EFFECTIVENESS OF DIRECT MARKETING FOR THE

EXPANSION OF BUSINESS IN OUTLOOK

SIP PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED BY; - SAYAN SARKAR

Roll no-ISB/09/KOL/152
Batch-2009-2011

Internal Faculty Guide External Company Guide

MR.RABIN MAZUMDER MR.SAURAV DUTTA
(Faculty Q.T AND M.E ) (Astt.Sales Manager)

Indismart Tower,
EN-34, Sector-V, Salt Lake City,
Kolkata – 700091,
 MARKET SHARE IN MAGAZINE
INDUSTRY YEAR
2009

OUTLOOK
INDIA TODAY
THE WEEK
OTHERS
 PERCENTAGE WISE

T
R
A
V
E

10%
15%
20%
25%
30%

0%
5%
L
L
E
R
W
E
E
K
L
Y
P
E
O
P
L
E

SA
N G
E

M
E

A
W O

G
S

A
W

ZIN
E
E
K

LESPERCENTA
M

ESSA
GE
O

LES
N
E
Y
P
R
O
F
B IT
U
S
M IN
A E
R S
IE S
C
L
A
IR
IE

Series1
ACKNOWLEDEMENTS

I offer my gratitude to MR.SAURAV DUTTA my company

Guide,

For the best effort put by him in matter relating to help fresher like me in an competitive

Marketing world.

I am grateful to MR.RABIN MAZUMDAR for constantly inspiring me and taking

Active part in the making of the project work, without him project would not have been

Materialized so soon.

I was very lucky to get an great sip coordinator like MR.DIPENDU PALIT who

took active share in my toil while making the project.

Last but not the least I thank my college I.S.B KOLKATA for giving me a chance to

Face the competitive world in marketing. It helped me gaining practical exposure.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

AUTHORISATION 1

ACKNOWELDGMENTS 2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3

INTRODUCTION 4

PURPOSE SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS 5

SOURCES AND METHODS 6

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 7

OBJECTIVE OF PROJECT 8

METHODOLOGY 9

RESEARCH DESIGN AND ANALYSIS 10

FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 11

LIMITATIONS 12

BIBLIOGRAPHY 13
INTRODUCTION

Direct marketing is a form of advertising that reaches its audience without using

Traditional formal channels of advertising, such as TV, newspapers or radio. Businesses

communicate straight to the consumer with advertising techniques such as fliers,

catalogue distribution, promotional letters, and street advertising.

Direct Advertising is a sub-discipline and type of marketing. There are two main

Definitional characteristics which distinguish it from other types of marketing. The first

is that it sends its message directly to consumers, without the use of intervening

commercial communication media. The second characteristic is the core principle of

successful Advertising driving a specific "call-to-action." This aspect of direct marketing

involves an emphasis on trackable, measurable, positive responses from consumers

(known simply as "response" in the industry) regardless of medium.

If the advertisement asks the prospect to take a specific action, for instance call a

free phone number or visit a website, then the effort is considered to be direct response

advertising.

Direct marketing is predominantly used by small to medium enterprises with limited

advertising budgets which do not have a well recognized brand message. A well

executed direct advertising campaign can offer a positive return on investment as the

message is not hidden with over complicated branding. Instead direct advertising is

straight to the point, it offers a product, service or event and explains how to get the

offered product, service or event.

The term direct marketing is believed to have been first used in 1967 in a speech by

Wunderman, who pioneered direct marketing techniques with brands such as

American Express and Columbia Records. The term junk mail, referring to

unsolicited commercial ads delivered via post office or directly deposited in consumers

' mail boxes, can be traced back to 1954. The term spam, meaning "unsolicited

commercial email", can be traced back to March 31, 1993, although in its first few

Months it merely referred to inadvertently posting a message so many times on UseNet

that the repetitions effectively drowned out the normal flow of conversation.

Although Wunderman may have been the first to use the term direct marketing, the

practice of mail order selling (direct marketing via mail) essentially began in the U.S

. upon invention of the typewriter in 1867.

The first modern mail-order catalog was produced by Aaron Montgomery Ward in

1872. The Direct Mail Advertising Association, predecessor of the present-

day Direct Marketing Association, was first established in 1917. Third class bulk mail

Postage rates were established in 1928.

Direct marketing's history in Europe can be traced to the 15th century. Upon Gutenberg's

invention of movable type, the first trade catalogs from printer-publishers appeared

sometime around 1450.

PURPOSE OF DIRECT MARKETING

.
Direct marketing is a very effective way to interact with customers and potential

customers throughout the sales cycle. From generating awareness to post-sales support,

direct marketing is a strong tool. It enables you to ;

:

 Generate awareness about your products and services.

 Establish a relationship with prospects.

 Create demand by moving your prospects along the sales cycle.

 Help your sales efforts by generating and managing leads.

 Create excitement and promote the value of your product or service through
means other than price reductions.

 Build a qualified database of customers.

 Build customer loyalty through effective follow .

  Gather tangible data to measure marketing effectiveness.

BENEFITS OF DIRECT MARKETING;

Direct marketing is attractive to many marketers, because in many cases its positive

effect (but not negative results) can be measured directly. For example, if a marketer

sends out one thousand solicitations by mail, and one hundred respond to the promotion,

the marketer can say with some confidence that campaign led directly to 10% direct

responses. The number of recipients who are offended by the junk mail/spam, however,

is not easily measured. By contrast, measurement of other media must often be indirect,

since there is no direct response from a consumer. Measurement of results, a

fundamental element in successful direct marketing, is explored in greater detail

elsewhere in this article.

The Internet has made it easier for Marketing Managers to measure the results of a

campaign. This is often achieved by using a specific website landing page directly

relating to the promotional material, a call to action will ask the consumer to visit the

landing page and the effectiveness of the campaign can be measured by taking the

number of promotional messages distributed (e.g 1000) and divide it by the number of

responses (people visiting the unique website page).

Another way to measure the results is to compare the projected sales for a given term
with the actual sales after a Direct Advertising Campaign.

LIMITATIONS OF DIRECT MARKETING;

While many marketers recognize the financial benefits of increasing targeted awareness,

some direct marketing efforts using particular media have been criticized for generating

unwanted solicitations, not due to the method of communication but because of poorly

complied demographic databases, advertisers do not wish to waste money on

communicating with consumers not interested in their products. For example, direct mail

that is irrelevant to the recipient is considered junk mail, and unwanted email messages

are considered spam. Some consumers are demanding an end to direct marketing for

privacy and environmental reasons, which direct marketers are able to

provide by using "opt out" lists, variable printing and more targeted mailing lists. In

response to consumer demand and increasing business pressure to increase the

effectiveness of reaching the right consumer with Direct Marketing, companies such as

Ireland Advertising specialize in targeted Direct Advertising to great effect, reducing

advertising budget waste and increasing the effectiveness of delivering a marketing

message with better geodemography information, delivering the advertising message to

only the consumers interested in the product, service or event on offer.

SOURCES AND METHODS ;
Direct marketing is a sometimes controversial sales method by which advertisers

approach potential customers directly with products or services. The most common

forms of direct marketing are telephone sales, solicited or unsolicited emails, catalogs,

leaflets, brochures and coupons. Successful direct marketing also involves compiling and

maintaining a large database of personal information about potential customers and

clients. These databases are often sold or shared with other direct marketing companies.

For many companies or service providers with a specific market, the traditional forms of

advertising (radio, newspapers, television, etc.) may not be the best use of their

promotional budgets. For example, a company which sells a hair loss prevention product

would have to find a radio station whose format appealed to older male listeners who

might be experiencing this problem. There would be no guarantee that this group would

be listening to that particular station at the exact time the company's ads were broadcast

. Money spent on a radio spot (or television commercial or newspaper ad) may or may

not reach the type of consumer who would be interested in a hair restoring product.

This is where direct marketing becomes very appealing. Instead of investing in a

scattershot means of advertising, companies with a specific type of potential customer

can send out literature directly to a list of pre-screened individuals. Direct marketing

firms may also keep email addresses of those who match a certain age group or income

level or special interest. Manufacturers of a new dog shampoo might benefit from having
the phone numbers and mailing addresses of pet store owners or dog show participants.

Direct marketing works best when the recipients accept the fact that their personal

information might be used for this purpose. Some customers prefer to receive targeted

catalogs which offer more variety than a general mailing.

Many direct marketing companies belong to self-policing associations which actively

discourage fraudulent or invasive use of their databases. Legitimate direct marketing

firms should also offer methods by which individuals can 'opt out' of these lists by

request. Direct marketing agencies must respect the do-not-call list maintained by

government agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Customers also

have the right to unsubscribe to unsolicited catalogs and to block bulk emails from their

in-boxes. Direct marketing can be a very cost-effective sales tool for specialized

companies, as long as it is used properly and sparingly.

METHODS OF DIRECT MARKETING ARE;

Direct mail

The most common form of direct marketing is direct mail, sometimes called junk mail,

used by advertisers who send paper mail to all postal customers in an area or to all

customers on a list.
Junkmail

Any low-budget medium that can be used to deliver a communication to a customer can

be employed in direct marketing. Probably the most commonly used medium for direct

marketing is mail, in which marketing communications are sent to customers using the

postal service. The term direct mail is used in the direct marketing industry to refer to

communication deliveries by the Post Office, which may also be referred to as "junk

mail" or "admail" or "crap mail" and may involve bulk mail.

.Junk mail includes advertising circulars, catalogs, free trial CDs, pre-approved

credit card applications, and other unsolicited merchandising invitations delivered by

mail or to homes and businesses, or delivered to consumers' mailboxes by delivery

services other than the Post Office. Bulk mailings are a particularly popular method of

promotion for businesses operating in the financial services, home computer, and travel

and tourism industries.

In many developed countries, direct mail represents such a significant amount of the total

volume of mail that special rate classes have been established. In the United States and

United Kingdom, for example, there are bulk mail rates that enable marketers to send

mail at rates that are substantially lower than regular first-class rates. In order to qualify

for these rates, marketers must format and sort the mail in particular ways – which

reduces the handling (and therefore costs) required by the postal service.

Advertisers often refine direct mail practices into targeted mailing, in which mail is sent

out following database analysis to select recipients considered most likely to respond

positively. For example a person who has demonstrated an interest in golf may receive

direct mail for golf related products or perhaps for goods and services that are
appropriate for golfers. This use of database analysis is a type of database marketing.

The United States Postal Service calls this form of mail "advertising mail" (admail for

short).

Telemarketing

The second most common form of direct marketing is telemarketing, in which marketers

contact consumers by phone. The unpopularity of cold call telemarketing (in which the

consumer does not expect or invite the sales call) has led some US states and the US

federal government to create "no-call lists" and legislation including heavy fines. This

process may be outsourced to specialist call centres.

In the US, a national do-not-call list went into effect on October 1, 2003. Under the law,

it is illegal for telemarketers to call anyone who has registered themselves on the list.

After the list had operated for one year, over 62 million people had signed up.[4] The

telemarketing industry opposed the creation of the list, but most telemarketers have

complied with the law and refrained from calling people who are on the list.Canada has

passed legislation to create a similar Do Not Call List. In other countries it is voluntary

, such as the New Zealand Name Removal Service.

Email Marketing

Email Marketing may have passed telemarketing in frequency at this point,and is a third

type of direct marketing. A major concern is spam, which actually predates legitimate

email marketing. As a result of the proliferation of mass spamming, ISPs and email

service providers have developed increasingly effective E-Mail Filtering programs.

These filters can interfere with the delivery of email marketing campaigns, even if the

person has subscribed to receive them,[5] as legitimate email marketing can possess the

same hallmarks as spam. There are a range of e-mail service providers that provide

services for legitimate opt-in emailers to avoid being classified as spam.

Door-to-Door Leaflet Marketing

Leaflet distribution services are used extensively by the fast food industries, and many

other business focussing on a local catchment Business to consumer business model,

similar to direct mail marketing, this method is targeted purely by area, and costs a

fraction of the amount of a mailshot due to not having to purchase stamps, envelopes or

having to buy address lists and the names of home occupants.

Broadcast faxing

A fourth type of direct marketing, broadcast faxing, is now less common than the other

forms. This is partly due to laws in the United States and elsewhere which make it

illegal.

Voicemail Marketing

A fifth type of direct marketing has emerged out of the market prevalence of personal

voice mailboxes, and business voicemail systems. Due to the ubiquity of email

marketing, and the expense of direct mail and telemarketing, voicemail marketing

presented a cost effective means by which to reach people directly, by voice.

Abuse of consumer marketing applications of voicemail marketing resulted in an

abundance of "voice-spam", and prompted many jurisdictions to pass laws regulating

consumer voicemail marketing.

More recently, businesses have utilized guided voicemail (an application where pre-

recorded voicemails are guided by live callers) to accomplish personalized business-to-

business marketing formerly reserved for telemarketing. Because guided voicemail is

used to contact only businesses, it is exempt from Do Not Call regulations in place for

other forms of voicemail marketing.

Couponing

Couponing is used in print media to elicit a response from the reader. An example is a

coupon which the reader cuts out and presents to a super-store check-out counter to avail

of a discount. Coupons in newspapers and magazines cannot be considered direct

marketing, since the marketer incurs the cost of supporting a third-party medium (the

newspaper or magazine); direct marketing aims to circumvent that balance, paring the

costs down to solely delivering their unsolicited sales message to the consumer, without

supporting the newspaper that the consumer seeks and welcomes.

Direct response television marketing

Direct marketing on TV (commonly referred to as DRTV) has two basic forms: long

form (usually half-hour or hour-long segments that explain a product in detail and are

commonly referred to as infomercials) and short form which refers to typical 0:30

second or 0:60 second commercials that ask viewers for an immediate response

(typically to call a phone number on screen or go to a website).

TV-response marketing—i.e. infomercials—can be considered a form of direct

marketing, since responses are in the form of calls to telephone numbers given on-air.

This both allows marketers to reasonably conclude that the calls are due to a particular

campaign, and allows the marketers to obtain customers' phone numbers as targets for

telemarketing. Under the Federal Do-Not-Call List rules in the US, if the caller buys

anything, the marketer would be exempt from Do-Not-Call List restrictions for a period

of time due to having a prior business relationship with the caller. Major players are

firms like QVC, Thane Direct, and Interwood Marketing Group then cross-sell, and up-

sell to these respondents.

One of the most famous DRTV commercials was for

Ginsu Knives by Ginsu Products, Inc. of RI. Several aspects of ad, such as its use of

adding items to the offer and the guarantee of satisfaction were much copied and came to

be considered part of the formula for success with short form direct response TV ads

(DRTV)

Direct selling

Direct selling is the sale of products by face-to-face contact with the customer, either by

having salespeople approach potential customers in person, or through indirect means

such as Tupperware parties.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

1. Sale the product and collect the subscription and get an idea about the
 reading habits of customer.

2. Make different companies aware about Outlook through direct interaction

with different corporate(thus doing promotion for the company & market

penetration).

3. Collect the information of prospective & non prospective clients to the company.

4. Fixing up appointments with the immediate prospective clients who

initiated the Sale process & keeping in contacts with the future prospective

clients in order to build up a professional relation with them.

5. To have a brief idea about the market conditions in Kolkata and how to

deal with higher level corporate clients. Direct sales promotion process and

create good networking.

METHODOLOGY USED ;

PRIMARY DATA:
We are moving for the COLD CALLING means directly moving to

the corporate & individual and we are generating our own data.

Primary data are those which are collected for a specific

Purpose directly from the field of enquiry, and hence are original in nature.Such data are

Published by authorities who themselves are responsible for their collection.

METHODS OF COLLECTING PRIMARY DATA;

 A) DIRECT PERSONAL OBSERVATION.

B) INDIRECT ORAL INVESTIGATION.

C) QUESTIONNAIRES SENT BY MAIL.

D) SCHEDULES SENT THROUGH INVESTIGATION.

it refers to the statistical material which the investigator originates for himself for the

purpose of the enquiry in hand. In other words, it is one which is collected by the

investigator for the first time e.g. if the cost of living of workers in a city are to be

computed, then the information regarding the facts collected by the investigators or

enumerators would be termed as Primary data. In India there are various agencies which

collect primary data e.g.. National Sample Survey (NSS), State Level Economic and

Statistical Departments etc. When we use primary data, it is called raw material

. According to Wessel, "Data originally collected in the process of investigation are

known as primary data."

Questionnaires

Questionnaires are a popular means of collecting data, but are difficult to design and

often require many rewrites before an acceptable questionnaire is produced.

Advantages:

• Can be used as a method in its own right or as a basis for interviewing or a

telephone survey.

• Can be posted, e-mailed or faxed.

• Can cover a large number of people or organizations’.

• Wide geographic coverage.

 • Relatively cheap.

• No prior arrangements are needed.

• Avoids embarrassment on the part of the respondent.

• Respondent can consider responses.

• Possible anonymity of respondent.

• No interviewer bias.

Disadvantages:

• Design problems.

• Questions have to be relatively simple.

• Historically low response rate (although inducements may help).

• Time delay whilst waiting for responses to be returned.

• Require a return deadline.

• Several reminders may be required.

• Assumes no literacy problems.

• No control over who completes it.

• Not possible to give assistance if required.

• Problems with incomplete questionnaires.

• Replies not spontaneous and independent of each other.

• Respondent can read all questions beforehand and then decide whether to
complete or not. For example, perhaps because it is too long, too complex,
uninteresting, or too personal.
SECONDARY DATA:
We generally don’t have any secondary data but we are told to call our

friends & relatives & few data was provided by the company.

Secondary data are such statistical information

which have been already collected by someone for his own purpose and are now

available for use by by others for their purposes.Indeed,numerical data which

are not gathered directly from the field of enquiry ,but are merely compiled from other

sources, are referred to as secondary data.

METHODS OF COLLECTING SECONDARY DATA;

A) OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS OF STATE AND CENTRAL GOVERNMENT.

B) PUBLICATIONS AND REPORT OF TRADE ASSOCIATIONS.

C) JOURNALS AND MAGAZINES PUBLISHED BY PRIVATE AGENCIES.

D) REPORTS OF COMMITTEES AND COMMISIONS OF ENQUIRY.

E) UNPUBLISHED REPORT PREPARED BY RESEARCH SCHOLERS.

Secondary data is data collected by someone other than the user. Common sources of

secondary data for social science include censuses, surveys, organizational records and

data collected through qualitative methodologies or qualitative research. Primary data,

by contrast, are collected by the investigator conducting the research.

Secondary data analysis saves time that would otherwise be spent collecting data and,
particularly in the case of quantitative data, provides larger and higher-quality databases

than would be unfeasible for any individual researcher to collect on their own. In

addition to that, analysts of social and economic change consider secondary data

essential, since it is impossible to conduct a new survey that can adequately capture past

change and/or developments.

There are several things to take into consideration when using pre-existing data.

Secondary data does not permit the progression from formulating a research question to

designing methods to answer that question. It is also not feasible for a secondary data

analyst to engage in the habitual process of making observations and developing

concepts. These limitations hinder the ability of the researcher to focus on the original

research question.

Data quality is always a concern because its source may not be trusted. Even data from

official records may be unreliable because the data is only as good as the records

themselves, in terms of methodological validity and reliability.

Furthermore, in the case of qualitative material, primary researchers are often reluctant to

share “their less-than-polished early and intermediary materials, not wanting to expose

false starts, mistakes, etc.”

So overall, there are six questions that a secondary analyst should be able to answer about

the data they wish to analyze.

1. What were the agency's or researcher's goals when collecting the data?

2. What data was collected and what is it supposed to measure?

3. When was the data collected?

4. What methods were used? Who was responsible and are they available for questions?

5. How is the data organized?

Secondary data is the data that have been already collected by and readily available from

other sources. Such data are cheaper and more quickly obtainable than the primary data

and also may be available when primary data can not be obtained at all.

Advantages of Secondary data

1. It is economical. It saves efforts and expenses.

2. It is time saving.

3. It helps to make primary data collection more specific since with the help of

4. secondary data, we are able to make out what are the gaps and deficiencies and

5. what additional information needs to be collected.

6. It helps to improve the understanding of the problem.

7. It provides a basis for comparison for the data that is collected by the researcher.
Disadvantages of Secondary Data

1)Secondary data is something that seldom fits in the framework of the marketing

research factors. Reasons for its non-fitting are:-

1)Unit of secondary data collection-Suppose you want information on

Disposable income, but the data is available on gross income. The

information may not be same as we require.

a. Class Boundaries may be different when units are same.

Before 5 Years After 5 Years
2500-5000 5000-6000
5001-7500 6001-7000
7500-10000 7001-10000
b. Thus the data collected earlier is of no use to you.

2. Accuracy of secondary data is not known.

3. Data may be outdated.

INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT

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 Tehelka. Currently it has

several magazines like Outlook business, Outlook profit, outlook

money, GEO, Marie Claire, People, Traveller, Career 360,News

Weekly to name a few. 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. Earlier, Prasad had

edited the magazine's special issues. Prasad also publishes the

popular blog Churumuri.

Sandipan Deb and Tarun Tejpal are past editors of the magazine.

Outlook made news for its investigative reports of the "Kargil bungle"

and the cricket "match-fixing controversy."

Writers for Outlook included Bhaichand Patel, Rakesh kalshian, Uri

Avnery, George Monbiot, Daniel Lak, Ashok K. Mehta, B.

Raman, Anil Dharker, Saied Naqvi, Ramachandra Guha, Prabhu

Ghate and Andrew Whitehead.

The Outlook Group also publishes Outlook Traveller, Outlook

Money and the Hindi Outlook Saptahik. In early 2007 however, Outlook was leading in
reporting on the Ottavio Quattrocchi arrest in Argentina, which may be very
embarrassing to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, a close friend of Quattrocchi from the
1970's.
Originally owned by Hathway Investments Private Limited, it is now

part of the Rajan Raheja Group.

My project deals with direct sales and after sale service and creates a

relation between customers and to know the reading habits of the

customers.

VARIOUS OUTLOOKS MAGAZINES

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Our Internship starts from 3rd May 2010 and in the very first day our

Sales Manager Mr. Saurav Dutta provides whole information about

OUTLOOK. After that He told me about the different Products

(MAGAZINE) of the Company, which includes price, discounts and

gift offers. Then I am told to do a excel sheet on that.

Then, in the very next day I am told to go for the COLD CALLING

and collect the subscription from the corporate and the individual

Customers. Till now I have done 10 subscriptions and so many follow

ups which I will convert into sale in coming days.

I have gone for different renewal call (existing clients whose

subscription period was end) and I have faced some negative

feedback about the service like the common problem was “they are

not getting the issue in right time”. I have convinced some clients but

unable to convinced all.

1) Number of competitors in the market.

2) India today has already captured the big market share.

DATA ANALYSIS
When I was doing these data analysis I found many types buying behavior

of people .Number of respondents to my data analysis was 100. I covered

areas like north kolkata and south kolkata while doing these data analysis.

QUESTIONNAIRE

Q1) Profession of respondents?

a) Business- 31%.

b) Student- 27%

c) Govt.employee- 12%

d) Private employee- 30%

 PROFESSION OF RESPONDENTS

0% PROFESSION OF
RESPONDENTS
30% 31% BUSINESS

STUDENT

GOVT EMPLOYEE

12%
PRIVATE EMPLOYEE
27%

Q2) From which source you prefer to get news?

a) Mobile alerts – 8%.

b) Newspaper – 28%.

c) Internet - 18%.

d) T.V - 46%.
 S OU R C E OF N E W S PR EFE R R E D

8% M OB ILE A LERT
46% 28% NE W S PA PE R
INTERNE T
18% T.V

One striking thing I found in these question that nearly half of the respondents prefer to

get news from t.v.Till now in India internet falls way back in compare to t.v usage.

Q3) What is your area of interest in reading a magazine ?

a) Finance – 21%.

b) Business- 41%.

c) Politics – 20%.

d) Fashion- 18%.
 A R E A O F IN T E R E S T IN R E A D IN G A
M A G A Z IN E

F A S H IO N F IN A N C E
18% 21%
F IN A N C E
B U S IN E S S
P O L ITIC S
P O L ITIC S
20%
F A S H IO N
B U S IN E S S
41%

In this question I found that business news was of much

Importance in compare to other matters.

Q4) what is you monthly budget for buying an magazine?

a) Rs 120- 15%.

b) Rs 40 – 30%.

c) Rs 90 - 26%.

d) Rs 60 – 29% .
 MON TH LY B U D GET

RS 120
RS 60 15%
29% RS 120
RS 40
RS 40 RS 90
RS 90 30% RS 60
26%

In these question I found that average spending for an

Monthly magazine is RS 40.

Q5) Which kind of publishing pattern magazines you like to read?

a) Weekly – 61%.

b) Monthly – 29%.

c) Fortnightly- 10%.
 PUBLISHING PATTERN
PREFERRED

FORTNIGH
TLY
10%
WEEKLY
MONTHLY
29% MONTHLY
WEEKLY
61% FORTNIGHTLY

In this question I got an clear cut answer from people that

They prefer weekly magazine more than monthly or fortnightly

Magazine.

Q6) which magazine you are currently reading?

a) The economist- 4%.

b) India today – 46%.

c) Fortune – 8%.

d) Outlook – 40%.

e) Any other – 2%.

 MAGAZINE CURRENTLY READING

THE
ECONOMIST
FORTUNE INDIA TODAY
8%
OUTLOOK
INDIA 40% FORTUNE
TODAY
46% THEANY OUTLOOK
OTHER
ECONOMI
ST 2% ANY OTHER
4%

This question proved that India today has bit higher market share in compare to outlook.

Which magazine of outlook you like the most ?

a) Outlook Weekly – 35%.

b) Outlook Traveler – 25%.

c) Outlook people – 22%.

d) Outlook Geo – 10%.

e) Others – 8%.
 OUTLOOK MAGAZINE PREFERRED

8% OUTLOOK WEEKLY
10%
35%
OUTLOOK TRAVELLER
OUTLOOK PEOPLE
22% OUTLOOK GEO
25% OTHERS

In this question one thing a found out was outlook weekly was more in demand

in compare with other outlook magazines.

Q8) Do you think Outlook magazines are cost effective?

a) Yes – 40%

b) No -27%

c) Can’t say -23%

COST EFFECTIVE OR NOT

23%

40%
YES
NO
CANT SAY

37%
While replying to this question majority of the consumer said outlook magazines

Were cost effective but some others ere of different opinion.

Q9) Do you think outlook has an neutral opinion in all matters?

a) Yes – 27%.

b) No -63%.

c) Can’t say -10%.

NEUTRAL OPINION OR NOT

10%
27%

YES
NO
CANT SAY

63%

This question gave rise to various controversies, some consumers put it

Up directly that outlook is politically biased to an particular political party.

Q10) Does outlook have a proper distribution network?

a) Yes – 60%

b) No -30%

c) Can’t say – 10%.

 PROPER DISTRIBUTION NETWORK OR NOT

10%

YES
30% NO

60% CANT SAY

Mostly more than half of the consumer said that outlook has a proper distribution

Network..

FINDINGS
While doing the analysis part of the work done in outlook, I found many positive and

Few negative parts of work done in outlook. During my internship in outlook I found

That outlook has a well organized and experienced staff. They put always consumer

Satisfaction in mind. They have a direct approach with customer. Outlook group always

Work day and night out to create new innovative and customer oriented product. Outlook

Has an efficient and fast delivery system. It has many products capturing all sectors

Information so that it has an opportunity to become a market leader.

Outlook group also suffers from certain drawbacks. Price of some magazines is

High. Many customers perception is that outlook serves to a political party. They

Have a problem regarding number of competitors in the market. India today has already
Captured the big market share. Outlook group is trying day and night out to become a

Market leader. During my short stint in outlook I found that employee in outlook are

Hard workers for them work is an enjoyment which should be anywhere else. They work

24 * 7 throughout the year. The work culture in outlook group is something to be get

Noticed. They provide there employee to work freely and there is no unnecessary

Pressure on them. They provide their employee with good career prospect and growth

And advancement. The management of outlook group helped fresher like me to feel at

Ease. I enjoyed my short experience in outlook it helped me to understand direct

Marketing and its impact for the expansion of business of outlook.

CONCLUSIONS
In my short and fresh experience in outlook I understood the benefits of direct marketing

And how it changed the course of business of outlook. Direct marketing helped outlook

To keep a direct contact with the customer. Direct marketing helped outlook in

Understanding the response of the customers. It also helps in understanding the mind of

Customers what they want. It helped them to get a first hand reaction from the customer.

Direct marketing also helped the outlook group in increasing their brand loyalty. Direct

Marketing may be said is a tool to measure effectiveness of the product launched

Previously. It helps in creating awareness of product and services. Outlook group is an

Supportive unit for their customers and provides them with various subscription gifts.

They always keep customer satisfaction in mind while launching a new product. They

Can understand the customers mind through the help of direct marketing. During
My stay in outlook group I saw many facts that they try to understand the customers

Taste and preferences’ through a systematic and scientific database. Direct marketing

Helped them to go to customers mind and to give their customer utmost satisfaction.

Experience in outlook was interesting and helped me to understand the practical side .

RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Outlook should try to cut down the price of some magazines, as it is not possible for

Everyone to purchase such magazines. For example – Newsweek magazine.

2. Outlook should try to provide neutral information to its subscriber. During my stint

Where I was working as relationship executive in outlook, many complaints where

Found saying outlook serves to a particular political party. Outlook should not provide

Any biased information or news to its people. It dampens companies brand image.

3. Fast delivery of subscription gifts should be made. Outlook provide assured gifts to its

Subscriber, but sometimes there is delay in dispatch of gifts.

4. Outlook should launch health related magazine. I was working as a relationship

Executive and there were many customer asking for health related magazine.

5. Outlook should try to catch rural population of the country and it is possible only when

They will launch regional language magazine. They should provide magazines in rural

Areas at a cheaper rate. For example – magazine for agriculture.

BIBLIOGRAPHY/ REFERENCES
When I was doing my project I took help from various sources in the internet. I also took

Help from some books related to direct marketing .Following are the sources without
Which my project would have been incomplete;

1. www.google.com.

2. Approach to direct marketing by saxena brothers.

3. www.directmarketing.com.

4. www.wikipedia.com.

5. An overview of outlook group history.

LIMITATIONS
1) Sample size of the survey is too small. Survey was done with meager 100 people out

of the total population of the whole country.

2) As I am an student few monetary factors came as an hindrance as I was doing the

Project.