A Comparative Study of Promotional Activities of Daily Newspapers before and during FIFA World Cup2010 University of Dhaka Department of Accounting & Information Systems Submitted to: Md. Safayat Hossain Lecturer Department of Accounting & Information Systems University of Dhaka August 11, 2010 Acknowledgement We hereby take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to our guide Md. Safayat Hossain for providing us an opportunity to do a report on “A Comparative Study of Promotional Activities of Daily Newspapers before and During FIFA World Cup 2010”.Last but not the least, our million thanks to the authority of newspaper archive of University of Dhaka.

Abstract World Cup Football is one of the biggest occasions. This occasion opens the door of opportunity for corporate world. Corporate world use this occasion to promote their brand to attract new customers as well as to hold existing customers. Newspapers industry has a direct connection with World Cup as they provide news of sports to the people. World Cup creates craze among people.

Newspapers use this craze to promote themselves.They generally provide supplements which give additional space for news of World Cup. As people are very much interested in news of World Cup newspaper take this opportunity to increase their customers by their supplement. Newspapers also conduct quizzes which have attractive items as prizes. These quizzes also attract customers.

1. 0) Introduction Promotional activities play an important role to attract new customers as well as to retain existing customers. Promotional activities include advertisement, sales promotion, personal communication, publicity and public relations etc.Companies try to promote their product in many ways. Specially during an event like World Cup, companies change and increase their promotional activities. In this report we showed and compared promotional activities and promotional strategies of newspapers before world cup and during world cup.

1. 1) Objective of the Report The objective of this report is to show a comparative study of promotional activities of newspaper before World Cup and after World Cup. This will help to understand how promotional strategies change for an event like World Cup. 1. ) Limitation of the Report To prepare this report only three popular newspapers were considered. So this report does not show the promotional activities of all the newspapers of Bangladesh. 1. 0) Marketing Communications Mix Fig 1: Marketing Communications Mix 2.

0) Promotion Under the Veil of CSR Now a day’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has gain much attention of the corporations as well as civil society’s. Corporations are involving them in more and more activities related with social welfare. Because- “….. islands of wealth cannot survive in a sea of poverty ….. -JRD Tata Corporations are involving them in CSR for ethical bindings, tax rebate and to increase their corporation’s brand equity.

Corporations take their chance to promote their brand in the social welfare activities. Through CSR they get a chance to make a good influence and to make their brand popular among the citizens of the society. This helps them to hold their existing market, to gain new customers and to increase volume of consumption of their product. Newspaper industry has also involved them in CSR.Newspaper industry usually does not give advertisement or follow other promotional channels.

But in case of market penetration new newspapers use many promotional activities like- Advertisement (Broadcast, Print and Internet), Publicity & Public Relations (Special Events, Sponsorship). They also keep their price comparatively very low to penetrate market. But CSR has become the main media for promoting newspapers. The Daily Prothom Alo and The Daily Star use their CSR activities very wisely to promote their newspaper.

Other newspapers also follow this to promote their newspaper. . 0) Promotional Activities of Daily Newspapers Before World Cup Promotional activities before World Cup 2010 of three selected daily newspapers are given below: 4. 3) The Daily Ittefaq The Daily Ittefaq is one of the oldest daily newspapers which are continuing its activities.

As it has dedicated customers, there are very little promotional activities of this newspaper. It does not advertise to promote it. Generally it does not also sponsor any event. 4. 4) The Daily Prothom Alo The Daily Prothom Alo has become the top selling newspaper in the last 12 years.Behind this success promotional activities have a big stake.

The Daily Prothom Alo promotes itself using different ways. CSR is the biggest part of The Daily Prothom Alo’s promotional activities. The Daily Prothom Alo uses CSR activities very wisely to promote itself. Its new slogan “Bodle jao, bodle dao” has gain popularity. It has placed many billboards using this slogan. Its previous slogan “Ja kichu valo tar sathe Prothom Alo” was popular too. They also used this slogan in many billboards.

These billboards are a part of the promotional activities of The Daily Prothom Alo.The Daily Prothom Alo does a lot of social welfare activities. These kinds of activities help it to create and maintain a good image in the mind of its existing customers and prospective customers. Some of the CSR activities of The Daily Prothom Alo are: * Prothom Alo Trust * Reception of meritorious students * Relief activities * Anti drug campaign The Daily Prothom Alo also arranges and sponsor many events. 4. 5) The Daily Kaler Kontho Though The Daily Kaler Kontho was a regional newspaper now it has become a national daily. So it has promoted itself to penetrate the market in the national level.

To penetrate the national level market The Daily Kaler Kontho advertised in other print and broadcast media. Still it is continuing its advertisement to create new customers. 4.

0) Promotional Activities of Daily Newspaper During World Cup FIFA World cup 2010 changed the way of promotion of newspapers. Newspapers changed their promotional strategy to use this greatest show on earth. Before this mega event newspapers promoted themselves through CSR and sponsorship. But during world cup their strategy changes to: * Supplements related to World Cup * Quizzes These were the main strategies to promote newspaper during world cup 2010. . 6) The Daily Ittefaq The Daily Ittefaq started its world cup special promotional activities from 1st June. In that day it published an advertisement in its sports page stating that in 2nd June a tabloid of 16 pages and a colored fixture will be provided to the customers.

In 2nd June the above mentioned items were provided. In 8th June The Daily Ittefaq published another advertisement stating that another 16 page long tabloid will be provided, which is totally colored. In 9th June The Daily Ittefaq started to provide customers ‘Bishwacuper Milonmela’ which is special pages related with World cup.This was 2 pages long from 9th June to 11th June. The Daily Ittefaq continued to supply ‘Bishwacuper Milonmela’ upto 13th July. From 12th June to 13th July it was 5 page long among which 3 pages were colored.

5. 7) The Daily Prothom Alo The Daily Prothom Alo set their promotional strategies to quizzes and writings of famous footballers. Its supplement was named as ‘Bishwacuper Bashi’. It was 4 pages long. Among which 2 pages were designed with analysis of matches and writings of famous footballers, coaches and sports journalists. Another one page was designed with quizzes which were very attractive.

The 3rd page of this supplement was fully covered with color pictures of World Cup. ‘Bishwacuper Bashi’ was very rich because of its connection with famous footballers and coaches. This supplement published writings of: * Lothar Matthaus * Kazi Salahuddin * Paolo Rossi * Golam Sarwar Tipu * Oliver Kahn Another attractive part of The Daily Prothom Alo’s promotional activities during world cup 2010 was its quizzes. It conducted 6 different quizzes cosponsored by other organizations in ‘Bishwacuper Bashi’ throughout the whole month of world cup.

It also had another 3 quizzes in its ‘Chutir Dine’, ‘Rosh+Alo’ and ‘Projonmo. Com’. These quizzes had prizes like laptops, mobiles, mp3 players, JABULANI football, televisions, refrigerators, microwave ovens, and two cars as mega prize. The Daily Prothom Alo also gave a 16 pages long tabloid in the opening day of world cup. It also gave 2 stikers and 3 posters.

The theme of the Daily Prothom Alo’s promotion was “Footballta amra ektu beshie jani”. It placed many billboards using this theme. 5. 8) Kaler Kontho The Daily Kaler Kontho provided supplements which included writings of- * Diego Maradona Carlos Dunga * Romario * Emili * Enamul This supplement also included the thoughts of 25 footballers and coaches about World Cup 2010. The daily Kaler Kontho also published 52 pages four colored tabloid for World Cup. It also gave some posters and fixtures.

5. 0) Findings From this report it can be said that before World Cup 2010 the newspapers tried to promote themselves under the veil of corporate social responsibility. Newspapers performed many social responsibilities and gave media coverage of that. But for World Cup newspapers changed their promotional strategies.They used this event as an opportunity to promote themselves.

They published attractive supplements, conducted quizzes and gave fixtures and posters. 6. 0) Conclusion Any popular event brings a great opportunity to the corporate world to promote their brand.

World Cup football is the greatest show on earth. Corporate world try to use this opportunity very wisely. Newspaper industry is not an exception. They tried to attract customers through their promotional activities during World Cup 2010. The main promotional strategy was providing supplements and conducting quizzes.