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 010

Group 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 Research
2. Survey Research

Observational Research: We will observe attitudes of people about COMSMAG by

generally discussing COMSMAG in gatherings, observing their behavior and interests in
hostel casual life and discussing with them different other universities editorial works and
noting their believes in general unstructured manner.

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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

41%
Aw are

59% Not Aw are

Fig.1 Level of Awareness

 Comparison to other University Magazine:

Rating (1 for poor and 4 for excellent)

4
3.5
Excellence

3
2.5
2
1.5
1
TS

.C
E
CA

S.

G
SA

L.
M
O
C

Universities

Fig.2 Comparison to other universities

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

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this depression as all other university magazines are being published from at least more
than 4 or 5 years.

 Content/Graphic Rating:

100

80
60
Percentage
40 Content
20 Graphics

0
1 2 3 4
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 good

2. It belongs to our university
3. It is about people we know.
4. It includes Funny jokes.

Negative (below 2.5)

1. No creativity
2. Spelling Mistakes
3. Grammar and tense Mistakes
4. Not include academic activities and other achievements of universities
5. Immature and silly and fool jokes
6. Poor Graphics

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7. Photos and galleries are compressed in small space
8. Lack of Interesting activities and discussions and ideas
9. Looks more like a Text or Course Book than a magazine
10. 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 2 nd 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 and

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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):

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

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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 students
c. 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 cycle

2) 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.

A’

A’’

Time
Product Introduction Growth Maturity Decline
Development

Edition Life cycle for 2nd edition of COMSMAG

Graph 1

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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 COMSATS

COMSMAG 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 Campuses

Some 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 Seminars

COMSMAG 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 Agencies

Complimentary 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 Colleges

As 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 Websites
Every 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 similar and

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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 statements

COMSMAG 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.

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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.

Instructions
1. Please select your answer by ticking the relevant box.
2. Use following keys for the level of agreement or disagreement:
1 2 3 4
Excellent Good Fair Poor

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

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 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?

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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