[IBM 443] Consumer Magazines

Magazines are curators of content of a particular taste and point of view



Ad Targeting

• Behavioral
• i.e.golfers, surfers, people who share a certain behavior...
• Demographic 
• Characteristics
• Geography 
• Area region
• Social 
• Lifestyles, social group, common connection with other members of a the group...
• Contextual
• Depends on the context...

Pros Cons as a media class

• PROS: 
• Reaching selected audiences 
• Access to light television viewers- upper income, upper-education 
• Fine color reproduction 
• Material- Long life 
• Increased reach due to untraditional audience attention 
• Gets consumers to act 
• CONS 
• Early closing dates (submission of the creative 2 months before) 
• Lack of immediacy 
• Slow building of reach
• Media Channel Analysis

Media Channel Analysis

• Criteria
• Mass coverage/High reach
• TV
• High frequency/Sales driver
• 
  
• Favorable image/creative potential
• TV & Magazines
• Cost efficient
• 
  
• Information sharing
• Magazine
• Message shelf-life
• Magazine
• Measurability 
• TV

General Interest

• Reader's Digest
• National Geographic
• People
• Time
• etc...
• Large circulation
• High cost per page 
• Rages from $130,000 to $300, 000 per page 

Women’ Service Magazines

• Home Journal
• Good Housekeeping
• Family Circle
• Glamour
• Target homemakers 
• Content is informative and entertaining 
• Not attractive to males 
• Cost $150,000 to $ 250, 000

Home Magazines

• Better Homes
• Architectural Digest
• Garden Digest
• Interior Design
• Target adult and dual-audience oriented 
• Competitive advertising
• Cost $85,000 to $ 450, 000

The Rest...

• Premiere
• Rolling Stone
• Popular Photography
• Natural Health
• Rest of the categories that are not top three. 
• Niche targets, smaller reach

Some expensive niches

• Art Doll
• $34.99 /4 issues
• Hali
• $66/issue
• Fashion Trends Winter 08/09
• $170/issue
• Art
• $6,500/issue

Challenges that come with new media

• Audit Bureau of Circulations report less and less circulation for magazines. 
• Advertisement buying declines too!
• Ads are migrating to new technologies. 
• There is always a way out! 
• http://www.lexus.com/stunning/

Consumer magazines

• Conducted during MRI personal interview 
• Respondents sort cards with the magazine’s logo 
• A reader is a person who, while looking at the logo, is sure they have “Read or looked into the magazine in the last 30 days.” 
• Any reading, any looking into, any time, any place. 
• Consistent from year to year 
• Gives reasonable results 
• Subject to title confusion

MRI magazine sort board

MRI Magazine Logo Deck

Sort the logo deck

Media Planning Process

Steps in the media planning process

1. Determine the list of candidate magazines: 
1. Composition (% of audience that are buyers) and coverage (circulation)
2. Delivery of demographic targets 
2. Identify the most efficient magazines with the CPM ranker 
3. Create a plan that delivers most reach for the given budget 
4. Negotiate position, cost, and merchandising with the magazine sales representative 
5. Present the recommended schedule to the client. 

Case Study

Bibs4Brides

Your new customer is a bib designer for wedding gowns. It is a start up business selling what can be thought as burp clothes for brides. Bridal bibs are available in many different styles, shapes and colors. They have a tight budget for advertisements but they know bridal magazines are powerful tools for reaching their target. Let’s help them decide how to use their marketing money

Price: $69.95

Target
GENDER: ______________
AGE: ___________________
MARITAL STATUS:
____________________________________
POPULATION: 140,744,000
PERCENT OF BASE: 63.1%

WEDDINGS BY STATISTICS:

• Average Spent on a Wedding Dress: $1,121
• Average Marrying Age: Bride, 29; Groom, 30
• Most Popular Month to Get Engaged: December (16%)
• Most Popular Month to Get Married: September (15%)

BIGGER BUDGETS. Brides are spending more on their weddings. 

For the first time since 2008, the average wedding budget has grown year over year, hitting $27,021. Fewer brides (29%) say the economy affected their wedding budget – a decrease from 31% in 2010 and 34% in 2009. Wedding standards also rose for the first time since 2009, as the average wedding spend per guest increased to $196, compared with $194 in 2009.

PLANNING BEGINS EARLIER. 

Some brides are even starting to plan their wedding before their guy pops the question. Brides are now allowing themselves more time to plan, with one in three (31%) beginning to plan more than 12 months ahead (up from 28% in 2010). Plus, 16% of brides now plan their wedding before getting engaged. In the last three months leading up to their wedding, brides spend an average of 11 hours a week working on wedding details. Nearly one in three hire or use a wedding planner, with more than half of those brides (51%) hiring them for day-of coordination.

FALL WEDDINGS ARE MORE POPULAR. 

Unique wedding dates alter seasonal landscape. While summer will always be “wedding season,” 2011 saw a shift in seasonal popularity with only 37% of weddings taking place in months of June, July and August, down from 41% in 2010 and 2009. Partially owing to the popular wedding dates of 9/10/11 and 11/11/11, in 2011, fall grew in popularity, with 36% of weddings taking place in September, October and November months, compared with just 30% in 2010 and 2009.

BRIDES: 

• Paid/Verified Subscriptions: 202,335/50,002
• Single Copy: 65,350
• Total Circulation: 317,687