Media Research Report

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

The Department of Journalism and Communication is doing a great

deal of work for its students by giving the media research project as

the part of the expertise in any medium or subject. My first and

sincere thanks to the Head of the Department, Dr. Sonal Pandya, for

letting us know the path of development communication and

inculcating in our minds the urge to be on the field, understanding the entire

scenario of research required in any medium or subject.

Mr. Prashant Kuhikar, coordinator, Dept. of journalism and communication, always

takes care of all the things assigned to us. He is on rescue whenever we need him.

He has helped us all immensely to get our work done easily and creatively.

Research is a tough job because it not only takes the majority of your time but

forces you to think beyond and think out of blue. I chose print media advertisement

with an aim to create something that would hold the reader and grab his/her

attention towards the product. This project helped me cross my boundaries and put

up some good ideas. Here Mr. Amit Dave, Lecturer and Advertising expert, helped

me to put in extra efforts and guided me to give my research a better perspective.

I would also like to thank my classmates and friends who gave honest feedbacks

during the course of developing the advertisements and helped me nullify my

mistakes and flaws. Last and final thanks to the people who filled the questionnaires

and helped me finish my survey part. Their opinions and acceptability for the

advertisements aided me to prepare a better report and do the proper analysis.

Thank you all..!!

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CONTENTS

Introduction

About the product

Concept

Process brief of research

Impact study

Table and statistics

Analysis

Conclusions s

Advertisements

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Introduction

The word research is composed of two syllables, re and search. ‘Re’ is a prefix

meaning again, anew or over again ‘search’ is a verb meaning to examine closely

and carefully, to test and try, or to probe. Together they form a noun describing a

careful, systematic, patient study in some field of knowledge, undertaken to

establish facts or principles. Research is a structured enquiry that utilizes acceptable

scientific methodology to solve problems and create new knowledge that is

generally applicable. Scientific methods consist of systematic observation,

classification and interpretation of data.

Today what you wear matters a lot. The style you carry, the persona you create and

the way you present yourself is looked upon by several people. A complete package

includes great dressing with perfectly blend-in look and a matching shoe to go with.

India is known for the tradition and culture that it has kept intact since hundreds of

years, but today the modern India has seen many cultural changes that keep you

within the boundaries and keep it stylish. Footwear is one such thing that has seen a

variety of change since the time of Dynasty and Mughals era.

India has a large chain of various footwear from local footwear makers to the

branded ones like- Bata, Liberty, Paragon. Lite, Nike, Adidas, Rebook, Woodland,

etc.

My purpose of choosing LIBERTY over all the other established brands is the

popularity of local footwear amongst Ahmedabad crowd. “Amdawadis” (as people

here are called) always invest the least and attain the best. It’s in their blood

actually. Bata has been the established brand in India and its major cities where as

LIBERTY has risen as a great competitor. My research has shown the major chunk

of people like the ads and also appreciates the emergence of a brand like LIBERTY

in the city.

The detailed report can be further read with proper data and statistics supported by

bar charts.

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ABOUT THE PRODUCT

Liberty Shoes Limited (LSL) is an Indian shoe company established on the 25th of

December, 1954, based in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.

Established in 1954, today the company through its six manufacturing units

collectively produces, 50,000 pairs of footwear a day, sold through 6,000 multi-

brand outlets and 350 exclusive showrooms, and has a presence in 25 countries,

with 50 showrooms outside India. Tejpal Singh became the CEO of LSL in 2012,

the year when the company celebrated its golden jubilee; the company had two

Executive Directors, Tejpal Singh and Bhavana Sharma.

It was predominantly focused in the export of shoe uppers till the early '80s, when

the Indian domestic market started to show promise that is when in 1982, the

company set up a unit to exclusively manufacture footwear for the domestic market,

at an investment of Rs 3 crores. Its sport shoes range manufactured using

polyurethane technology, though eventually set a precedent for the domestic market

was initially considered a risky proposition as it was priced at Rs 300 a pair,

compared with conventional canvas shoes selling at Rs 50. However, by 2010

Liberty had become an Rs 35-crore company.

'Force 10', Liberty's first sub-brand, was launched in August 1990, a time when a

casual footwear wave sweeping the Indian market. By 1994-95, Force 10 became

Liberty's flagship brand in value, notching up sales of Rs 32 crores, it the coming

years, it not only help the company establish its name the domestic footwear market,

but also paved the way for nine other sub-brands and a firm foothold the mass

family footwear segment, till now led by Bata, now Liberty was the country's

second largest footwear company after it.

The company saw major expansion in the 2000s, both in retail and manufacturing

bases, leading to a sharp growth, in the year 2002-03, the company posted a retail

turnover of Rs 400 crores. Also in April 2003, the Liberty Group underwent an

important restructuring and its product portfolio was also revamped. As a part of the

restructuring process, the company split its manufacturing and retail business in

January 2004, with Liberty Shoes as the holding company for its shoe business and

a subsidiary Liberty Retail Revolution Ltd for its retail business, which established a

new retail channel through "Revolutions Stores", which was set up at in Mumbai,

Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai. At the same time it ventured into high fashion, by

tying up with fashion designers including Rohit Bal, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Rina

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Dhaka, Rohit Gandhi, Ashish Soni and Suneet Verma to develop footwear to match

their clothing lines.

LSL produces more than 50,000 pairs of footwear a day covering virtually every age

group and income category. Products are marketed across the globe through 150

distributors, 350 exclusive showrooms and over 6000 multi-brand outlets, and sold

in thousands every day in more than 25 countries. After 50 years of its existence,

today Liberty produces footwear for the all age groups. Currently, LSL is headed by

Mr Adesh Gupta as its CEO. It is a part of the 'Liberty Group' which includes other

associate companies - Liberty Retail Revolutions Limited and Liberty White-ware.

The company was incorporated on the 3rd September, 1986 as a Public Limited

Company and obtained the Certificate of Commencement of Business on 11th

March 1988. The company has been set up to manufacture and sell leather and non-

leather shoes, leather shoe uppers and leather garments. Presently the company is

engaged in the manufacturing of leather and Non-leather shoes.

It has also set up a joint venture in Russia to manufacture shoes in 1991 under the

name of M/S Liberty &Go, with M/S Gorky Production & shoes Unit, Gorky. The

Company is marketing its product nationally and internationally under the brand

name LIBERTY and is well established in the national and international market.

The company has entered into an agreement with one of the group firms M/S

Liberty Enterprises for using the established brand name LIBERTY.

The company has commenced its commercial production for non-leather shoes on

25th December 1993.Intially one direct injection soiling machine was installed with

a capacity of 240000 pairs per annum on single shift basis .The second direct

injection soiling machine was installed in March 94.From the commencement of

commercial production till 31st March 1994, the company has been operating on

full capacity. As the promoters are in this line for the last five decade, the company

is confident of maintaining this level of operations in the future. The company has

been promoted by P.D.Gupta and R.K.Bansal and belongs to the LIBERTY Group

.Liberty Group has completed five decade of its existence in the shoe industry in

1994.

The years and achievements of LIBERTY in India:

2000 - The Company is to enter into an agreement for sale/purchase of goods and/or

taking on franchise facilities and/or acquire movable and immovable property

including plant and machinery, building etc. with Liberty Group Marketing Division

and/or Liberty Enterprises, partnership firms.

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- The Company is all set to venture into the e-commerce activities which will cater

to the B2B and B2C requirements.

2003 -Liberty Footwear has introduced its innovative Liberty Foot-styles collection.

It is also unveiling a slew of shoes whose price will range between Rs 1,500 and Rs

2,500, higher than its other products such as Gliders, Windsor and Senorita.

-Pearl Academy inks pact with Liberty Shoes 2004

-Liberty Shoes Board approves setting up of Subsidiary Company

-Mr Adesh Gupta presently working as Executive Director of the Company since

July 16, 2001, has been elevated as 'Chief Executive Officer' (CEO) of the

Company.

- Liberty Shoes Ltd launched its retail format, Revolutions

-Liberty Footwear Company Ltd.’s claim to use brand name 'Revolution' for its new

footwear retail chain has been challenged by a Delhi-based women's wear chain

Revolution Clothing’s, which too, has claimed ownership of the same brand name

2005 -Liberty unveils new range of footwear

-Liberty Shoes has given the Bonus in the Ratio of 1:1

2006 -Liberty Shoes joins hand with Pantaloons

2007 - Liberty Shoes achieved sales of Rs.300 crores last fiscal and has a 30-per

cent market-share in the branded footwear segment.

2010 -Liberty Shoes Ltd as considered approval for re-appointment of Sh. Adesh

Kumar Gupta, Sh. Adarsh Gupta and Sh. Shammi Bansal as Executive Directors of

the company.

2012 -The Company has appointed Sh. Ramesh Chandra Palhan as Additional

Director of the Company with effect from March 28, 2012.

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CONCEPT

My tenacity of choosing LIBERTY over all the other established brands is the

popularity of local footwear amongst Ahmedabad crowd. “Amdawadis” (as people

here are called) always invest the least and attain the best. It’s in their blood

actually. Bata has been the established brand in India and its major cities where as

LIBERTY has risen as a great competitor. My research has shown the major chunk

of people like the ads and also appreciates the existence of a brand like LIBERTY in

the city.

Subject: LIBERTY SHOES

As mentioned in the introduction LIBERTY is one of the largest sold brands in

Ahmedabad. So I decided upon to make four stand-on ads on the various range of

collections of their footwear. The city is getting urbanized due to the monoculture

that is exuberantly observed here. I chose print media because everything has

changed but one thing that people still prefer in Ahmedabad is reading newspapers

every morning with a sip of tea/coffee. The four ads can easily grab the attention of

my target audience which definitely is young boys-girls and professionals. I haven’t

also avoided some people who have a craze of footwear unlike their age.

For men: Coolers, Fortune, Force 10, Gliders and Windsor

For women: Force 10, Gliders, Senorita and Tip-top (flip-flops)

For kids: Foot-fun, Force 10, Gliders, and Prefect

Safety shoes: Freedom, Warrior and Workman

I chose print because I am a person who can talk to people interact with them easily

and get what information I want from them and put it in the best possible form. I

chose footwear as my subject because it is the least talked about product considering

it’s something that actually protects your foot. It helps you rescue your foot from

tanning problems and also adds to the style quotient provided you find it trendy and

comfortable. While talking about footwear the first thing that is looked upon is the

combination of comfort+ style+ trendy= beautiful legs.

Gone are the times when people used to have that one loyal footwear to go for

years. Today people can easily choose their footwear given the situation and

surrounding. It only adds to their shoe rack and to their style. Here in Ahmedabad

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LIBERTY is the brand for the specific class and not for the mass because every

other person cannot afford to buy branded footwear may it be casual ones or formals

or traditional.

I felt the need of working on this subject because I have observed in colleges that

every other person changes their footwear atleast 4 times a week depending on what

apparel they wear.

In my research I have given my best try to know how easily my target audience can

accept a new concept with the little changes made in the product.

Target audience: young boys-girls and professionals

The time when I chose LIBERTY shoes as my subject of research I was clear in my

mind that my target audience would definitely be young boys-girls and

professionals. I was firm because when talking about footwear these people are the

ones who experiment maximum with what they wear and try out something

different. Today the crowd is rushing towards the westernization of almost

everything around; may it be apparel, footwear, gadgets etc.

Research gave me a clear idea about my findings that how much the youth are

affected by the change in footwear trend.

I tried to reach almost great number of youth by directly going to them and talking

about what kind of footwear do they like to wear and also tried to know if they were

given a choice between many which will be their comfort footwear. It was a really

informative and interactive time with them. Mostly they were college students a few

were school students (of course above they age of 15, who choose their comfort

footwear).

While getting their feedback and talking about the advertisements many of them

came up with various suggestions pertaining to the climate of Ahmedabad. They

had this all season Havaiana- they basically are the most comfortable footwear for

men and women, can be wore to colleges and also to work place. They are the best

used footwear in Africa. Even I got to know this while talking to them so it was new

for me as well.

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PROCESS BRIEF:

Advertising is a big and wide subject; so I chose shoes as the product because

anyone could relate to it easily. The next thing was to make ads of my own so that

people don’t get to see the same ads as they see on television. That’s why I made

four stand-on ads that were not made in any particular order. Each of them had a

specific purpose to fulfil for the one who finds it catchy and attractive and tempts

them to buy the product.

I began with four new concepts that would be simple to understand and also give a

creative touch to what I wanted to put forward. I chose four words to describe my

ads that you will gradually come to know when I discuss about each ad in detail.

The ads were made such that anyone could easily understand the purpose of it and

convey what I sought to.

Advertisement: 1

A print advertisement is always useful in promoting anything because print has a

vast reach to the mass. They can easily give away brief information about any given

product or service. It can also create curiosity among the audience and pinch them

to know more.

The first ad is about “choice of shoes”. Here in this ad I have shown a full-fledged

shoe-rack where-in different shoes are neatly kept. It at the first sight enriches your

eyes and you feel the ‘wow’ thing. Who doesn’t like the fact that he/she has a well-

ordered shoe-rack with the best of footwear? Everyone does love it.

The tagline I have created for this ad is, “your day and our shoes get the

LIBERTY to choose”. The tagline clearly justifies the picture. I have also

mentioned about the places where one can find the LIBERTY shops.

Advertisement: 2

The second ad is about “style”. Here in this ad I have created four styles for my

target audience keeping in mind both the genders. The four styles are “Classy”- for

the professionals, “Cute”- for the college going youngsters, “Oomphy”- for the

vigour style and “Comfortable”- for all.

The tagline I have created for this ad is, “what can style do for you?” It means that

looks can be altered the way you want to depending on the style of footwear you

choose to wear.

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Advertisement: 3

The third ad is about “sports”. Here in this ad I have created the usefulness of two

types of shoes specifically used for two different out-door sports namely

cricket/baseball and football. In this ad you can see two pictures of two sports

person and a dialogue of achievement which they owe to the best sports shoes they

wore.

The tagline of this ad is very simple because the picture conveys it easily. The

tagline is, “My sport, my shoes, my LIBERTY”.

Advertisement: 4

The fourth ad is about the comfort footwear “flip-flops”. These ones are the most

in-fashion footwear, which almost all the college/school students possess for

themselves. In this ad I have shown the footwear for both the genders again so that

it doesn’t get biased and appeals to both the groups in the target audience.

The tagline of this ad is “we don’t just make flip-flops, we make them better”.

With this tagline I have tried to build the trust in the people regarding the product.

And show that how it differs from the other flip-flops.

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IMPACT STUDY:

Impact study is the process of in-depth knowledge of how your target audience has

understood your advertisement. I decided upon to make questionnaires to study the

impact of the advertisements. I made them get filled by some professionals, few

youngsters (college and school students). I also made them get filled by some

elderly people just to know what their take would be on such youth centric ads.

By applying the questionnaire method I could easily reach a chunk of people at the

same time and at the same place. So it was easy to get them filled and get the major

initial work done. I got good appreciation for the four standalone ads because they

individually had this very unique concept.

I prepared 40 questionnaires to be filled by the target audience and other general

public so that I could get opinions for the ads and also know what kind of footwear

people of a specific genre prefer.

From that 10 were filled by the higher secondary school students (who are

about to enter the college).

The next 15 were filled by the students of mass communication and

journalism. (Doing their PG).

The next 15 were filled by professionals like IT people, professors, and BPO

employees.

I believe choosing the audience this way has helped me a lot because these ways a

good analysis can be done keeping in mind all of them. It is very important to

conduct the analysis. The main motive is to comprehend how well did the target

audience connect to the product and also how well, me as a researcher has given

justice to the study of the ad from the subject I put to the impact I received.

Now let us see the statistics obtained after filling up the questionnaires.

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TABLES AND STATISTICS:

The statistics of advertisement liked the most by the four groups: (in %)

Percentage of people who understood the message: (in %)

Ad: 1 Ad: 2 Ad: 3 Ad: 4 Notes (if any)

Higher

secondary

school

students

(number: 10)

10 20 40 30

All chose to answer

the questions

College

students

pursuing PG

(number: 15)

45 30 10 15 All chose to answer

the questions

Professionals

(number: 15)

35 40 10 15 All chose to answer

the questions

Total target

audience

(number: 40)

30 35 20 15 All chose to answer

the questions

Ad: 1 Ad: 2 Ad: 3 Ad: 4

Higher

secondary

school

students

(number: 10)

10 20 30 40

College

students

pursuing PG

(number: 15)

40 25 15 20

Professionals

(number: 15) 30 40 10 20

Total target

audience 28 33 18 21

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Results received from higher secondary school students:

Ad 1 was liked by 40%, ad 2 was liked by 35%, ad 3 was liked by 10% and ad

4 was liked by 15% of the students respectively.

The message was conveyed to 10% in ad 1, 20% in ad 2, 30% in ad 3 and 40%

in ad 4 to the students respectively.

Results received from college students pursuing PG:

Ad 1 was liked by 45%, ad 2 was liked by 30%, ad 3 was liked by 10% and ad

4 was liked by 15% of the students respectively.

The message was conveyed to 40% in ad 1, 25% in ad 2, 15% in ad 3 and 20%

in ad 4 to the students respectively.

Results received from Professionals:

Ad 1 was liked by 35%, ad 2 was liked by 40%, ad 3 was liked by 10% and ad

4 was liked by 15% of the students respectively.

The message was conveyed to 30% in ad 1, 40% in ad 2, 10% in ad 3 and 20%

in ad 4 to the students respectively.

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ANALYSIS:

Figure: The most liked and understood ad by audience (in %)

Interpretations:

From the graph it can be known that the school students like the third advertisement

on sports footwear the most.

The college students like the first advertisement on Choice themed footwear the

most.

The professionals like the second advertisement on style themed footwear the most.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

School students College students Professionals

Ad: 1 Ad: 2 Ad: 3 Ad: 4

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CONCLUSION:

With this research of mine I got to know many aspects of advertising. One thing for

sure is today every college going student or a professional likes to change the way

they buy footwear along with the change is style statement. With time Ahmedabad

has seen the much awaited trend of going beyond comfort and getting close to style

quotient.

There were some aspects that I came across during the course of the research. Some

of them are:

Respondents believed that for a print advertisement pictures are enough,

details are hardly required.

If they got to see such print advertisements every other morning in the

newspapers or magazine they would definitely go and check out the new

collections at stores.

Almost all the taglines were liked and appreciated by the respondents.

In a city like Ahmedabad people can easily get started with something new

and exciting that adds to their persona.

Thanks to my research I was able to understand the buyer behaviour and also the

significance of advertising.

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Impact study for media research project:

Name: Sex: M ______ F______

Age:

Advertisement 1: Choice

1) Did you like the advertisement? Why?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

2) Rate the features Out of 5.

Picture___________

Tagline___________

Logo_____________

Idea_____________

Appeal__________

3) Was it easy for you to understand the advertisement? Yes____________ No____________

4) Rate this advertisement according to your likeness.

Very good

Good

Moderate

Bad

5) Any suggestions or remarks

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Advertisement 2: Your style

6) Did you like the advertisement? Why?

1)

______________________________________________________________________________________

2) Rate the features Out of 5.

Picture___________

Tagline___________

Logo_____________

Idea_____________

Appeal__________

3) Was it easy for you to understand the advertisement? Yes____________ No____________

4) Rate this advertisement according to your likeness.

Very good

Good

Moderate

Bad

5) Any suggestions or remarks

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Advertisement 3: Sports

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1) Did you like the advertisement? Why?

_______________________________________________________________________________________

2) Rate the features Out of 5.

Picture___________

Tagline___________

Logo_____________

Idea_____________

Appeal__________

3) Was it easy for you to understand the advertisement? Yes____________ No____________

4) Rate this advertisement according to your likeness.

Very good

Good

Moderate

Bad

5) Any suggestions or remarks

______________________________________________________________________________________

Advertisement 4: Flip-flops

1) Did you like the advertisement? Why?

______________________________________________________________________________________

2) Rate the features Out of 5.

Picture___________

Tagline___________

Logo_____________

Idea_____________

Appeal__________

3) Was it easy for you to understand the advertisement? Yes____________ No____________

4) Rate this advertisement according to your likeness.

Very good

Good

Moderate

Bad

5) Any suggestions or remarks

_____________________________________________________________________________________

6) Which advertisement did you like the most? Why?

Choice

Style

Sports

Flip-Flops

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________