining 10 per cent is served by
English publications. The primary penetration of English language magazines currently is
in metros and urban centres though the growth is widening to smaller cities as the
education and income levels increase among the middle class.

With the opening up of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy, several international
publishers are aggressively entering the market and this trend is expected to continue.

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 CHAPTER 2

COMPANY PROFILE

9
 COMPANY PROFILE

The Rajan Raheja (owner of the Outlook Group)

Establishment date of the Outlook Company – October 1995

Current Net worth -- $ 1250 million

HEAD OFFICE- AB-10 S.J. Enclave, New Delhi – 110 029

The Rajan Raheja Group is a diversified conglomerate which has interests in sectors such
as building materials (through Prism Cement, H&R Johnson (India) and RMC Ready-mix
(India)), automotive and industrial batteries (Exide Industries), cable T.V. (Hathway
Cable & Datacom and Asianet Satellite Communications), financial services (in life
insurance and asset management through joint ventures with ING), publishing
(OUTLOOK group), retail (Globus, H&R Johnson (India) TBK, Food world and Health
& Glow), real estate development, software, petrochemicals and hotels.

The Outlook India Group is owned by the Rajan Raheja Group. The Rajan Raheja Group
is an industry conglomerates which operates in real estate development, ceramic tiles,
industrial batteries, construction material, cable television, publishing, apparel retailing,
food retailing, health and beauty retailing, life insurance, mutual funds, and hospitality
businesses. The company is based in Mumbai, India. The group is a major media player
in India, being the owners of Outlook Magazines. Outlook was first issued in October
1995 with Vinod Mehta as the editor in chief. It is owned by the Rajan Raheja
Group. The publisher is Outlook Publishing (India) Pvt. Ltd. It features contents from
politics, sports, cinema, and stories of broad interests. By December
2018, Outlook magazine's Facebook following had grown to over 1.2 million.

It's an entrepreneurial journey that has spanned both 'old' and 'new' economies -- building
successful brick-and-mortar businesses to exploring the frontier world of convergence
technologies. About a quarter-century before the onset of the ICE age, the Rajan Raheja
Group made its beginning in the construction business. After building a huge presence in
the realty market, the Group diversified laterally into manufacturing, financial services
and media

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Awards and accolades of the company

 Department of tourism, Government of India Award, National Tourism Award

2001-2002 awarded to Outlook Traveller for excellence in Publication.

 OUTLOOK Traveller “75 Holidays in the Hills" won the 2004, PATA Gold Award.

 In 2002-2003 the Government of India recognized "Outlook Traveller Getaways" as the

“Best Travel Publication".

 Weekend breaks from Delhi was in the BESTSELLERS top three, non-fiction category
for 14 consecutive weeks in North India

 Weekend breaks from Mumbai was in the BESTSELLERS list top three for 8 consecutive
weeks in West India

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MISSION AND VISION OF THE OUTLOOK GROUP

MISSION

 To deliver superior value to our customers, Shareholders, employees, and society

at large

 Build a dynamic team of committed and passionate employees through sustained

learning and grooming.

 Develop mutually beneficial relationships with our business partners.

 Employ cost-effective processes and thereby create a strong organization.

VISION

 To be a premium global conglomerate with a clear focus on the business

Values

 Integrity

 Teamwork

 High Achievement

 Service Excellence

 Building Shareholder Wealth

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 SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS:

 Published on Fridays so it covers all special news and events which take place
especially on Friday. News of stock market as it closes on Friday, courts close on
Fridays and also new movies are released on Friday. Hence it is the biggest
strength for outlook.
 Outlook magazines also cover international financial market.

 It has been famous for sensational stories like the “Kargil Bungle” and the “match
fixing controversy”.

 It also covered and published important meetings held like of Agra summit which
was held on Friday.

 It offers very good subscription schemes with highly attractive gifts with them.
 It has distinguished and specialised magazines like Outlook Traveller, Outlook
Money.
 Outlook traveller has been awarded international awards for best selling
magazine.
 The survey has shown that 93% of readers retain all past issues of Outlook
Money and this is its distinguishing characteristic.

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WEAKNESSES:

 Outlook has just been for thirteen years in publication.

 It is on a back hand from India today Hindi in Market share of Hindi magazines.

 From the survey it has come out that the Quality of content is not good.

 Even magazine’s paper quality, print quality and coverage have not been
considered up to the mark.

 Its sales are mainly based on advertising.

OPPORTUNITIES:

 As Outlook has distinguished products like Outlook Traveller and Outlook

Money, so the company should focus more on it.
 As its near competitor India today has major market share in Hindi magazine
segment so Outlook should focus on English magazine segment.
 Should focus on quality of the content and this will eventually turn up the sales
and popularity of the magazine. Keep offering good Promotional schemes to
retain their customers and also to attract new ones.

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THREATS:

 India today is its near competitor which has a well-known name and it has been in
this publication business for more than thirty years.

 India today Hindi covers major market share leaving little future prospect for
Outlook Hindi.

 Outlook does not pay much attention on customer retention.little future prospect
for Outlook Hindi.

 Outlook does not pay much attention on customer retention.

Products:-

Outlook:

Outlook is one of India's four top-selling English weekly newsmagazines. Like

many other Indian magazines, it is reluctant to reveal its circulation, but the 2007
National Readership Survey suggested 1.5 million copies. Outlook's competitors
are India Today, The Week, and Frontline.
Outlook has been published in New Delhi continuously since October 1995 by the
Outlook Group, whose founding editor-in-chief is Vinod Mehta. In October 2008,
Mehta appointed Krishna Prasad as Outlook's editor, and in February 2012, upon
retirement, as Outlook's editor-in-chief. Mehta would continue to serve as an
advisor to the magazine. Krishna Prasad also publishes the popular blog Churumuri.
Sandipan Deb and TarunTejpa were past editors of the magazine.
Currently, the Outlook Group publishes several magazines like Outlook Business,
Outlook Profit, Outlook Money, Outlook Traveller, and News Weekly. The Outlook
Group also publishes the Hindi Outlook Saptahik. Launched by Hath way Investments
Private Limited, the Outlook Group is owned by the RajanRaheja
In October 1995, group company Hathway Investments Private Limited entered the print
media. Outlook, a weekly newsmagazine headed by Vinod Mehta, galvanised a sluggish
market reeling under the impact of satellite TV. Outlook quickly carved a significant

15
niche for itself among discerning readers who value its in-depth, investigative reporting
as well as its stylish visual format. Known to be fiercely independent, Outlook has shaken
the establishment on events ranging from Kargil to Kashmir to cricket, sensitized the
reading public to important issues like big dams, education and gender, and provided an
unremitting focus on South Asian geopolitics. Today, Outlook is the preferred magazine
of 1.5 million readers in India, and sells more than 11.2 million copies over the year.

Outlook Money:

In July 1998, the Group launched "Intelligent Investor" re-christened as "OUTLOOK

MONEY" as of 30-Nov-2002, India's first personal finance magazine, which offers sound
strategies for the lay investor, especially the growing segment of salaried middle and
upper middle-class and self-employed professionals. Its message is clear and simple:
'Invest well, borrow wisely, spend smartly'. Evidently, that message has gone down well:
the magazine sold upwards of 1,00,000 copies a fortnight within a year. One of its
distinguishing characteristics is that about 93 per cent of readers retain all past issues.

16
Outlook Traveller:

Outlook Traveller is a monthly magazine from the stable of Outlook Publishing India Pvt.
Limited and the only significant magazine aimed at the travel reader. Every month since
June 2001 OT has introduced readers to the wonders of unknown destinations while also
encouraging travellers to take a fresh look at familiar places. Whether people are planning
a holiday, or simply dreaming of one, Outlook Traveller continues to take them closer.

Outlook Weekly:

Outlook Saptahik, a weekly newsmagazine, was launched in October 2002 to establish

significant presence amongst the vast Hindi reading audience. The product targets the
evolved Hindi reader keeping their interests, realities & aspirations in mind. Outlook
Saptahik retains the core strengths of Outlook with objective, fiercely impartial and bold
journalism, while brandishing its own identity through a strong parallel editorial. The
magazine is empathetic to its target audience & is not a translation of its English
counterpart.

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OUTLOOK BUSINESS
Outlook Business, in the true tradition of Outlook Group, has at its aim no less an
objective than the complete rewrite of what has been tried by the way of business
journalism in the magazine space. Targeted at decision makers, the product focuses on
important business issues and development with a view to providing clear takeaways-
impact and implication of decision making. A holistic approach ensures all influences on
business: economic, political and market driven are examined. It covers the business news
from all over the world, the joint venture and dilutions of the companies. It also covers
the new business idea and their risks.

The latest addition to the business magazine has been made by writing the journeys of
young entrepreneurs which story has been a revelation for a lot of young people which
motivates them to put their ideas to the test and just be aggressive in their thinking
process and just be accepting risks to be great. The latest addition is being highly
appreciated by the readers as a welcome addition.

Outlooktraveller.com:

Inaugurated as a web resource in 2000, this travel Website has since come a long way.
Outlook traveller began by opening up new vistas in web-driven vacation planning, with
its highly focused editorial features on an array of destinations. Still a highlight of the
website, these are supported by tools and resources that make putting together your
holiday a breeze from selecting your destination, to choosing your mode of transport,
finding your way around the map, selecting a place to stay to catching the local festivities,
plus ferreting out the nearest ATM, fuel stop or cyber cafe. Here there is something for
everyone; themed vacation ideas from 'A for adventure' to 'W for wildlife', honeymooners
dream destinations, foodies delights, first-person travelogues, a message room where you
can exchange notes or ask us for more info that you want? And don't forget to book your
copies of our international award-winning bestsellers from Outlook Traveller Getaways,
available at a special price when you order on the website. If you want a sneak preview,
there're excerpts from the guide books by renowned authors, including the likes of
PrabhuGhate, Ruskin Bond and Jug Suraiya.

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OUTLOOK Traveller Getaways (travel guides) published from Outlook group is today a
recognized, established and acknowledged premier travel reference guide book in India.
In a span of 5 years, 14 successful titles have been published -

(Covering different travel theme destinations, state travel guides, weekend getaways
guides)

- Weekend Breaks (from Delhi / Mumbai / Bangalore / Chennai)

- Unimissable India

- Trekking Holidays

- Wildlife Holidays

- 101 Pilgrimage Destinations

- Heritage Holidays 

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 OFFERS OF OUTLOOK MAGAZINES

Outlook win win offer:-

Offer is prepared only for limited customers to retain the customers and in this offer
company was offering flat 50% discounts as well as free digital subscription to old
customers who have not subscribed outlook magazines since very long

Super Saver Offer

In this offer company has offered huge discounts, free digital subscription and extra
months subscriptions to old and new customers, which has increased customer base as
well as revenue of the company.

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 CHAPTER 3

LITREATURE REVIEW

21
 LITREATURE REVIEW

Advertising synergy

The concept of synergy is not new for communication researchers and advertising
professionals. It is defined as “the interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their
combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effect” (American Heritage
College Dictionary 1997). As a matter of fact, advertisers frequently use multiple
communication tools (e.g., advertising, public relations, etc.) or channels (e.g., television,
press, the Web, etc.) within a single campaign at the ultimate goal of integrating multiple
communication vehicles to create the optimal persuasive effect (Chang & Thorson, 2004).

Synergy is the fundamental concept of Integrated Marketing Communication. It differs

from simple repetition in that it is believed to bring in integrated increment rather than
just simple addition of different components. As Chang and Thorson (2004) elaborated:

“An advertisement is usually viewed more than once. The effect resulting from repeated
exposure to the same advertisement is called the repetition effect and is assumed to be the
incremental effect of each additional advertising exposure. The effect resulting from
exposure to coordinated advertisement is called the synergy effect.”

As observed, advertising synergy could be operated into content level and medium level.
The former is usually seen within a single medium, using a series of ads with slight
difference in image, sound or stories, to convey a consistent persuasive message. While
the latter, going one step beyond, employs several media at a time for the same purpose.

TV, Print and Web ads

Conventional advertising, predominantly TV-commercials and print ads, still dominates

today’s advertising market. However, a diversity of new advertising formats emerges.
One major “threat” comes from the Internet, which advertising investment is constantly
seen to be on the rise (Janoschka, 2014). As Leong and his colleagues (1998) suggested,

22
“the phenomenal growth of consumers and businesses connected to the Internet indicate a
viable audience for advertising and promotional messages for many companies”.

The Internet is the latest developed electronic mass medium of the 20th century. With its
decentralized, internationally operating network and multimedia functions, this new
communication tool has soon captured the attention of provident advertisers and became
the 4th largest advertising medium (Janoschka, 2014). Some researchers estimated that
online advertising would begin to get surpluses this year, and the share of advertising
expenditure for webs would increase from 3.5% to 6.5% by the year 2009 (Ads4cn.com,
2015) , U.S. websites will see a triple in their advertising revenue.

There are various types of online advertising, including “emails, newsletters,

screensavers, e-sponsoring, asynchronous and synchronous chat groups, infomercials,
online games, and web sites” (Janoschka, 2004: 43). Provided the scope of the current
study, spotlight will be given to web ads, which encompass a variety of hypermedia
formats, such as “banners, buttons, and pop-up windows, etc.” (Janoschka, 2004: 43).

Similar to other types of advertisements, web ads are paid or unpaid form of
communication aim at informing the existence of a product or service and/or persuading
consumers to take actions. And Janoschka (2004: 49) found one major difference is that
web ads are hyperlinks in nature, which enable activation by their users. They not only
contain promotional messages on themselves which tries to attract consumers’ attention,
but also embedded with hyperlinks and then point to a much greater information pool,
such as the corporation’s website.

This inherent difference enables a lot of unique features of web ads. As Leong, Huang
and Stanners (1998) summarized in their study with advertisers, web ads were perceived
to be:

1). Excellent for conveying information and detail.

2). Cost-effective.

3). Rational and not effective in stimulating emotions.

23
 4). Effective in precipitating action.

5). Effective for both short- and long-term promotional objectives.

6). Less effective for changing and maintaining attitudes.

Two conceptual maps may further contribute to our understanding of the characteristics
among TV, print and web as advertising media.

First is Hoffman and Novak’s (1996) conceptual typology based on objective

characteristics (Figure1) of 35 media. The horizontal axis differentiates impersonal from
personal communication media, while the vertical axis differentiates dynamic from static
media. Findings showed that traditional mass media, such as TV and print resided in the
upper left and lower left quadrants, whereas interpersonal media mainly take up the upper
and lower right quadrants. New media occupied largely intermediate positions, “in
agreement with Reardon and Rogers (1988), who view new interactive media as
combining properties of mass (impersonal) and face-to-face (personal) communication
channels.”

The three media to be investigated in the current study, namely, TV, print and web were
all found to be mass-targeted (impersonal) media which package their information for a
large group of people.

Yet they serve different functions. As Hoffman and Novak (1996) explained, broadcast
media provide relatively short-term exposure with low information content, print media
provide relatively long-term exposure with high information content, whereas advertising
strategy on the web can responsible for both short-term (decision of which link to select
next) and long-term (detail information reading) exposure.

Web incorporates texts, images, audio and sometimes, video contents as well. It stands in
the central part of the media map, corresponding to a very important strategic
interpretation that it should be included into the marketing mix and serve as
complementary ad carriers to the two conventional but predominant media.

24
New media, predominantly the Internet, has apparently become an indispensable source
of information among members of our information society today. And partly because of
this trend, advertisers all over the world eye covetously at the expanding opportunities
provided by the webs, seeking more effective communication channels with their target
markets. Online advertising spending, including Web ads, is constantly on the rise.
Though not much substantial economic return was reported, people feel optimistic about
web ads, especially its power of synergy with Television and Print advertisements.

However, laboratory or field setting experiment testing the synergistic effect of Web and
Print advertising was scarce, not to mention comparing it to that of the synergy of Web
and TV advertising, which would be quite useful for professional media planning as well
as new media theory conceptualization. In light of this, the current study aimed to
investigate several issues concerning the synergy effects by an experiment design.

SCOPE

India’s Outlook news magazine has released an independence Day special issue on the
legacy of Dr.B.R. Ambedkar (1891-1956),who recently voted by a wide margin to be the
greatest Indian after Gandhi—significantly( and to many, surprisingly) beating out the
more internationally known figure of Jawaharlal Nehru ,India’s first prime minister after
independence.(The magazine describes its carefully-designed polling process here .)

Ambedkar’s most prominent formal role in India’s as history was as chairman of the
committee charged with drafting the nation first constitution, a highly progressive text
which established a wide range of civil liberties and which outlawed the castes based
repression of “DALITS”(“untouchable”).yet despite his undeniable importance as an
architect of modern India, Ambedkar’s victory in this poll may additionally mark a
significant recent change in the nation balance of economic, cultural, and intellectual
power .Writes outlook columnist S.Anand in “THE CASE FOR BHIM RAJYA”.

25
CHAPTER 4

RESEARCH
OBJECTIVES

26
 OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

Primary Objective:

Reader Satisfaction score for the Outlook Magazine

Secondary Objective:

 Readers satisfaction towards a magazine

 To find out the parameters affecting customer satisfaction.
 To get the response of the customer.
 To find that customer are satisfied with the magazines.

27
 CHAPTER 5

RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY

28
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

SAMPLING

Sample: - The group of subjects from which data are collected.

Sampling: - A sampling is the selection of certain percentage of items according to a

predetermined plan.

SAMPLING DESIGN

The design of samples is a particularly important aspects of survey methodology and

provides a basis for the sound measurement of economic and social phenomenon from
survey of business and households.

TYPES OF SAMPLE DESIGN

1: - PROBABILITY SAMPLING DESIGN: -

 Simple sampling
 Stratified sampling
 Systematic sampling
 Cluster sampling
 Area sampling
 Multi-stage sample

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2: - NON-PROBABILITY SAMPLING: -

 Convenience sampling
 Judgement sampling
 Quota sampling
 Panel sampling
 Snowball sampling

Sampling procedure –

The sample is collected who are the customers of Outlook, safdarjung enclave Delhi, It is
also collected by formal and informal talks and through filling up online questionnaires.
Questionnaires are being mailed to various people.

Sample size –

The sample size of the project is limited to 60 people.

Sample design – Data to present with the help of bar graph.

DATA COLLECTION -

The report is based on primary as well as secondary data, however primary data
collection is given more importance since it is overhearing factor in attitude studies.
Research is being done by primary data collection and primary data collection is
being done by interacting with various people. The secondary data has been
collected through various journals and websites.

One of the most important users of research methodology is that it helps in

identifying the problem, collecting, analyzing the required information data and
providing an alternative solution to the problem. It also helps in collecting the vital

30
information that is required by the top management to assist them for the better
decision making both day to day decision and critical ones.

RESEARCH DESIGN: -

Research design is the plan, structure and strategy of investigation conceived so as to

obtained answer to research question and to control variance. A research design is the
arrangement of condition for collection and analysis of data in a manner that aims to
combine to the research purpose with economy in procedure. Designing a research plan
requires decisions all data sources, research approaches, research instruments, sampling
plan and contacts methods.

TYPES OF RESEARCH DESIGN: -

1: - Exploratory research design

2: - Descriptive research design

3: - Experimental research design

This research is an attempt to describe the satisfaction level of Outlook subscribers. So,
here I have adopted Descriptive Research Design in order to come to a conclusion, by
survey and observation with help of a Structured Questionnaire.

31
 CHAPTER 6

DATA
INTERPRETATION

32
 INTERPRETATION

INTERPRETATION

Table 1: Percentage analysis on the basis of customer profile

NAME OF VARIABLES FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE

GENDER:
MALE 40 67.7%
FEMALE 20 33.3%

33
As per the analysis of above table it is found that there are 60 respondents out of which
66.7% of the respondent belongs to male and 33.3 % of the respondents belong to the
female category.

So in the further analysis it is found that maximum no of respondents are from the male
category which comprises of the 40 respondents and from the female category there are
only 20 respondents.

Table 2: Type of magazine

Frequency Percent
Business 31 51.7%
Sports 8 13.3%
Celebrity 6 10%
Financial 15 25%
Total 60 100.0

As per the analysis of above table it is found that there are 60 respondents out of which
51.7 % of the respondents prefer business magazine, 13.3% respondents prefer sports
magazine, 10% of the respondent prefer celebrity magazine and 25% respondent prefer
financial magazines.

34
So in the further analysis it is found that maximum no of respondents read business
magazine which is 51.7% of the respondent and lowest no of respondent read celebrity
magazine which is 10% of the total respondent.

Table 3 : frequency of reading respondents

Frequency Percentage
Daily 13 21.7%
2-4 times 26 43.3%
Sometimes 3 5%
Weekly 14 23.3%
Monthly 4 6.7%
Total 60 100%

As per the analysis of above table it is found that there are 60 respondents out of which
21.7% of the respondents read magazine daily, 43.7% of the respondents read magazine
2-4 days in a week, 5% of the respondent read magazine sometimes, 23.3% of the
respondents read magazine weekly and 6.7% of the respondents read magazine monthly.
So in the above analysis it is revealed that maximum no of people read magazine 2 – 4
times in a week and lowest no of people read magazine sometimes whose percentage is
5%.

35
Table 4: Preferred social magazine of readers

Frequency Percent
Outlook 40 67.8%
India today 9 15.3%
The Hindu 9 15.3%
Other 1 1.7%
Total 60 100

As per the analysis of table 4 it is seen that there are 60 respondents out of which 67.8%
of the respondents are from the class which read outlook, 1% of the respondents are from
the other reader, 15.3% of the respondents are from the Hindu magazine, and 15.3%
group read India today.

Table 5: Reasons for buying magazine

36
 Frequency Percent
Content 21 35%
Knowledge 33 55%
Status symbol 3 5%
Other 3 5%
Total 60 100

As per the analysis of above table it is found that there are 60 respondents out of which
35 % of the respondent prefer content ,55% respondents prefer knowledge , 3% of the
respondent prefer status symbol and 3% respondent prefer other.
So in the further analysis it is found that maximum no of respondents read knowledge
which is 55% of the respondent and lowest number of respondent read other and status
symbol which is 5% of the total respondent.

Table: Satisfaction as per the cost of the magazine.

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 Frequency Percent
strongly satisfied 22 36.7%
Satisfied 30 50%
Not much satisfied 0 0%
Dissatisfied 7 11.7%
Total 60 100%

As per the analysis of above table it is found that there are 60 respondents out of which
36.7% of the respondent prefer strongly satisfied ,50% respondents prefer satisfied , 1.7%
of the respondent prefer not much satisfied and 11.7% respondent prefer dissatisfied.

Table: Satisfaction as per the quality of the magazine

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 Frequency Percent
strongly satisfied 20 33.3%
Satisfied 33 53.3%
Dissatisfied 3 5%
Strongly dissatisfied 3 5%
Neutral 2 3.3%

As per the analysis of above table it is found that there are 60 respondents out of which
33.3 % of the respondent prefer strongly satisfied ,53.3% respondents prefer satisfied ,
3.3% of the respondent prefer neutral and 5% respondent prefer dissatisfied.
So in the further analysis it is found that maximum no of respondents are satisfied which
is 53.3% of the respondent and lowest no of respondent which is 3.3% are neutral.

Table: Awareness regarding offers on magazines

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 Frequency Percent
Yes 41 68.3%
No 13 21.7%
May be 6 10
Total 60 100%

As per the analysis of above table it is found that there are 60 respondents out of which
68.3% of the respondents have idea about the offers, 21.7% of the respondents have no
idea about the offers and 10% of customers prefer may be.

Table: Perception towards magazines

40
 Frequency Percent
Very good 21 65%
Good 6 10%
Fair 12 20%
Poor
3 5%
Total 100%

As per the analysis of above table it is found that there are 60 respondents out of which
65 % of the respondent prefer very good ,10% respondents prefer good , 20% of the
respondent prefer fair and 5% respondent prefer poor.
So in the further analysis it is found that maximum no of respondents are satisfied which
is 65% of the respondent and lowest no of respondent which is 5% are dissatisfied

Table: Satisfaction with the different offers

41
 Frequency Percent
strongly satisfied 30 42.4%
Satisfied 22 44.1%
Not much satisfied 4 1.7%
Dissatisfied 4 1.7%
Total 60 100%

As per the analysis of above table it is found that there are 60 respondents out of which
42.4 % of the respondent prefer strongly satisfied ,44.1% respondents prefer satisfied ,
5.1% of the respondent prefer neutral and 6.8% respondent prefer dissatisfied and 1.7%
of respondents are strongly dissatisfied.
So in the further analysis it is found that maximum no of respondents are satisfied which
is 44.1% of the respondent and lowest no of respondent which is 1.7% are dissatisfied

Table: Reason for liking E-magazines

Frequency Percentage
Easy access 27 45%

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 Other 4 6.7%
Cheap cost 24 40%
Timely delivered 5 8.3%
Total 60 100%

As per the analysis of above table it is found that there are 60 respondents out of which 40
% of the respondent prefer strongly cheap cost, 45% respondents prefer easy access, 8.3%
of the respondent prefer timely delivered and 6.7% respondent prefer other.
So in the further analysis it is found that maximum no of respondents are satisfied which
is 45% of the respondent and lowest no of respondent which is 6.7% are other reasons.

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 CHAPTER 7

CONCLUSIONS

CONCLUSION

 Readers are satisfied with outlook.

 There are some factors which affect customer’s satisfaction.

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  Maintaining relation with customer is also important to make customer
satisfied.
 Customer satisfaction rating varies time to time on the basis of offers and
prices of the product and services.

Promotional decisions are crucial decisions as far as marketing of a product or service is

concerned because of tough competition offered by similar kinds of products available in
the market. Magazine industry is also not free from competition and the publishers and
circulation managers need to be very alert since the consumer purchasing patterns has
become more volatile. Consumers are aware of most of the options available for them and
it is the publishers who have to motivate them for the acquisition and conversion of them
it in sales.

From the different analysis performed and market survey conducted, as a part of sincere
effort to formulate an effective strategy for Outlook magazine it has been found out that
promotional schemes are on right track and it is able to increase its subscription sales. At
the same time it was revealed by the customer survey that the customers or potential
customers are satisfied by the quality of content, cost of the magazine and coverage of
magazine, which is helping outlook to increase revenue day by day.

Further, by careful and subjective analysis a number of promotional strategies has been
formulated and presented for devising future promotional schemes and strategies for
Outlook. Some of these strategies are inspired by the existing industry practices and
others are new to be implemented. These strategies can be definitely be helpful in
improving subscription sales as well as market share which can make Outlook magazine
more competitive and will make a considerable contribution in Outlook’s journey to
become a future leader in the Indian News magazine Industry.

Key Learning

1. I got to know about the atmosphere of the organization.

45
2. The working condition of the company.

3. Code of conduct in a company and its rules and regulations.

4. Process and procedure of working.

5. Learned to take orders by superiors.

6. Way of communicating right thing at right time to subordinates and to superiors.

7. Coordination at work.

8. Creating strategy on daily basis to achieve my daily target and make the job easier

9. Coordinate with everyone to achieve the target.

10. Creating hygienic atmosphere to work.

11. Learned how to work in stress.

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 CHAPTER 8

RECOMMENDATIONS
& SUGGESTIONS

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings from different analysis, market survey and some amount of
subjective analysis new promotional strategies has been formulated which can improve
the subscription sales of outlook magazines. It has been taken into consideration that the

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new strategies formulated are in different functional areas of promotion, so that we can
device an effective and diversified portfolio of promotional strategies.

1. Effective promotional scheme – a strategy for consumer motivation

It is important to motivate the consumer to subscribe for the magazine for boosting the
sales and it’s obvious that most of the consumers will not get motivated unless and until
they get what they want. From the market survey it was able to identify that the
motivating factors are the gifts provided along with the subscriptions and according to
most of the consumers a good gift are one which have good brand value associated with it
and those which offer better utility.

2. Offline referral marketing – a strategy for customer or subscriber

motivation
Referral marketing can be effectively used to improve the subscription sales. The
existing customer can be motivated to refer to their friends, relatives etc. to
subscribe for the magazine by means of exciting and attractive gifts as incentives.
The magazine should provide Business reply cards exclusive for existing subscriber
along with subscriber’s copies during the magazine delivery so that they can refer
their friends and relatives for magazine subscription. The business reply card should
offer the facility tobe filled with at least ten references. Subscribers should be able
to send them free of cost. Now these subscribers can be provided with attractive
gifts.

3. Customer retention
It is a normal saying that customer acquisition is good, retention is better. This is
because a customer retained is equal to five new customers as the money spent for
acquiring a customer is calculated to be five times the money spent to retain a
customer. From the information obtained from Outlook, if was identified that
Outlook does nothing for customer retention. Outlook needs to formulate and
implement customer retention and loyalty programs to retain the customers.

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  Greet the customers with exciting gifts during special occasions.
 Sell the subscription renewal at discount.
 Auto renewal of subscription.
 Allow grace period for subscription expiry.
 Send loyalty gifts.
 Organize entertainment events for subscribers.
 Organize get – together.
 Offer free Medical claim/Insurance Policy.

4. Roved magazine – for customer satisfaction

From the market survey it was revealed that the strengths of Outlook Magazine are
Promotional Schemes and unbiased reporting. Its weaknesses are its Content quality,
Paper quality and Print quality so it should work on it to increase the customer’s
satisfaction. If the product is able to satisfy customers in its core product attributes, then
the customer will be tend to be loyal as their expectations are fulfilled.

So to improve customer loyalty and thereby increase voluntary sales outlook magazine
has to work on its weaknesses as expected by the customers of the magazine.

Since the quality of content and coverage are subjective in nature, Outlook needs to
identify what are weaknesses of the current contents and coverage of the magazine
as well as the customers’ expectations about them. For this Outlook should go for
detailed survey and customers’ feedback so that it can understand the customers’
expectations as far as content and coverage of the magazine are concerned. Once
the customer expectation is identified Outlook need to restructure the magazine by
implementing the customer requirements and demands in order to improve their
satisfaction level which will in turn boost the magazine as well as subscription
sales.

LIMITATIONS

49
 Data collection was not as easy a s it looks: doting research we have
seen grey faced and some respondents were not willing to fill the
questionnaire.
 People do not co-operate with executives and they don’t have free
minutes to attend them.
 Some people directly refused to co-operate and some gave blazed and
dishonest replies.
 People were not ready to fill personal details like age, gender, mobile
number.
 The sample size may not adequately represent the whole market.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Websites:

www.outlookgroup.com

www.outlookindia.com

www.outlookmagazines.com

www.Delhioutlookmagazines.com

www.outlooktraveler.com

www.outlookbussiness.com

Information about Rajan Raheja Group

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajan_Raheja

MAGAZINES:

 Business world
 Computers today
 A& M.
 Data Quest, March 31 2004
 Internet News
 Economic Times
 Business World
 Cyber Rules

ANNEXURE

51
QUESTIONAIRE: -

Name_______________________________________________

Age_________________________________________________

Gender-

օ MALE
օ FEMALE

1.What type of magazine do you prefer to read?

a) Business b) sports c) celebrity d) Financial

2.What is your frequency of reading of magazine in a week?

 daily
 2 – 4 times in a week
 Sometimes
 Weekly
 monthly

3.Which is your preferred social magazine?

a) Outlook b)India today c)The Hindu d) Other

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4. What encourages you to buy the magazine?

 Content
 Knowledge
 Status symbol
 other

5. Are you satisfied with the cover price of the outlook magazine?

 Strongly satisfied
 Satisfied
 Dissatisfied
 Strongly dissatisfied

6. Are you satisfied with the quality of the different outlook magazines?

 Strongly satisfied
 Satisfied
 Neutral
 Dissatisfied
 Strongly dissatisfied

7. Would you like to suggest any modification in the outlook magazine?

 Yes
 No

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8. Do you have the idea of different online and offline offers of the outlook
magazines?
 Yes
 No

9. What do you feel about the magazine?

 Very good
 Good
 Fair
 Not good

10. Are you satisfied with the different offers given on online and offline magazine ?

 Strongly satisfied
 Satisfied
 not much satisfied
 Dissatisfied
 Strongly dissatisfied

11. You would like to buy e magazine because?

 Timely delivered

 Easy access

 Cheap cost

 Other

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