MPA to Test Discount for Midwest Magazine Buyers
Faced with its members’ hemorrhaging newsstand sales, the Magazine Publishers of America are testing a promotion at a Midwest retail chain to offer magazine buyers a reward for buying magazines.
Between August 21 and September 6, anyone who buys two or more magazines at Meijer stores in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio will get a $2 discount on their next purchase at the store.
The promotion is being funded by the MPA and a consortium of publishers, including Bonnier, Condé Nast , Hachette, Meredith, Reader's Digest Association and Rodale. Planning has involved all four national distributors—Comag Marketing Group, Curtis Circulation Company, Kable Media Services and Time/Warner Retail Sales & Marketing—as well as Distribution Services, Inc. (DSI). Merchandising support is being provided by Source Interlink Distribution.
Each store will have a special nine-magazine display bin at its entrance, as well as signage at checkouts and a full-page ad in Meijer’s local newspaper inserts. Marketing messaging for the campaign will focus on the unique benefits of the magazine reading experience, with the theme "Magazines Put the World in Your Hands."
The goal, according to Jeremy Koch, EVP, consumer marketing at the MPA, is to “bring additional attention to the magazine category at retail and to stimulate trial of new titles.”
“Right now, this is a test, but in the long term, we’d like to see this type of promotion build into something of a larger scale,” Koch told CM. “This test is a way for us to learn a lot, to learn about the willingness of publishers to get to together and support the retailers.”
Koch says the MPA will use the test, which the association began developing in November 2007, to measure various factors in hopes of building a larger plan in 2009. “We’ll be looking at several things,” he said. “We’ll look at movement in total sales during the promotion, which we’ll measure against sales during the same period in previous years. We’ll look at market basket analysis and whether or not we increase the number of customers who purchase two magazines or more. We’ll look at how many people redeem the coupons. We’ll also look at the sales of those nine magazines on the display to see if the extra display drives incremental sales.”
Those nine magazines are Elle, People, Outdoor Life, Women's Health, Men's Health, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Real Simple, Self and Meredith’s Halloween Tricks and Treats. “We basically put the offer out there to the magazine companies that were funding the promotion and offered them positions first. We sort of started at the top and worked our way down,” Koch says. “But while those nine magazines get special display, every magazine in the store is participating and will benefit from the structure.”
Koch added the Meijer, which carries 1,800 magazines in its stores, was chosen as the retailer for the promotion because of its size and accommodating attitude. “We wanted to test someone who was regional and who fit our goals. Meijer has a reputation of being a supportive, friendly partner, and they put a lot of their own efforts behind the idea.”
He declined to comment, however, on the cost of funding the promotion.
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