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Sales and Marketing for Youth Connect Magazine BY avow-Rural Sales and Marketing for Youth Connect Magazine SIP project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PAGE Programmer By Sashay Gallery 2013018 Supervisor: 1. Divers Swan’ 2. Proof. S. Perusal Institute of Management Technology, Nagger. 2013-2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I hereby take this opportunity to thank Youth Connect Magazine for providing me a corporate entrepreneurial exposure through the course of my summer internship I would also like to express my sincere gratitude towards my company guide and porting manager Mr..
New titles that focus on special place/good Job topics continue to launch in the market. The money/money income sources for a magazine are subscription, single copy sales and advertisement. About 73 percent of money/money income comes from advertising and 27 percent from circulation. The magazine industry is going through a tough phase in India Just like in other countries. Newspapers have added adds to/helpful additions to their main issue and violated on the content covered by magazines earlier. Television channels have launched in different (types of writing or art) 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 using/ dating/drinking 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 a slice of sales to other ways of communicating. 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 once-a-year event money/money income total Just $1. 1 billion. Most lack technology, marketing, and capital to grow which has resulted n a handful of publications ruling over the market with the Times of India Group being the market leader. Distribution is critical for a magazine since it has to be easily available and marketed to people. Big publications have strong distribution network set up. 0 Retail: Magazines are available in retail outlets for sale. The store gets a commission on the sale price.
Subscription: Publisher signs up subscribers directly or through partners and delivers the issue in mail. Selective Distribution: Special sponsored copies are distributed in airplanes and hotels. SASHAY GALLERY | 2013018 | MIT NAGGER With the growth coming from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, magazines have to expand their distribution channel aggressively in those locations and localize content where needed. The print industry in India is highly broken-up due to the large number of local languages.
Regional language publications own 46 percent of the total market share, Hindi language publications cover 44 percent and the remaining 10 percent is served by English publications. The first penetration of English language magazines now is in metros and city-based centers though the growth is widening to smaller cities as he education and income levels increase among the middle class. With the opening up of Foreign Direct Investment (FED) policy, several international publishers are aggressively entering the market and this trend is expected to continue.
According to World Magazine Trends published by IPP 200,000 magazines in circulation in the entire world. YOUTH CONNECT MAGAZINE is one of them but it is evolving as not Just a magazine but also as a novelty in its mere concept. 1. 1 Youth Connect Magazine (YES) Youth Connect is Indian’s first and only youth media house. It is a venture “of the Youth, by the Youth, and for the Youth” and is a work of college undergraduates, driven by a passion to make their voices heard. It aims to connect with the youth at a grass-root level and provide them the right platform to come together.
They wish to make reading an important habit and intend to do so by producing content which is inspiring, humorous, locally-unique, socially & culturally significant. Youth Connect is a platform that connects to the youth, giving them a stage to voice their opinions and ultimately intends to induce readership in a country like India which otherwise lacks readership. The company is based on the principle muff Speak. We Publish”. Conclusively, a significant share of content comes from the readers. The magazine is run by a group of passionate and enthusiastic college students based in India.
They have team members, occasional writers, and contributors, from across the country, and 6 even from outside the country, while they have the operations head quartered at Mohammedan, Gujarat. They are presently incubated at the Student Startup Support System (SO) of the Gujarat Technological University. Its Institute Ambassador Network is run by over 100 members from various colleges and institutes all over India. They’ve released over 26 editions since March 2012 and have completed 2 years of the magazine on March 1st,2014.
Youth Connect is connected to more than youngsters across the country through its print copy reaching out to more than 32000+ readers & digital media space with the fan base of 33,000+ (Backbone Likes). The official website of Youth Connect has 1 unique visitors every month. The differentiation’s that run the Youth Connect magazine are divided into 7 teams. They are Editing Team,Marketing & Sales Team, Business Development Team, Photography Team, Website Team, Social Media Team and the Designing Team. The topics covered under the magazine are youth specific to provide a complete package to today’s generation.
They are Technology, Fashion, Sports, Entertainment, Life, Fiction, Knowledge, Politics, Passion, Entrepreneurship, Fun, Gossips, Fiction/ Non Fiction, Events and updates. The magazine is distributed nationwide its subscribers on a monthly basis within the first week of the month. It is available in the book stores in Mohammedan like Crossword and Reading tree and the local street vendor shops. The magazine can be purchased online from Infinite. Com and Sophocles. Com. As a mobile application, the magazine can be accessed on Android and ISO platform cell phones.
The leading partners/ tie-ups of the magazine are CDC, Chocolate Room, Subway, EASIES Data Active, Dean Bank, Naivet??, Red FM, Endeavor Careers, YUBA Unstoppable, Sheikhs, lib, Talkers, Get Jewels, Laxly Optical, Baker, BLOC, John Players, Punjab National Bank, US Pizza, Internships, Red FM and many more. Mission Youth Connect plans on producing institute-specific and organization-specific magazines under the label of Youth Connect in order to accomplish its goal of making reading a habit among the youth. The company plans to do this by tying up with schools and colleges across India by deploying teams of ambassadors in institutions.
A tie-up with news agencies in order to obtain global content in exchange for local content is also anticipated. L 7 Vision Youth Connect envisions sourcing, identifying, developing and delivering locally unique, youth-specific, inspirational and significant content to the youth, with the singular view of converting reading from an optional hobby to an important habit. 8 CHAPTER – 2 OBJECTIVES Since the company is a start-up firm, it involved my contribution in all its functions room Marketing and HER to Editing and Operations.
Following were the objectives which were taken care of in the two month duration of my internship at YES. Objectives in Sales and Distribution 1 . Sell subscriptions of the magazine to prospective youngsters. 2. Supervision of under graduation interns for attainment of fast subscription and online social media promotion. 3. Get magazine subscription offer listed on e-commerce platform. 4. Make subscription renewal plans for retaining existing subscribers. Objectives in Business Development 1 . Make customized partnership proposals of target clients in different industries 2.
Make a Powering presentation about Youth Connect and the Partnership Proposal. 3. Pitch to youth specific clients for advertisements in the magazines. 4. Prepare surveys to generate leads for business clients. Objectives in Promotion and Brand Awareness 1 . Promote the magazine on the digital space and social media. 2. Designing and executing PL campaign to be conducted at cafe shops of Mohammedan. 3. Device policies to promote YES in schools and colleges. Objectives in HER function 1 . Recruitment and selection of under graduation interns. 2.
Design detailed HER policy to recruit interns. 3. Design flow wise timeline of work to be assigned to the interns. 4. Standardization of tasks and Jobs for the interns. 5. Create a hierarchy of the Job positions. 9 Objectives in Core Strategies 1 . Devise strategies to give a proper structure to the organization. 2. Device plans to revivalist the company’s core. 10 CHAPTER – 3 DESCRIPTION OF CONCEPTS APPLIED Having worked in certain different functions during my internship, I applied relevant concepts in those functions. Those concepts are mentioned below function wise. . 1 Marketing Advertising Advertising is a paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, odds and services by an identified sponsor. Youth Connect being a media house, it is an advertising platform and hence it doesn’t advertise much per SE. But during our tenure at YES, it was listed at a couple of e-commerce platforms for subscription offer including Mandalay. Com and pneumonia. Com Brand Awareness It refers to the extent to which a brand is recognized by potential customers and is correctly associated with a particular product.
This was one of the major objective of interns to come up with new plans and strategies for increasing brand awareness. Along with my team I was involved in some of such plans and campaigns. One out of them was PL campaign in which our team went to some cafes where PL matches were screened. As cafes are some of those places where usually young crowd gathers especially during PL world cup. We engaged youth there with some fun involved activities, contests and clicked their photos and posted them to our backbone page. PL campaign was also being run on social media platform through daily contest.
Also, YES have been magazine partner in college events etc. During my internship YES became magazine partner with Shares Shoal Live concert, Benny Delay Live concert and a big fashion show. 11 Sales & Distribution Sales is a process of persuading customers to purchase the product(s) or service(s). Distribution channels are those which are widely used by marketers to display, sell, or deliver the physical product(s) or service(s) to the buyer. Usually, these channels are via the Internet, mail, SMS or phone call, or indirect with distributors, wholesalers, agents and retailers as intermediaries.
Though by the above definition, sales comes under the broad umbrella of distribution channels but at Youth Connect Magazine we used to refer them separately. At YES, Sales were usually meant by subscription wrought under graduation interns and also through online purchase. I had to capitalize on especially on subscriptions through under graduation interns. I made plans for subscription drives in some residential societies and also in colleges separately. Distribution in YES was meant by distribution of magazine to retailers through distribution agencies.
For expanding distribution throughout Gujarat, I made a deal with a distribution agency which will distribute YES magazine in major cities of the state apart from Mohammedan. These cities were mainly Ratio, Sugar, Jamaican and Vodka. Business Proposal A business proposal is an offer in written from a seller to a prospective buyer. It is a key step in complex sales process. It was a part of my Job to make business proposal. I made specific proposal for sports businesses, book author, fashion houses and coaching centers.
Then after getting an appointment from a client I made those proposal client specific. B to B Marketing Business to business refers to the market where customers are other businesses. Hence marketing for such customers becomes critical for a media house where advertising shares a major part in revenue source. YES gives ad space in magazines and also on its website. In business proposals our team used to make ad space core deliverable by magazine to business clients. Apart from this there were other deliverables too. 12 3. Human Resource Recruitment & Selection: Recruitment means searching for and obtaining a pool of potential candidates with the desired knowledge, skills and experience to allow an organization to select the most appropriate people to fill the vacancies defined position descriptions and specifications. Once a pool of candidates is identified through the recruitment the cost appropriate candidate, or candidates are identified through a selection process including but not limited to interviewing, reference checking and testing by giving some tasks etc.
At YES hiring of under graduation interns was a regular process. These interns used to work for a couple of months or for three. So in a cycle they were hired. I was a part of this recruitment and selection process where I applied the HER concepts I studied. Employment Policy l, along with another intern from ‘MAT, was given a task of making a detailed employment policy for under graduation interns in which we had to encompass all aspects including hiring, training, task allocation, evaluation, performance review, awards, rewards and exit. 3. Strategic Planning Revitalization of Company Revitalization can take many guises from the complete change of a company or product, inside and outside, including name, culture, values, behaviors, tone, tone, visual collateral and all that entails with no connections to the legacy entity, to something less dramatic and of a more evolutionary nature. At YES, We as a team had to discuss and deduce a revival plan for company. It was with a thought of taking the gazing from print version to a complete online package. Within our discussion we strategists that is it feasible and if it is then how and when management should do it.
We came up with some suggestion on it. 13 CARS CARS, which stands for corporate social responsibility, is a process with the aim to embrace responsibility for the actions of the company and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders, environment, and all other members of the public sphere who may also be considered stakeholders. I at YES board, came up with an idea for CARS. The idea was to distribute a collector edition of magazines to first 3 toppers of High School and Higher Secondary students in different schools under a student motivation program.
Team liked and embraced the idea and the day board results were out we ran the program. 14 CHAPTER – 4 COMPANY ANALYSIS With a pursuit to connect the youngsters of this nation at a grass-root level, Youth Connect was founded by a young Engineering Student and now the Mr.. Divers Swan’. Pursuing his second year of graduation, Divers was once traveling in a train and had nothing to entertain him during his Journey. He then thought of a medium which would connect various youngsters across India and provide them relevant news which they might be interested to read. Hence, from there the Journey of Youth Connect started.
He has provided them with the right platform to come together and share each other’s feelings and express their viewpoints. With the help of another college student and a then PL flogger, Mr. Rural Backhanding, Co-founder of Youth Connect, the magazine started with a wish to make reading an important habit among youngsters. The intention was to make that happen by making content that is inspiring, humorous, locally-unique and socially & culturally significant. Youth Connect came out with its first print edition on March 2012 with a subscription based restricted in Mohammedan.
Two years later, in March 2014, the magazine had a subscription base of 8000 readers all across the nation. Youth Connect is a monthly magazine issuing 12 editions in a year, with each edition on a varied youth specific cover story like Education, Sports, Politics, Relationship etc. It is a 44 page magazine with the articles like Expert Speak, Inspiration Column, Ask Athena, The Last Laugh, News That Broke, Youth Speak etc. The magazine has gained appreciation for its tireless efforts from the Prime Minister of India, Sari Unread Mood and other famous celebrities like Dry.
Plash Seen, Lead Singer, Euphoria Band, Dry. Aisha Gradual, Vice Chancellor, Gujarat Technical University and more. Youth Connect stood among the top 20 start-ups at an event in MOM Mohammedan. The magazine has also won the echoic Marketing award at MICA University. Unique Selling Proposition With the brilliant idea of connecting the youth across the nation, the magazine’s selling point lies in the fact that it is Indian’s first media house dedicated especially for he youngsters. Its USPS is definitely in its tagging, “of the Youth, by the Youth, and for the Youth”. 5 4. 1 Points of Differentiation (POD) The magazine offers content targeted especially for the youth and hence has many differentiating factors from other magazines in the same genre. 1 . Cover stories/ coverage on a particular youth specific topic each month. 2. Technology advancement articles for the tech savvy youth. 3. Relationship issues/queries by the love guru for the vulnerable youngsters. 4. Exclusive surveys and opinion polls on different youth related themes. 4. Financial Major Expenses 1. Printing / Publishing. 2. Postage / Shipping of magazines. 3.
Website Management. 4. Goodies / Promotion articles. 5. Social Media Investments. 6. CARS activities / Campaigns. 7. Salaries of full time members. Sources of Revenue 1. Magazine Subscriptions / Renewals. 2. Advertisement packages. 3. Event Partnerships. 4. Donations. 4. 3 Departments at Youth Connect 0 Editorial Department The Editorial team consists of 25 members, all youngsters form diverse backgrounds and cultures. It follows a hierarchy of Deputy Editor, Special Editors, Editor-at-large, Associate Editors, Feature Editors, Resident Editor and Editorial Associate.
It takes care of all the articles in the magazine and also on the official Website and Backbone page. 16 I got the opportunity to be a part of editorial team for publishing May 2014 edition.. The editorial team, mainly a bunch of college going students, were busy with their End Term examinations. 0 Marketing & Sales Department The Marketing & Sales team of the magazine takes care of the Subscriptions, Advertisements to be shown in the magazine, business partnerships and the promotion of the magazine. The team is run by a few core members and the interns red by Youth Connect on regular basis.