Stung by progressive losses starting from higher education publishing business to now low demand for its text books in K-12 segment following mandatory NCERT books for CBSE-affiliated schools, Pearson India Education, the Indian arm of the London-listed Pearson, is trying everything possible to make up for the slowed business through other means. It has now started making use of children to promote its supplementary books and brand.
In a first in its business history, the publisher has published a compendium of short stories by children and packaged it as MyPedia Reader Storybook. It is being sold as a Reader for supplementing English language learning. So, the smartly done move serves both as a branding tool as well as revenue grosser. The project was apparently camouflaged as a national contest wherein the company invited entries from students. As per the company officials 1500 entries were received of which 40 were selected by a three-member jury for the compendium.
The company is facing challengers across its verticals in India as it has squarely failed to click compared to other UK MNCs of the same genre.
