Customer magazines have the ability to communicate with difficult to reach audiences, with new research from the Association of Publishing Agencies (APA) finding that retail customer magazines elicit impressive levels of active response from the youth and grey markets.
According to the APA, the media attracts a response rate of 84% from the youth market and a staggering 90% from 54-66 year olds, while the average response rate across all ages is 79%.
Another key finding from the research was that over three quarters of males were found to respond to calls to action within a customer magazine, with the percentage higher, 80%, amongst younger more affluent males. Furthermore, two thirds of respondents were found to keep customer magazines for over a week and 83% claim to pick up their magazines at least three times.
However, while the profile of customer magazine readers still tends to be predominately female, the male and female response rates were found to be very similar across different genres of magazines, with 73% of male readers responding to a call to action within retail titles, only five percentage points lower than women.
Commenting on the study’s findings, Julia Hutchison, director of the APA said: “We have long known how powerful customer magazines are as a marketing tool – engendering loyalty, enhancing brand image, engaging potential and existing customers, but now we have the proof.”
She added: “We were especially compelled at how males engaged with retail titles and actually if we think about how society has changed and how we are in an era of ‘the metrosexual’ man (I think he is called something else now!) the results actually make sense. Perhaps now is the time for more marketers to consider customer titles as a core element to their marketing strategies, when engaging with men is the primary objective.”
Research published earlier this year from the APA showed that customer magazines built brand loyalty amongst readers, stimulating a substantial 8% increase in average sales uplift due to the strong connection experienced by readers (see Customer Magazines Create Strong Brand Loyalty).
The research revealed that consumers spend 25 minutes reading a customer magazine, with 32% more committed to the brand after reading the publication. Just under half, at 44%, of readers were shown to interact with the brand in some way as a direct result of reading the customer magazine, while corporate brand image was enhanced by 9% through engagement with editorial content.
At the beginning of the year, market research company Mintel, forecast the customer publishing industry to be increasingly integrated into the marketing mix, with turnover for the sector expected to exceed £531 million by 2009 (see Strong Future Forecast For Customer Magazines).
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