Titli National Publishing Company: Marketing of Children’s Fortnightly Magazine

CASE STUDY OF

‘NATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY: MARKETING OF CHILDREN’S FORTNIGHTLY MAGAZINE’

GROUP 7A (New Gen leaders)

1. Harshvardhan Baroliya        (P37022)
2. Raajaganesh K                (P37049)
3. Rahul Agrawal                (P37053)
4. Surajit Ganguly                (P37082)
5. Syam Pradeep                (P37084)

Case Analysis

The Case is about fortnightly vernacular magazine ‘Titli’ of National Publishing Company. The magazine has a market share of 26 per cent in 1986. The number of Children’s magazine has gone down from 31 in 1986 to 9 in 1989. The magazine’s closest competitor ‘Children’s Delight’ discontinued publishing from 1989. Due to this, the share of ‘Titli’ rose to 47 %. But the overall sales have gone down by 40% in 1990 compared to its peak circulation in 1987.

The following can be the possible reasons for the decline in circulation of ‘Titli’ :

• The children and parents of the children of class III to V are expecting more entertainment than information from reading. But the appeal of the magazine is “Window dressing”

• The children of the class VI to X are interested in Scientific Knowledge and Science Magazines. But ‘Titli’  has very less content about this section.

• The children of class VI to VIII have the hobbies of collecting coins, stamps, match-box labels, car/motor cycle posters. But the magazine did not have any content related to the children’s hobbies to attract them.

• The parents’ perception of the magazine considering the magazine as distraction from studies.

• The magazine itself being published in vernacular language.

Suggested Solutions

• Some of the short stories which are many in number can be replaced with cartoons and other entertainment visuals to attract children of III to V.

• Few articles related to academics and scientific topics can be added to attract the children of class VI to X, who constitute 57 % of the readers.

•  Articles and posters related to sports and automobiles (bikes, cars etc) can be added to attract the children of class VI to VIII whose hobbies are keeping car/bike posters.

• Quiz and loud stories can be replaced with knowledge and scientific related articles to appeal to the parents.

• The magazine can be circulated in English as English was the preferred language for many children and parents.

•  A promotional campaign can be conducted by organizing sketch competitions in the schools and the winner’s drawing can be printed in the magazine with photo which can ultimately draw attention of both children and parents.

• Quarterly/Half-yearly/Annual subscription of the magazine has to be introduced to increase the circulation and regular readers.

• Upcoming articles/stories in the next edition have to be mentioned in the last page to build curiosity among the readers.