Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Part I Introduction Kuensel is the national newspaper of Bhutan. It was the only local newspaper available in Bhutan until 2006 when two more newspapers were launched. The government of Bhutan owns 51 percent of Kuensel while 49 percent is held by the public. Kuensel (which loosely means clarity) was founded in 1967 as an internal government bulletin. In 1992, a royal edict de-linked Kuensel from the government and made it an autonomous corporation to allow for the professional growth of the media. It stopped receiving government subsidy in 1998. Today, the newspaper is subsidized by commercial printing and advertisements. Kuensel Corporation Limited., started an online version of the paper in 1999 (kuenselonline.com) the year Internet first came to Bhutan. It has grown to become the most popular site on Bhutan with daily news updates on the happenings in the kingdom and an equally active discussion forum. Kuensel is published both in Dzongkha and English and it is published daily. Kuensel Online also published an internet forum which has attracted more than 100,000 members and has given Bhutanese people the opportunity to discuss important topics that have shaped Bhutanese society. Presently Kuensel corporation has a 14-member editorial team headed by a chief editor, a language editor, a news editor, a deputy editor, a chief reporter and bureau correspondents in Trashigang, Phuentsholing, Zhemgang and Bumthang and five reporters in Thimphu.
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Some of the customer retention strategies are; 1. Enhancing self-esteem in the customers by making them feel smarter than they were a minute ago. The way to a man's heart may be through his stomach, but the way to anybody's wallet is through his or her brain. 2. Customers may feel nervous or skeptical about the business. So to move them to a sense of security, confidence, and trust, the business has to give them the information they need, when they need it, in terms they can understand. 3. "Spoon-feeding" and "handholding." These do not imply a condescending or disrespectful attitude toward the customer. We spoon-feed a young creature whose life we care about enough to nurture. We hold the hand of someone we are courting. These are customer attraction and retention tactics. Every business should employ them boldly and blatantly. 4. Pricing information, for example, gives power to consumers. If the business knows that its price is higher than competitors', include information about the additional value that the business alone provides.
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Competition In the hyper-competitive journalism business today, no news organization can succeed without understanding and responding to the competition. The three outlets examined here have unconventional views of, and responses to, their competition. For example, The Washington Monthly has collaborated with the very publications with which it would seem to be in direct competition. Such strategies reflect the three news organizations' unique understanding of their market environment. Moreover, competition comes not just from other existing outlets; news organizations must also anticipate the challenge of future technologies and not yet existent rivals, and find new ways to increase their audience and expand the relevance of their products. Ways to compete with the competitors; 1. Understanding the product: Each of the news organizations is very clear about what it does and the value proposition of its product. Understanding the origin of each product -- whether it's a new brand extension or a reinvigorated old product -- is crucial to defining that value. This origin not only shapes the product but also defines the business objectives beyond profit. 2. Knowing what the target audience is: Since each product is clearly defined, the news organization must understand which audience its value proposition appeals to. That knowledge allows targeted marketing and shapes promotion strategies for the product's market space. 3. Resourcefulness: All three organizations have only a limited ability to take advantage of the distribution and marketing channels that news products traditionally use, and all three have restricted marketing budgets. As a result, the three organizations have had to devise
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Part III Methodology Study design Focus on marketing team For our project we have focused our interview on the Marketing team of the Kuensel and especially the Marketing Officer (Karma Jurmey Yangzom) and also the Managing Director (Chencho Tshering.) Interview Our project is focused on secondary data collection and especially interview method. Our aim is to interview the marketing officer of Kuensel Corporation and we have chosen to interview through e-mail. For further information we have also interviewed the Managing Director. Date on which the interview questions were e-mailed to the Marketing Officer: 13th May 2011. Date on which we received the answers (i.e. through e-mail): 17th May 2011 Date on which the interview questions were e-mailed to the Managing Director: 20th May 2011 Date on which we received the answers (i.e. through e-mail): 23rd May 2011 Questionnaire Design We have framed open ended questions based on customer attraction, retention and competition in order to cover our project objectives.
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Questionnaires; 1. Customer acquisition requires substantial skills in lead generation, lead qualification, and account conversion. With respect to above statement what are some of the strategies adopted by your organization to attract new customers? 2. Do customers defect at different rates during the year? 3. What are your customer retention strategies? 4. Does retention vary by office, region, sales representative, or distributor? 5. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an important factor in every business organization. How do you manage your customers and maintain good customer relationship? 6. Who are your main competitors? What are the methods adopted by your organization to deal with the competitors? 7. What are the retention norms for your organization? 8. What kind of special offers do you really provide? 9. What are your modes of advertisement to sustain your business?
Analysis: We will analyze the data collected by focusing on the findings and information we have gathered through interview. Our main focus will be on the answers to our questions.
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Part IV Interpretation 1. Customer centered marketing strategies Kuensel follows the following strategies to attract new customers: Openness to creativity and innovation One of the strategies followed by Kuensel to attract new customers/clients is through openness to creativity and innovation. Kuensel has been in the market for the last 40 years and still they are the leader in the market because of their openness to creativity and innovation. Every business should be willing to adapt to the fast changing environment, cater to the changing needs of the customers, and most importantly, feeding what the customers/clients need, than feeding what the business want. This is exactly what Kuensel does they cater to the needs of their customers rather than their own needs by creating new ideas and implementing those ideas. Maintaining relationship with the customers (CRM) Kuensel grows its customers than to acquiring them, because by growing the customers it retains them for lifetime. Kuensel make sure that their customers/clients receive the best service and they keep coming back in the future. Kuensel often conduct customers satisfaction and retention surveys to better understand the customer nature and behaviors. These are some strategies adopted by Kuensel to manage customer relationships. Quality products and services at competitive price Kuensel provides quality products and services at a competitive price. And sometimes they do provide with free articles in order to attract more customers/clients. For
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Business or service diversification One of the methods adopted by Kuensel to attract new customers/clients is business and service diversification. Kuensel do jobs other than publishing newspaper for survival and to have an upper edge over other private newspapers. For example Kuensel also publishes books, provide stationary services like printing, and also commercial photography. Bringing changes and adding new attributes to the existing business will attract more customers/clients as they are always behind new features, attributes and so on. This is what exactly Kuensel do and this is how they attract new customers. Nationwide coverage Reaching nationwide will also attract more customers/clients because people will come to know about the business more. Kuensel make its lead by appearing its advertisements in different media within and outside the country, be it online or through print. They brand their product to prospective customers, and reach out to them. Kuensel tries to qualify the suspects as prospects and bind them into contract to advertise all their products/services with them. Kuensel also reaches its customers by supplying the newspapers all over the country. So these are some of the methods adopted by Kuensel to attract customers/clients.
2. The two main customers of Kuensel are government sector and private sector. Since the government passes the budget in June and Kuensels experience shows that the advertisement peaks after the government passes its overall budget of all the Government sectors, who is the largest buyer of the advertisement space who uses
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3. Customer retention strategies The strategies adopted are: Service excellence One of the primary modes to retaining the customers followed by Kuensel is through service excellence. If a company can deliver a quality service at a price, no matter what, customers are bound to come back. This is what Kuensel believes and they always try to provide their customers with better services and this is the intangible aspect of customer retention. They retain their customers through excellence in delivering the quality product at short notice and since Kuensel has all facilities associated with printing under one roof, customers prefer to avail the services from one company at competitive prices and therefore, it will help in customer retention. Financial incentives
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4. The customer retention strategy of Kuensel applies to all its strategic business units (SBUs) that are commercial printing, commercial photography and stationery business although the modes of operation for each of these units differ by businesses. Kuensel has only 2 branches (i.e. In Thimphu and Kanglung) of which Thimphu Branch earns the most profits/income due to many factors like many customers/clients, private firms, Government sectors, population, global reach etc compared to Kanglung branch that is considered to be a rural place. As there is less competitor of Kuensel at Kanglung so there is less cost incurred on retention strategies compared to Thimphu branch as there are many competitors like News papers and Radios and also BBS. Moreover there is a lot of variation in case of sales representatives or distributors in both the branches as there are many agents at Thimphu compared to Kanglung, so Kuensel retentions highly vary in the above branches.
5. Customer Relationship Management Kuensel treats every customer equally irrespective of the volume of business they give us. Kuensel does not have any database regarding their customer details but they do keep regular touch with their customers and mostly treat them equally. The concept of CRM is infant in Kuensel Corporation since they do not maintain any proper database regarding their customer or client details but they do keep regular touch with their customers or clients and mostly treat them equally. They do keep the records of the
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6. Competitors The main competitors of Kuensel are newspapers, television, radio, magazines, billboards and local television channels. Well we believe and take every media as our competitor and dont take anyone for granted.-Marketing Officer (karma Jurmey Yangzom.) But some of the methods followed are: Competitive advantage over other medias Since Kuensel has been in the market for the last 40 years they have competitive advantage over other Medias. Kuensel is also the leader in the market because of their openness to creativity and innovation. Because of their longer existence in the industry customers/clients do know more about Kuensel and they tend to prefer more of Kuensel than other Medias. So Kuensel do have some competitive advantage over other Medias. Quality Quality product and service is something which every one prefers to go for. One of the methods Kuensel follows to overcome their competitors is by providing quality products and services. Quality not only implies to product or service but also to information or news the organization is providing. Kuensel provides its customers with
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8. Special Offers Kuensel do provide special offers to customers in the following ways; During the lean season on all businesses;
Normally Kuensel doesnt provide any concession or discounts on their rates and are remained fixed throughout but during its lean seasons i.e. mainly when the advertisement budgets of all their clients drops, they give special offers at concessional rates which in turn helps both Kuensel (to earn profits in their lean season) and also their clients (to advertise whatever their business requires).
Since Kuensels rate are all time high and fixed for any kind of business be it large or small size of business and moreover they dont have the tendency to negotiate about the services they normally provide. But Kuensel does provide special offers to its new customers/clients coming into the market and also advertising their new products by giving them at lower rates compared to the existing clients, which helps the new business to diversify in the market due to their widely spread readership and circulation. Kuensel as they provide excellent quality service along with a huge volume of circulation and readership, they do not believe in negotiating on their rates. Moreover as
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9. Modes of advertisements Display advertisements Display advertisements are forms of advertisements displayed in their news paper regarding admission, announcements, notifications, sale and services, scholarships, vacancies and others on a regular basis. The rates of display advertisements differ as follows; Full colour Single edition Combined edition Full Page Nu. 66,400.00 Nu. 71,400.00 Half Page Nu. 40,876.00 Nu. 46,876 .00 Other Pages Nu. 22,600.00 Nu. 26,600.00 Front page footer Nu. 5,000.00. Nu.6,000.00 Spot Colour Single edition Combined edition Full Page Nu.41,000.00 Nu.46, 200.00 Half page Nu.25,030.00 Nu.30,030.00 Quarter Page Nu.15,550.00 Nu.20,246.00 Black and White Single Edition Combined Edition Full page Nu. 39,488.00 Nu.44,488.00 Half Page Nu.23,438.00 Nu.26,244.00 Quarter Page Nu.11,800.00 Nu.13,520.00 Supplement advertisements Supplement advertisements are appendage advertisements which are based on occasions such as national events, international day and advocacy and awareness etc. which are advertise occasionally depending upon the events.
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Part V
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Recommendations
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set up one or more publishing press in other Dzongkhags to reach Kuensel newspaper to all part of Bhutan. Kuensel is read by the literate population and decision-makers . As through our study we have found that Kuensel Corporation have set up only two Publishing press in Bhutan i.e. in the capital Thimphu and Kanglung, Trashigang.
The other recommendation we would like to give is that, if they could start local
news channel in Bhutan, as television has become a staple in many Bhutanese home, where people prefer to update news through television, then they will communicate their news not only to the literate person but also to persons who dont know how to read and write. Like that they will be able to attract more customers/clients and can also retain them.
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