Marketing Strategy for Business .Marketing & Enterprise .I chose this Essay

Marketing Strategy for Business .Marketing & Enterprise .I chose this company for assignmnet(Midland News Association.Express & - Essay Example Implementation 24 7. Conclusion 24 References 24 1. Executive summary 1.1 Current Position Midland News Association (MNA Media) is the largest independent regional news company in the UK. The company is owned and operated by the Graham family of Wolverhampton. Two of its daily titles, Express & Star and the Shropshire Star, are Britain’s biggest selling regional daily newspapers, and sell more than 200,000 copies everyday. 1.2 Key issues The major concern facing Midland News Association is the generally lackluster trend in the industry. Declining demand constrained the UK newspapers industry over 2006 to 2011, and while the rate of decline is likely to slow down after 2011, forecasted demand remains bleak until 2016 ('Newspapers Industry Profile’, 2013). A lesser but still important concern is that of remaining competitive even while rival regional publications adopt innovative practices to create new products. 2. Corporate Strategy 2.1 Corporate mission/objectives The Express & Star aims to become the biggest-selling regional evening newspaper in Britain (â€Å"About Us†, 2013). Its objectives include providing its subscribers and readers with accurate and timely news on the political, business, lifestyle and social events, and articles of general interest for entertainment, through printed and online publications, in a manner that afford customers easy access. 2.2 Summary of overall position and corporate strategy Strategic pricing. Express and Star fields two types of issues every week. The midweek edition carries the regular features and while there are special interest features, overall the newpaper adopts straightforward news reporting in both its print and e-edition. MNA retained the price of the mid-week issues, but raised the price of the Weekend edition by 30 per cent. The significant price increase is justified by the higher value added and the inclusion of features such as the week-long TV guide which makes the Weekend edition r elevant for the entire week following (Cross, 2013a). Image overhaul. Recently, the Express and Star have have kept pace with competitors’ moves by matching their attempts with a corresponding strategy. Cross (2013a) reported in April a revamp by competitor Birmingham Mail of its weekend paper, Trinity Mirror, intended to boost readership. The new Saturday issue boasts a new design, combined with a launch of its e-edition, improvements to the website, and the launch of a new, part-free Friday edition of which the paper distributed 50,000 copies free throughout the city centre. To match the move Express and Star rebranded its Saturday edition as the ‘Weekend’ edition which included a new supplement featuring ‘a full weekly TV guide, lifestyle and entertainment sections, new columnists, and several puzzles and games pages. Like the Trinity Mirror, Express and Star’s Weekend edition will sell at the higher price of 60p from the previous 45p (Cross, 2013 a). Expansion into mobile publishing. The Express and Star launched in April 2013 an app for Android smartphones which is made available by Google Play online store. The app allows subscribers to view the same image as features in the printed edition.This also allows greater access of readers to MNA’s products, without necessarily being confined in time and space. 3. External and internal analysis 3.1 PESTEL Political – The UK is a democracy with a stable governance system supported by highly consistent policies