Negotiation during my internship in the advertising department of the French magazine « Madame Figaro »

Résumé du document

Conflict is an inevitable part of negotiation, interpersonal and group relations. If badly handled, conflict can destroy relationships, reduce productivity and prevent a team from reaching its goals. But if we learn to understand how we and others deal with conflict, we can handle it better and make it a catalyst for change. From Monday to Thursday, I work an advertising department of the French magazine called "Madame Figaro?. Every year, this department develops contracts with its biggest clients to prepare the appearances in the magazine. At the end of 2007, I helped my boss to prepare the contract for one of our biggest cosmetic client "Clarins?. This client "Clarins? is a very well known brand which is well implemented in France. It's one of our major clients for cosmetics. Indeed, we know that it's a guaranteed customer for years to come.

Extraits

[...] Our position before preparing the contract Compared to 2007, prices increase for the investment in Madame Figaro. That's the reason why it will be difficult to offer to the client the same number of pages at the same price or a lower price (because of its loyalty) for 2008. (You can see the prices in appendix). Indeed, a simple page (what we call page without any specific advertising space) was about 29,500€ in 2007 and it increases to 30,500€ for 2008. [...]

[...] Indeed, by this way the customer will have more readers and so more buyers. Moreover, this new orientation is following by a budget restriction for 2008. It means that Clarins will appear less in magazines compared to 2007, that's one of the main reasons why the client wants to divide its appearances as well as possible. What Clarins wants to protect for 2008: The customer wants to keep good conditions in terms of price. Indeed, the client is a guaranteed client for Madame Figaro for many years that's why he has very interesting negotiation rate for his appearances. [...]

[...] We concentrate our arguments by explaining to our customer the advantages of our magazine. High profile selective women's magazine. Top of the range just like product too = Perfect ad equation between the magazine and the product. Quality of a guaranteed audience (1,589,000 readers). 53% are regular women readers. 41% belong to a CSP + household. 38% have salaries higher than 36K€. Moreover, we focused on the fact that Clarins is not really oriented for young people. Indeed, Clarins manufactures high quality products, which are quite expensive for young people, who focus on brands just like L'Oréal or Nivea for example. [...]

[...] We absolutely don't want to have the same contract than Elle. We want that the client appears the most in Madame Figaro. We offer to the client this proposal: Pay for 45 pages and we offer 4 pages free. With this solution, we keep our advantages regarding competitors. Moreover, the client told us that we would have the exclusivity for the launch of new products if we decide to keep the same conditions than last year. We propose to the client for the launch of two products. [...]

[...] Indeed, the contract is the following: - 45 pages (same conditions than in 2007) - Madame Figaro offers Clarins 4 pages - Madame Figaro will have the exclusivity for the launch of Clarins' new products in 2008 and we will accord them for two launches. Moreover, the client explained us that he will probably do some “special operations” (different conception than simple pages) during the year for the launch of its new products. With these special operations, Clarins is waiting for very advantageous prices considering the effort that he did to privilege Madame Figaro. It means that we will have an important advantage regarding competitors. [...]