Trainee Report July 2015

Karuna Kunwar | Bazaar International

Kathmandu, Nepal

Acknowledgement To begin with, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude

towards Distripress Training Foundation for selecting me and giving me this phenomenal opportunity. The encouragement and willingness of Alan Bone, the Chairman of Distripress Foundation, to support new professionals in the publication and distribution industry is remarkable.

I am blessed to be a part of Bazaar International, Kathmandu, Nepal. I am ever grateful for the trust and time invested in my training.

Mediastar – Mumbai, India (13 – 17 July 2015) Much thanks to Ravi for allowing me to train with

Mediastar. We share a border and somewhat a similar culture, thus learning about how newsstands and subscriptions are managed in India, is imperative for Nepal.

Vishi added much meaning to my trip by providing insight on subscription inquiries, order generations and offering numerous trips to newsstands.

Marketforce – London, UK (20 – 24 July 2015) A huge Thank You to Marketforce, UK and Richard for the

week long training. Regardless of how busy he was, he generously spared time to check up on me. Upon my request, he quickly organized brief meetings with specialists from various departments without the slightest hesitation.

Nepal: Quick Facts

Population: 27.9 million GDP: 3.6% growth

Inflation: 9.9% Annual Growth: 4.3%

Newstrade Supply Chain - Nepal

Publishers

Freight forwarder

Distributor : Bazaar

International

Retailers Consumer

A significant portion of our expenses on freight gets carried over to retailers, and ultimately to the consumer. Therefore, magazines tend to be considered very expensive by an average person in Nepal.

Magazines in Nepal are read generally by people who have a higher disposal income. Freight charges have been our biggest challenge, which in turn affect sales, and prevents us from reaching a broader spectrum in the market.

Implication

I was looking forward to my time in Mumbai and London. Getting away for a little bit from the shakes in Nepal couldn’t have been arranged for a better time!

Phase I, Week I Phase II, Week II

Observations While on Training

• India with 1.25 billion people is the second largest population in the world with 20.8 million in Mumbai and 21.3 million in Delhi.

• Mediastar is an authorized distributor of Bloomberg Businessweek and Financial Times in Mumbai. It also distributes and provides subscription services of foreign magazines in Delhi, Pune, and Bangalore.

• Mediastar has similar subscription and newsstand strategies to Bazaar International, but with a much higher volume of magazines.

• Newsstands are limited to bookstores and travel outlets. Although supermarkets are prevalent, it does not generate as much revenue as the bookstores tend to do.

Newsstand Visits

Kitab Khana Crossword Kemps Corner

Very organized with different sections for foreign and Indian titles.

A huge magazine corner and plenty of display space for each title. Well labeled mounts are easy to browse.

Shankar Bookshop

This bookshop showed off a perfect display for books and magazines.

Subscriptions

• India’s postal service is very slow with a lot of pilferages in post, therefore, all of Mediastar’s subscriptions are hand-delivered. Most deliveries are institutional subscriptions and the best way to ensure delivery is to get slips rubberstamped for record.

• A different distribution agency (newspaper vendors) was employed to deliver the Financial Times paper.

• New acquisitions and subscriptions are made with the help of the Chamber of Commerce.

• Participation in business summits and conferences also helps bring in subscription orders.

Filter (Décor Store)

Magazines are also displayed in Interior Design Stores. Most people who entered the shop also picked up interior design magazines. A similar strategy was used in music stores.

Bombay Gymkhana

This company was established in 1875 for sports and recreational facilities. It has a library only for members. The Gymkhana is one of the most loyal subscribers of Mediastar.

Phase II, Week II 20 – 24 July

With Richard at Marketforce

Ravi, Vishi and the Mediastar crew.

London, UK

Marketforce ensures the optimal allocation of supply through the wholesale network, employs a carrier to transport products from the printers to wholesale branches, and represents titles at retail to develop sales opportunities.

The Two Main Wholesalers in The UK:

Smiths News

Menzies Distribution

Did you know? • Time Inc. UK sells 157 m copies of Woman Weeklies

and TV Listing titles a year. That’s like selling 3 million copies each week!

• Niche markets in the magazine industry i.e., sports, music, photography, equestrian, motoring, etc., has inherently loyal customers in the UK. This market is to be taken seriously!

• Software like Eloqua, Oracle offers a genius platform to personalize email contents for the right customers. This is very important because being customer-centric is no longer a luxury: it is a requirement.

• Gone are the days when traditional methods brought subscription orders. In 2014, 38% of orders for Time UK were made online, which is a giant leap in comparison to the 17% in 2006.

Circulation Management

Time Inc.

Lifestyle:

Women’s weeklies, TV listings, Home &

Lifestyle

Luxury:

Fashion Magazines Audience: Upmarket

Women

Specialist: Sports, Hobbies and

special interest

Audience: Men

Retail Representation List of the stores visited during the tour and their share in Sales

Retailer Name Retailer Type Share of sale

Independents Independents 19.9%

Tesco Grocery 16.9%

Sainbury’s Grocery 10.0%

Coop RTG Convenience 6.8%

Waitrose Grocery 3.0%

Martin McColl Convenience 2.8%

Marks & Spencer High Street 2.0%

Category Management Epsom Store project conducted by Marketforce, UK

BEFORE AFTER

This trial produced a positive performance. However, despite being ideal, it is difficult to transform into displays due to the high cost of maintenance.

Not as convenient to navigate Well categorized, and eye-catching

Unorganized Display? Aren’t we all media professionals who are intrigued by display? With magazine sales in decline, space is under threat at retail. So how can

we optimize allotted space? My meeting with the category management team was the highlight of my

trip in the UK. The team was engaged in spreadsheets which looked like complicated algorithms to me. After much curiosity, I had to request Rachel (Cat- Man manager) to show me some of her work that encompassed range, planogram (tested plans for display solutions), and segmentation (who reads what).

The idea is to increase the profitability of each category. I had an “aha” moment when I was told why kids magazines are always

put in the bottom shelf while Women’s Magazines are in the center shelf. It makes a lot of sense that moms would browse through women’s magazines , while the kids get their chance to pick out their favorite copies. Ha!

Retail Tour

Note the promotional schemes at Waitrose.

Cover mount for Marie Claire on display at

Tesco Express

Bestseller magazines on display at Sainsbury's

Data Analysis • Use of Loyalty cards to track behavior of consumer i.e. shopping habits,

readership habit, leisure & lifestyle interests.

• Who buys Puzzler (Crossword magazine)? What are their interests?

Age 58, likes visiting cathedrals, museums and abbeys, enjoys gardening, baking and recreation. For Marketforce, it is important to get data to track interests of the shoppers so they can target right contents to right customers.

Subscriptions at Time Inc, UK

• Automated marketing through Eloqua, Oracle Software to help deliver exceptional customer experiences.

• Pay per click ads with Google

• Voucher codes, quidco.com to get new acquisitions and renewal

• Customer care through Salesforce software where general queries are handled by quadrant in Scotland but monitoring phone calls and email is handled by Time Inc, UK itself.

My trip, while I was not training…

In Conclusion DTF training is a remarkable way of gaining insiders’ knowledge of

distributors engaged in presstrade, how they trade in their market, and how they are performing differently. They are the pioneers of press distribution. So what sets them apart? Training people from emerging markets is one way to demonstrate that all across the globe, we are unified through press distribution. Even if a trainee applies 20% of their finding in their market, it is the press media in general that would benefit. DTF recognizes this and wants trainees to learn as much as possible.

I hope my report will provide an update to distributors across the globe about modern techniques in press distribution. I encourage young professionals in the media business to apply for this program, because it indeed adds perspective post training.

I would like to thank Distripress Training Foundation once again for this wonderful opportunity. Thank you Marketforce, Time Inc. UK and Mediastar.