The Power of Magazines

The Reader Relationship

1. The reader chooses. The magazine mediums essential strength lies in the active way in which readers choose and use their magazines. Magazines are an active medium, with the reader in control.

2. The reader cares. People vary enormously in their interests and in their information needs. The great variety of magazines available means that everyone can find a magazine that serves almost any interest that they have.

3. The reader trusts. As a result a strong relationship, a bond of trust, grows between the reader and his or her chosen magazines. Reading a favorite magazine is like talking with a friend.

4. The reader identifies. A readers identification with an engaging magazine can go well beyond the simple provision of information and ideas. When a magazine strikes a chord, it can reinforce the readers own self-image. This creates a particularly powerful and trusting relationship.

5. The reader commits. Readers give commitment to their magazines. The time spent reading is substantial, and the copies are read thoroughly. They also tend to be read repeatedly, often picked up more than once during a day and on more than one day.

6. The reader is open. Readers have their own repertoire of magazines to meet different needs and moods. Matching the mood and the magazine reinforces the values of the personal relationship and ensures that reading takes place in a highly receptive frame of mind.

The Advertiser Relationship

1. The audience is receptive. The intimacy between reader and magazine benefits advertisers. The magazine environment delivers a reader in the right frame of mind to be receptive to the advertising. In the sympathetic context of the right magazine, the strong positive brand values of the magazine can transfer onto the advertisements.

2. Magazines have endorsement power. The stronger the readers affiliation with the magazine as a brand, the higher the level of endorsement that the advertising receives from the magazines personality.

3. Ads are relevant. Advertising is seen as an integral part of magazines. Relevant advertising is valued by readers, and is consumed with interest.

4. Readers take action as a result of seeing advertising in magazines.

5. Ads are targeted. Targeting with precision and without wastage is a key strength of magazines. The question is not anymore: how many people did we reach? but how many of the right people did we reach?

6. Ads can be creative. The communication can be enhanced by using different creative executions in different types of magazine targeting through the creative work as well as through selecting the appropriate audience.

7. Ads are treated like editorial content. Readers screen advertisements in much the same way as they screen the editoriallooking for items that interest, intrigue, catch the eye, entertain, inform.

Source: How magazine advertising works, Fourth edition, by Guy Consterdine. He is a principal consultant at Guy Consterdine Associates, a consultancy that specializes in media research, with particular emphasis on print media.