Product :
The Audaz is a fortnightly knowledge paper for management
students. It aims to provide management-related news to the students in concise
and easily-explained language in a manner which is relevant to them.
The entire product is packaged in the form of a newspaper
which is handy so that readers can access the information at their leisure and
in a convenient manner.
Problem:
The primary need for the product arises from the fact that
management students are short on time with the numerous activities that they
have to manage in their curricular life. Often, the students come across
various terminologies in their curriculum which they would like to know more
about, but are not able to do so due to lack of time and inability to put in
effort to collate information.
Apart from this, most students coming from an engineering
background face the problem of poor understanding of business concepts. They
tend to depend upon business newspapers which provide complicated stories to
begin with, resulting in the waning of the students’ already low interest.
Opportunity:
The Audaz tries to address this need of the students by
giving them a single-stop solution for this problem. It attempts to put
together the most relevant topics across various disciplines in a single
newspaper, which are explained in a lucid and pertinent manner. The student not
only gets to know the most important topics related to a particular domain but
also gains knowledge with regard to those topics.
Approach:
The Audaz tries to approach the problem explaining
managemnts concepts not by relying on in-depth theoretical knowledge but rather
on a combination of concise, jargon-free expanations, more importantly followed
by an example of application of the concept in actual and practical industry
conditions. This methodology not only piques the student’s interest in reading
the article but also provides him with knowledge which is actually useful in
real-world applications.
v Structure:
The newspaper consists of several sections, which are
outlined as below:
·
Business articles (one from each of below
domains)
o
Marketing
o
Finance
o
Operations(SCM)
o
Systems and Safety
·
Interviews with
o
Professors
o
Alumni
·
Application of Management Tools on day-to-day
events
·
Case Studies
·
Articles and Poems
·
Fun Corner
o
Business Cartoons
o
Did you know?
o
Games
o
Photograph Contests
v Value Proposition
The value proposition offered by our product is as follows:
1.
Value
Experience: The newspaper provides value to students by providing a
one-stop solution to students aggregating all the important news required for a
management student in a single and consolidated hand-out, which can be
conveniently accessed.
2.
Offerings:
The newspaper primarily offers knowledge to the students. Apart from this, it also
provides students with access to competitions, chance to win prizes and a
platform to showcase their skills in writing and photography
3.
Benefits:
The newspaper provides the target audience a perspective about the industry
from a students’ view in a relatively short period of time, which proves to be
valuable in today’s life, crunched short for time.
4.
Credibility:
The articles presented in the newspaper are validated anonymously by
professors, with relevant expertise in the domain. Apart from that, alumni of
the college, who are currently engaged real-time in the industry also offer
their views via interviews, thus adding to the authenticity of information in
the newspaper
5.
Differentiation:
The newspaper is different from other offerings in the market in the sense that
it is the first of its kind focussing entirely on the unsaid needs of the
students. Moreover, it is almost entirely driven by students due to which it
helps in providing a relevant perspective to the students.
6.
Market:
There is a ready market for the newspaper already existing in the form of
management students. The initial market would be limited to the students of a
particular college (NITIE) only but the same could extended after the newspaper
undergoes an expansion.
v Target Segment
Current scenario:
In the initial stages, the target
audience of the newspaper would be the students, specifically of NITIE. This would
include students of IM, IE, ITM and ISEM
(both first and second year) of the college, along with the faculty members.
This could be gradually expanded
to other management colleges in the vicinity, specifically SJSOM, SP Jain,
JBIMS, etc.
Future scenario:
After testing the readership and
acceptability of the newspaper locally, the targeting could be increased both
geographically and demographically.
The reach of the newspaper could
be increased to a large scale to target the exisiting management colleges in
the Country, beginning with the Western part. Management students with a desire
for knowledge and industry learnings could eventually become the readers along
with interested students from non-management colleges.
v Competition
Direct
Competitors:
There are currently no direct
competitors for the product existing. The newspaper is the first of its kind to
come up in NITIE, aiming to tap a completely
new market.
Indirect
Competitors:
The basic premise of the newspaper,
which is to provide knowledge to students, is currently being done by numerous
sources. Primarily, in the current scenario, this is done via magazines
published by various forums as well as various business newspapers in the
market.. Apart from this, the students are exposed to various case study
competitions, assignments and exams which stretch them to acquire the required
information. Moreover, there is also the ever-present source of Internet which
can offer any information to the students.
However, for all of these
sources, the content is not exclusively focussed on satisfying the need of
specific knowledge of the students, but rather covers a general spectrum of
topics. Also, for sources like the Internet, a huge amount of effort is
required from the students’ end to gain a small piece of information.
v Distribution Channel:
After the printing of the newspaper is
done, it will be distributed as below to enable it to reach the audience:
Storing:
The newspapers will be printed at a
selected printing press initially in Mumbai. Once the printing is done, it will
be stored in hostel rooms before beginning distribution. Printing press
warehouses could be employed once the circulation increases.
Distribution:
For the initial few editions, the
printed copies will be directly door-delivered to the student rooms, which
would not only facilitate distribution but also would play an important role in
publicity. Volunteers could be utilized for subsequent editions. Once the
circulation increases, distribution agencies could be employed for the same
purpose.
A similar model could be followed when
launching the newspaper in other colleges, with every college having a SPOC who
would ensure collection of the newspaper from printing press and overlooking
the distribution.
v Revenue Generation Model
The main sources to garner revenue would
be as follows:
Pricing:
The newspaper would be priced at a
minimum of Rs. 5 to a maximum of Rs. 25 per edition depending on the final cost
structure. However, participation in all our competitions and offerings would
be completely free.
Advertising:
Our main advertisements will consist of
B-School competitions, which we foresee as a step towards our Relevant
Advertising Model. Apart from this, Profile/CV building consultancies, live
projects and research options would find relevance in advertising in the
newspaper. Job openings for B-School students would also form another source of
advertsing.
Sponsorship:
Also, voluntary sponsorship would be
another source to fund the newspaper. The sponsorship would primarily come from
alumni. Agencies like mess, canteen, newspaper distribution agency, etc. could
also come up with sponsorship as a part of goodwill.
v Key Partnership
The
Audaz would have partnership with the following players for its functioning:
• Reader
– The reader i.e. the students in NITIE, NITIE’s faculty and the alums in
Mumbai would play the vital role in the running of this newspaper. The inputs
provided by each of them would be processed to evolve this newspaper model to
best suit its customer requirements.
• College
committees / Forums - The college committees and forums can leverage this
platform to reach the students in a better manner. They can use this medium to
float technical/non-technical articles, case studies etc. They can use this
newspaper even as a platform to create buzz for a forthcoming event.
• Crowd
Sourcing – This newspaper will provide a platform to the writers in the college
to display their skill.
• Printing
Press – The major expense portion of the newspaper is the printing cost. A
strong relationship build with the printing press will be a valuable asset.
v Key Resources
The
Audaz is dependent on the following resources for its smooth functioning:
• Intellect
– The regular writer for the newspaper need to constantly challenge themselves
and build their technical knowledge to meet the demands of the newspaper.
Moreover they need to get their articles validated from the professors of
various subjects. They need to be ahead of the game and constantly learn from
all the resources available.
• Reader’s
Feedback – The most important resource at our disposal is the reader’s
feedback. This would enable the newspaper not to be something rigid but an
evolving business model. Since the newspaper is started to cater to their
needs, the inputs provided by them is of utmost importance. The feedback from
the readers would be taken from the following manner:
o Informal
feedback from some students
o Survey
o Email
request for suggestions/opinions
o Comments
on a facebook page
• Advertisements
– A newspaper will be run essentially on the revenue generated from
advertisements. Thus we need to ensure what we substantial assistance we can
provide to them through our newspaper.
v Key Activities
• Brainstorming
& Evolving The Business Model – After every issue meeting are to be held
and the agenda of such meeting would be “How we did in this issue? Where did we
lose? What needs to be there in the next issue?” After discussions, the business model as well
as the newspaper’s content can be altered to best suit the customer’s
requirements.
• Gathering,
Interpreting and Explaining Information – The writer of a particular article
has to devote substantial man-hours in gathering information about a topic,
interpreting that information and finally writing it in a manner that is
suitable to the needs of the students.
• Staying
ahead of the textbooks – This newspaper isn’t setup for the purpose of
educating the masses but brining out something unique and for that purpose
sticking to the curriculum will not be a something would be encouraged. Topics
that are in news or that are “hot” in the industry are what we want.
v MARKET ANALYSIS
1. Survey
Questionnaire
1)
You are a
a) Management
Student
b) Prospective
Management Student
c) Professor
2)
Gender
a) Male
b) Female
3)
Interested Stream
a) Finance
b) Operations
c) HR
d) Marketing
4)
Current Stream?
a) Finance
b) Operations
c) HR
d) Marketing
e) Other
5)
Work Experience (months)
6)
Current Major Source of Management Knowledge
a) Newspaper
b) Textbooks
c) Internet
d) Magazines
e) Other
7)
Do you like the idea of launching a new
fortnightly "Knowledge Paper" which will give you the knowledge of
management concepts with live industrial applications according to your field
of interest?
a) Yes
b) No
8)
Price willing to pay
a) 3
-5 Rs
b) 5
-7 Rs
c) 7-9
Rs
9)
Do you participate in inter college
competitions?
a) Yes
b) No
10)
Your B-School?
2. Analysis
Through Primary Research we identified
that the most significant indirect competition we have is Internet and Magazines.
These provide information which in most cases is not relevant to the topic
under consideration. Also, it wastes a lot of time and effort of the seeker
since the information is scattered across lots of sources.
72% of our respondents take part in
inter-college competitions which gives us an impetus to launch our Relevant
Advertising Model in which we advertise different college competitions and also
generate revenue.
95% of our respondents were interested
in the idea of launching our knowledge paper which is very encouraging to go
ahead and launch the product.