How big is the market?
The industry has grown
exponentially by 244% over the last 10 years
with the UK market now valued at a
staggering £385 million. Furthermore Mintel
predicts that growth will continue to
increase, rising past the £531 million mark
by 2009. The global market is currently
estimated in excess of €5 billion. Europe
and the US are the most mature markets - the
European market is worth over €1 billion
with more than 3200 customer titles being
published every year and CPC estimates that
the US produces more than 50,000 titles
annually. Australia, South Africa and Asia
are emerging and customer publishing is in
the early stages of developments in many
other countries including the Czech
Republic, India and Brazil.
What is a customer magazine?
Customer magazines are
magazines published by companies or
organisations for their customers/members.
They provide an effective and sophisticated
form of marketing communication with
millions of readers enjoying well-targeted
editorial and responding positively to the
"soft sell" that a customer magazine allows.
Whilst customer magazines are recognised by
consumers as marketing collateral, Henley
Centre research shows, that they are treated
differently because 'they give as well as
take'.
Successful customer magazines, produced by
professional publishing agencies, work to
specific objectives which must be measured
and met. These magazines balance the needs
of the client against the aspirations of the
reader. Achieving that balance is not easy,
but, as hundreds of companies can testify,
the rewards are great.
What is the target audience of customer
magazines?
It is very difficult to
define the target audience of a customer
magazine as 'customer' means different
things to different titles. For example the
'customers' for ARMY, a magazine from the
British Army Recruiting Group, are teenage
boys and girls interested in the Army.
ARMY's objective is to develop such
enthusiasm into eventual career options.
However, in terms of the overall market the
most important target audience is existing
customers (77%), underlining the key role
that customer magazines play in companies'
customer retention strategies. Prospective
customers (48%) are also an important
audience. For customer magazines aimed at
staff (14%), business partners (16%) and
dealers or distributors (10%) it is
significantly lower, but this is expected to
become increasingly important as the medium
evolves.
What are customer magazine used for?
Hundreds of companies,
across all industry sectors, are discovering
that a customer magazine can deliver
measurable results - increasing customer
loyalty, generating new business promoting
brand awareness and boosting sales. For
example, research has shown the sales of
featured products in Homebase's Ideas
see significant uplift, with readers
spending 3.5 times more than non-readers.
Furthermore readers were found to regard
Ideas in the same way as a paid for
title such as Ideal Home.
Who uses customer magazines?
Almost all sectors are
utilising customer magazines as a marketing
tool including b2b and consumer focused
businesses, charities and organisations such
as the AA. In terms of market share however,
the top three industry sectors are retailing
and distribution (17%), financial services
(13%) and utilities and public sector (7%).
What makes a good customer magazine?
As with any magazine,
editorial that is relevant to the audience
is the key to success. If the editorial does
not appeal to the audience the reality is
the magazine will not be read - making it a
waste of both time and money. The production
values and quality of the design and
editorial content are continuing to improve
as customer magazines become an increasingly
important component of the marketing mix.
Magazines are able to communicate
effectively because the consumer is in
control of the media consumption as opposed
to the intrusive nature of media such as TV
and radio. Readers expect the advertising in
their magazine to be relevant to them and as
a result see it as an essential part of the
medium itself.
How do customer magazines reach the
target audience?
Marketers are realising
that a 'one message fits all' approach or
'mass marketing' is not delivering the
desired results; consequently we have seen a
shift towards one-to-one marketing. The
evolution of customer magazines has in some
ways reflected this trend. Growing numbers
of customer magazines are now segmented and
versonalised both geographically and
according to lifestage and lifestyle -
currently 14 per cent of customer magazines
are segmented to reflect different readers.
The most common way for customers to receive
customer magazines is to either pick them up
in-store or via the post Currently, two
thirds of magazines are posted and a quarter
of titles are distributed in store.
According to research by Millward Brown 79%
of consumers prefer to receive their
customer magazine via the post and 58% of
consumers are more likely to read magazines
and respond to offers if it is personally
addressed to them. Royal Mail can deliver
to 99.9% of the population guaranteeing to
brands that they can reach their customers
wherever they are. |
