IN THE NAME OF ALLAH THE MOST BENEFICIENT AND THE MOST MERCIFUL

FINAL PROJECT

MARKETING MANAGEMENT

“Market Research and Marketing Mix for COMSMAG”

Submitted to: Miss Maria Zia

Submitted by:

Group leader: Muzammil Shahid 010Group Members: Taimoor Khan 028 Hamza Hassan 004 Adeel Abid 008 Hajra Fazal 029 Fahad Hassan 011

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1. MARKETING RESEARCH OF COMSMAG PROJECT

1.1. RESEARCH PROBLEM / OBJECTIVE:

Basic purpose of research was to come up with better marketing strategies and other suggestion which leads us to more attractive, interesting, and positively positioned 3rd

edition of COMSMAG (COMSATS Annual Magazine). COMSMAG 1st and 2nd edition published till now are not much successful and are not liked by majority of students (target market). Various reasons underlie this partial failure of endless efforts of Comsmag team.We tried to follow sense and respond philosophy in our product improvement program, i.e. we have asked from our audience of magazine that what they want to see in it.Our research is of exploratory nature. This means that our purpose is to explore all the aspects of COMSMAG (Annual COMSATS Magazine) and give suggestions for its betterment.This above statement clarifies only broader scenario of research. Defining our purpose more specifically gives the following points:1. What is current image of COMSAMG in mind of audience? 2. Do people many have interest in it and of what intensity? 3. How do people rate its content and graphics 4. Compare it with other university magazines 5. Find suggestions for its improvement and better suggestions.

1.2 RESEARCH PLAN:

(Research plan was written before conducting research that’s why it is in future tense)

Data sources: Major part of our research will be based on the primary data collection. Reason for this is that no such evaluative and betterment program is conducted before for COMSMAG. So we will collect all the data specifically for this research purpose (Primary Data). However, some secondary data including magazines and COMSMAG itself will be studied for the purpose of comparison. Comparative analysis is done with the magazines of other popular institutes of same level including NCA, LUMS, University of Lahore, FAST, P.U. and G.C.

Research Approach:

Two types of approaches will be used by us that are explained as follow:1. Observational Research2. Survey Research

Observational Research: We will observe attitudes of people about COMSMAG by generally discussing COMSMAG in gatherings, observing their behavior and interests in

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hostel casual life and discussing with them different other universities editorial works and noting their believes in general unstructured manner.

Survey Research: We will conduct a complete structured survey with a set of pre-specified questions. It included both questionnaire and interviews. Questionnaire is filled from the students in general who have studied the magazine. And interviews are will be conducted of people highly concerned and related with COMSMAG. (Co-Editor and Faculty Chief of Magazine)

Research Instruments and Contact Method:

The only instrument, we will use in our research is the questionnaire. It contains 10 questions. Most of these are closed ended questions designed to gather data for quantitative analysis. Questionnaire is designed after thorough analysis of the magazine to bring out remarks and suggestions of the audience. Some open ended questions are included to allow respondents express there feelings in their own words and to have ideas of believes and attitude. Copy of questionnaire is attached in the appendix A.Contact method in both interview and questionnaire will be personal. Face to Face interviews will be conducted and Questionnaires will also be administered personally.

Sampling Plan:

Sampling Unit: We will gather ad analyze data on individual basis. It means that our unit of analysis in individual not dyad or group. We brought every respondent response into analysis as separate unit without any aggregation.

Sample Size: We will select a sample of good number of students for questionnaire. So, we will end up with at least 50 responses in total from those who have read COMSMAG at least partly.

Sampling Method: Simple Random Sampling will be used. In which every student chance of being selected in sample will be equal.

However, for interview purpose we will use non-probability sampling and that will be Judgment Sampling will be used. This means that we will conduct interview of only those people whom we think are sources of large amount of accurate information. Every single word of expression of these people will be considered as a solid and reality based information.

1.3 Collection and Analysis:

After this research plan and objectives are developed we stared with the execution step. We executed our research plan in totality. First we gather data and then analyzed it statistically and the findings of the research are shown in next step.

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1.4 Research Findings:

Questionnaire Findings:

Here we show results of our survey about COMSMAG evaluation. Findings of all close-ended questions are as follow.

Level of Awareness:

To end with 50 responses we surveyed 85 students. And thus our sample indicate following about awareness of COMSMAG in university. So, generalizing the results we estimate that still 41% of our students have not even seen COMSMAG

Fig.1 Level of Awareness

Comparison to other University Magazine:

Fig.2 Comparison to other universities

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Survey results are very negative as indicated by our graph. Many reasons are behind this negative rating. But the fact that COMSMAG still reached its 2nd edition only minimizes this depression as all other university magazines are being published from at least more than 4 or 5 years.

Content/Graphic Rating:

Fig.3 Comparison to other universities

So it is clear from the graph that 0% of respondent rate graphics excellent and only 5% rated content as excellent. So majority of audience is not satisfied with content and graphics

Urdu / English sections:

61 % respondents claimed that read the English portion of the magazine and 26% respondents read Urdu and 13% respondents claimed that they read an equal part. Although follow-up questions revealed that Urdu part was read only because of its funny poetry and Ghazliaat.

Reasons for Rating COMSMAG:

Positive (above 2.5)

1. Poetry was good2. It belongs to our university3. It is about people we know.4. It includes Funny jokes.

Negative (below 2.5)

1. No creativity2. Spelling Mistakes3. Grammar and tense Mistakes4. Not include academic activities and other achievements of universities5. Immature and silly and fool jokes

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6. Poor Graphics7. Photos and galleries are compressed in small space8. Lack of Interesting activities and discussions and ideas9. Looks more like a Text or Course Book than a magazine10. Even title page is not attracting

Rating of Suggestions our team Proposed:

Events and group Photos after10 pages 2.77

Successful Ex-COMSIANS views 3.10

Kuch Bhi Bollo in one sentence 3.05

Positive/negative experiences of students in COMSATS 3.00

COMSATS mottos from students and faculty 3.12

Love and Friendship Stories 2.78

Faculty section of contributions 3.00

So in summary all these ideas will increase the creative part of magazine and reduce lengthy boring articles and might make COMSMAG a better light weight attractive magazine.Further suggestions will be discussed in later part of report.

Interview Findings:

We conducted two interviews in our survey. 1. Mahreen Danish (COMSMAG 2nd Edition Co-Editor. BBA BATCH 2)2. DR. M. Shamim Sabir (Conveyer COMSMAG 3rd Edition. Chemical Engineering

DEPT)

Mahreen Danish’s Interview (Best-Part of our Research work):

This interview was the best of all sources used in our research. She told us the real and actual difficulties she along with her team faced in bringing out this 2nd edition. And according to her these were the cause of this boring and below average university Magazine.

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Starting with the topic of faculty and administration support she straight-forwardly told us that there was no supervision from faculty. Some assistant-professor level faculty members were assigned the task of selecting and guiding the team members in the whole program. But they used to be quit busy in their routine academic activities and can not spare much of their precious time in helping them. Follow–up questions lead toward selection process. So again she openly told us that administration did not advertised the COMSMAG selection meeting properly and arranged the meeting inside Block A and pasted only small notices on the notice boards. As a resulted in only 20 to 30 students who reached there for selection in them she was one. If university is publishing its own magazine and wants it to be COMSATS representative so they must invest some efforts of advertising on banners and arranging the selection process openly in between the campus, so that all students can come up with their best talents. Moreover she openly admitted that all the selection was based only on the words you speak about your self. No proper writing test was used or no one was asked to show his or her talent which he/she was clamming. She said that she was only selected as editor because she spoke good English in that meeting. Next, she told that many of the team members (Chief Editor and Sponsorship team and some other members) left before the completion of the magazine. Moreover some members were not loyal only because there was no motivation and recognition from the administration for the endless efforts of the team.Another major problem was that summer vacation was the time given to the team for the whole process. During these two months no one was willing to stay in campus and work on it. Even the loyal members went back to their homes. Next, is the budget problem! Administration was not willing to extend the budget even a single rupee. All the spelling and tense mistakes currently visible in the 2nd edition are not because of the team members and participants. It is evident from the magazine that such blunders can not be made by any graduation student. This only is because of the limited budget because of which publishing work was given to cheapest publisher and they made mistakes in typing the stuff. Lack of budget is also evident from quality of our magazine.

She gave some useful suggestions that will be included in later part of the report.

Dr. M. Shamim Sabir:

He is the conveyer of the next edition of COMSMAG (3rd edition) and is directly responsible for reporting Director. His responsibilities are to arrange meeting on regular basis and to select the COMSMAG team. Our team asked him all the questions that arise on part of administration and faculty from Mahreen Danish interview responses. Some improvements are made this time according to him.

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He said that proper advertisement was made for selection of COMSMAG team this time and interviews along with the 15 lines written test were used as basis of selection on 27 th

of November. He further said that presentations were also held this time. Out of 32 students entering the test they selected 15. He explained that 1-5 score scale was used for the evaluation of the students. Still these team members are not given proper designations and hopefully this will be done till next week. He admitted that we don not have designed any recognition and reward system for the team members who will put their precious time and efforts in COMSMAG. And he appreciated our group for this useful suggestion. He openly admitted that our magazine is more like a text book and lacks creative work. He said he will try to arrange more budget this time and will also go for sponsorship. He showed us some magazine of other universities that have been sponsored by quite unrelated companies like QUARSHI, HAIR CLUB, ENERGILE PLUS, MOBILINK. All in all we ended up with consensus that our magazine is newly emerged and is passing from stage of development.

1.5 Decision Making:

Next all report and marketing mix are the decisions drawn from all the research by tour team

1.6 BUYER/CONSUMER CHARACTERISTICS:

Till publishing of 2nd edition and even till now no such work is done to estimate the interests of student in the magazine. The only policy till now is to distribute COMSMAG in students with number of constraints (For Example: 2.5+GPA). Now we suggest not making it compulsion. Here we describe some common characteristics of readers of our magazine.

Interest with Academics:

All the readers of our Magazine will have some interests in academics. Either direct or in direct. Direct interests means that they will be students or teachers or will have a carrier in education field. And indirect interest means that they are professionals in other fields but still have interests in students and fresh graduates.

Related with COMSATS:

Our readers will definitely be having interest in our institute. Otherwise they will never read COMSMAG. Either they will be the part of our institute and want to enjoy and be proud of every event and participation of fellows or they will want to know more about our institutes for their some self-interest in it. Price Conscious:

Students of course, either of COMSATS or other institutes will not bee willing to pay much high price for this. And of course we should not charge high price to executives

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and organization professional people for this. It will be presented to them as a free gift to build the image of our institute and enlighten the future road to success for our students.

Age / Occupation / Education:

Most of our readers will fall in the middle age. Students are the largest group of readers and will range from 19-25 years of age in average. Next is the group of faculty members of all institutes and executive of well-known organizations. This group will range between 25-50 years of age approximately. Its clear from our above description that almost all of our audience will be at least 12 grade education level.

There are certain other consumer characteristics involved in our discussion but these will be described in part 3 of our report.

2. Marketing Environment

Basically there are two type of marketing environment internal and external. Internal includes customers, suppliers, competitors, publics and external includes demographics, technology, economy, natural, cultural and political. But here for our project we will discuss only the following types for COMSMAG

2.1 Competition:

There are two types of competition that Comsmag can face. One is the internal competition that is with COMSATS Newsletter (another editorial work in Campus). Second type is competition with other universities magazines. Although, it can not be taken in sense of true competition because competition occurs when two different companies are selling similar or substitutable products in the same market. Here is not the case of selling in the same market. However, we can say the competition of image building of institutes can be done through these magazines. Or the better word for this in comparison. COMSATS must do benchmarking and then try to make its magazine better than other institutes this will bring a number of benefits.

Firstly it increases the sense of loyalty and own ness with institute, and being proud of COMSIANS in present students. Secondly, it will spread good word of mouth. Thirdly, it will attract more new students than before. And last but not the least; it will open the gates of corporations and organizations for COMSATS students. Both of these competitors are discussed in some detail:

Newsletter (COMSATS):

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What currently is going on in COMSATS about editorial work is quite complex story. We have divided our writings in two parts News Letter and COMSMAG. News letter contain all the information on achievements of current year. It gives a summarized look of Conferences, Educational Workshops, Visits of International and national institutes, Functions, Contests, Entertainments, and Sports competitions. In 2006-07 News letter we described visit of representatives from Lancaster University, Scientific Conference (ISESCO), 10th Convocation, Prize Distribution Ceremony, Farewell Dinner, Date with a Fate event, Job Fair, Gala, Junaid Jamshaid visit, Book Fair, and Sports winnings from L.S.E. and University of Lahore. This all indicates participative, advance, innovate COMSIANS. This delivers the clear message that we are advancing, developing and on all fields of life. It builds a positive image of COMSATS. It is 12 shiny pages booklet of Successful COMSIANS. All this is not included in COMSMAG. What COMSMAG contains is only Articles and Writings of students, jokes, poetry, funny discussions, Trip and Funfair Glimpse. Although it includes a page on convocation but no other educational advancement is included in it. 120page COMSAMG will be much better if we omit some boring and nonsense articles and give few pages to what we achieved in last 360 days. It will bring a bundle of benefits to us. NCA (Lakeerain):

It is an 88 page gray shiny pages small size interesting, attractive and attention catching book. The name “Lakeerain” is what forces one to look in what it is about. It is sponsored by GUARD, MUMTAZ BAKHTAWAR HOSPITAL, BAREEZE, NABEELA GARMENTS, PAKISTAN TOBACOO COMPANY, QARSHI JOHAR JOSHANDA. Just giving 4 pages to theses sponsors NCA was able to arrange sufficient budget to afford large number of copies of high quality magazine. It is all in English and full of creative activities and interesting topics. Some examples are motto, what you love about college, NCA is famous for (One word answers), Before and after pictures of students, What really kills me (One Word answers), top 10-model in college; surveys like most studious, most irritating, most well dressed, best smile, most popular and a lot more this. There 88 pages contains more than 20 such creative funny and interesting activities. This does not means it do not contains articles, of course it does and those also are very interesting, moral giving or showing the lively life of NCA. No single page of Lakeerain is without pictures and glimpses. Every page itself forces the audience to stop, look and read me for few minutes. COMSMAG 120 pages contain less then 5 creative activities and surveys. It even failed to have any sponsor. Out of 120 it has only 10 colored pages with glimpse and attention getting element. Rests of 110 pages are simple white page with black text lines on it. No matter how good written the content is but it’s of no use until one stops and reads it.

All this criticizing is for the purpose of future betterment. Suggestions will be discussed in later part of the report.

2.2 Technology:

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As such magazine publishing is not much technological process. Neither much technically advance machines nor process are needed for this. But still there are certain factors in which if care is taken then it will lead to competitive advantage. For example designing, photographing, text editing, format style, title page, graphics resolutions etc. This all demands experts in every field, advance software, some high quality hardware (Printers, image resolution setting and designing devices).Better quality software can help to end with error free text; black and white, colored and attractive graphics; better format and picture sizes; and designing every page to be more attractive. Most important focus in print media is to get the attention of your target and this is what technology will help us to do.

2.3 Finance:

Sponsorship is the best and only way out to finance our magazine publishing. Currently substandard quality of paper, graphics in 2nd edition and as our interviewee told us that spelling and grammar mistakes are clear indication of lack of monetary resources. University administration is not willing to allocate large budget for magazine. Limited funds also lead toward negative magazine positioning in minds of audience. So here we suggest getting sponsorship for generation of funds as was done by NCA and University of Lahore, G.C. Some appropriate sources of sponsorship are as following

1. Coca-Cola: Coke being the leading and only of soft drink supplier in COMSATS will willingly provide a reasonable sponsorship and what all we have to do is to give them one complete page in our Magazine to display there advertisement, which will also add to the look of our magazine.

2. Nestle: Major supplier of juices and mineral water in COMSATS will also be willing to sponsor COMSMAG for sake of their publicity and advertisement.

3. Baseel Computers: Although not directly selling its products inside the campus but still COMSATS students are very high potential customers for its products. Products include USB drives, MP3 players, Laptops, Digital dictionaries, and other computer related products.

Moreover, we can go for any mobile phone company adds like Advance Telecom, Orient Mobiles etc.

Why companies offer sponsorship?Our research and secondary data studying founded that some un-related companies like QARSHI, HAIR CLUB, and MOBILINK etc. also sponsored university magazines. Reason behind this is that every individual reader of magazine also has a life other than being student, teacher or executive. They also got families and daily routine life needs. So, these advertisements will remind them of their brands when ever need is there.

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For example: Johar Joshanda adds in university magazine will reminds a student with sore throat or anyone else having sore throat in his/her family of the QARSHI brand and possibly he/she go for purchase or recommend it to others. One other benefit of giving such sponsorship is that all the magazine committee and other people of that institute will spread good word of mouth about that firm and brand.

Motivating sponsors:Other than advertisements placement, we can encourage companies to sponsor our magazine by giving them free invitation to seminars, conferences, job and book fairs, and other recreational events like funfairs, we can offer then to hold a stall in campus on certain events like Gala and musical nights. Funds from these sponsorships will not only be used to improve visible quality but also the content quality. How can this be possible? Simply this can be done by providing rewards for best contributions of articles and ideas and by compensating Editorial team and designers to come up with most attractive and creative ideas.

2.4 Social and Demographic Trends:

Our focus will be on middle class and upper levels. Of course working class will not be interested in our magazine and they even do not have time for reading it. And we can not start directly with upper uppers because being a mediocre level institute; we will start with focus on middle class. However in future editions we will advance our topics and sections to focus higher classes. Which social class we are focusing and which will be our audience will have direct impact on our contents. Some values and Lifestyles are associated with each class which may be unethical for others. Similarly language also changes as we move higher on the hierarchy. Recreational preferences, jokes and likings also changes with shifts in classes. As we belong to upper middle class institute so Urdu will remain an important part of our magazine cause many of audience is interested in Urdu literature and poetry. Our recreational events are of great difference than upper uppers. Certain traditional and religious limits will remain important for us. For example in NCA magazines we found a poem I MADE MY GOD MY SELF. It might not raise any criticism in their society but including such words can raise criticism in COMSATS. Similarly the pictures we include in our magazine also are affected by the social class of our audience. We must be conscious of the factors which can be sensitive and raise emotions of the audience. However, keeping these factors in mind we can advance slowly. Opinion leaders can also be notified in our environment. These will be people who can have influence on others believes and attitudes. COMSMAG team if rewarded for there efforts will be more loyal to institute and themselves play the role of opinion leaders. Roles and Status is other social variable. This will apply to executive part of our audience. These Top level managers like to read topics about current issues, light funny and interesting topics and wants to know about scientific and academic advancements in the institutes to form their image about universities. They also prefer some sophisticated discussions. So when focusing them such topics will be included in magazine.

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Demographics including age, education level, and occupations are already discussed above.

2.5 Legal Factors:

In both of our interviews described in findings we asked about legal issues involve in this magazine publishing. But no such documented instructions are there was the response. However Mahreen Danish (editor 2nd edition) told us that administration asked them not to include any negative words about the institute. But her personal opinion was that student writing the articles should be given the freedom of expression.Similarly Dr. M. Shamim said that there are no written and documented legal factors. But before selecting the articles editors go through them and then decide if any thing is unethical. Here our group gives some suggestions regarding this.

Legality can be defined in two ways.

Firstly, legal factors will tell us the limits to which our hypothetical writing, articles, jokes are considered ethical. Being a government funded institute we have some political limits which our magazine should not exceed. Similarly, some religious, social, racial, regional issues are of such critical value that exceeding certain limits in any of our writings will lead to negative image of the magazine and give rise to conflicts. So care should be taken and complete instructions should be written before proceeding further to accept articles and other creative contributions.

Secondly, legal requirements can include a complete planning of contributions, section length, image gallery, faculty sections and other parts.Rules can be made like no student can submit more than 2 writings. Pages being dedicated to English and Urdu sections can be made specific. If over submission of articles is there than best ones will be chosen. Such rules will result in a planned, small in size but best in content magazine. 2nd edition of approximate 120 pages full of text is quite unattractive for the readers. Much better can be done by minimizing the text and giving more space to attractive graphics which attract attention. Such planning will result in light weight attractive, eye catching stuff.

3. Target Market and Positioning

COMSMAG will follow a differentiated (segmented) marketing. Several different segments will be targeted and purpose of targeting each segment will be different. Here in COMSMAG all marketing tools apply but with certain variations and alterations. Following are the segments we will target through COMSMAG. Basis of these target segments are not demographics, geographic, psychographics or behavioral. These targets are on basis of relation with the institutes.

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Under each target segment purpose of selecting that segment and positioning of COMSMAG and COMSATS for that segment are discussed.

3.1 Segments for COMSMAG

Students of COMSATS:

a. To raise the feeling of belonging to one institute. b. To increase unity among studentsc. To give them sense that we all are COMSIANS and be proud of it.d. To provide the channel to students to share their thinking, show their talents, and

creative abilities and to know about the ideas, experience and thin kings of there fellows.

First will also be the positioning of COMSMAG in minds of student. They will consider COMSMAG as it belongs to us and it’s about our university. Our research told us that only 1 out of 50 respondents have this positioning in her mind. Thus more effort is needed to achieve the desired positioning. How this can be done will be discussed in suggestions.

Faculty and staff members:

Almost same will be the positioning in minds of faculty and staff and same are the purpose of targeting this segment.

Students and faculty of other institutes:a. To let them know about COMSATS.b. To build positive image of our institute.c. To tell them about lively and attractive environment of COMSATS.d. To encourage them visit us and spread good word of mouth about us.

First three also describe of what positioning of COMSMAG and in turn COMSATS we want in the mind of other institute members.

Executives / Top level Managers:

a. To increase level of awareness of COMSATS in Job market b. To make them believe that COMSATS is one of the best institutes and excels in

both academics and co curricular activities.c. To encourage them to visit us when ever invited on Job fairs, Book fairs,

Conferences, Workshops, Seminars, Public speeches, Award distribution and other events.

d. To open gates of bright future opportunities for outgoing graduates of COMSATS.

First two will be our positioning in minds of executive and top level organization managers.

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3.2 Characteristics affecting consumer behavior:

Four important factors that will influence our audience are discussed as follow:

3.2.1 Culture:

Culture is the determinant of ones want and believes and is shaped from perceptions and basic values. These believe and preferences are slowly evolved as one grows in a society. Being Pakistani we all share some cultural values, norms, language, recreational preferences and lot more. So all these factors should be considered while writing articles and including them in magazine. If we alter this concept a little we can consider that every institute enjoys a culture of its own. We COMSIANS for example have a large number of Non-Lahorites. Another fact is wide diversity in COMSATS. We have students and faculty from Peshawar, Sahiwal, Rahim Yar Khan, D.G Khan, Toba Tek Singh, Lahore and from quite far areas. So this diverse culture will have impact on our content at least to some extent. Social class factor was discussed in great detail in part 2. 3.2.2 Social:

Although discussed some what in part 2 we go in further detail here. Person’s family, friends and neighbors may have direct influence whether they read the magazine or not (membership group). For example: student who is attached with his/her family and if the family is educated so he will be interested both in participating and reading magazine and showing it to family. Similarly one may read it because the entire rest batch is reading it (secondary group).Roles and Status are described in part 2. So editors must be aware of these family influences and status requirements.

3.2.3 Personal Factors:

Some personal factors will influence how one views and reads COMSMAG. Students in first half of their course or the beginning will be more interested. Reasons for this are they have more time to spare for non academic activities and are more loyal with the institute and have more feeling of being proud to be the part of COMSATS. Occupations have impact on COMSMAG. Blue collar workers will not have any interests with academic institutes. People related with carrier in academics will have high interests like professors, teachers and students. HR managers will have great interest in our magazine because these people are always in search of sources for best fresh graduates to hire them.Since COMSMAG personality is loyal, competent, innovative, creative, interesting, funny and exciting. So, students whose personality will match with these characteristics will be more interested.

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3.2.4 Psychological:

Motivation level will influence whether one will participate in or read COMSMAG.Motivation can be stimulated both internally and externally. One may internally wants to know more about the institute or more about the achievements and creativity of students. For example manager wants to know about what really COMSATS is? Or motivation may be triggered by external stimulus heard from some one that it’s an interesting magazine. Learning one has developed through experience influence behavior. If some one founds nothing interesting in 1st and 2nd edition he/she has developed a negative believes about COMSMAG thus will show same negative attitude and will have no interest in it.

4. MARKETING MIX FOR COMSMAG

4.1 Product:

Significant improvements in the contents, graphics, designing and formatting in the third edition of COMSMAG must be made by the COMSMAG team keeping in mind the target market, its segments and it’s positioning in the minds of the current students and faculty members, the outsiders and the potential students of Comsats, and for the executives of the different companies.

For the Faculty and Students of COMSATS

For making COMSMAG more interesting and appealing for the students and faculty of Comsats the COMSMAG team must add more events and group glimpses, Kuch bhi bolo in one sentence, love and friendship stories, the faculty section of articles and the pictorial presentation of the faculty members. The COMSMAG team must actively participate and encourage such ideas from the students and the faculty members. As a whole we must say that creativity should be the prime focus of this section.

For Outsiders and the Potential Students of COMSATS

The students and the faculty members and the positive and negative experiences of the students in university will interest the outsiders and the potential students of the COMSATS in sections like the COMSATS mottoes. So the COMSMAG team must consider these ideas and encourage the students for more ides like these to make COMSMAG more interesting and attractive for the potential students and the outsiders.

For the Executives of the Organizations

For developing COMSMAG in such a way that it becomes more attractive for the executives of different organizations the COMSMAG team should add the successful ex-

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Comsian views about their study in Comsats and how this experience is helping them in their workplace. Moreover the executives must also know the details of the extracurricular activities taking place in COMSATS so that they might view COMSATS as well established and groomed organization. For this purpose team must add the news about the different conferences being held in COMSATS, the glimpses of the convocation, different seminars, workshops, trips to different venues, job fairs, prize distributions, speeches and sports events like win of COMSATS against the FAST and the Lahore University and other newsletter items to convey a strong message.

4.1.1 Branding and Labeling

The respondents of the questionnaires raised many questions to the title page of COMSMAG. Thus the team of COMSMAG should consider the feedback from the students in designing the title page or they should design it in a traditional way by placing the photo of the campus at the title page. The main pages of each section should be designed in a better way considering the feedback from the students.

4.1.2 After Distribution Services

After the COMSMAG will be placed on the website, sent to the different executives of the companies and other universities at major functions and their libraries, then it will be important to gather the feedback. So the team should place a prepaid feedback form in the COMSMAG for gathering proper feedback. They should also place an online evaluation form for the COMSMAG on the websites of all the campuses to gain valuable feedback that might be helpful in the development of the next editions.

4.1.3 Type of Product

Basically COMSMAG cannot be categorized into any specific category of the products i.e. Convenience, shopping, specialty and unsought products. But it can be categorized somewhere in the unsought products, although it does not match the exact characteristics of the unsought products like the people are not particularly interested in the product. It matches with the first characteristic that the people are not fully aware of the product. This characteristic is the drawback of our product and we hope that COMSMAG team will try to remove it with the best possible efforts.

4.1.4 Product Life Cycle

The product life cycle of the COMSMAG can be divided into two portions.

1) Edition life cycle2) COMSMAG lifecycle

Edition Life Cycle (ELC):

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The edition life cycle of the second edition of COMSMAG is currently at the maturity stage, as its promotion and placement has almost completed in this semester. So at present ELC can be said to be at the point “A” as shown in the graph. At the start of the next semester as the new students will enter COMSATS this point will move from the maturity stage to the growth stage again as new students will be more willing and keen to get COMSMAG. Thus its distribution will start again and the point will move from A to A’ as shown in the fig.By the middle of the next semester this point will gradually move from the growth to the maturity and then to the decline i.e. from point A’ to “A” again and then to point B. By the end of the next semester when the second edition of COMSMAG will be at decline and the third edition will be at a pre introduction stage (development phase) as the COMSMAG team will be working abruptly to finalize he third edition. At this stage COMSMAG third edition life cycle would start and will be at the point A in the graph 2.

Graph 1

Time

ProductDevelopment

Stage

Introduction Growth Maturity Decline

Edition Life cycle for 2nd edition of COMSMAG

A

A’

A’’

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Graph 2

COMSMAG Life Cycle (CLC):

The COMSMAG life cycle can be categorized as somewhere between the middle and the end of the introduction stage As the 2nd edition of the COMSMAG has been published, most of the people are very familiar with the name of COMSMAG. Thus we are categorizing it in the introduction stage. We hope that COMSMAG team will keep on working with the high level of effort and enthusiasm keeping in view our marketing finding of this report and will use the best of their abilities to place COMSMAG into growth stage.But here it is necessary to point out that COMSMAG (representing COMSATS and COMSIANS), should never move in to the decline stage until the institute is functioning in the field of academics.

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Graph 3

4.2 Pricing:

COMSMAG has come a long way since its inception and needs improvement to become more attractive, interesting and more successful. To gain success of COMSMAG, its proper pricing is necessary. According to our research, COMSATS allocate budget for developing, printing and other expenses of magazine.As mentioned in the placement portion and promotion part of the report pricing in terms of monetary revenues is not applicable in this case. Basically, other than distribution to COMSIANS purpose of COMSMAG is to promote the institute, and even for the COMSIANS it’s purpose is to build unity. So a promotion program is not charged from the audience.

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However, pricing is not only monetary in nature. Price is something we get in exchange of what we offer. And when purpose of the offering itself is to promote something else than increased demand of that thing is the price we are getting.Here our purpose is to build the image of COMSATS, attract new students, make executives aware of the institute, increase the awareness level of COMSATS in job market, and increasing the opportunities for our students. Thus achieving all these factors is the price we will be getting of COMSMAG.This magazine will help us to invite any executive for a seminar and throw the light on actual practical implications of the academic concepts in Pakistan market. This can be related to any field marketing, human resource, finance, accounting. And thus this will be the price COMSATS will receive for publishing and distributing COMSMAG.Other prices will be attracting more students, employment opportunities for COMSIANS and thus brand building of COMSATS.

4.3 Placement:

COMSMAG is such a product for which differentiating strategies must be developed to appeal the major segment as well as possible prospective segments for the magazine. Placement is one of the marketing mix elements with significant importance for the product. Finding out how to place COMSMAG is not an easy task, because there are certain factors that are to be kept in mind. These facts are that first this product is not for sale, we cannot vary price factor to attract segments. As no one is going to sell it, so the major emphasis has to be put on placement and promotion to grab the attention not only of the students and faculty but also for those prospective segments that can be the intake, as well as for those organizations that can be the potential employers for our students. Placement of COMSMAG should be done in such areas where there is a more probability for promotion for our institute. It should also be noticed that placement should be done in such way that it should be cost-effective and more promotion-effective. COMSMAG can be placed at following places to fulfill the considerations and objectives as discussed

Various Departments in COMSATSCOMSMAG should be placed in every department of COMSATS and steps should be taken to make its availability possible to every student and faculty member on demand. Although 1st and 2nd edition were distributed in the same way in all departments but flaw was that either the students were not notified in right way about it, or the Departments were not provided with ample supply in order to meet the demands. Possibly students were not made aware of COMSMAG consciously so that deficient supply can be met.

Available in Libraries of all COMSATS CampusesSome copies of COMSMAG should also be placed in the libraries of other campuses of COMSATS. COMSATS has six operating campuses in Pakistan with strong student and faculty base. So availability of COMSMAG in libraries of other campuses can be helpful in attaining promotion goals by bearing low cost.

Heads of Reputable Organizations and Educational Institutes

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Complimentary copies of COMSMAG can be sent to heads of reputable organizations e.g. National, Multi-national and Foreign Firms UniLever, Nestle, Packages, Warid. COMSATS is a growing institute and still lots of people are not aware of COMSATS Institute. This act will help in making the major firms aware of students, talents, activities in our institute. This will facilitate organizations in getting their desired talent from pool of skilled students and it will surely help students in finding the jobs in famous organizations. Moreover, Complimentary copies can also be sent to Deans and Heads of other top ranked educational institutes.

Placement at Job Fairs and events of other institutes and SeminarsCOMSMAG can also be placed at stalls in Job Fairs, Funfairs, Educational Exhibitions, and seminars not only in our institute but also in other institutes. This will certainly help in promoting COMSATS and in grabbing attention of our prospective segments towards our institute.

Famous Employment AgenciesComplimentary copies of COMSMAG can also be sent to the famous Employment agencies and career consulting firms. This placement will make the students of COMSATS more prominent in the job market. This will open the gates for COMSIANS’s future. Placement in Intermediate CollegesAs discussed earlier in our report that COMSATS is a growing educational institution and is in early years of its establishment. Better will be the quality of input of students COMSATS takes, better will be quality of output. So, if some copies of COMSMAG will be placed in libraries and educational exhibitions at these Intermediate-level Colleges, more the students will be attracted towards the institute. And COMSATS will have more pool of bright and shining students to select. Placement at WebsitesEvery one of us knows that it is the age of Information Technology. Internet websites have become most powerful sources for getting information. So in lining with the modern era, attention can be enhanced towards the magazine by placing PDF files of COMSMAG not only at websites of COMSATS, Lahore but also at website of other COMSATS Campuses, Educational sites such as www.Ilmkidunya.com, and www.hec.gov.pk. This will no doubt catch the attention towards this magazine.

4.4 Promotion:

As COMSMAG is not like normal products as it is not for sale, its basic aim is to create feeling of own ness and unity among the COMSIANS, and to promote COMSATS. There can be five ways of promotion for normal product i.e. Advertising, Sales Promotion, Public Relations, Direct Selling, Personal Selling. These promotion tools don’t apply as such to this magazine due to distinct nature of the product. As these tools are for the products to be made available for sale in the competitive market (market of

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similar and substitutable products in same geographical market). However with some alterations these tools are applicable. We will suggest promotion strategies by applying the most useful of the promotion tools. Our suggestions for promoting COMSMAG are

Advertising:

COMSMAG can be made more attractive in COMSATS by advertising in dynamic way: using the modern way of advertising.

Such advertising which would create curiosity in the mind of our students just like GEO advertised when its Brand new Music Channel “AAG” was going to launch can be very effective. What they did was that they advertised through such messages in leading newspapers which would create curiosity. Statements like “Coming soon”, “AA RAHA HAI”, then “CAN YOU BEAR IT”, then “KYA AAP BOR TO NAHEEN HO GAYE”, then “BAS INTEZAAR KI GHARIAN KHATAM”. Banners with such statements would be the advertisement. How and where to deliver mentioned statementsCOMSMAG can be promoted by such advertising messages. Messages can be printed on posters and then these can be placed at notice boards and in cafeterias. Such advertisement technique will surely help in pulling the demand. This will not be limited to COMSATS. Banners and notices will be placed at the boards of other universities and colleges.

After launching advertisement:After Launching, COMSMAG can grab attention of its segments by advertising in its poster the most interesting and attractive items of the magazines which can be content as well as graphics. Such as messages like: “HURRY UP!!!!! N GET THIS EDITION…..THIS INCLUDES BLA BLA”

Direct Promotion and Personal Selling:

This will be the tool used for the executive segment of the market. Employment agencies and top level executives can be informed on telephone call and through direct mail. Later on the magazine will be delivered to them. Further contact can be made by providing the feedback form in the complementary copies. And feedback calls can also be made to them. Other tool is to send the representative students to the organizations to distribute the product. These tools are also applicable with in other educational institutes as well as with the members of COMSATS.

Public Relations:

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Although providing a sponsorship is out of range as far as concerned in this case. However, holding the stalls in funfairs, musical events and trade shows will be the part of public relations. Such activities can be arranged for the events with in the COMSATS as well as other external public gatherings.

5. Ethical issues

Different ethical issues must be predefined and considered while gathering, sorting and publishing the contents of the magazine.

It must be considered that the teachers are always given their proper decorum and any content that is disgraceful for any of the faculty member should be avoided.

The content must be non-political and it should never harm the feelings of any person in and outside COMSATS. In other words proper limitations regarding the privacy of the students and the faculty members must be kept in mind.

The team must make sure that the content they are publishing is not right protected or published before in any magazine. If such is the case than proper prior permission of the author should be mandatory or reference to the source should be provided.

The team must consider that any serious news and updates they are providing is correct to the best of their knowledge. No fake news should be presented to boost up the image of COMSMAG in mind of any of the segments as mentioned.

The main issue should be to promote a better image of COMSATS in different target segments and potential benefits must be kept in mind while designing the content.

More detailed ethical matters to be considered in all the development aspects of COMSMAG are discussed under the topic of Legal Factor and Social and Demographic Factors even with examples.

6. International Marketing

As such in near future no international issues will be related. Once the institute and magazine both will be highly matured than steps can be taken to market the magazine in across the sea universities, colleges and organizations.

7. Comments and Conclusions

All above report is the comments and suggestions on COMSMAG. Concluding in one sentence is that COMSMAG require a great deal of efforts to be refined and modified.

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Although, progress happened till now is not much disappointing. We appreciate the efforts of both the administration and COMSMAG team who worked so hardly and published 2 editions and have taken initiative of the editorial work. Following the above explained marketing tools will result in much improvement in COMSMAG and will bring the great deal of benefits for the institute.

Thank you very much for giving your precious time to complete the following questionnaire and giving your valuable contribution to this survey. This questionnaire is designed to find out the ways to improve quality of COMSMAG (official Magazine of COMSATS). This is being done purely for academic purpose as part of our Marketing Management Project.

Instructions1. Please select your answer by ticking the relevant box.2. Use following keys for the level of agreement or

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1 2 3 4

Excellent Good Fair Poor

disagreement:

Name Gender ________ M F

Your department in COMSATS ___________

Yours current Semester _________ 1) Have you ever read COMSMAG Yes No

2) Which edition you have read? 1st 2nd Both

3) Have you ever got chance of reading such magazine of any other University? Yes No If “Yes” then please specify the names of universities ______________________________

4) Rate that magazine on the mentioned scale 1 2 3 4

5) Rate COMSMAG on the mentioned scale 1 2 3 4 Reasons for your choice ______________________________ 6) Rate following for COMSMAG

Content 1 2 3 4

Graphics 1 2 3 4

7) Which part of COMSMAG you read most?

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English Urdu

8) Which part do you think should cover most part of COMSMAG? English Urdu Equal

9) How do you rate following ideas for COMSMAG, 3rd Edition

Events and group photos after 10 pages 1 2 3 4

Successful COMSIANS views 1 2 3 4

Students Experiences and Rewards they got in COMSATS 1 2 3 4

Kuch Bhi Bolo in one Sentence

1 2 3 4

COMSATS Mottos for students and faculty 1 2 3 4

Love and Friendship Stories

1 2 3 4

Faculty Members Section of Articles

1 2 3 4

10) How can we make COMSMAG more attractive and interesting for all? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks for your participation

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