Harlequing Romances
...ect mail operation that they also expand into the U.K, Australia, the Netherlands, France and Scandinavia. The Major Marketing Issues in Poland The book industry in Poland has gone through a period of several years of dilemmas. Under the Communist regime, prior to 1989, all production and distribution of printed material was centrally located. Every stage of book publishing and retailing was managed by a state monopoly. All of the Polish publishing houses, printing plants, and distributors were subsidized by the state, and only one advertising agency, also state-owned existed. Poland was a country with a strong literary tradition, but most residents were only reading “safe” classical literature pieces. Books were cheap and public libraries were supplied free-of-charge by all publishers. Not only did Communism have a severe impact or stronghold on the book industry, but economic restructuring also caused part of the difficulties. During the period from 1989 to 1992, average book prices increased three to five times. Booksellers began to only stock books that would sell quickly, which is mainly the reason why there was such an increase in pornography and scandal stories. This would have a serious impact on serious literary art. The demise of Communism would finally bring forth a strong demand for new books from the West including suspense novels, romances, and general interest titles such as cookbooks. With an approximate population of 15 million women in Poland, Harlequin was only selling its books to 13.3%, or 2 million of these consumers by September 1992. If Harlequin was to be successful in the future, it was imperative for them to increase sales revenues. Increasing the unit price per book could quite simply do this, but would best be accomplished by marketing to a greater percentage of consumers and eliciting new readers support. In order to be successful in gaining additional readers, Harlequin needed to address a few key marketing issues. The main marketing dilemmas were: 1. Harlequin needed to consider exactly how to adjust to evolving distribution channels in Poland. Should they focus on a subscription service or continue utilizing sidewalk kiosk locations. 2. Additionally, whenever an organization is attempting to allure additional consumers to its product, they must consider whether or not to launch a new advertising campaign. In any case, Nina Kowalewska, the managing director of Arlekin (wholly-owned Polish subsidiary of Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.) would have to figure out what additional consumer research and marketplace information needed to be acquired to decide on these two main issues. Tips for success of Harlequin Romances in the Polish Market Harlequin Romances has the ability to be extremely successful in the Polish marketplace, as they have done in other countries throughout the world. In fact, the once small Canadian printing house has evolved into the largest romance fiction publisher in the world. In 1991, Harlequin sold 193 million books, on six continents, in 20 languages. This is no simple feat for any organization, but it could not have been achieved without hard work and research by the entire team. In order to be successful in Poland from 1993 into the future, there are a few possible alternatives that Harlequin could take in order to meet their goal of increasing revenues. Some of these alternatives for resolving their issues are as follows: · Method #1: To increase overall revenues, increase the per unit purchase price. If they were to increase the purchase price on the 10 million books sold during 1992, this would easily...