Marketing Plan 2007-2008

Marketing Plan

For The Daily Newspaper

1.        Executive Summary

The Daily is a new 30p tabloid newspaper to be launched in 2007 and published daily throughout Britain. Its aim is to become one of Britain’s most popular daily national newspapers after the likes of The Sun and will arguably be right-wing. In the near future it is predicted that it will also publish a sister paper, The Saturday, along with an Irish version if this proves successful. The Daily will be targeted at what is now considered the middle-market and intends to sell many hundreds of copies each day in 2007-2008 through effective marketing, with the objective switching to achieving sales in the regions of thousands in 2009-2010.

The Daily is originally set to be a tabloid, although a broadsheet format will be considered in subsequent years even though it is unlikely that it will change. Its chief rivals are predicted to be the Daily Express and The Sun, amongst others, and will have a similar political stance and target audience. The Daily aims to have one of the highest circulations of any English language daily newspaper by 2010 and will try to occupy a position midway between the tabloid and broadsheet divide, covering much of the same celebrity ground as the tabloids but attempting to position itself as a more upmarket ‘middle class’ publication.

It clearly has the market for the daily tabloid newspapers as evidenced by the general demographics and the popularity of those already published, distributed and circulated in Britain. This market is developing at a rapid speed and The Daily will add to the mix of newspapers and market this specific segment, particularly with the expected business model with regards to the marketing mix. The newspaper endeavours to grow steadily and profitably, providing outstanding coverage of news, sport and weather in addition to those previously ignored.

The marketing plan will show the research conducted using publicly accessible secondary data provided by the newspaper industry and competitors, as well as research complemented by access to primary information. An examination of proposed and future marketing strategies has been made in order to understand the dimensionality of profitability, publication, circulation and distribution of the product. Furthermore, a comprehensive analysis has been performed examining the internal and external environments using appropriate methodologies grounded in strategic management, theoretical constructs and principle.

2.        Aims

The advertising campaign has a number of aims. The main aims are:

  • To enable readers to find out more about the news and areas that interest them, ensuring they have a quick and easy read on the latest news and events
  • To appeal equally to men and women of different ages and social class
  • To increase popularity every year to improve sales and develop growth within the market
  • To produce a sister paper in the coming years and an Irish version to manipulate and penetrate the market to increase sales volume of the newspaper for future expansion
  • To succeed at aiming at the middle-market by selling many copies each day and consider a broadsheet version in the near future
  • To occupy a position midway between the tabloid and broadsheet divide, covering much of the same celebrity ground as the tabloids but attempting to position itself as a more upmarket ‘middle class’ publication
  • Sales of £250,000 in 2008 and £500,000 by 2008 or more
  • Gross margin increase by 35% between 2008 and 2010
  • Net income remains more than 5% of sales through 2008

The aims above are very important for the advertising campaign. Despite not being directly linked to advertising, they are equally as important. In order to meet the aims above, effective advertising needs to take place locally, regionally and nationally. This will ensure the marketing plan is also successful as efficient marketing and promotion often leads to a plan being implementing to full extent, tailoring the product for each target market and maximising attainable revenue.

These aims will be met by advertising through posters, billboards and in other newspapers or magazines, as well as via the Internet, radio, through retail outlets and on television networks. However, television is very expensive and the newspaper will advertise through paper-based methods as apposed to audio-visual. Effective advertising will lead to the aim of selling internationally with regards to publicity, PR and merchandising.

3.        Review of the Market

The market for the tabloid newspaper product must essentially be reviewed in connection to the current situation. This is easily represented in graphical form such as diagrams and illustrations. According to latest statistics within the market, approximately 45-48% of adults read a newspaper between Monday to Friday on a daily basis, often increasing to a record 62% and 81% of a weekend. This is shown below and clearly shows the current situation of the market.

National newspapers daily, weekly and for weekly reach

In addition, the age of readers is affecting the current situation of the newspaper market. More importantly, the social class determines the type of readers that regularly purchase newspapers in which the ABC1 group is the most popular as apposed to the C2DE. Again, this is shown below and highlights the position of the newspaper product within the market in relation to its current situation. It is very important to understand that social class helps structure the market and influences many of the decisions faced by market leaders today.

National newspapers daily, weekly and for weekly reach by social class

The market for newspapers is also affected by the current situation of the percentage reach by newspaper type in terms of adults and age. This can be seen below and indicates this in terms of populars, mid markets and qualities for age.

 

% Weekly reach by newspaper type for all adults and age

A similar diagram is shown below, but this time for the percentage weekly reach by newspaper type in relation to all adults and social class. It is clear that the C2DE social class is strongest for populars, ABC1 for mid markets and ABC1 for qualities.

% Weekly reach by newspaper type for all adults and social class

In order to fully understand the current situation of the newspaper market, a pie chart of the share of readership by sector is shown below. This diagram shows that the populars sector has the greatest share of readership as apposed to the qualities and mid market. This enables a strong understanding of the market.

Share of readership by sector

It is helpful to understand the total readership trends for dailies in which adults consume newspapers, as shown below. By finding out the total number of people in terms of millions which read newspapers on a daily basis, this will enforce future decisions as to when to publish and distribute a newspaper, and why this should be circulated within such a time period.

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Total readership trends of adults for dailies in terms of millions

Similarly, shown below is a diagram which shows the loyalty of adult readers for those daily newspapers. This supports the fact that for the newspaper market to grow, loyalty must increase as this will result in daily purchasing to build revenue environments. This reflects the current situation as the market has a large proportion of loyal readers who consume on a daily basis.

Loyalty of readership of adults for dailies

However, it is equally fundamental to understand the readership by age and social class. From the ...

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