Don’t let the print fade away!

Once, a sales guy was sent to Mumbai in India to promote the sales of BATA shoes. When he stepped down from the local train, he was shocked to see that nobody was wearing any sandals. He was totally disappointed and called back his office to fold their plans for India. His logic was simple - no demand for sandals and hence no chance for any sales.

The company board consulted the marketing guy for a survey of the Indian market. He was sent to Mumbai and he took the same train and stepped down to the same railway station. He could not contain his excitement as his eyes scanned hundred of bare foots walking on the platform. He called back his office and asked for a container load of shoes. He set up a small shoe shop and offered free shoes to everybody. After three, four months, the company opened their manufacturing plant in India as the demand was so high. People used the free shoes and they could not live without it anymore.

The above story was told to me by Mr. Tariq Quazi, a taxi driver in Lahore during one of my sales trip to Pakistan. He was explaining the difference between sales and marketing. I am not sure about the credibility of the story, but it clearly explains the importance of marketing in any organization. Often, marketing seems to be wasting tonnes of money as it looks at the potential target where as sales looks at the practical achievable target. Marketing is seen as a cost-centre while sales is seen as a profit-centre. But the marketing thought process creates a positive energy even in a negative situation. Marketing radiates optimism and hope to look into the future.

Recently we witnessed the fall of established newspapers and all the fingers pointed to the same direction - fall in advertising revenue as companies are cutting-down on their marketing budgets. It is a paradox that newspaper readership or circulation does not change in a recession. You have to produce the same number of copies but with reduced number of pages. But where does the real threat lie? Whether other media like television, internet, etc. are taking away the advertising dollars from the newspaper company? The fact is not at all. There is nothing new with television or internet. They have been here for quite some time. But they are getting more creative and hence creating more revenue. There was a time when television and internet companies gone through the same phase. The clue is getting more creative with your newspaper business. How can you lure back your customers? How can you make them spend money on print advertising?

It is very clear that the television and internet companies have a strong marketing team coming up with brilliant marketing ideas. These are the people who can look for the rainbow when it is raining. They are colourful, crazy and they think out of the box. When a company runs into reduced business, the management puts a sudden break on their marketing efforts and they tactically call it 'cost-cutting'. The same thing happens to newspaper companies as well. Either many of them do not have a marketing department or they will sack all the marketing guys during a recession. This is the biggest mistake that can happen in any business and you are eventually forgotten in the industry.

When business is good and everything is fine, everybody is happy with hefty bonuses and pay checks. And the marketing guys get the flowers apparently for doing nothing. When business is bad, the marketing guys get the blame and they are out of job. During a recession, you need more marketing efforts. Marketing is not about spending money. It is about getting creative. You have to embark on 'marketing-associations' with your advertising clients instead of 'marketing-negotiations', at least during difficult times.

This is the time to show your support to your client's business. You may slash your advertising tariff to your major clients. They will stick with you when the times are good again. Your marketing team can work closer with your client's marketing team to identify their requirements and develop targeted marketing programs for them. Newspaper is no more a content distributing business. The content is available everywhere and it is often free of cost. Today, newspaper is more of a presentation business. How well presented are you in the market? Do something new to stir up the stagnant market. Let the advertisers and readers stop and wonder “Hey something is new here...let us check them out ".

Look at the commercial printing industry. So much is happening there. Printing is getting more creative. You can smell and feel the product by innovatively applying technology to materials and processes. Tap on the creativity from the commercial printing industry and apply them on your newspaper printing. Present them to your customers. Show them how you can make their products sell for themselves. Hybrid printing is catching up very fast where you can combine coldset and heatset technology. Which advertiser does not like his product showcased in glossy magazine paper rather than on smudgy newsprint substrate. Or look at the packaging print industry. How creative are they getting? Tap on those creativity and combine them in your newspaper business. You don’t have to spend a fortune to access this technology. Find a good partner who can do the job for you.

Newspapers are talking about pay-to-read web portals to access their online newspaper pages. Yes, this is a potential lucrative business as you have revenues from both the advertisers and the readers. And it works great when you have the monopoly in the market. Again, it is a highly competitive presentation business. And how many of them are willing to subscribe to such services when information is available at free of cost on the cyberspace. How can you keep your readers hooked on to your web portal? Without much readership, your advertisers will not be willing to spend dollars on your web portal. The ‘pay-to-read web portal trend’ is the result of a panic that is catching up the newspaper industry. When the newspapers forget their root business and get distracted by the activities of competition, they follow the crowd. Your competition may have their business reasons and capacity to venture into multi-media business like television, radio and internet. By this, they may lure back the advertisers by combining the synergy of all these media channels. They call it cross-media advertising. There are successful web portals which creates millions of dollars on advertising revenue everyday. Mind you, they are the giants in the cyber space and no newspaper can catch up with them. Stay grounded and focus on the business you are in. And only if you have the resources and confidence, then venture into other media platforms.

If you feel that you are losing ground, it is the time for some introspection rather than looking at the competition and losing focus. Focus, focus and focus! Get back to the basics. Look at your teams, look at the processes and look at the infrastructure. Whether something went wrong over the years when you were hastily expanding to catch up with the competition? Bring your people at the table and do creative brain-storming. Involve all the employees as you may not know the most brilliant idea can come from the shop floor. Ask questions and seek answers for improving efficiency and productivity. Get creative and do something revolutionary with your newspaper. Be the leader and let others follow you. Engage the brains and connect to your audience – both readers and advertisers. Present your newspaper as a valuable gift to the audience. As they hold the newspaper, let them feel the difference. Why not a fragrant newspaper? Talk to your suppliers and ask for possibilities. Create a corporate smell for your newspaper and get the patent for it. Awake the sensory feelings on the audience. There are million ways to get creative. Relax, focus and engage your brains. Newspapers need a revival. They were part of the human race all these while. From cities to villages across the globe, everybody longed for a newspaper in the morning. Newspapers made people think about life. It helped people laugh at life. It gave them fresh visions every morning. Let them remain as newspapers, with some modifications, but as a printed version. Let the future generations get the same crispy feeling of newspaper reading.

The economic down-turn is not permanent. Just like the big ‘dot com bubble’. It will bounce back. It is the time to get polished for the future. Implement cost-cutting measures and once the economy is back on track, you are more than ready to reap the rewards.

So, please don’t let the print fade away.

Picture courtesy: www.gulfnews.com and www.pixabay.com