Marketing plan for launching a new magazine for the UK market.

We need to take into consideration that this may indeed provoke the attention of competitors or another company who see that there is a niche they can go into.

Monitoring and feedback does take a lot of time, which means we may lose out in other aspects where time is devoted to researching, it is not an area to be left out though as markets are continuously changing and products need to be adapted to the ever changing market places.

In the long term one idea to monitor feedback is to include a questionnaire inside the magazine and for people to send back to us with the incentive of receiving vouchers to spend in the shops of some of our sponsors. This way it is likely to be more useful data from people that actually read our magazine and data that we can use in the future with the knowledge that it is the response of our target audience.

This is a sample of the type of questionnaire we are likely to use:

What first attracted you to picking up an issue of the magazine "Uni Life"?

The front cover

The fact that it was free

Articles that we advertised on the free cover

Friends recommended it

Other (please specify)..............................................................................

What part of the magazine did you enjoy most?

Debt management

Where to go in your area

Postgraduate job offers

Catching up with university news

Where NUS discount is available

Out and about

Other (please specify)............................................................................................

If you could improve the magazine in any way how would you do so? (Please specify in provided space)

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Did you find the articles and the magazine in general useful in terms of providing information relevant to you?

Yes

No

If No, please state your reasons why not ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

What would you like to see included in "Uni Life" in the future?

More articles on where to go out in your area and any special student nights

An article on a specific university each week, with photos

Up-to-date news on topics such as top up fees

A job section

How to apply for placements

How to revise for exams

Other (please specify)..........................................................................................................

With these types of qualitative questions and the fact the people can write down their personal views too we are hoping that this method of Monitoring and Feedback will prove to be both useful and insightful.

Other options are focus groups; although these are fairly time consuming they will provide us with actual face-to-face discussions where information and feedback that is received is likely to be more useful and realistic. As it is always a concern with written data that people will purely write down an answer that they think the company want to hear instead of what they actually think.

Also, there is the extra limitation that if someone purely answers yes or no to a given question we do not have the opportunity to ask him or her why they did choose that answer and the feedback is somewhat limited. With a focus group we can hopefully get more in depth answers to any questions we ask.

The important thing to remember is that we have to keep altering our product to keep up with any changing forces in the market; this will hopefully keep our readers interested and up to date with what's going on and also eliminate any opposition that may arise.

Marketing objectives

It is easy to confuse marketing objectives as just being concerned with selling or advertising, but these two are just part of the bigger picture.

There are obviously a lot of things to consider when deciding upon our marketing objectives. With any company an objectives is always going to be for the company and their product or service to grow and become more and more successful over time with that increasing their sales and hopefully gaining a larger market share therefore increasing profits too.

In order to have marketing objectives that everyone can understand they need to be clear, also realistic. Everyone company would like their product to be the most profitable and highest selling in their market, but if you are entering a highly competitive market this is unlikely to occur and it could in the end only demotivate staff members and give the perception of failure when infact you may be doing very well realistically.

The purpose of having Marketing Objectives is to set out exactly what the business wants to achieve. To ensure success, it is helpful to set out limited targets.

Setting objectives encourages systematic thinking. A systematic approach to setting Marketing Objectives is to set different stages, for example Short, Medium and Long-term objectives. Short-term objectives aiming to be achieved by the end of the launch period and up to the first six months of business, the medium term aims aiming to be achieved in between 6 and 12 months respectively and finally the long-term aims set out as what the company would ideally like to accomplish in the future.

Short Term Objectives:

* To ensure that all the marketing staff knows what they are aiming for

* Provide a sound basis for co-operation with other departments

* Provide early warning of when the strategy is failing to meet the objectives

* To help psychologically - set targets to motivate

* Successful launch period. It is important to have the aim of being a successful company with a successful product. Looking to the future with optimistic hopes and aims but still being realistic.

Medium Term Objectives:

* Look to increasing the price of "The Sunday Times" in relation to sales of the magazine "Uni Life" seeing if there are any areas of the market we are able to exploit.

* Increase the product differentiation and increase the New Product Development budget in order to keep up to date with any changes in the market and to keep competing with any competitors in the same market place. Also to have a clear understanding of the customers needs and wants in any way or form that they may develop and with a higher NPD budget aiming to adjust to any developing customer needs before a new rival product can meet these needs.

Long Term Objectives:

* Branch out as separate entity from "The Sunday Times" newspaper. Aiming to be successful enough in the future to not be reliant upon "The Sunday Times" and being able to rely on the sponsorship money from companies that advertise within the magazine "Uni Life".

* Increase the cost of advertising in "Uni Life" by 20% in order to cover costs that will arise of being an independent company.

* To increase market share.

With a clear set of objectives set out from the beginning means that decisions can now be based upon a clear sense of direction. This direction is provided by clear objectives.

Target Audience

The target audience for the product is predominately focused at university students; therefore the age range varies a great deal. As well as the students, lecturers and mature students could also be included in the target audience of the product.

From the primary market research that was carried out in the form of a questionnaire it provides us with critical information regarding the product. This would include how much an individual is willing to spend on purchasing a magazine and possibly where they are willing to purchase it from.

The information from the questionnaire will provide us with a greater knowledge and understanding of the actual demand for the product at university and whether it is accurately targeted at the right audience.

By using market research we can define the characteristics of our product in more detail and identify the buying behaviour of potential customers. The questionnaire will provide results that give the ability to display clear true representation of the data in the form of graphs and charts.

For our product, we have discovered a niche in the market, which we can use to our advantage, as competition is very small. The magazine will not just benefit students already at universities but men and women who are thinking about entering into the higher education as well as people who are interested in reading about life at university.

As the target audience has been clearly stated, advertising should not be a problem as the campaign will be direct and will be far more effective than aiming at the population as a whole. However, we need to be careful and take fragmentation into consideration. This occurs when a company tries to cater for too many segments of the market and each segment becomes so small that very little profit is generated. In relation to our product, many different socio-economic groups go to university nowadays and we need to make sure that the magazine will provide for each group equally.

Product

Our product is a magazine targeted at university students and potential university students. We have chosen this market for our product as it can be easily segmented we can see a potential to enter into an unexplored market.

It is a market that is economically viable with a large enough population to become a national product. There are also many subsets within the student population that can be targeted within different areas of the magazine. For example postgraduate students, mature students etc.

Although most university's have there own magazines distributed within there establishments, we have found that there is no magazine aimed at students around the country giving them advice on all issues that concern them.

Figure 1.1

There are a number of requirements that we need to make sure that the magazine is successful. In order to ensure that the product we are releasing is successful we need to realise the needs of our target market. We can do this by using figure 1.1, this shows the three levels in which a product will satisfy the consumer's need.

The first level is the core product, the benefits that students will gain from our magazine. The magazine needs to provide the students with relative information, the core product. In order to establish this product we need to realise the importance of post purchase evaluation.

Attracting students to read the magazine initially may be made easier because the magazine is free. But after the magazine has gone through its first distribution we need to ensure repeat purchase. This will come through magazine content; we need to ensure articles are relevant and useful. We will balance the magazine with articles aimed at social events, places to go etc. Combined with information on finance, what to do after getting a degree.

With the marketing research that we have received we can gain a clear view of the content that the students want to see in the magazine. The quality of the product is essential. This is due to the nature of our market. It is very easy for consumers to judge the benefit of a magazine to themselves. It will be clear to them after reading the magazine if they see a relative benefit from the product.

After research into what students would like from a magazine the major issue is to ensure that the magazine is free. This means that we need to find funding for the magazine in other ways. This is possible through advertising within the magazine; the student population is a well-established market with clearly defined members. This should make it easier to attract companies to advertise in our magazine.

As the national union of students has already established a link with a number of companies, we would also be looking to link up with these companies. The magazine will be distributed on a monthly basis to keep up with current events and to ensure large enough revenue from advertising.

The Secondary Level Product

The secondary level of the product is crucial in attracting new customers and to make the magazine appealing to a wide range of students. We need to ensure that we are providing the information that our target market want whilst providing it in a way which stimulates them. This will occur through design of the cover, the pictures used are crucial to stimulate initial interest in the product. This can be done through basic market research.

Using focus groups to discuss different covers and content. This will help use to realise what is important to our market. This will also be achieved by having articles that have been written by students and have been volunteered to our magazine. This will have to be kept to a limited number to ensure the quality of the writing in the magazine. This will bring the need for professionally written articles.

Although the costs of employing these writers might be high they will attract advertising, as there will be an increase in projected sales. Using famous journalists to cover issues that are important to students will increase interest in the product. The secondary level of the product is also where any product differentiation will occur.

Magazines are very similar products, in shape, size, function etc. This is why it is difficult to establish our product with a unique selling point (u.s.p). Way's in which we can differentiate our product are colours on the covers and articles featured.

There are many magazines competing for supplement spots with the national press, this is why our product needs to stand out. Developing an interactive product such as a d.v.d, or interactive c.d. for the computer. With the majority of people owning computers and the massive increase in popularity in the d.v.d this might be a market that has a huge potential for growth.

Although there is no specific magazine targeted at students, there are many magazines that are popular with students. They seem to be magazines targeted at the different sexes. There are magazines such as f.h.m and loaded. These magazines contain articles, which are relevant to students but also contain a number, which are not, such as advertisement of high price products and luxury items.

Our main aim should be to ensure that the magazine includes articles and information that are relevant to every subset of our population.

The Augmented Product

The augmented product is the third and final level of any product. With our product it is difficult to see the link between these features and our product. As we are a supplement within another magazine we need to will be assisted by their already established reputation as a brand.

There are still levels that we need to meet to ensure we have the complete product. Ensuring that the magazine is ready for distribution on deadline is crucial to keeping the advertisers happy. As they may be placing adverts in the magazine that are relevant to dates and events that may be occurring across the country.

After sales service is also applicable to our company, we need to ensure that advertisers are kept happy. This will ensure that they want to advertise in our magazine repeatedly. This could be done through informing them of distribution of the magazine and feedback from consumers.

In the launch stage of the product this is essential to make sure that we meet our consumer's needs. We will invite consumers to fill out forms placed in the magazine about our product. These questionnaires will contain questions on articles, magazine layout and cover issues. Giving consumers incentives such as passes to social events featured in the magazine would encourage a larger response.

Quality of the Product

A major issue with launching any new product is to ensure the quality is enough to gain first time buyers and repeat purchase. From the diagram above we can select a number of quality issues, which are crucial to the success of our magazine.

* Degree of Pleasure - This is obviously a crucial part of the any product, but essentially crucial with any product such as a magazine as it is easy to for the consumer to judge the benefits to themselves from reading the magazine.

* Satisfying Needs - This is making sure that our magazine contains articles that are relevant to our consumers, and our prospective advertisers.

These are obviously the most important issues in the quality of the product but also others must also have an ensured level of quality in order to satisfy our advertisers and the guardian who are carrying the supplement.

Product Conclusion

From all the analysis from above we can see that there are many issues that we need to take into account. This will ensure that we have the perfect product for our target market.

Market research is crucial to make sure that are product performs all the functions, that it is required to. Working through the three product levels we can ensure that we develop every part of the product. As a magazine we need to be consumer focused, this means that we need to keep up with any changes that occur within our target market.

If we make sure that we take into account all the needs of our target market, and we ensure quality through the articles we include, then our product should be successful.

Brand Name

Branding is to establish an identity for your product that differentiates it from a product of the competition. Some consumers believe that a brand is just as important as the product and with successful branding it can add value to a product and possibly ensure brand loyalty. An example of this would be:

"Most consumers would perceive a bottle of Chanel perfume as a high-quality, expensive product. But the same perfume in an unmarked bottle would probably be viewed as lower in quality, even if the fragrance were identical."1

Apart from establishing consumer loyalty, which may make demand more price inelastic, branding can get across a feeling of quality and reliability.

A brand of a product can be determined in various forms such as: 'a name, term, sign, symbol, design or a combination of these'2 which is used to recognize the goods of an individual seller or a group of sellers and to distinguish them from those of competitors.

Uni Life will be established using the brand extension strategy, which uses 'a successful brand name to launch new or modified products in a new category'3. 'The Sunday Times' is the professional brand name, which will assist in launching Uni Life into the market.

The Sunday Times is a very successful and recognised brand within the news industry and is one of many newspapers that form News International's portfolio owned by Rupert Murdock. The brand of The Sunday Times was a good choice to use to launch the magazine, as most people are familiar with the newspaper or with Rupert Murdock.

By using a brand that is already successful it allows to launch the new product with a greater amount of advertising behind it therefore possibly achieving a great success in the niche market. An advantage of using a well-known brand like The Sunday Times is that Uni Life may receive instant recognition and perhaps faster approval from consumers than individual brands.

Placing The Sunday Times on the magazine can create an immediate perception of high quality and make it easier for consumers to familiarise themselves with the new brand name - Uni Life.

Ideas for the brand name was brainstormed between the group and then placed in a questionnaire which were handed out to 100 individuals randomly to get their opinions on the product. The suggestions that were put forward for the name of the magazine was as follows: Life, Uni Life, Student Life, Student Extra and How To. The majority (72%) of the individuals that carried out the questionnaire thought that 'Uni Life' was an ideal name for the magazine. This brand name for the magazine is simple, memorable and very direct to the point therefore unlikely to confuse consumers on the contents of the magazine.

The product name 'How To' was not used, as it did not have much relevance to the product and no one who completed the questionnaire thought so either. The idea behind 'How To' was that in each issue of the magazine there would be a feature on how to do something in relation to students or student life. Examples of this would be: How To...get to lectures on time, How To...organise yourself, etc. Even though it would be a good feature to have in the magazine, it was not particularly appropriate.

Packaging

Packaging is one of the key elements in the marketing mix for any consumer good. It involves the design and packaging of a good that can communicate the right image and information about the product to consumers, which can be a highly effective promotional and marketing tool.

"A more affluent consumer is prepared to pay for the convenience, appearance, dependability and prestige that are communicated through better packaging."4

Nowadays, design and packaging achieves just as many sales as the product itself therefore the packaging must attract the attention of potential consumers and appeal to them. Packaging is the first detail consumers pay notice to when purchasing a good and this is why companies invest a lot of money to produce high-quality packaging. Companies recognise the influence of good packaging to generate instant consumer recognition of the company or brand.

To project brand values and differentiate them in an overcrowded market, manufacturers use "pack design - shape, graphics and texture"5

The fundamental decisions that were made for the packaging of our product were from the 'packaging concept'. This concept clearly expresses what the packaging should be or do for the product.

Other decisions that need to be considered were the package design which involves the shape, size, text, brand mark and the materials for the packaging. All these elements assist in completing the packaging for the magazine.

The majority of magazines are rectangular in shape with sizes ranging from as small as 'A5' to foolscap. Foolscap size is usually the maximum height for a commercial magazine as magazine binders (sold in stationery shops) will only hold up to that particular height; therefore it is most likely that 'Uni Life' would be no taller than foolscap. The size of a normal piece of paper (A4) would be ideal for our magazine as it would be convenient when it comes to the production process and consumers are familiar with this size, as it appears in most people's everyday life.

The choice of material for the packaging is essential, as it has to complement the product and reflect the image of the company selling the product. The packaging material also depends on the product that is being packaged, as the wrong materials could provide the product with negative attention from consumers.

Packaging can adopt many functions and according to the packaging concept, the main functions of the package are to "offer product protection, introduce a new dispensing method, communicate certain qualities about the product, the brand or the company".6 With the packaging concept in mind, the packaging of the magazine will achieve the function of protection.

As 'Uni Life' is a free magazine included in The Sunday Times then the packaging for it should be simple and cost effective to reduce production costs as much as possible. Even though The Sunday Times is part of a multi billion pound organisation called News International owned by Rupert Murdock, it is not business like to waste money on production costs on a product, which is free.

An obvious choice would be a type of polythene covering such as polypropylene, which would be reseal able. This packaging is convenient and recyclable therefore will be environmentally friendly as well as keeping the product clean and dry. This may also benefit The Sunday Times, as it would reflect that the company is concerned with environmental issues.

Most magazines use this form of packaging when free gifts are involved as it keeps the free gift together with the magazine. In addition to this it protects the magazine. The reseal able packaging would become very useful if Uni Life decided that a free gift or an extra supplement would be included with the magazine once or twice a year. This would not affect The Sunday Times in regards of weight or bulkiness too much as it would not occur on a regular basis.

There were many ideas that were considered for the free gift/extra supplement with the magazine, which included samples of certain products that students would find useful. Another idea was possibly a small supplement listing reviews of top universities or popular university degrees. Some individuals may find this particularly interesting especially those who are considering entering into higher education after school or college.

As Uni Life will be using reseal able packaging then it will allow The Sunday Times to place leaflets/flyers in with the magazine without it dropping out when a consumer picks up the newspaper and magazine. The packaging will ensure that the leaflets/flyers leave the place of purchase with the consumer rather than falling onto the floor when selected from the shelf.

Some individuals prefer to keep magazines that are of interest to them therefore the idea of protecting the magazine was a thought to be considered in more detail. As a result, this would be an advantage of the reseal able wrapping as it would allow the consumer to replace the magazine back into the packaging to preserve it for a longer period of time.

Plain transparent polypropylene packaging is considerably boring therefore we thought a printed logo or the name of the magazine could make the packaging slightly more desirable. This could appear in the bottom right corner of the packaging so it would not obstruct any details of the front cover of Uni Life. The font and the size of the impression would stand out so the consumers are attracted to it. By having the name of the magazine printed on the packaging it offers the product with a brand name.

An extra idea was to somehow include The Sunday Times into the packaging of the magazine, as this would provide The Sunday Times with a bit more advertising. However we thought that having two brand names (Uni Life and The Sunday Times) on the packaging would be confusing and cost more to have both names printed on the polythene packaging.

Another suggestion was to have a slogan printed underneath the name on the packaging that would represent the magazine as a whole. Many slogans were brainstormed between the group and the most suitable one was "A Life Less Ordinary". The name of the slogan came from a title of a film and the group thought that it was ideal as it reflects all aspects of university life in one way or another.

Throughout the launch period of Uni Life there will be a special promotion to initiate the magazine into the market and for that reason the packaging may need to be more attractive to the consumer. This could include colours or possibly more detail printed on to the polypropylene packaging to make it eye catching to the consumer.

The Sunday Times would play a large role in the launch period for Uni Life involving the use of advertising to promote its new magazine.

Apart from the launch period there will be other circumstances where the packaging of Uni Life will need to be involved with the promotional aspects of the magazine. Packaging and Promotion regularly complement and intertwine with each other therefore act as a very important part in the success of a product. The packaging of Uni Life will gain the attention of consumers to the product and the current promotion.

We believe that the choice and the design of the packaging will reflect the product positively and will receive swift attention from potential consumers. This is based on the principle that everybody is attracted and interested in new products.

Price

In the highly competitive UK newspaper industry price can be the deciding factor in the marketing mix between success and failure. When deciding the price of a product one should consider both internal and external factors affecting the final decision. The internal factors that the firm must consider are those of the cost of production of the magazine and the marketing objectives of the new product.

Cost of production

The cost of production of 'Uni Life' magazine will be high, as glossy paper and colour pictures will be used throughout the magazine. However by producing a high quality magazine targeting the reader sub group of students this will also attract companies trading in this sub group to advertise in this magazine.

By creating extra pages for more advertising the magazine will increase the overall revenue from advertising and help to pay for much of the production costs of 'Uni Life'. Currently 'The Sunday Times' carries more supplements than any other newspaper and one can see from the table below that the broadsheet papers have the monopoly on the Sunday supplement market.

Figure 18: Supplements* to broadsheets, October 2003

Sundays:

Independent on Sunday

5

Life etc; Sunday Review; Sportsfirst; Time Off; Talk of the Town.

Observer

9

Business; Observer Food Monthly; Observer Magazine; Observer Sport Monthly; Observer TV; Review; Sport; Cash; Escape.

Scotland on Sunday

Sport First

Sunday Telegraph

8

Sunday Telegraph Magazine; Business; House & Home; Money & Jobs; Review; Sport; Travel; TV & Radio.

Sunday Times

2

Appointments; Business; Culture; Ecosse**; Funday Times; Money; News Review; Sport; Style; Sunday Times Magazine; Travel; The Business.

Total

35

* In addition to main section

** Supplement to the Sunday Times Scotland

Source: BRAD/Mintel

Adding value and attracting more readers and creating more revenue

Within the first month following the launch of 'Uni Life' the cover cost of the 'The Sunday Times' will not change. The aim of the magazine is to attract the student sub group of newspaper readers. The first month of the publication will give an indicator to the popularity of the new magazine.

If the magazine is popular and the amount of copies being sold increases then it would be wise for the magazine to remain costing nothing extra to the reader. The chart below shows how Advertising revenue for newspaper has always been one of the greatest sources of income and has been increasing and is expected to increase in coming years.

This chart shows the value of creating extra advertising space within the newspaper, 'Uni Life' will also attract new advertisers who specialise in the student sector and this increase in the advertising revenue should help if not completely cover the cost of producing the magazine.

Figure 19: National newspaper net revenues, 1998-2003

Cover sales revenue

Advertising revenue

Total revenue

Total revenue

£m

£m

£m

Index

£m at 1998 prices

Index

998

,268

,550

2,818

00

2,818

00

999

,279

,691

2,970

05

2,926

04

2000

,288

,915

3,203

14

3,065

09

2001

,348

,760

3,109

10

2,922

04

2002

,383

,641

3,024

07

2,782

99

2003 (est)

,425

,700

3,125

11

2,813

00

NB: 2003 estimates are Mintel's

Data may not equal totals due to rounding

Source: The Advertising Association's Advertising Statistics Yearbook published by WARC/Mintel

The extra revenues created by the increase in sales and the extra advertising revenue would mean that the cost of production of the magazine would be outweighed by the increase in sales. The chart below shows the national circulation of 'The Sunday Times' and its main competitors.

National Sunday circulation

Figure 22: National Sunday newspaper circulation, 2001-03

6 months average to Sept 2001

6 months average to Sept 2002

6 months average to Sept 2003

% change 2001-02

% change 2002-03

000

%

000

%

000

%

Total popular

8,211

56.5

7,887

55.5

7,911

55.8

-3.9

+0.3

Mail on Sunday

2,381

6.4

2,366

6.6

2,353

6.6

-0.7

-0.5

Sunday Express

903

6.2

947

6.7

964

6.8

+4.9

+1.8

Total middle

3,284

22.6

3,313

23.2

3,317

23.4

+0.9

+0.1

Sunday Times

,375

9.5

,393

9.8

,358

9.6

+1.3

-2.5

Sunday Telegraph

809

5.6

776

5.5

711

5.0

-4.1

-8.4

Observer

468

3.2

454

3.2

448

3.2

-3.0

-1.3

Independent on Sunday

243

.7

230

.6

217

.5

-5.3

-5.7

Total quality

3,043

20.9

3,019

21.2

2,942

20.8

-0.8

-2.6

Grand total

4,538

00.0

4,219

00.0

4,170

00.0

-2.8

-0.3

Data may not equal totals due to rounding Source: ABC/Mintel

The chart shows that even a small percentage increase in the circulation of the paper will mean a much larger increase in the total revenues received by the sale of the paper. However if there were not a significant increase in the circulation then an increase in cover price of 3p would cover the extra production costs of producing the magazine at the risk of losing certain segments of the readership.

However if the increase in price was necessary then the introduction of the new price could be introduced at the same time as other promotional offers so the increase in price would not be so noticeable. 'The Sunday Times' newspaper currently has a consumer following that is loyal to the brand name, as can be seen by the steady circulation rates.

I believe if the rise in price was necessary then this would not affect the current consumers of the newspaper and that the customers would carry on buying 'The Sunday Times' despite the price rise.

Another method of reducing the workload and expense of producing the new magazine would be to print it 24 hours in advance of the Sunday newspaper so as to take the burden of the printers for the current news. 'Uni Life' magazine would not be required to be exactly 'up to date' and this method of printing would not affect its quality.

Cost of advertising 'Uni Life'

It would be wise when launching the new magazine to invest in an extensive advertising campaign to improve consumer knowledge of the new product. However this advertising should be integrated into already existing advertising campaign. This will lower costs and also allow the adverts to apply to more than just the student sector by further advertising already existing sections of the newspaper.

The table below shows the amount 'The Sunday Times' and its main competitors are spending on advertising and how this figure has changed over previous years.

Figure 27: Main monitored media advertising expenditure by national newspapers, by publisher and title, 1998-2002

998

2000

2002

% change

£m

%

£m

%

£m

%

998-2002

- Sunday Times

5.0

5.6

7.1

7.8

5.5

6.0

+10.0

- Mail on Sunday

8.7

9.7

9.8

0.8

8.7

9.4

-

- Sunday Express

neg

na

0.6

0.7

.1

.2

na

- Sunday Mirror

3.5

3.9

.8

2.0

.6

.7

-54.3

* less than 0.5%

neg = less than 0.1

Data may not equal totals due to rounding and non-specific adspend

Although 'The Sunday Times' already has a relatively high expenditure on advertising this does not mean a new campaign will cost too much more. As I have said above by incorporating or mentioning the new magazine in already existing adverts e.t.c will be enough advertising for the new product. This type of advertising campaign would not increase the expenditure on advertising of 'The Sunday Times' considerably meaning the extra costs that will be incurred could be covered by the increase in revenue.

Promotion

Promotion is the attempt to draw attention to a product or business in order to gain new customers or to retain existing ones. Different methods of promotion are shown below:

Businesses often refer to promotion above the line and below the line. Above the line promotion is through independent media, such as television and newspaper. These allow a business to reach a wide audience easily. Most advertising is done above the line. But, some methods of advertising is done where the business has direct control, E.G, through direct mailing. These are known as below the line promotion.

Promotion should be informative, persuasive and reassuring.

Our Objective of Promotion

Our main objective is to obtain and retain our customers. Others include:

* To increase awareness of the magazine (our product)

* To remind the consumer about the product

* To show our product is better than our competitor

* To develop or improve the image of our business, rather than just our product

* To reassure consumer's after our product has been brought

The Growth of Advertising

When companies are faced with competition, advertising can be an important factor. In U.K, there are many forms of advertising, from posters, to T.V, to newspapers, etc...

Informative Advertising - Is designed to increase the consumer's awareness of the product.

Persuasive Advertising - Is designed to convince consumers to purchase a product, often by stressing that it is more desirable than others.

Types of Advertising Media

* Television

* Cinema

* Radio

* Posters

* The Internet

These, with their advantages and disadvantages can be seen below.

Our business will not just use one method of promotion. Our business will have a mixture of activities- (known as the promotional mix).

The mix will need to be balanced as effective as possible for our business. The mix of promotional activities will depend on: -

* The size of the market

* The type of product (magazines!)

* The cost

Promotion needs to be effective. Being effective we mean that our business will get a balance between coverage and cost. Our business's promotional scheme will be aimed at our consumers, retailers and distributors. The objective of our promotional scheme will be to generate new customers, to attract current customers to read the magazines more frequently and to reward them.

Promotion of our magazine particularly needs careful planning and we plan to decide on a new promotional plan each year. We will have one main objective to our promotion campaign and that particular emphasis will be projected during a certain time to a certain market segment.

We used market research to establish the best market segments, to aim our campaign towards. The message of our campaign will focus towards the market segment and relate to our promotional objectives. Market research here played an important role as it was a method of collecting data which made us more aware of how the people, we hope to sell to, reacted to our product. 'Questionnaire' was the most common way in which we conducted our market research.

The questionnaire helped us in identifying if our ideas would sell, it showed positive results that were useful in regards to the marketing of the magazine and helped us to answer some questions like:

* Whether the magazine was needed in the market

* Who might want to buy them?

* What age, sex, income, occupation etc are the people we want to sell to

* If there were changes taking place and how this might affect the demand of the magazine

* How well our magazine might sell

* How much demand is there for the magazine we hope to sell

* What price are people prepared to sell

We are thinking to use newspaper as a method of advertising because if we placed our magazine in the local paper, we know that people all over the local and national area would see it, also it's quite cheap to use this method. There are many different types of newspapers printed in this country. They are aimed at different audiences, class groups, geographical areas and even ethnic groups. We investigated and compared a few newspapers.

Our findings from our research found that if we advertise our magazine in 'The Sunday Times' we were likely to raise the largest amount of money. This is because it is a paper with a wide audience across all the classes of society and that we were most likely to get a good response.

Newspapers are normally produced and bought every day, so people will see our magazine daily. The newspaper will be aimed at different people; some at business owners, whilst others aimed at the general public. The newspaper will be local, national; the difference is that a national paper is available all over the country whereas a local paper is aimed at the local area. It is easy to see that social groups read a national paper, whereas this is harder with a local paper.

We also plan to use leafleting as a method of promotion. This method of advertising will be practical to our business as it is very cheap to produce and we can place them anywhere in the local area, or hand them out to people. This method of advertising often has an informative as well as persuasive material, and will be distributed on university grounds and hence, targeted particularly to university students. Therefore it means they are good to target certain groups.

Advantages

* Very good to target a certain group.

* Are relatively cheap.

* Can include coupons for the reader.

* May be kept around for a long time by the reader

Conclusion of Advertising:

We have used many reasonable types of media in promoting our magazine but mainly through the 'The Sunday Times'. It is a broadsheet newspaper and is generally read by educated middle-class folk. It is a paper with a wide audience across all the classes of society and in this way the information will be read by many people in the local and national area and thus will hopefully encourage them to buy our magazine.

We have additionally chosen leaflets as a form of advertising as they are not very expensive. It is very good at targeting a certain group and with it we can even hand them out personally either posting it through the letterbox or even distributing it on university grounds, roads etc... However there will be some negative effects e.g. majority of the people may not even bother reading the advertising material, but we will still introduce these methods on a time-to-time basis.

We have also decided to create an Internet website about our business and our magazine (product) because we have easy access to the Internet and computer; also it's again very cheap to actually create a website. There are many people in the UK that have access to the computer and internet, which means there is more chance for our magazine and business to be well-known and popular as the people will visit our website. But it significantly depends on the presentation of the website that we create.

If the information on the website is neatly and colourfully presented, this will attract more people. We will have online shopping facility, where customers will be able to order the magazine online and thus enabling them to purchase our product. As our business grows and gets more popular in future, we will decide to use other and more expensive methods of advertising.

Place

Introduction

The place where a product is sold or available to buy is a very important part of any company's marketing mix. Rather than being solely a list of facts stating where to find a product it acts more as a tool, a checklist that focuses attention on the various elements of marketing needed to carry out a marketing strategy.

If marketing activity is to be effective, each element needs to be considered. For each market situation there will be an optimum combination. Giving us a balance between cost and effectiveness.

Sometimes a good product priced poorly may fail, or similarly if the product is not available following an advertising campaign then the expenditure is wasted. A successful mix will produce customer satisfaction and achieve the marketing objectives.

The right place for our product

Availability

When deciding on where to place your product it is all about availability and how available your product or service is to you target customers. Including the physical place, availability and timing. Key questions for us to consider are:

* What are the outlets for reaching potential customers?

* How can I convince those outlets to stock my product?

* What is the most effective way to get my product to those outlets?

What factors will influence outlets to stock our product?

Where you can stock and offer your product to potential customers clearly will either restrict or maximize sales potential. There are several factors that will influence the willingness of companies or outlets to stock the product you have on offer. Possible reasons include:

* The level of customer demand, retail outlets would most likely be more willing to stock a product with a higher level of customer demand, if customers are coming into the store there is a chance that they will purchase or notice some of the stock available apart from that which they have primarily come to purchase.

* A product that has more direct competitors is more likely to be a product an outlet would want to stock, as it would mean that they could have for themselves a higher product differentiation. Therefore making our product a "must - stock" line.

* The amount of advertising that has been spent on the prospective product. If the retailers know that our product has a lot of advertising support then they also know that customers will ask for the product by name while the advertising campaign is running. They will benefit from this too from the levels of differentiation of stock that they have.

* The amount of market share a company has or could potentially have, meaning that the company is in stronger position to cross-sell.

* The cost and risk to the retailer. As shelf space is limited it may mean scraping another product to stock yours, and therefore the retailer will have to take into consideration the opportunity cost, (the benefit lost of the next best alternative.) Retailers will need to be sure that your product will be the best alternative. Also, risk needs to be considered, even if sales are high to begin with, market environments are rarely stable, and if demand drops dramatically then they will be left with lots of slow - moving stock that they don't need and can't shift.

Testing distribution methods and levels of availability

Although the main way that our magazine "Uni Life" will be distributed is by the national newspaper The Sunday Times monthly, we wanted to test the direct method of distribution as well. Therefore in our initial launch period of 6 weeks, as well as launching the first edition of "Uni Life" through "The Sunday Times" we wanted to test the product in a small area to see the success and levels of demand by students, our main target audience.

What we are planning to do is select three or four university campuses in the Greater London area and distribute our magazine to these outlets (i.e. the Union bar or shop) and observe how many people pick up a copy of "Uni Life", maybe asking questions to these people concerning what urged them to pick it up etc.

Distributors and Distribution Channels

Most of the methods discussed above have already been decided upon by "The Sunday Times", and factors such as whether or not retailers will be able to make space on the shelves for our product will not be an issue as "The Sunday Times" is a valued newspaper and does not need to convince shops to stock the product.

"The Sunday Times" already has a huge net distribution figures and as our objectives state we are hoping that in one year we can help to increase these figures. "The Sunday Times" sells 77,000 through cheap subscriptions and a further 73,000 at a discount across the counter. Fewer than 500,000 copies of "The Sunday Times" are sold at the full cover price.

"The Sunday Times" is actually owned by News International, which in turn also owns The Sunday Times, The Sun, News of The World, page3.com and the supplements already issued with The Times such as the Higher education supplement, The Times Education and The Times Literacy. This is therefore not a huge leap for "The Sunday Times" to take, they do infact already supply supplements and will not need to take into account extra distribution channels. At the moment, supplements are distributed with the actual paper on the whole. There are three ways that they reach the customer, these being:

. They are already inserted at the source. The supplements included with "The Sunday Times" newspaper package, are included in the packaging process at the warehouses, which are scattered all over the UK.

2. Newsagents have the option of when ordering their daily amount of the newspaper can get it for a cheaper price if they themselves insert the supplements into the newspaper. (This has caused a few problems though, as some retailers do not have the time to attach the supplement parts and therefore whilst the newspaper reaches the customer they will be missing the extra supplement sections.)

3. The supplement sections are already poly-bagged, in one bag all together. This occurs on the weekend which is good.

This newspaper has an enormous scale of distribution which is perfect for us as we are trying to attract the attention of students, old and new all across the UK, with the distribution a national paper offers us we have a great chance at reaching our target audiences, or even their families through being a supplement part of "The Sunday Times" newspaper.

We are hoping to distribute our product via our sponsorship stores (the companies that place advertisements inside "Uni Life" each month). Aiming to do this separately from the newspaper purely to increase awareness and to offer the magazine "Uni Life" as a product by itself rather than just as a supplement of another product.

We are aiming in the longer term to distribute our magazine through the UCAS system, and branch out as a separate entity from "The Sunday Times" (more about this is explained in our marketing objectives). When prospective university students apply to go to university they apply through a system called UCAS, this offers all the available universities and courses.

Then when a student has applied to their chosen university they receive numerous amounts of information packs with other information included such as where to get insurance from, where to buy stationary.

In the future we are aiming to have an issue of "Uni Life" sent out. Steps have been taken into looking into this deal in the future but we are awaiting replies and figures of sales after our initial launch period and the general success of the magazine over the first year.

Another way we will distribute our magazine, on a smaller scale, is to go to road shows that are held at universities when they hold open days. Other companies have stalls that offer discounts and products or services that are related to being at university, and we could hand out issues of our magazine to these prospective students.

Also, we are considering leafleting in university based towns, this would cost us little in overheads, apart from wages and we can distribute the magazine directly to our target audience. If people have any views immediately then we can also take note of these first impact views and opinions.

Distribution channels will hardly need to be altered at all as "The Sunday Times" Newspaper is an already well-established and very successful business that has its own methods of distribution. With the supplement "Uni Life" we are solely aspiring to increase sales for "The Sunday Times" and to help increase awareness of university life that parents of or students themselves have not yet considered, and then in the longer term aiming to be successful by ourselves without the support of "The Sunday Times".

We decided on keeping the same central methods of distribution partly because it would mean our product will reach many people as the newspapers sales figures are higher than we could ever imagine, and also because of the already well respected brand name that "The Sunday Times" has acquired over the years, people trust a brand name more than they do a new product and although we are a separate part of the paper it will most likely be the established name of "The Sunday Times" that sells.

As our magazine is a product that will be free for consumers to purchase and will depend upon the advertising sponsorship to mainly cover costs and hopefully profits, we do not need to worry about only distributing our product to specific outlets as well as the distribution we will achieve whether direct or indirectly purchased, from "The Sunday Times".

Hopefully, our target customers will read the magazine and will notice the adverts of our sponsors, hopefully giving them the idea or reinforcing the idea to purchase items needed for university life from the shops that are advertised in our magazine. Therefore providing our sponsors with a higher level of exposure and promotion, and making it imperative to advertise with us and continue sponsorship. If it does prove beneficial, which is our aim, and then in the future we can look to increasing the amount it costs to advertising with our magazine and enable us to achieve an aim of profitability.

Therefore, in conclusion on the subject of place and distribution, we are not attempting to alter any of the main distribution channels already opted for by "The Sunday Times" newspaper only to add extra distribution on a smaller scale with operations such as leafleting, road shows and direct distribution in the launch period as a method of advertising to get word around to our target audiences.

We are lucky that "The Sunday Times" already has such a large and diverse scale of distribution, this way our magazine "Uni Life" will be reaching more people than we could ever have achieved. Even though the magazine will only be a supplement part of the newspaper there will undoubtedly be a certain amount of people reading the newspaper that will take an interest in a supplement magazine that covers topics concerned with university life; whether this is our target markets directly or the parents of prospective university students, the distribution will undoubtedly reach a massive sector of the market.

Conclusion

The information shown in this report concludes that there is a place in the market for a new product such as 'Uni Life'. Market research has shown that a great deal of people read magazines on a regular basis and we believe that by introducing 'Uni Life' into the newspaper/magazine market, it will generate a lot of interest. The use of the primary research in the form of a questionnaire enabled us to target a particular segment of the market predominately young people aged between eighteen and twenty five years.

At the moment there is only one product in the market called 'Extra' which is owned and part of The Guardian newspaper. This magazine has only been running for a couple of weeks but has had a lot of advertising in the form of television commercials. By launching 'Uni Life' with the support of The Sunday Times we believe that it would be a good success as there will be enough resources to promote the product effectively and Uni Life will echo the brand name of The Sunday Times.

The marketing mix has been carefully undertaken considering the specifics of each of the following topics: product, price, place, promotion as well as packaging. With the right product at the correct time and place using effective promotional tools the launch of 'Uni Life' will be a sensation within the market.

The Sunday Times includes quite a few supplements but as a group we think that 'Uni Life' will increase the target audience for the newspaper and possibly for the market share.

In each section of the report it clearly identifies the reasons behind any choices made for 'Uni Life' as well as including the final decisions chosen for the product. By monitoring and receiving feedback on 'Uni Life' we will be able to make adjustments to do the product and The Sunday Times justice.

If 'Uni Life' is a success then research will be carried out to find whether it is possible to detach it from The Sunday Times and branch out independently using sponsorship and advertising as a way of funding itself. However, if market research finds that its not reliable then it can always remain with The Sunday Times.

Bibliography:

* Business, Matthew Glew, Michael Watts, Malcolm Surridge, Stuart Merrills, ed.2000.

* Business Studies, Ian Marcouse, Andrew Gillespie, Barry Martin, Malcolm Surridge, Nancy Wall, ed. 1999, page 2-8

* Principles of Marketing, Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong, John Saunders, Veronica Wong, ed.2002.

* The Complete A-Z Business Studies, David Lines, Ian Marcouse, Barry Martin, ed.2000.

* Understanding Industry 5th Edition, Michael Barrett, Andy Mottershead, ed.1999, page 14 - 23

Websites:

* www.bized.com

* www.theguardian.co.uk

* www.thetimes.co.uk

Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong, John Saunders and Veronica Wong, Principles of Marketing, (Third edition - 2002) page 469

2 Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong, John Saunders and Veronica Wong, Principles of Marketing, (Third edition - 2002) page 469

3 Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong, John Saunders and Veronica Wong, Principles of Marketing, (Third edition - 2002) page 479

4 Matthew Glew, Michael Watts, Malcolm Surridge and Stuart Merrills, Advanced Vocational Business, (Second edition - 2000) page 181

5 Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong, John Saunders and Veronica Wong, Principles of Marketing, (Third edition - 2002) page 483

6 Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong, John Saunders and Veronica Wong, Principles of Marketing, (Third edition - 2002) page 483

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