New Factor In The Magazine Market example essay topic

History of The Company LIBERIS PUBLICATIONS S.A. was founded in its current legal status on the 2.6. 1986 (Official Gazette 2324/11.6. 86 S.A.'s and LTD's Issue) by Antonio's Liberis, with the goal of becoming involved in the sector of publications and presswork. In the course of all these years, the company has had a spectacular development, dynamically moving in the sector of publications, launching new and successful magazines that conquered the top ranks amongst their competitors. In addition, by concluding strategic alliances with large foreign companies of the sector, the most noteworthy of which being the participation of the Groupe Edi presse, the Swiss publishing group in the share capital of the company since 1998, and by founding or acquiring shares in new or well-established companies in this market, this company has fortified it position in the Greek publishing market and now expands its activities in new sectors. Today, it is one of the largest publishing companies in Greece, chartered in the stock exchange and heading a group of 2 companies (Mother company and Lib ecom S.A. ).

This group employs in total approximately 400 employees, with activities covering a broad spectrum in the media field, from the publishing sector - where it holds a leading position with 24 publications in the Greek market. In addition, the company holds 50% of DE SMI PUBLISHING S.A., a company with experience in the field of publications and 10.05% of the daily and periodic press distribution company ARGOS S.A. In March 2000, the second international collaboration of LIBERIS PUBLICATIONS with GRUNER UND JAHR / MONDADORI publishing houses was put into effect with the publication of the scientific magazine FOCUS. This magazine aspires to make the reader become more involved in issues of science, technology, the environment, as well as historical issues. The way, in which all the topics are presented, in conjunction with impressive graphics and photos, has made this magazine not only impressive, but also easy to understand. Environmental analysis Marketing environment Doing a brief environmental analysis we have to examine the 6 basic forces that affect the environment. Political forces Due to the fact that the specific magazine doesn't have any political articles with the only exception towards its tendency to protect the environment is not affected by political forces in Greece...

Legal forces There aren't any real limitations that affect this specific magazine especially due to the fact that European legislation is currently stronger than the national one as we observed after the last periods legal adventures. Regulatory forces Regulatory forces are quite relaxed in Greece for mass media, newspapers and magazines... Social forces The last 15 years we observed a drastic turn on social preferences towards scientific magazines that are targeted in individuals that are seeking new scientific knowledge without being experts themselves. One of the first newcomers in the Greek market was the 'focus'; magazine. Being the first in this market they took the biggest market share, by introducing a simple and interesting approach to scientific evolution for scientific and non-scientific readers... Economic and competition forces The economic growth that the country experienced the last decade gave the advantage to increase spending on scientific magazines from the consumers.

The stable pricing policy and the high quality of the information that 'focus'; offered to the public created a loyal consuming force. Last couple of year's recession didn't have any drastic effect on sales due to the fact that the target market is mainly based on educated middle to upper class consumers. On the other hand competitive forces changed drastically the last year. Newcomers in the market like the 'science'; magazine are creating a threat to the dominance position of 'Focus'; . The basic advantage to face this threat is the big variety of topics that 'Focus'; covers and the more scientific image that the 'science'; magazine is using on its marketing strategy up to now. Another diversified though competitor is 'National Geographic'; which covers a narrowed area of topics...

Technological forces Technological changes are extremely fast in the 21st century and although is not a purely technological magazine give enough information to its readers helping them stay on top on new products and new technologies. Since adaptation in the new environment and access on state of art information in essential to the 21st century homo digital Target markets - Market Objectives The 'Focus'; magazine is well positioned in the Greek market. The target market is as following: . Males - Females (15 - 45).

Medium upper class. Medium to higher educational level. Young Professionals. Living in major cities More than 78% of the sales are coming from this market segment. The rest 22% are mostly younger or older readers with lower to medium educational level belonging to a lower to medium social class that have a tendency and an interest in accumulating new information on science and technology. The target market has an approximate size of (170000-230000 potential readers), the 'focus'; magazine has a target of 4% increasing sales annually and 6% increase monthly repurchase.

Swot Analysis Strengths. Big market share. Strong brand name 'Focus'; is a magazine that is published in many countries around the world. This is synonymous to the credibility and the ingenuity... Loyal customers. Respectability towards the articles.

International experience. They belong in a strong publishing group Liberis publishing house is one of the biggest publishing houses in Greece. High exposure to major cities. Know how and strong information channels.

Strong distribution channels o After determining the number of copies to be printed for each magazine and completing their production, the distribution networks begin their sales process. The company uses the network and the transportation and distribution services of ARGOS S.A. for the promotion of its products. LIBERIS PUBLICATIONS informs the company on the delivery times for each publication and forwards to it the lists of the specific quantities to be distributed in each geographic region of the country. The ARGOS Company coordinates its trucks in such a way as to receive the expected quantity in time. The publications destined for the markets of Athens and Piraeus, after having been received by ARGOS, are distributed to six of its branches, each of which controls specific districts in the basin of Athens. From these branches, and always based on the specific lists of the publishing company, the publications are distributed to news vendors, each of whom supplies a specific number of final points of sale.

Weaknesses. Niche market segment. Low exposure outside big cities. Medium sized budget for advertisement.

Not aggressive marketing policy like the competition Opportunities. Increasing educational level of the country. Increasing interest toward information on technology and science. General increase on income in the long run. Drastic technological changes and need for information Threats. Decreasing expenditure for news paper and magazine so Publishing companies worldwide are particularly vulnerable to possible revaluations of the price of paper.

Paper, being the raw material of a magazine, accounts for one of its major costs, and in time there are always fluctuations in its price. Nevertheless, those products that are largely affected by such sort of increases cannot relay this increased cost to the end consumer (i.e. the reader) by increasing the price of the magazine... New comers and increase competition on scientific magazine so Another new factor in the magazine market is the emergence of 'newspaper inserts'. This trend began in Greece from the newspaper editors' effort to harness the constant decline of newspaper circulation.

To this end, they decided to distribute magazines along with the newspaper on specific days, either gratis or by slightly increasing the price of the newspaper. Thus, primarily aiming to an increase of the newspaper circulation, and secondarily to making a profit from the newspaper insert, they create confusion in the market of advertising space sales by offering constantly larger discounts to the advertised clientele, dragging along, to a certain extent, the entire sector... Strong recession the last 2 years in the Greek economy. Increasing budgets for more aggressive marketing strategies from the competition.

Big publishing houses show interest in the Greek market o The existence of a multitude of titles in the market is exercising constant pressure on the companies, dictating such a competition in their invoicing policies that has proved to be harmful to, more or less, all the companies of the sector. COMPETITION MAP Product National Geographic, Georama, Science, Strange periodicals and magazines. Same need Brand: Status, Men's Health, 7 Days TV, Tilekontrol, Vogue, Glamour, Life & Style, Focus, Ego, DVD's World, Lucky, Athinorama, EY, Alpha Guides Generic: Playboy, Max, the Internet, other kind of magazines. Different need Budget Coffee, Cigarettes, buy a couple of beers, rent a DVD.