Dainik Bhaskar forays into Surat with new edition

DB Corp, home to flagship newspapers Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, Divya Marathi and Saurashtra Samachar, announced today the launch of Dainik Bhaskar’s new edition from Surat in Gujarat. With this launch, DB Corp now publishes 7 newspapers with 63 editions across 14 states across India. 

In a state with extremely strong peer segment publishing news in the local (Gujarati) language, Dainik Bhaskar, through its well-strategised marketing campaign, has validated its ability to break new ground by establishing presence in a large cosmopolitan city with almost 28 lakh of non-Gujarati speaking population. 

Commenting on Dainik Bhaskar’s Surat foray, Girish Agarwaal, Promoter Director, DB Corp, said, “With the launch of Dainik Bhaskar in Surat, we have consolidated our presence and stronghold in Gujarat. Surat is a vast and unique market, with a developed industrial belt which is home to some of India’s leading corporates across textile, Information Technology and diamond polishing sectors. The region is taking progressive strides in expanding its infrastructure, transport, communications facilities and also has a strong cultural heritage. Therefore, our launch planning has been very meticulous, beginning with the scanning process of strategically classifying the city to understand it’s demographics.” 

While stating that Surat is a very competitive market with formidable print media companies catering to a large Gujarati readership base, Agarwaal added that it has significant untapped potential within a very large non-Gujarati speaking readership, which is an important target audience for Dainik Bhaskar. “This segment comprises multicultural, industrialised households who have migrated from neighbouring states, having within them a large concentration of readers from Hindi speaking dominating states. Most importantly, they were faced with a limited choice for a Hindi newspaper of international standards with strong local new coverage. We identified this opportunity, where Dainik Bhaskar could address the gap through a customised, world-class product for this audience segment.” 

Satyajit Sengupta, Chief Corporate Sales & Marketing Officer, DB Corp, added here, “At Bhaskar, brand building begins from the first day of our surveys, when our research team first interacts with potential customers to introduce the product, the company and solicits views and feedback on their requirements, which in turn forms the basis of new product creation. All our activities have been focused on the single objective of creating a strong product with high value proposition. We look forward to fortifying our presence further in Surat and emerge as the choicest medium for advertisers.” 

DB Corp carried out an exhaustive pre-launch ground study and high decibel marketing campaign in three phases, which was supplemented by impactful branding across Surat city’s strategic points. 

A rigorous area scanning process was carried out to identify non-Gujarati areas and localities, which included mapping of societies with high potential Hindi newspaper readership and also identified markets, MNCs, corporate houses with a higher concentration of non-Gujarati readership base. The city was divided into 4 main zones and further segmented households into SEC categories. 

In the booking phase, the reader was able to see a prototype of his newspaper tailored according to his feedback and needs. The results of the survey conducted in the first phase were shared with the reader as well as a product brochure with competitive strengths. This phase also introduced the pre-launch booking offers, which lock booking for one year. 

A simultaneous high decibel outdoor branding campaign – ‘Ab Suraj Ugega Pashchim Se Surat Ke Aasman Mein’, ‘Surat Ke Aasmaan Ko Chahiye Apna Haq Be-Hichak Boliye’; ‘Surat Ke Haq Ki Baat Sunne Aapke Ghar Aa Raha Hai Dainik Bhaskar Ab’; ‘Ab Surat Hoga Duniya Se Do Kadam Aage Antar-Rashtriya Quality Ka Hindi Akhbar Dainik Bhaskar 29-Apr Se Surat Mein’ – has been rolled out across key locations in Surat to significantly amplify Dainik Bhaskar’s launch. The outdoor media campaign, which includes hoardings, kiosks and banners within the city, comprises the 360-degree launch branding to attract Surat’s targeted readers.