Customer Magazines Appeal Across The Board
Customer magazines can grab the attention of hard-to-reach audiences and put brands in touch with consumers across many demographics, according to new findings from the Association of Publishing Agencies (APA).
The APA Advantage Study, which examines the effectiveness of customer magazines, shows that these publications can improve brand consideration across many sectors and different age groups.
Although 18-24-year-olds are a difficult audience to engage, the study shows that customer magazines can keep their attention long enough to drive an above-average active response rate of 55%, as opposed to an average for all ages of 45%.
For affluent audiences, who tend to be more cynical about marketing communication, the study shows that they spend as much time with customer magazines and find them just as relevant as other less well-off audiences.
The study reinforces customer magazines as a proven communications channel for engaging wealthy “greys”. 61% of ABs, aged 55+ read half or more of a customer magazine, as opposed to an average of 56% for all ages. They also spend more time than any other audience considering a brand by browsing and reading through a customer magazine (30 minutes as opposed to the average 25 minutes).
Among readers of retail customer magazines, 83% of men and 84% of women think the brand is for “people like them”. The study outlines that this is a great opportunity for brands to utilise customer magazines to access joint decision making and engage men in the retail environment.
The APA study also proves that automotive customer magazines have a positive brand impact on females and that exposure to car customer magazines increases relevancy of the brand from 77% to 87%.
Julia Hutchison, director of the APA said: “Strategic planners should be seriously considering customer publishing as a core part of any marketing communications campaign, especially as TGI data highlights the fact that many of these audiences are underrepresented in terms of heavy usage of traditional media such as commercial radio and TV.”