Punascha: marketing strategies of a Bengali publisher

1. Punascha: marketing strategies
of a Bengali publisher
Presented By:
Mithisar Basumatary
NIT SILCHAR

2. Punascha
 Punascha is one of the most popular and successful contemporary non
textbook publication house in Kolkata.
 Mr Saptarshi Nayak, the Production Head of Punascha.
 The secret of Punascha’s success lies in the fact that we create books based
on the consumers’ needs rather than creating the book first and then marketing
it to the consumer.
 The present Bengali kids and teenagers were becoming more west oriented
and had less knowledge of their mother tongue.
 The technology revolution had brought the target audience more options of
entertainment in the form of TV and internet.

3. Background
• In 1961, Shankari Bhushan Nayak (Shankari Bhushan), founded Grantha
Tirtha, a publication house for school textbooks in Bengali.
• His idea was to establish a publishing business that would cater not only to
students, but also general book lovers.
• His son Sandip Nayek (Sandip) joined the proprietary business and their
visions gave birth to Punascha in 1988.
• The name ‘‘Punascha’’ and the logo were designed by Purnendu Patri, an
eminent writer and scholar in Bengali .
• The major emphasis of the logo was on the syllable ‘‘Pu’’ and was crafted in
a stylized Bengali font.
• The word was first popularized by Rabindranath Tagore and it meant
‘‘Re-beginning”.

4. • Punascha’s focus was on children literature. Its first major success was a
collection of ghost stories titled Ek Baksho Bhoot (A Box Full of Ghosts)
released in 1991.
• The next popular book for children was Shatabdir Shera Shishusahityo
(Meaning: The Century’s Best Children Literature).
• One of the very popular early bestsellers in that adult readers category was
‘‘Nakshal Andolaner Galpo’’ (Meaning: Stories from the Naxalite Movement),
which was an anthology of stories written on the 1970s Naxalite movement in
Bengal.

5. Learning
 They create books based on the consumers’ needs rather than creating the
book first and then marketing it to the consumer.
Competition was not the only challenge for Punascha.
The major challenges were coming from the environment itself.
The Bengali community was shifting bases from Kolkata, the capital of
West Bengal to different parts of the country and abroad where they were
getting lesser exposure to Bengali books.
The present Bengali kids and teenagers were becoming more west
oriented and had less knowledge of their mother tongue, which though sad,
was a fact.
The technology revolution had brought the target audience more options
of entertainment in the form of TV and internet which were taking a share of
the leisure time of the Bengali readers.

6. Learning
Better quality books in English were available and so the consumers preferred
to read them instead of Bengali books.
The management of Punascha realized that concentrating on children’s books
would mean letting go of a huge market of the adult readers.
The secret behind the initial success of the publication lay in the detailed
analyses of the types of children’s book requirements according to the market.
Punascha had an advisory panel, who suggested what should be published
and the authors who would write.
Punascha used to hold seminars regarding the types of non-textbooks that
children needed based on different age groups.
Final price had always been heavily dependent on the subject matter and the
number of customers.

7. PROMOTION
The promotions have been mainly centered on book fairs and particularly, the
Kolkata Book Fair.
Customers can actually scan through a book to see whether it is to his/her
liking and, therefore, worth a purchase or not. This phenomenon generated
good results in terms of sales for the publishers.
The Kolkata Book Fair also acted as medium of generating brand
awareness and brand recognition for the publishing houses
Punascha made sure to participate in every district book fair if possible for the
main purpose of promotion and publicity.
Advertisements on local magazines and newspapers were given by the
publishing house, they were mainly general information about new books that got
published.

8. The marketing challenge
The major challenge faced by the Bengali book industry was the shrinking of
the market owing readers shifting towards English books.
The present breed of Bengali children in the metro cities, particularly, in
Kolkata did not even know how to read the language properly
The impact of television and internet on readership was also a point of
concern.
Technology had facilitated the availability of e-books in the market which
could have had serious consequences for the Bengali non-textbook industry.
The textbook publishers had started shifting towards paperback editions for
cost and weight reduction, publishers such as Punascha were still mainly using
hardbound versions for their publications.

9. The road ahead
On the publication front, they had decided to restart the publication of
informative books for children.
The Bangladesh market was a huge opportunity for Bengali publishing
houses as the demand for Bengali literature was not expected to go down
owing to the fact that Bengali was the official language in Bangladesh.
one of the most important decisions that Punascha had taken was to shift
focus from Kolkata Book Fair.
The management had understood the need of departmentalization and a
strong focus on marketing activities and slowly entering into phase of
organizational restructuring and formalization of departments and processes
so as to be competitive

10. SWOT ANALYSIS:
Strengths:
Name and the logo
The process of deciding on a publication in the business was
very structured.
Own website with the address www.punascha.com.
Weaknesses:
Print advertisements were not up to the mark.
Mainly focused on promotion through Kolkata Book Fair and
other book fairs held in the suburban districts.

11. Opportunities:
They can enter into new market.
They should try to capture the untapped markets.
They can introduce books in some new segments.
Threats:
Other publishers like Ananda Publishers, Shishu Sahitya Samsad,
Dey’s Publishing and Mitra and Ghosh.
Availability of e-books in the market.
Impact of television and internet was also a point of concern.
Young Bengali’s lack of interest in the language itself.