THE BUCHAREST UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC STUDIES

FACULTY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION IN FOREIGN

LANGUAGES
____________________________________________________________________________

Innovative ways of promoting and selling childrens books

Case study on Cutiuta cu povesti

Students: Putineanu Ana Maria

Rzvan Florina
Tiboi Oana Andreea

Bucharest
2016

Table of Contents
1.

Company description ...................................................................................................................... 3

2. Objectives............................................................................................................................................ 4
3. Market................................................................................................................................................. 4
4. Ways of promoting and selling childrens books ................................................................................ 5
4.1. Online Media Marketing .............................................................................................................. 5
4.2. Partnerships and collaborations .................................................................................................. 7
4.3.Indoors and outdoors actions ....................................................................................................... 9
Conclusions and recommendations ...................................................................................................... 10

Bucharest
2016

1. Company description
Cutiuta cu povesti is a new company on the story book market offering a fresh approach to
the traditional children books. They are a young and ethusiast team and their products adress
to children with ages from 3 to 12.
The company aims to offer the client an exquisite experience while reading, to make it
interactive with games and enigmas and also to publish texts and stories full of witt. They
want their stories to be meaningfull, to tactfully portray social instances and to be a starting
conversation point between parents and children, brothers and sisters, family and friends.
The idea was born due to the love of reading of the entrepreneurs and due to the fact that they
want to bring somthing unique to the industry by making customized books.
Cutiuta cu Povesti is offering:
An interactive reading style
The books are highly interactive (they include games, puzzles, mysterious questions,
hidden characters, secrets waiting to be discovered, etc.) because reading is not a simple
act of tracking a text, but an experience to which the reader fully participates. Writings
addressing a playful, casual style and a language easily accessible to children, but not
limited, are favored.
Various Themes
The team is proud that its stories are so diverse. The subject matter is very important, but
should not be neglected the presentation thereof. Along with everyday topics, there are
also encouraged themes that are less discussed in children's books, such as the Universe,
physical and chemical phenomena, issues of gender equality etc.
Customization
In order to provide a personalized experience Cutiuta cu Povesti has developed three
strategies :
1. Changing names, gender and other aspects for the reader to feel that the story is
a character himself.
2. Modularity (the story has a main theme, but there are several pre-written scripts
from which the buyer selects the desired ones). This option assumes that the buyer
influences decisions of the storyline ( be it the final version to be printed or
storyline in digital format).
3. Designing an entire story given a specific reader.
Informational & Educational Scope
Cutiuta cu povesti aims to help young and old readers to discover many fabulous things
about the world by delivering them in a playful form, not as a boring lesson. They support
initiatives from writers who did not forget that information itself is not worth much if the
reader fails to create connections and does not provoke more questions than they provide
answers.

Bucharest
2016

2. Objectives
From our perspective, Cutiuta cu Povesti is a type of business with many opportunities for
growth, and new ideas to implemen. Thus, the most appropriate path is to build a strong
marketing strategy in order to have a favorable business growth in the near future.
The objectives we suggest for the company to consider when implementing the marketing
strategy are the following:

Increasing the brand awareness among customers

Generate consumer interest and purchase intentions
Build a comunity of loyal followers
Increase book purchases
Increase site visits
Gain a significant share in the children book selling market

3. Market
In order to be able to propose an efficient new way of advertising children books we must
first get to know the market.
The direct competitors on the market are:
Cartea Copiilor Publidhing House

Bebelibrarie.ro

There are also:

-

online bookstores which sell a variety of books including story books for children.
The strongest at this moment on the market are: libris.ro, librarie.net, okian.ro,
librariaonline.ro;
other competitors are the giant online shops on the Romanian market such as: emag.ro and elefant.ro;
well estabish publishing house with their own shops: Humanitas, Art
Bookstores chains such as: CLB, Carturesti, Diverta

Bucharest
2016

Although all those exposed above are to some extent the competitors of the company we are
analyzing they do not offer the customizing services that Cutiuta cu povesti offers to its
clients. Thus, through allowing their customers to put thier personal stamp o the products, the
firm is unique on the market achiving its competitive advantage.
Moving on, in order to understand the size of the market we must also consider the
demographics of our target consumers.
Presently there are 3.99 millions children in Romania with ages between 0-18, representing
approximately 21% of the total population. For further understanding here are the statistics
for the age groups:
-

-5% 0-4 Years old;

-5.3% 5-9 years old;
-5.4% 10-14 years old;
-5.5% 14-19 years old.

Considering that the age group to which the company addresses its products is 3-12, we can
say that they have an approximate pool of final consumers of 2.2 millions. Of course not all
these children parents will be intersted in buying story books and a lot of them do not even
know about the company and its products and serivices. However, it is important to know to
how many customers you can potentially address your offers. The market can be further
segmented using the parents` income, the accesability to internet (all the books are sold
online) and so on.

4. Ways of promoting and selling childrens books

Children books are the type of goods that have to be liked by the parents and/or children but
in the end the ones that pay for them are the parents. Taking into consideration this aspect, in
order to sell, we have to make this service appealing to the parents. They must find in books
both an educative and a fun way to spend time with their children.
The marketing strategy we suggest to be implemented by Cutiuta cu povesti implies various
paths that are described below. There are some tools by wchich the company can be
promoted, as well as opportunities related to developing partnerships and collaborations in
order to increase brand awareness, basically.

4.1. Online Media Marketing

The major goals concerning online marketing that Cutiuta cu povesti is seeking to achieve
are:
-

Grow the number of supporters

Increase comments on Facebook posts, blog articles, site posts
Increase website visibility
Increase positive mentions
Have website visitors stick around
Bucharest
2016

Make our content more viral

Get people to action
Get people to attend events

In order to be able to measure the performance of the business, as well as the success of the
marketing plan, there are some metrics to be considered:
-

Number of newsletter subscribers, likes, shares

Average number of comments/posts
Increase in traffic or link backs
Mentions in blogs and social network channels
Stick rate
Number of book purchases
Number of registrants on the site

Online Media Content Strategy

It is extremely important to be careful at how you manage your online marketing strategy, as
well as what and how you communicate. In this part, we want to give some examples of
content strategy lines to be considered by Cutiuta cu Povesti.
Facebook
-

Schedule author readings and related events

Follow and tag authors on the facebook page
Tag another business in the company`s page, as will enable the posts to show in their
facebook page as well, thereby widening the company`s reach
Tag reading and writing groups
Ask provocaive yet fun questions
Feature a facebook follower and their favourite book
Create contests then let everyone vote on it
Post inspiration quotes from books
Post relevant articles about authors
Post some clever and interesting book related trivias
Encourage followers to post their book reviews
Plan eventson facebook, as for example author book readings, author book signings,
graphic artist meet and greets, family story telling night, book launch parties
Inform them about newsletter subscriptions for exclusive member updates,
promotions and such
Create and promote advocacies as for example donating secondhand books for charity
Post relevant youtube videos of books translated into movies or vice versa.

Blog
-

Blog about personal recommended books, staff pics, promotions, news

Reach out to independent authors by tweeting to them or promoting or blogging about
their book
Bucharest
2016

Write book reviews or teaser copies with a link from the website, to buy the book
Approach aspiring writers to write a book review

Twitter
-

Find relevant book questions via twitter

Greet shop visitors via twitter and keep in touch with them
Follow authors/inspiring children books publishers and retweet their relevant posts

Instagram
-

Post pictures of the books youre currently reading or that are thought to be an
inspiration for themed books
Post pictures with the new created books and stories
Post pictures on how its made for the illustrations

Website implementing SEO

When having an online shop, it is extremely important to have qualitative content and very
clear information about the products. By using Search Engine Optimization and integration
with Google search, the comany will get visibility to those who are actively interested in
story books (because only interested people will research it). They may not be interested to
buy at first but they can see what the company is about, they can learn about its existance on
the market and its special services. Another tool that can be used in order to increase the
number of vizitors on the site are the newsletters in wchich a CTA button is implemented.

4.2. Partnerships and collaborations

Partnership with Printesa Urbana
(http://www.printesaurbana.ro/).
She is a well known blogger that mostly
reaches to parents. She has a community of
over 40 000 people on facebook, hundred of
comments on each blog article that she
writes, she is more or less seen as a guru for
parents.
As a profile of the target customer we believe that the company should address to parents
who are involved in the up bringing of their children, who pay a special interest in developing
their creativity and who place reading as important in the lives of thir sons and douthers. This
type of parents are the ones who are up to speed with product or service opportunities. They
are actively researching new ways to better their children`s education and a fashionable and
easy way to do that is to follow specialosed blogs such as Printesa Urbana.
We believe that a partnership with her will help the company gain notoriety amoung young
parents who are concerned with making learning a fun and interactive process.

Bucharest
2016

Working together with ParentingAds

ParentingAds is a digital media hub which targets the

parents market in Romania. They offer a large variety of
online advertising such as: online display (banner, video,
overlayer),articles, competitions (on their website and on
social media), promoting and managing the facebook page,
social media presence (through the partner sites),
promoting articles written by bloggers, market resarch,
brand surveys and so on.

Their portfolio contains:

More than 30 sites and blogs on parenting covering the whole country and in some
specific areas they also have som concentrated clusters.
Top sites that target pregnant women and new mothers: desprecopii.com,
clubulbebelusilor.ro, qbebe.ro, mamica.ro, sfatulmamicilor.ro, centruldeparenting.ro
etc;
Top sites dedicated to parents with older children and teachers: didactic.ro,
admitereliceu.ro, urbankid.ro, suntparinte.ro etc;
10+ parenting blogs;
30 million monthly impressions;
6 million cumulated monthly unique visitors;
1 million newsletter subscribers (direct mail) and 1 million facebook fans.
Thay also have an off-line presence through their SocialMoms club: Q&A, talk&test, live
video streem. They also organize conferences (for the time being only in Bucharest) through
this club which are centered around the needs and the questions of mothers and fathers.
We believe that a collaboration with parentingAds can be very fruitfull as it can offer the
company the exposure it needs so that more and more of its target customers will find out
about the company`s products and services.
Commercials and radio spots on Itsy Bitsy

Bucharest
2016

4.3.Indoors and outdoors actions

Participating in children fairs and expos
This is another great way to gain visibility amoungst actively involved parents. In order to
attract thaem to the comany`s stand reading sessions and interactive competitions can be
organized with small prizez won on the spot.
Various activities with children in schools and kindergardens
We know that Cutiuta cu povesti has already implemented some actions in this idea, and we
think that it is the easiest and most suitable way to promote a business selling children books,
meaning by being in direct ciontact with the children and involve them in the companys
work.
In this direction, we were thinking of organizing the following
-

various lecture sessions with children

meetings in wchich the parents can be also involved
extracurricular activities in specific periods such as Scoala Altfel

Park stand
We know that children are very likely to be in parks during spring and summer, thus we
thought that it would be a good idea to develop a selling point, lets say, in the crowded areas,
as the parks, in which we can expose the books, interact with children and parents, organize
little events and contest, and so on.
Thereof, we think that the consequences will be favorable, the compnay being absle to
increase brand awareness and increase sales, wchich is the goal of the marketing actions.
Brand Mascot

As the direct public we want to direct our marketing strategy is

composed by children, we suggest developing an idea of a brand mascot
that would enhance the idea of what Cutiuta cu povesti is doing.
The mascot could be present at all the events organized, at the stands in
the parks, at the meeting organized in schools, and so on.

Bucharest
2016

4.4. CSR Campaign

In order to have a very strong marketing strategy, we thought about organizing a CSR
campaign that would imply raising fonds for underdeveloped villages from around Bucharest
and not only. Moreover, we can imply a lot of people that are willing to help in this idea.
Thus, we can develop the campoaign as follows:
research on the villages where schools need help with raising money or school
supplies
organize a social event in which participants can pay for their invitations, be it in
money or school supplies, or other resources for the children in need. We can
organize workshops, lecture sessions, contests etc.

Intense promoting strategy on this campaign

Such a campaign can help a lot both for the company and the children, as well as the persons
involved in developing the project.

Conclusions and recommendations

Researching this company and new ways for it to advertise its products and services open our
minds to an online presence and community we knew little about and made us realize that
there is a lot of space to be explored.
Our reccomendations are based on our research on the online parenting community and their
habits and prefferences. Therefore we are confident that, if put into practice, our ideas of
promoting Cutiuta cu povesti would be impactfull and woud help the business gain
notoriety amoung the target customers.
Of course, in this paper the marketing tools and paths are briefly described. Our suggestion is
that Cutiuta cu povesti should consider these ideas in the fututre, for business growth and
brand recognition.

Bucharest
2016