The Hindu

Market and Consumer Analysis

Group 4:
Easwaran K - 1311294
Karthik Arumugham - 1311299
Mukund Kumar - 1311308
Sheth Rushabh Abhilash - 1311332
Tirthesh Prajapati - 1311338




2

Contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 3
1.1 Study Methods ............................................................................................................................. 3
Consumer ............................................................................................................................................... 5
2.1 Understanding the consumer ...................................................................................................... 5
2.2 Decision Making Unit ................................................................................................................... 7
2.3 Brand Concept Map and Brand Personification ........................................................................... 7
2.4 User Personas ............................................................................................................................... 9
Company .............................................................................................................................................. 10
3.1 SWOT .......................................................................................................................................... 10
Competition ......................................................................................................................................... 11
4.1 The Times of India ...................................................................................................................... 11
4.2 The Hindustan Times .................................................................................................................. 11
4.3 The Times of India SWOT Chart ................................................................................................. 12
Channel ................................................................................................................................................ 13
Context ................................................................................................................................................. 14
6.1 Political ....................................................................................................................................... 14
6.2 Economic .................................................................................................................................... 14
6.3 Social .......................................................................................................................................... 14
6.4 Technology ................................................................................................................................. 14
Future Work ......................................................................................................................................... 15
References ........................................................................................................................................... 16

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Chapter 1
Introduction

The Hindu has the reputation for providing credible and balanced news/analysis for over a century.
The Hindus Editorial is one of the best editorials in the market thus getting the daily a lot of
attention. According to the Indian Readership Survey, The Hindu is the third largest distributed
English newspaper next to The Times of India and The Hindustan Times. It has a readership of
around 2.2 million people in India. The Hindu is the leading daily in South India especially in the
states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The Times of India made its entry in Tamil Nadu in 2008 and has
been a major competitor for The Hindu since then. The advertisement campaign Wake Up to the
Times of India portrayed The Hindu as a boring and sleep inducing daily. The Hindu came up with
the Stay ahead of the Times advertisement campaign against The Times of India. Apart from The
Times of India there are also other major players both in English as well as the vernacular languages
that pose severe threat to this dailys market share in its home turf. Along with the competition in
the printed media form, the internet is also a growing threat since people get to know the news
from online sources. The mobile technology has made it possible for people to stay connected
always and get to know the daily happenings immediately. Thus the challenge for The Hindu is to
retain its readership and at the same time explore into new territories and new markets to increase
readership and revenue.

1.1 Study Methods

To understand consumers perception, beliefs and attitude towards the product The Hindu, we
used following methods which would help us build our primary data. Here we have focused on
getting qualitative information which would give us the metrics on which to build our study and
develop a marketing strategy.
Depth Interview
In this method, we engaged in personal interaction with consumers to understand their
demographics, their inclination towards reading news, choice of product, factors/attributes that are
relevant and important to them and brand loyalty. We carried two types of interviews namely
personal interview (6 people) and other was telephonic interview (10 people). The sample was
chosen to be diverse set of people with different demographic characteristics such as age,
occupation, location, income and education.


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Laddering
In this method we asked a series of why questions to five people to understand what motivates a
person to choose any newspaper and what beliefs back up the decision. The results form a part of
the laddering tree discussed later in the report.
Word association
We asked people to write whatever comes to their mind when they encounter the word The
Hindu. This helped us understand how is The Hindu positioned in minds of people and what
image does it carry. This helped in creating the brand concept map.
Brand Personification
People were asked think of the brand Hindu as a person and this was used in forming the brand
personification map.
Projective test
We gave five people a scenario where two people A and B are having a discussion. Person A reads
The Hindu and person B reads any newspaper of their choice. We asked them to write a short
conversation between A and B which they think would take place. The test revealed some
interesting facts about customers perception of The Hindu and the competitor newspaper.

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Chapter 2
Consumer

2.1 Understanding the consumer

Consumers behaviour towards reading newspaper is habitual. People prefer to read news from a
source that they are comfortable with and this comfort comes from habit. The introduction to a
newspaper happens during childhood and in most cases this is based on geographic location. Every
newspaper has a strong hold over some geographic location and this primarily decides the reader
base.
From all the available options, the choice of a particular newspaper is determined by the benefits
which one seeks from it. Benefits sought are determined by the demographics such as age and
occupation and psychographics like lifestyle and interests. Customers beliefs and attitude towards
a particular brand also plays important role in determining their choice. Results from qualitative
methods used by us show some interesting insight on customers beliefs and their choice of
newspapers.
A group of people preferred newspaper which covers breadth of news rather than depth. Such
people choose The Times of India. They believe that The Hindu covers only important issues in
depth but leaves out on other news items. Also, in some states The Hindu is late by 1-day in
reaching the consumers and this gives an advantage to its competitors.
Some people give higher importance to quality of news. Such people prefer articles with important
information rather than stories or gossips. This segment of people wants their newspaper to be
simple and less flashy. The Hindu leads this segment. This segment also includes people who read
newspapers for educational purposes or for preparing for competitive exams.
People also give importance to use of language. According to some readers, The Hindu is known for
using difficult English, understanding which is beyond their capabilities. Results of projective test
showed that a non-Hindu reader think that a person reading The Hindu would always talk about
issues such as inflation, GDP growth, crisis, rupee slide, budget and would be some professional,
competitive exam takers or IAS aspirants, who are only interested in serious current issues. On the
other hand a Hindu reader thinks that the person reading The Hindu is more knowledgeable, aware
and wise.
Price is one of the last consideration factors while choosing a newspaper. Subscription based
models are more preferred at continuous service is ensured.

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In the face to face interviews as well as the telephonic interviews with the respondents, we focused
on identifying what are the attributes that people generally look for in any newspaper. As the next
step of the process we used the Laddering Method to understand more about the abstract needs of
the consumers.
Several respondents spoke about several attributes of a newspaper and the laddering analysis was
conducted on these attributes. Finally, the value that the customers look for is Social Visibility
that they get because of reading the newspaper. Social Visibility here encompasses getting a job,
clearing a competitive examination or discussions with friends or relatives on various issues/topics.

2.2 Decision Making Unit

The buyer: The persons hobbies, interests and upbringing strongly influence the kind of
newspaper he reads.

Distributors: The availability of any newspaper is partly dependent on the distributor. He
might disagree to deliver a newspaper and will change the subscription if incentivized by
competitor newspaper.

Family and Friends: Life cycle state strongly determines the brand of newspaper a person
reads. For example, after marriage a person might buy another newspaper based on
spouses choice.

Geography & Environment: The region and environment in which a person resides influence
the choice of the newspaper. For example, a person in a business school would read a
business newspaper because his peers do so.


2.3 Brand Concept Map and Brand Personification

The beliefs that consumers often have about a brand decides the success or failure of the brand.
The responses from the consumers have been used to build the brand association map. Based on
the similar responses, the strength of the association is depicted by thicker lines.

8












Brand Concept Map








Brand Personification Map
Both the brand concept map and brand personification map show that the Hindu is associated with
high quality news content. It has many, unique and favourable associations. But it loses out due to
lack of awareness and the belief that it is a niche newspaper for the intellectual audience.

THE HINDU
Around a long time
Quality content
Reliable
Academic related
Information
Very Regional for
movies/music
More Depth
Religion
Quality paper
Standard content
Style
Diverse articles in
supplements
Supplements
News
Difficult language Late delivery at few places No annual offer
generally
Competitive Exam
preparation
Fewer Ads/
Gossip
THE HINDU
South Indian
Reliable
Academic related
More educated
Respectable
Someone equal
Well Informed
Organized
Predictable
9

2.4 User Personas

Shrikanth, the teacher
Shrikanth is a 32 year old teacher and has a 5 year old son. He teaches Physics at a junior
college in Chennai and runs his own coaching class.
Shrikanth is a heavy reader and likes to get as much knowledge as possible. He reads his
newspaper from end to end and likes to analyse the problems given in the paper. He is fond of
editorials and is likes to state his opinions. He loves to solve crossword and Sudoku puzzles in the
paper. He reads his paper for nearly an hour every day.
He is married to a chartered accountant and together they like to travel across India. He
likes the travel supplement of his newspaper as it helps him know about various places and has
relevant promotions.
Shrikanth is a Hindu reader and he recommends Hindu to his students. He is respected
among his friends and colleagues due to his vast knowledge.

Rahul, the sales manager
Rahul is 27 and works in a MNC. He is constantly on the move and has very little time for
himself.
He likes to keep himself updated about different issues that are happening in the world, so
that he could look smart in front of his friends. He likes his news to be at one place and easily
readable. He likes the news to be short and crisp and should cover as many issues as possible.
He is a movie buff and regularly follows happenings in Bollywood. Reading about lifestyles
of celebrities in the paper interests him. The pictures in the newspaper excite him.
Rahul is a Times of India reader and would only change his newspaper if it more informative
and at the same time simple to read.





10

Chapter 3
Company

The Hindu, started in year 1878 as a weekly, became a daily in 1889 and from then on has been
steadily growing to the circulation of 15,58,379 copies and a readership of about 22.58 lakhs. The
Hindu is most popular daily newspaper in south India with an Average Issue Readership (AIR) figure
of 18.21 lakh. It is a clear leader in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala and has shown growth
in other states including National Capital Region as per IRS 2012 Q4 figures.
The Hindu uses modern facilities for news gathering, page composition and printing. It is printed in
seventeen centres including the main edition at Chennai (Madras) where the Corporate Office is
based. The printing centres at Coimbatore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Madurai, Noida, Visakhapatnam,
Thiruvanathapuram, Kochi, Vijayawada, Mangalore, Tiruchirapalli, Kolkata, Hubli, Mohali, Allahabad
and Kozhikode are connected with high speed data lines for news transmission across the country.
3.1 SWOT

Strengths Weakness
Strong readership base in south India. 3rd in
English newspaper readership market share in
India with 2.2 million people
Not doing well in rest of India other than South
Strong customer loyalty among existing users
Low subscription: Almost one third of subscription
compared to Times of India
Preferred by students and various exams takers
Considered as a niche newspaper and excludes
mass of the population
Good quality paper, rich content, well known for
quality editorial

Opportunities Threats
Can use its brand image to launch new product for
students
Times of India depositioning Hindu as boring
Opportunity in online and mobile medium
Substitutes: Growth in online news and mobile
news market may lead to decrease in sales
Branding opportunity to increase market share in
rest of India



11

Chapter 4
Competition

4.1 The Times of India

As per Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2012, the Times of India has a readership of 76.43 lakhs and is
the leading English daily in India. The Times Group, also publishes The Economic Times, Mumbai
Mirror, Pune Mirror, Bangalore Mirror, Ahmedabad Mirror, the Navbharat Times, the Maharashtra
Times and Ei Samay. This makes Times of India strong in the north and west market. Also the e-
paper from Times of India is available free of cost. The Hindus e-paper is available only for a cost.
This may attract a segment would dont wish to pay for news, resulting in decreased revenues for
both TOI and The Hindu. Readers, who otherwise are or may have been potential customers of The
Hindu, may look at this option.

The Times of India website offers information in conjunction with various modes of media. It is also
the first Indian news website to have close to 2 million fans on its Facebook page and is followed by
more than 375K people on Twitter. Social media marketing is very well exhausted by Times of India
to promote its readership which resulted in strong brand community and increased readership with
customer advocacy.

It is the first Indian newspaper site to introduce apps for five major mobile platforms - iPad, iPhone,
Android, BlackBerry and Nokia. On an average, 45% of its visitors are from India. It also provides
real-time news updates with extensive local coverage of more than 30 Indian cities. It is likely that
people with smartphones would access the news through mobile apps, resulting in decreasing in
market share for newspapers. The Hindu was a little late in responding to this and launched its
version of mobile apps quite recently. This may result in product cannibalization in the future for
both Times of India and as well as The Hindu, i.e., existing newspaper readers possessing a
smartphone may migrate to this apps solution, resulting in decreased revenues, as mobile apps
provides news free of cost.

4.2 The Hindustan Times

As per Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2012, HT has a readership of 37.67 lakhs, making it the
second most widely read English daily in India. It has a wide reach in northern India. Other sister
publications are Mint (English business daily), Hindustan (Hindi Daily), Nandan (monthly children's
magazine) and Kadambani (monthly literary magazine). The media group owns a radio channel,
Fever. The e-paper from Hindustan Times is available free of cost. Looking at the recent trend, we
are finding that there is a raise in demand for business daily, The Mint.

12


4.3 The Times of India SWOT Chart

STRENGTH WEAKNESS
Pan India presence Lower customer base in south India
Brand Value,
Newspaper ads are very high in number
Strong reader base
Brand loyalty high
Good graphics in news papers
Mobile News application, epaper is free of charge
Segment oriented product
OPPORTUNITY THREATS
Opportunity to expand in South India based on brand
name
Intense competition in English
newspapers
E-reader base can be targeted separately Reduction in rate of intelligent viewers
Expansion of Vernacular newspaper













Brand Concept Map
The Times of
India
Around long time
Short & Simple
Gossip
Entertainment
Times Now
Relevant movies/music
content anywhere
Sounds Old
More news
Distraction for exam
oriented preparation
Breaking news
Style
Diverse articles in
supplements
Supplements
News
13

Chapter 5
Channel




The channel has some influence on the decision making process and works on a profit margin basis
(nearly 10%)
The distributors could be incentivised by offering monetary rewards for exceeding circulation in
some months.
14

Chapter 6
Context

There are macro-economic factors that affect the functioning of any firm/Industry. These external
factors can be classified broadly into four categories namely Political, Economic, Social and
Technological. An analysis of such factors become important as they are not in the control of the
company and could pose severe threat in the future. This analysis is called PEST Analysis.
6.1 Political
The political system has a significant impact on the newspaper industry. Most of the times
news that appears in the first page of any daily is one way or the other related to politics. Elections,
scams, budgets, act of terrorism etc. can impact the political arena and thereby increase interest in
readership of the newspapers. Taxation and government policy on the newspaper industry as well
as the other related industries also areas of concern as this will have an impact on the costs of
supplies.
6.2 Economic
The general economic threats to the newspaper industry are recession, unemployment,
increasing prices, reduction in circulation and classified advertisements, falling profit margins and
availability of substitutes like Television, Internet.
6.3 Social
According to the IRS Survey for Q4 2012, %CAGR for Literacy rate is 3.7. Though there is
an increase in literacy rate, people who buy and read newspaper are less as they prefer alternate
source of news. Also at the same time the %CAGR of Internet is the Highest at 24.2% [IRS Survey Q4
2012]. Thus this is an indication that internet is becoming more and more dominant. Also people in
the age groups 18 25 prefer technology oriented alternatives.
6.4 Technology
Technological advancements over the past decade in the field of internet, smartphones
and communication have a significant impact on the newspaper industry. With the advent of many
news applications for the mobile market, people can stay in touch with what is happening in the
world all the time. Though These Technological advancements impact the print media, it also
provides great opportunities as it opens up a new online news market.

15

Chapter 7
Future Work

From the above understanding of the market and customer needs, we layout the scope for future
work. The following are the key areas of focus:

Brand Extension: Segment the market and check the feasibility of entering into a youth
segment. Find distinguishing demographics of this segment such as what geographies do the
live in, the career choices available to them and the breadth of the news they would like to
get exposed to. A career supplement with interview tips and jobs could be an added feature
for this segment.

Product Improvement: Survey core Hindu readers and find whether minor changes with
design and presentation are acceptable. Ask for feedback on structure of the newspaper
and changes that are necessary. Find unmet benefits if any and acceptability of incremental
changes.

Customer acquisition and Advocacy: Survey non Hindu readers such as vernacular readers
entering the English daily market and find the benefits they seek. Get core readers to
advocate the brand, to attract such customers.



16

References

1. www.thehindu.com
2. www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com
3. Marketing management by Philip kotler,Kevin L Keller,Abraham kosshy &M Jha-14
Edition Pearson publication
4. Indian Readership Survey 2012 Q4 report
5. http://www.hindustantimes.com/