Navbharat Times Branding

1. Navbharat Times is a daily newspaper published by Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd., who also have the Times of India in their portfolio. 2. The first issue of Navbharat Times hit the stands on the 3rd of April, 1947.Navbharat Times was launched in order to address the people of independent India in Hindi, a language, which was totally their own. 3. Navbharat Times was the first Hindi national newspaper those days with editions in Kolkata, Lucknow, and Patna & Jaipur. 4. However, the newspaper later moved from being pan-India to limiting itself to two editions, Delhi and Mumbai. 5. The subjects of Navbharat Times range from politic to entertainment, from sports to economics and much more. 6. The newspaper provides information about the important happenings of the world, though local news items are given thorough coverage. 7. The Navbharat Times launched a Greater Noida edition in Sept., 2011 and an NCR edition to be circulated in Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Noida on 2nd January 2012. 8. With a circulation of 4.23 lac odd copies (Source: JJ-10, ABC India) in Delhi and a strong readership of 19.7 lac readers; NBT rules the roost.

Hindi being the fourth language in Mumbai; NBT circulates to 1.3 lac copies in the Greater Mumbai area (source JD-10, ABC India) and attracts 4.7 lac NBT readers according to the industry benchmark – the Indian Readership Survey.Supplements provided with Navbharat Times: A. Hello Delhi: 1. Hello Delhi is the lifestyle Bollywood supplement of Navbharat Times which gets published six days in a week (barring Mondays). 2. It has recently upgraded to a new design with spicy Bollywood interviews, scoops, features and tidbits, along with all the hot gossip. 3. There is variety of special feature pages on Travel, Women, Style, TV& Movie news. 4. The design of the supplement and the photographs published guarantee maximum eye balls and according to many surveys, it is the first page most of the readers turn to when they start reading the newspaper. 5. The major events of the city which don’t find a detailed mention in the main newspaper are found over here. This also includes the page 3 parties which are frequented by socialites and different events to promote some worthy causes. The supplement has a page called “Photo Dhamaal” which caters to the aspirational values of the common man by publishing the snapshots from these parties. 6. Hello Delhi is a section of the newspaper which publishes news for the denizens of the city.

Hence it is used by local retailers to inform the readers about the different offers which they are giving on a particular day or to tell the readers about any new product launch which are going to happen in the city.Online Avatar of Hello Delhi: 1. To connect more with the younger readers who are spending more time on the internet, the supplement is available on the internet page of Navbharat Times. 2. There are different sections like most viewed (sabsejyadadekhegaye), new stories (ye hai fresh maal), foreign models in India and links to the home pages of different movie stars. 3. There is a video gallery which streamlines the latest videos for the visitors and a slideshow of the photographs from the different parties held in the respective week in Delhi. 4. A contest is also run where in two celebrity photographs have been morphed together and the visitor have to guess the name of the celebrities. B. Navbharat Times Property: 1. Property is a vertical supplement catering to the readers’ demand for the very latest in real estate.

2. The Navbharat Times property supplement is exclusively devoted to the real estate sector and performs the important task of educating the customers about the different real estate schemes available in the local market. 3. This supplement is used by the local developers to tell the readers about the upcoming schemes. 4. This supplement is also used by the different banks to inform the readers about the different loan schemes available and the respective EMIs for buying their dream home. C. Navbharat Times Education: 1. Education is a vertical supplement catering to the readers’ demand for the very latest in education. 2. Showcasing the latest trends, passing real tips and being an empowering guide, is second nature for the education supplement. 3. The supplement informs the readers about the different examinations being conducted by the universities and the required qualifications for the same. 4. Different educational institutes use the supplement to inform the readers about the places from where the application forms can be collected and the last date for submitting the applications.

5. The supplement also informs the readers about the seminars being held in different parts of the city and about the scholarship opportunities available in different institutions as well as the different news related to the field of education. 6. The supplement is used by different banks to inform the student and his family about the various education loans available to them. 7. The supplement is also used by local coaching institutes to promote themselves by showcasing their results.Communication StrategyNewspaper belongs to a category where the brand cannot be bigger than the product. The major part of the brand communication is done by the product itself. The nature of news covered/ given prominence, the supplements, the quality of reporting, editorial content, the tone, political/community leaning or neutrality and even the nature of advertisements it carries collectively determine the brand of a newspaper more than any advertising campaign it may undertake.The Navbharat Times aims to appeal to the class and mass readership markets of Delhi and Mumbai. In Delhi, the newspaper is hyper-localized.

In fact, there is a special edition for Greater Noida and an NCR edition was launched on 2nd, January this year. The focus is chiefly on the events and trends in the city and its environs. It projects itself as capturing the pulse of the national capital and appeals to the upper class as a lifestyle brand. To those who migrated to the city it is a guide to life in the metro. Being a Hindi- language newspaper, it effectively caters to this segment.The language of the newspaper is catchy and follows the latest mores. The stories try to strike a balance between being entertaining and informative. The upshot is that Navbharat Times appeals to both young and the young-at-heart readers.This strategy has worked effectively for Navbharat Times in the NCR region as it is the largest circulating Hindi language newspaper in that region and second only to the Times of India for any language. It commands a readership of 19.7 lakh (IRS Q3 2011) and ahead of its nearest Hindi language competitor by 7.5 lakh.However in comparison, the Navbharat Times is doing poorly in Mumbai where it has a greater competition from Marathi and Gujarati newspapers apart from Hindi ones.

It ranks 9th with a readership of 4.91 lakh (IRS Q2 2011). Though the newspaper implements a similar strategy in this region too, the level of localization is much lower.Navbharat Times on the Net:The Navbharat Times, like all other major newspapers, has an online edition. However, this page appears cluttered; the logo of the newspaper is not prominently displayed and can certainly be improved to make it more aesthetically pleasing. A Google search for NBT (as Navbharat Times like to abbreviate its name to) does not display the portal prominently. Some Search engine Optimization is also required.Navbharat Times on Social Media: Facebook: Navbharat Times formed a Facebook page in 2010 to connect better with its readers and boosts of more than 2 lakh likes. Daily polls are conducted on the page to find out the pulse of the nation about the different issues of national interest. To interact more with its readers and to reward its top readers, Navbharat Times has a separate page for its top readers known as the Navbharat Times “True Fans”. Under its headline “Just Now”, Navbharat Times constantly updates its fans with the breaking news from around the world.

Other Media: The twitter account of Navbharat Times has a following of over 4000 and concentrates on providing snippets of news and celebrity gossip.Interestingly, Navbharat Times has the 19th highest number of circlers on Google Plus for any Indian brand.The strong and growing Social Media presence helps the brand stay relevant as more readers switch from conventional newsprints to online editions of newspapers. It also helps in keeping in touch with the tech-savvy young generation.Chalo Campus : Brand Building Initiative by Navbharat Times 1. Chalo Campus was a comprehensive forum for admissions after class 12th started by Hindi daily Navbharat Times in the year 2008. 2. The newspaper wanted to connect with the youth who are generally thought to spend less and less time on reading newspaper. 3. In its first year in 2008, workshops and conferences were organized under the campaign. But to engage with the youth better, in 2009, a website dedicated to the campaign as well as IVR were introduced to get more students.

4. The application tab for Chalo Campus was created on the Navbharat Times Facebook page, and given a look of the Facebook Wall itself. 5. It allowed prospective students to post questions for the experts, who were university professors, on the right career path to choose. A dedicated team of experts was set up to answer the queries coming on the social networking site by Navbharat Times. 6. To make the campaign viral on the social networking site, Navbharat Times designed a feature for the application, which would make all responses to queries for a user, appear on their friend’s ‘News Feed’. 7. Due to the attention brought to the application, Navbharat Times Facebook page ‘likes’ grew by a 110 percent in two months making the experiment a success.The campaign is very effective as it helps reinforce the brand as youth-oriented and also help the newspaper gain new readership.TVC of Navbharat Times: 1. An old man enters a room and finds his wife lying on the bed. He switches on the bulb. 2. He goes up to her and checks her temperature. 3. He makes her get up from the bed and starts shaking her upside down and sideways. 4. He goes to the shelf of medicine behind the bed and takes out a bottle.

The camera zooms in on the label. 5. The next frame of the advertisement talks about the fact that Hindi is the only language which 40 million Indians perfectly. 6. The advertisement ends with a black screen with white lettered Navbharat Times. 7. This advertisement subtly targets the advertisers by its covert implication that to make their brand truly reach the target customers, they have to showcase their brands in the vernacular media because of the reach (40 million) and the easy comprehension.| Pricing StrategyThe Times of India group stopped relying on newspaper sales as the major source of revenue and moved to selling advertising space instead. The price for display advertisements in Navbharat Times are as follows:Delhi : BW – Rs.1055/ sq cm. Color – Rs.1055/sq cmMumbai : BW – Rs.520/sq cm. Color – Rs.680/ sq cmThe price of commercial advertising starts at Rs. 5 lakh and can be much higher depending on the size and placement. Clinic Plus had placed a talking ad in Navbharat Times for Mother’s Day. This was the first time such an ad was placed in a local language newspaper.The cover price is Rs. 2.50.

This strategy had been very successful for the Times Group and it forced other newspapers to cut down their cove price as well and adopt a similar strategy.In 2003, Navbharat Times was bundled with the Times of India and both the newspapers together offered at a very low price of Rs. 75 per month. This strategy was later discontinued. The bundling had increased the circulation of both newspapers dramatically in the regions where it was introduced and this offer may have been discontinued pre-maturely.RecommendationsThe strategy adopted by Navbharat Times in Delhi/ NCR has proved to be highly successful. The newspaper should extend this strategy to Mumbai as well. The newspaper should also launch newer editions in Hindi-speaking, Tier II cities. We have come up with the following promotion strategy:Online Presence: The website of the newspaper has a huge scope for improvement. Cluttering of the home page should be reduced and news should be presented in a more orderly fashion.

The website should also be search engine optimized.Timely and relevant updating of news on the website is necessary. Google News (Hindi) page is currently predominated by news from TV News channels and Dainik Jagran. Navbharat Times should aim to have atleast two news items on this page.Cost: Rs. 1,50,000 over a 6 month period of SEOSocial Media: Though Navbharat Times has a good number of likes/followership on various social media forums, the number of news items shared by others from these pages is very low. Currently, these pages are dominated by celebrity gossip and private parties. A more balanced approach has to be adopted and equal importance should be given too mainstream news as well. This is likely to increase the number of shares on FB and re-tweets on Twitter.The above mentioned measures increase the awareness of the newspaper in not merely Delhi and Mumbai but in other Hindi-speaking regions as well. Thus, newer editions of the newspaper are launched, the awareness is already there and readers might be willing to give it a try. MumbaiThe newspaper has to actively promote itself in Mumbai.

It should aim to move into the top 5 in readership ranking in the next one year. To do this, it has to add a readership of at least 2.5 lakh. Navbharat Times should maintain its appeal to both the mass and the upper class segments (similar to Delhi). Navbharat Times should promote itself aggressively in the other newspapers of the Times Group like the Times of India, Maharashtra Times, Mumbai Mirror and the Economic Times. The first three newspapers can carry quarter page ads on the front page and the Economic Times on the last page.A 30s commercial giving a brief of the content and tone of the newspaper should be aired on the local radio channels. The ad can also give a snippet of the latest news (within a day) and say that for the latest news update the reader has to opt for Navbharat Times. The challenge with such commercials is to create and air them within a day’s time.Outdoor advertising is another effective media that can be employed. Billboards in some of the city’s commercial areas can be used for this purpose.

Another effective medium would be the local railway network in Mumbai.Cost Over 6 Month Period: Print: Rs. 90,00,00Radio: Rs. 54,00,000OOH: Rs. 90,00,000Bundling: As mentioned earlier in the report, Navbharat Times was offered along with the Times of India at a subsidized price. This strategy should be re-adopted. In addition, the newspaper can also be bundled with Maharashtra Times. The vendors and delivery agents should be asked to communicate this offer to all the regular subscribers of any of the Times Group newspapers.Hyper-Localization: As in the case of Delhi, Navbharat Times should also launch some hyper-localized editions in Mumbai. These editions should be customized for Mumbai Western Suburb, Mumbai Easter Suburb and Navi Mumbai.Navbharat Times should aim to break-even at the end of a one year period.New MarketsNavbharat Times should expand into Tier II Hindi-speaking cities cities like Chandigarh, Lucknow, Kanpur, Bhopal and Indore. With the exception of Chandigarh, Hindi is the primary language in all these cities. Thus, Navbharat Times should aim to be at least the third most read newspaper two years after the launch of these editions.

They should adopt the same strategy of hyper-localization and mass and class appeal.Awareness of the newspaper will be prevalent (at least among the young generation) if the online techniques are properly adopted. In addition, these launches should be announced in all the newspapers of the Times Group. The promotion strategy suggested for Mumbai should be adopted in these cities as well.Cost Over 6 Month Period in Each of these Cities:Print: Rs. 60,00,00Radio: Rs. 20,00,000OOH: Rs.45,00,000Navbharat Times should break-even in each of these cities, 1 year from the date of its launch.

References

1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navbharat_Times
2. www.exchange4media.com/43618_nbt-fortifies-base-in-ncr-launches-greater-noida-edition.html 3. www.exchange4media.com/44788_nbt-firms-base-launches-nbt-ncr-edition-today.html 4. navbharattimes.indiatimes.com/

5. books.google.co.in/books?id=UOXwQQR1_RAC&pg=PA424&lpg=PA424&dq=navbharat+times+bundled+with+toi&source=bl&ots=qgk2Hixo4y&sig=oWXKboTZV4OcewWLEGGWyRVYF8g&sa=X&ei=yPM0UMPKMMqJrAeFhYG4CQ&redir_esc=y#v