SECTION B

PGDM 2014-16

DALAL TIMES
Submitted to
Professor S.
Jayakrishnan

Contents
COMPANY.................................................................................................................... 2
Products...................................................................................................................... 2
Sales Initiatives.......................................................................................................... 3
Organizational Structure (Sales Department).............................................................4
Distribution Strategy............................................................................................... 4
Key Learnings and Conclusion:................................................................................... 5

COMPANY
DALAL TIMES
Tag line: We Define Markets
Vision: To empower investors with a knowledge platform that can transform
their lives
Mission: To be the worlds most trusted and credible financial news network,
giving you insight on how the news you read affects your life and your money
Objective: To create a niche within the industry and remain a leader in
defining market trends
Founded: May 2014
Owner: Technical Outlook Pvt. Ltd
Founder: Mr. Praveen Pathiyil
Chairman: Mr. Praveen Pathiyil
CEO: Ms. Nameetha Shinghwani
Head office: Mumbai
Regional Office: Bangalore

Products

Magazines

Websites

Newsletters

Online and social media etc.

The company have two Product/Service categories which includes websites and
Magazines. Through these products the company tries to give precise analysis of
news affecting the Stock Markets and Economy.

As of now the company is selling Magazine and the digital newsletter-Ring the Bell.
Company have a website- www.dalaltimes.in. And Dalal Times is active in Facebook
and uploads market related headlines.

Sales Initiatives
Now the company is selling two products/service- Dalal Times stock market
magazine and Ring the Bell- a first of its kind technical analysis based newsletter
that gives precise information on how to trade the market on a daily basis.
As the company and its product are new to the market, company is going ahead
with

direct

sales

method.

The

magazines

sales

are

done

through

direct

subscriptions by the customers. The subscription of the magazine can be done

through website or through the company representatives. Company sales people
approach the target customers. They are in charge of promotion as the product is
new to market.
The subscription packs and charges are as follows:
3

12

24

Student

Corporat

month

months

months

months

pack

e Pack

s
No. of

12

24

12

12

Issues
Cover

225

450

900

1800

900

900

Price
Discounte

191

351

585

900

450

450

15%

22%

35%

50%

50%

50%

d Price

Discount

The subscribers could pay the amount either as cash or cheque or demand draft. If
they are subscribing through the company website, there is an online payment
gateway through which they could transfer the amount.

As sales promotion, high discount is given. The cover price of the magazine is less
compared to the main competitor and market leader- Dalal Street Investment
Journal. The cover price of DSIJ is Rs.100. Dalal Times is offering discount on the
cover price. An aggressive sales promotion is done using the sales force. Sales team
is offered good incentives that motivates them for getting more subscriptions.
Company also recruited management graduate students as interns for sales. This
helped them to reduce the sales cost.
The newsletter- Ring the Bell is provided free now as an introductory offer.
Customers could apply for the free online newsletter that gives daily insight about
the market through e-mail. This is just an introductory offer, which the company
would be charging for the subscriptions latter.

Organizational Structure (Sales Department)

As of now, the companys sales force is operating only in four states in IndiaGujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala. The people from other states could
subscribe the magazine through online. The company have Head office in
Maharashtra

that

also

coordinate

the

regional

operations

in

Gujarat

and

Maharashtra. Kerala and Karnataka sales operations are coordinated by Zonal office
in Bnagalore.
Mr. Vijay Raghavan is the Zonal Head of South. Mr. Mahodhaya is the Regional
Manager in Karnataka.

Distribution Strategy
The magazines are published from Mumbai. Then they send the magazine copies to
the subscribers through Courier/Post. The subscribers could select the delivery
option- Postal or Courier. Postal delivery is free, whereas additional charge is
applicable for Courier delivery.
The company though initially send the magazines through postal department, due
to some problems in the distribution network started sending the magazines
through courier, irrespective of the delivery option selected by the subscribers. This
incurred huge cost for the company. Company selected DTDCs courier service.
But this led to another problem. In some regions there is no home delivery service
provided by the DTDC. During the sales, it was ensured to the customers that the
magazine would reach the door step of subscribers house or office. This is one of
the major distribution challenge company facing now.

Key Learnings and Conclusion:

The study about the Sales and Distribution system of Dalal Times provided
an opportunity for us to learn how a startup company could pitch in the
market with their new product. It also gave an idea how the company could
go for low cost sales methods. Recruiting interns for sales helped them for
low cost but aggressive marketing and sales. It was also an opportunity to
learn about various sales promotion activities of introductory free service of
digital newsletter and high discounts on magazines cover price to penetrate
into the market.
The study also helped to learn about the problem company face in
distribution. The costs that a company would incur when they face
unexpected flows in the distribution network. Customers were not happy with
the present distribution system of the company.