Analysis of the journal Cosmopolitan. Development of successful marketing strategies by the magazine using the example of a test study of Cosmopolitan and Vogue

A variation of this type of game can be considered the play on a proper name as a graphically highlighted part.

For example, in the November issue there was an article entitled Cash. This is an interview with a famous singer named Peter Nalich, who became famous thanks to a song posted on the Internet. All they knew about the performer of this song was that it was a kind of “petrnalich” (pronounced in one word). Then the “petrnalich” somehow turned into Peter Nalich and became a famous musician.

It’s also not just the proper name that can stand out. For example, in the same November issue an article was published entitled HALF the job, where the career chances of men and women are compared and assessed. Several more examples can be found in the same issue.

Brighten up your office routine... That was the name of the subtitle, which said that the combination of red and nude shades will not get boring, even if you wear it every day.

FEMINAL idea - This is a special advertising project that encourages the entire female gender to use special personal hygiene products in order to look flawless, radiate confidence and not frown at the smallest things.

PLANT history- this was the title of a letter from a magazine reader who said that she was grateful to life for making her change and grow.

SV for two. This article is about couples whose relationship began on Valentine's Day. In addition, the abbreviation SV is associated with a sleeping car.

A language game can also be built on interlingual homonymy and the use of English words in titles.

For example, in the same November issue, the “Star Style” column was published under the title Good grey, in which preference is given not to colorful dresses, but to a monochrome look in gray colors.

Their bin is sick! - it says that in another country you may not be given the correct diagnosis, and medicine in this country may never have heard of your illness. This is a play on the German combination of words “ikh bin”, which translates as “I”.

Within the framework of this topic, a content analysis of a glossy men's and women's magazine was carried out. The total volume of publications studied was 2 publications: the women's magazine "Cosmopolitan" January - December 2008 and the men's magazine Men's health January - December 2008. The unit of account was one issue of the magazine, the semantic unit was a part of the body.

Women's magazine

Cosmopolitan magazine One of the distinctive features of this magazine is the abundance of advertising in it. About 100 advertisements per issue versus about 60 in other magazines.

Cosmopolitan" is the most popular women's magazine at present. Despite the fact that it is aimed at women, some of its materials are also read with interest by men. "Cosmo" is distinguished by its simplicity of presentation of material and superficial presentation. Most of the visual information, one way or another , is advertising material. For this reason, the entire magazine turns into a kind of advertising catalog, diluted with low-value grains of non-advertising information, which, according to the publishers of Cosmopolitan, is best suited for the female half of our society.

Almost the same principle is used to build the “most men’s magazine” - “Playboy”. But, unlike Cosmopolitan, advertising in it is presented mainly indirectly, with the attraction of seductive female nature, according to the old advertising principle - “a naked woman can sell anything.” All other materials are intended to create the “correct” preferences and tastes among the magazine’s readers, which are most often aimed at the same products that the publication advertises.

In terms of intellectual level, the authors and audiences of “Playboy” and “Cosmopolitan” are on the same level, only their gender differs. Compared to them, “Ptyuch” and “OM” are more intellectual, although each in their own way.

These are the most popular glossy publications among modern youth, which determine the tastes, opinions and preferences of those who can be called not only the “MTV generation”, but also the “glossy magazine generation”.

Women also like to spend their free time with maximum benefit, less often for themselves, more often for home and family, and their hobbies, according to glossy magazines, do not extend beyond cutting and sewing, cooking, spending money on all sorts of nonsense, beauty restoration, gossip and conversations for life (read – about men).

The first women's magazines were published and edited by men. In 1779, Nikolai Novikov published the first Russian magazine of this kind called “Fashionable Monthly Publication, or Library for Ladies’ Toilet.” It consisted almost exclusively of literary articles, “as for fashion, only fashionable pictures were attached to it.” The intonation of male admiration and admiration for the weaker sex, ritualized by European culture, prevailed in the magazine.

Such a distribution of male/female could not be maintained for long in the context of growing emancipation. A woman gains a voice, gains (from her own point of view, wins) the right to speak about her personal experiences and her daily life without the mediation of men. About a third of women's magazines (about twenty) published in Russia during the 19th century were published and/or edited by women. In the next century, this practice became the norm and played a decisive role in the formation of a “glossy” standard of feminine and feminine.

Women's magazines have existed alongside fashion magazines since their inception. Fashion pictures, often accompanied by patterns and sewing tips, were part of women's magazines or formed separate publications, usually published as supplements. This connection remained, but was transformed: the concept of fashion expanded to the boundaries of lifestyle and intersected with the concept of style. We can talk about the existence of two main typical discourses of female “gloss”: the discourse of private life (predominant in magazines like Cosmopolitan, among the “thin” ones - like “Liza”) and glamorous discourse, the key concepts of which are fashion, style and sociality (Vogue , Harper's Bazaar, L'Officiel). The face of each magazine depends on what kind of discourse it gravitates towards and what kind of audience it works for.

A specific feature of “glossy” is a special kind of autobiography. The indispensable portrait on its cover (usually photographic, depicting one of the heroines of the issue - a star of theatre, cinema, television or modeling), extremely faceless and at the same time recognizable, concentrates the autobiographical meanings in question. The woman on the cover is her voice that sounds from the pages of the magazine, her point of view is presented in it, she is its main character and at the same time the reader. As a result, we are dealing with a text written by a woman - about a woman - for a woman. Such autobiography applies specifically to magazines about private life, primarily men's and women's. Thus, the discourse presented in magazines for children is organized in a deliberately more complex way: adults write about children and for children, forming specific standards of “selfhood” for the beginning reader.

Men's magazine

Men's Health is the main men's magazine around the world. Daily news and articles, expert advice and blogs, competitions and gifts. Main topics: men's health and fitness; exercise and fitness video encyclopedia; sex and relationship psychology; proper nutrition and disease prevention; food and recipes; home cooking and haute cuisine; where to go, where to relax; men's fashion, clothing and style for men: suits, ties, bags, watches and other accessories; reviews of information technologies and scientific achievements; the best cars and gadgets, tests and videos online. Everything about life for a modern man on the unprecedentedly harsh territory of the Men’s Health magazine website.

In 2005, for the first time on the Russian market, a men's glossy magazine was published in two formats - large and small. Both versions are absolutely identical in content and differ only in size. The correctness of our chosen path is proven by the growing circulation and interest of advertisers. At the “Leader of Sales” competition of the Association of Printed Products Distributors (ARPP), Men’s Health has been the winner in the “Men’s Publications” thematic group for many years in a row.

The Rodale company (the founder of the magazine and the license holder for its publication outside the United States) awarded the Russian Men’s Health the Best Advertising Performance award for the best advertising sales. In 2006, Russian Men’s Health won the Best Circulation/Single-Copy Performance award for the best growth in circulation and sales.

In 2007, Men's Health was awarded the "Cover of the Year" award. In 2008, the magazine successfully celebrated its 10th anniversary on the Russian market. Our audience is growing every year and currently stands at 1,210,100 people.

Any normal man wants to have high intelligence, achieve recognition in his profession, demonstrate a sober mind and strong memory until old age. Developed intellectual activity determines a real man, his abilities for creativity, learning, and various achievements. The magazine devotes a lot of space to body culture, proper nutrition, issues of sex, fashion, gender relations, and extreme sports. I would really like to read articles about methods of developing intelligence; about techniques for increasing mental abilities; what is good and what is bad for the brain; what to do to prevent stroke; about natural and chemical stimulants of brain activity, whether nootropics are effective and how safe they are, how scientific luminaries treat them, how they themselves train their memory, load their prominent convolutions; what you need to do so that even in old age you don’t make others laugh with your behavior and words. After all, senile dementia spares neither vagabonds nor presidents. Believe me, these problems worry millions of men. All of us, some in half a century, and some in 20-30 years, will become old people. And in old age, the quality of our life will be primarily determined not by pumped-up deltoids or abilities for extreme sports, but by the ability to read books, remember and comprehend what we read, fully communicate with our grandchildren, watch smart films, stay educated, travel and absorb new impressions. There are a million things in the world that help us realize the uniqueness of the world around us, the uniqueness of every moment of our existence.

After this review, we can say that in men's magazines, as in women's magazines, the face comes first, mainly the lips and nose, then the arms and legs. What is very interesting is the fact that the back of the body is hardly represented, unlike in women's magazines. Another difference is that in women's magazines most of the models are female, in men's magazines - male. This fact is quite natural in view of the target audience. Based on gender representation, hair colors also have a greater range, with bald and gray models appearing in men's magazines.

Collection of messages

The material for the analysis was articles published in the federal women's magazine "Cosmopolitan", as well as articles in "Men's Health" for the period January - December 2008.

Focus: entertainment

Unit of Analysis– a separate fragment in the photograph – views on the physical image of a man and a woman in glossy magazines.

1. lips and chin

4. right eye

5. left eye

6. left profile

8. right profile

9. upper scalp

Emotional views on the physical image of men and women in glossy magazines :

Positive

Neutral

· Negative

Unit of account: offer.

Context unit:

Graphic material or photographs;

Instructions for the encoder

The analysis of materials is carried out using the corresponding code mark or an arbitrary entry, where it is provided.

1. Column “Name of journal presentation”

2. Column "Views":

Looks 1 (lips and chin) - B1

Views 2 (nose) - B2

Glances 3 (forehead) - B3

Views 4 (right eye) - B4

Views 5 (left eye) - B5

Views 6 (left profile) - B6

Views 7 (neck) - B7

Views 8 (right profile) - B8

Views 9 (upper scalp) - B9

Views 10(chest)- B10

Views 11(waist)- B11

Views 12(legs)- B12

Column "Name of source"

Column "Issue number"

Column "Date of publication"

Column "Quote"

Column "+"

Column "Context unit"

Table 1. Text quantification. Views on the physical image of men and women in glossy magazines

So, if we touch on the question of which part of the body is most often depicted in advertising in Cosmopolitan magazine, then from (Table 1) it is clear that the most popular part of the body is the lips and chin (5.5% of all body parts), on in second place is the nose (5.5%), in third place is the forehead (5.3%). The advertisements feature predominantly women (270 women and 29 men). Also in advertisements, brunettes predominate - 66% of all those depicted. Blondes - 30% and redheads - 4%.

Among men's magazines, Men's Health was studied. According to the results of the content analysis of Men's Health (Table 1), it was revealed that the leading positions are occupied by the lips and nose (5% each) and the forehead and neck (4.8% each). Men are more often depicted in this magazine - 76%. If you look at the distribution by hair color, there are 70% brunettes, 22% blondes. It is interesting to note that models with gray hair appear in this magazine (out of 7 models, 6 are men), as well as a bald man, although there is only one of him.

Thus, the most frequently depicted part of the body became the nose and lips (they lead in both women's and men's magazines). There were no significant differences, but it is worth mentioning that in women's magazines the rear part of the body is represented more than in men's magazines.

Content
Introduction………………………………………………………………………...3
Chapter 1. Analytical review of the market for the magazine "Cosmopolitan"……………….5
1.1. Formation of the brand "Cosmopolitan"…………………………………….. .5
1.2. Analysis of global and Russian branding "Cosmopolitan"………………6
1.3. Business plan for promoting the brand "Cosmopolitan"…………………………8
1.4. Practical brand management. Launching a brand on the market......23
Chapter 2. Technology for creating an advertising product for the magazine "Cosmopolitan"…………………………………………… ………………………...30
2.1. Technological features of the city format……………… …………….30
2.2. Technology for creating an advertising image………… ……………………….33
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….37
References………………………………………………………………………………38

Introduction
Humanity has come a long way in its development. Primitive society, Antiquity, Middle Ages, Renaissance, capitalist society. And finally, the era of modern man, the era of Consumption.
According to the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, consumption is a defining feature of an affluent society. Every day, people around the world make millions of purchases, giving preference to one or another product.
Very often our emotional motives when making purchases prevail over rational ones. Therefore, success in the sale of consumer goods and services is based not on their objectively defined, but on the benefits subjectively perceived by consumers. These advantages lie in the uniqueness of the brands compared to competing brands and the ability of consumers to identify them when making purchases.
The ultimate task of emoting a brand is the task of creating a strong associative connection “personal value” - “brand” in the extraconscious sphere of a person. The task of emotionalization is that in a certain context of consumption, or even outside it, the brand is for the consumer the personification of the personal value embedded in it, and perhaps even becomes synonymous with it or replaces it. It is necessary to identify which personal values ​​are significant for the consumer, both in this context of consumption and in life position in general, and which symbols evoke associations with the desired personal values. After which, present the brand to the consumer in a form where the evoked associations connecting the brand and personal values ​​will be known in advance.
Branding as the science and art of creating long-term consumer preference for a particular product brand in the Russian consumer market is just beginning to develop. In recent years, marketers have been paying serious attention to this problem, as foreign manufacturers are actively using the concept of branding and skillfully creating lasting competitive advantages of their brands in the minds of our consumers (Procter & Gamble, Samsung, Kodak, Nestle, Coca Cola and many others). Essentially, the modern consumer market is a war of trademarks, brands and advertising images for their place in the minds of consumers. The relevance of the problem of adapting the Western concept of branding to Russian conditions determined the choice of the topic of this work. The uniqueness of the research lies in the development of an advertising product - a city format for the Cosmopolitan magazine for the city of Omsk.
The goal of the work is to create an advertising image limited by the city format.
The city format proposed in the work can further serve as the basis for implementing the project in reality.

Chapter I. Marketing information for Cosmopolitan magazine
1.1. Formation of the Cosmopolitan brand
Cosmopolitan magazine was founded in 1886 in New York by Schlicht and Field as a magazine for high society. The publication changed owners several times until it was bought by the legendary William Randolph Hearst in 1905. He made Cosmopolitan a literary magazine that combined articles with superb prose. The stories of Faulkner, Hemingway, and Maugham were first published on its pages.
As the 1960s approached, readers gradually began to lose interest in Cosmopolitan. And around the same time, Helen Gurley Brown, author of the acclaimed book “A Single Woman,” suggested that Hearst’s company create a magazine for young, motivated women. In 1965, Brown became editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine and made publishing history. The new version of the magazine attracted enormous attention from readers and advertisers, and since then Cosmopolitan's popularity has continued to grow. Cosmopolitan is no longer just a magazine - it has become a lifestyle.
The first issue of the Russian Cosmopolitan was published in May 1994 and immediately created a sensation. The magazine's editors-in-chief, Elena Myasnikova and Ellen Verbeek, created a Russian bestseller, successfully using the formula of an international brand. The Russian edition, published with a circulation of more than 700,000 copies, unites more than 3,000,000 readers. The concept of “Girl in Cosmo style” has long become a household word. Cosmopolitan positions itself as a magazine for young, independent and energetic women, those who choose their own path and achieve success. And the magazine helps them with advice on beauty, health, fashion and makeup, relationships, career and sports.
In March 2005, Cosmopolitan magazine had a circulation of 1 million copies. Moreover, according to the editor-in-chief of the publication Elena Myasnikova, this was the most voluminous issue of the magazine. The publication's circulation increased by 400 thousand copies literally in a year, since back in March 2004 Cosmopolitan's circulation amounted to 610 thousand copies and was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest in Russia and Europe. After this, the magazine's circulation continued to grow and now ranges from 950,000 to 1,010,000 copies.
This is a brief history of the emergence of the Cosmopolitan brand and its appearance on the Russian media market. In general, elite women's publications in Russia are analogues of foreign magazines about “lifestyle” and fashion publications. “L’OFFICIEL”, “VOGUE”, “ELLE” - all these publications belong to the second group, since they focus on fashion issues. Moreover, this fashion is no longer for everyone, but for the respectable: the latest collections of world fashion designers, exclusive travel and entertainment, life and culture of high society. It should be noted that at the time of its launch, Cosmopolitan was the only one in its consumer niche, so the first women's gloss showed the most expensive products that were then on the market, targeting high-income readers. Subsequently, the publication lowered its social status, focusing on young girls with average incomes.
1.2 Analysis of the world and Russian experience of the Cosmopolitan brand
Independent Media (IM) publishing house was founded in Moscow in March 1992 by a group of Dutch investors led by Derk Sauer. in 1994 received a license to publish women's, men's and family glossy magazines in Russia. At the same time, he began publishing a licensed Russian-language version of the magazine Cosmopolitan, owned by the American Hearst Corporation. Since 2005, IM has been part of the European media holding Sanoma and transformed into Independent Media & Sanoma Magazines (IMSM).
According to the publishers, Russian version Cosmopoli tan- women's glossy magazine No. 1 in Russia. The publication’s website states: over the 15 years of its existence, the magazine has gained such popularity that today it is impossible to meet a Russian woman who has never read or at least held an issue of this magazine in her hands. Format - A4, volume - 320 pages. Distributed at retail and by subscription throughout Russia with a circulation of 1.1 million copies. Editor-in-Chief - Elena Vasilyeva.
Subsidiary niche magazines are published in Russia under the Cosmopolitan brand Cosmopolitan Beauty, Cosmopolitan Shopping and "Cosmo Magic". In addition, with a total circulation of over 346 thousand copies, three regional publications of the family are published - “Cosmopolitan Ukraine”, “Cosmopolitan Kazakhstan” and “Cosmopolitan Georgia” - and three regional Russian magazines - “Cosmopolitan St. Petersburg”, “Cosmopolitan Ural” and “Cosmopolitan Siberia” "
On March 5, 1994, it was put into print, and in May the first issue of the magazine went on sale Cosmopolitan in Russian. The then editors-in-chief Elena Myasnikova and Ellen Verbeek created it on the basis of an international brand. It was planned that, in addition to the traditional topics of fashion, beauty, health, love and sex, a feature of the Russian edition of Cosmopolitan would be consultations with psychologists and other specialists, their responses to letters from readers and analysis of difficult life situations on the pages of the magazine. According to editor-in-chief Elena Vasilyeva, in 1994 Cosmopolitan became the first glossy magazine of the new Russia.
First issues of the magazine Cosmopolitan distributed in Russian cities at retail price of $2.40 (4.5 thousand rubles at the dollar exchange rate in May 1994). This was a fairly high price per copy for Russia at that time, therefore, unlike the United States, where the main audience of the publication “for housewives and secretaries” were people with average incomes, in Russia at first it could usually be purchased by wealthier strata. Russian Cosmopolitan was initially aimed at promoting the “Cosmo lifestyle” and meeting the demand for everything “Western” - from cosmetics and clothing to lifestyle.
Cosmopolitan reader: smart and funny, brave and energetic, searching and curious, she always chooses her own path and achieves success; has purposefulness and healthy ambitions, she does not perceive momentary failure as defeat, and is able to look at her actions with irony; she looks great and is always up to date with the latest trends, loves shopping; values ​​serious relationships with men, but at the same time maintains her independence and freedom, takes care of her health and beauty; she is always open to new experiences and experiments. The average age of the reader is 18 - 28 years.
1.3 Business plan for promoting the Cosmopolitan brand
Today, a business plan is a necessary attribute of the commercial activity of a modern enterprise. A high-quality business plan indicates a high business culture of the company. It represents an important element of her corporate identity. A business plan is necessary to get a loan from a bank, find a business partner abroad, attract an investor, etc.
What is a business plan? In a narrow sense, a business plan is a special document containing a description of your business project. It includes the main aspects of entrepreneurial activity, an analysis of the main problems that an entrepreneur may face, as well as the main ways to solve these problems.
Its average volume is 40-50 pages, and in the abridged version - 14-15 or less pages. A business plan is the most important tool for forming a company’s business relationships. With its help, the company informs potential partners about its capabilities and offers.
In world practice, business plans account for a significant share of the total flow of business information. Western venture capital firms receive hundreds of business plans a year. They are requested by commercial banks, industrial companies, and individual investors. They are widely distributed over computer networks. A business plan is a means of business communication in modern business, a standard form of transmitting business information.
Russian entrepreneurs do not always correctly assess the meaning and purpose of business plans and do not pay enough attention to them. Meanwhile, such a document must always be ready. When you send your partner a business proposal, it is best to format it in the form of a business plan. This will indicate the seriousness of your intentions. The standard structure of a business plan, established in global business practice, ensures that your partner receives all the necessary information in a concise form.
You should always have a business plan ready. A foreign company unexpectedly came to you, the opportunity to receive an international grant appeared, a line of credit was opened under an intergovernmental agreement - in all these cases you may urgently need it. In particular, under a credit line with the American government in 1994-1996. loans were provided for the purchase of food in the United States. To obtain a loan, it was mandatory to provide a business plan.
Flaws in business planning have a particularly negative impact when contacting foreign partners. Inaccuracies in the wording and business scheme of the project worsen the company's image as an equal partner of a foreign company. To some extent, this can weaken the company's position in negotiations. There are often cases when business plans are drawn up in an “emergency” mode. A “raw” business plan can cause discomfort for a company representative, which also risks affecting the results of negotiations. At the same time, a high-quality and effective business plan indicates the high class of the company. It has a better chance of attracting the attention of senior officials of banks and companies authorized to make investment decisions.
Business plans come in various formats and purposes. A business plan can play the role of an internal planning document and perform advertising functions. It may be intended to create a favorable image of the company in public opinion and the press. A business plan can serve internal purposes. Drawing up a business plan undoubtedly contributes to the internal management of an enterprise, since it is developed on the basis of setting goals, methods of their practical implementation, and linking financial, material and labor resources. This forces managers to analyze and predict the situation, study the capabilities of the company, which allows them to make more qualified decisions. Professional preparation of a business plan allows you to save investor funds and reduces the likelihood of bankruptcy.
Any serious undertaking of a company - be it the creation of a subsidiary or new production facilities - requires serious justification. A business plan is the optimal form for this type of document. Finally, a long-term program for the entire business as a whole can be formulated in the form of a business plan.
Entrepreneurs are usually most concerned with the question of how to get a bank loan or attract investment using a business plan. Having a business plan in itself is not enough to obtain any funds. But it may be impossible to obtain credit resources without such a document. Many major business projects in Russia and abroad began with this document.
The development of business plans should be carried out on an ongoing basis. It must be taken into account that business plans quickly become outdated as the market situation changes dynamically. In this regard, working versions must be constantly updated. In principle, the company should have options for business plans intended for various recipients depending on the goals, for example, for a bank, for a co-investor, for joint activities, etc. A business plan focused on a specific type of investor (or even a specific company), gives a greater chance of success than mass mailing.
Summarizing the above, we can say that a business plan is needed:

for the entrepreneur himself to carefully analyze his ideas and check them for realism;
investors and future partners during negotiations;
employees of the company when signing contracts who want to understand the prospects and tasks.

A colorful and fashionable magazine for women and by women - this is, of course, the Cosmopolitan magazine, which is so popular today, which in turn turned out to be so popular that it received a wide response in the TV program “Cosmopolitan video version”. And yet, a program is a program, and a magazine is a magazine, therefore I would like to outline in more detail all its advantages, as well as some of its nuances.

Positive points in Cosmo magazine:

1) this magazine can rightfully be called a “women’s bible” among avid lovers of shopping, since the magazine has many different sections, where one way or another it not only tells, but also shows what and how much to buy. In terms of fashion trends, cosmopolitan is perhaps no less than No. 1 in modern fashion!

2) on the pages of the magazine you can find out how and correctly what and with what to combine clothes more competently.

Stylish lessons definitely won’t hurt anyone! Moreover, completely regardless of age or financial situation.

3) other various useful tips on how to care for your skin after twenty-five years or older. A treasure trove of useful homemade recipes for caring not only for skin, but also for hair, of course.

There is also a small horoscope.

4) the secrets of makeup, if you’re going to study it, it’s better to do it with the help of Cosmopolitan, looking at the step-by-step instructions for turning the so-called “Cinderella” into a “fairy-tale princess.” The program is definitely in the magazine.

5) a lot of really healthy tips for losing weight, to prepare much less calorie dishes and maintain all the slimness and elegance of your figure. Which is extremely important for women, first of all.

I don't particularly like the following in the magazine:

1) moralizing statements about men. It looks like some kind of “zombie”. “He doesn’t give flowers - he doesn’t like everything and has found someone else.” “If you didn’t kiss him when you left, it means he won’t come back and won’t invite you on the next date.” And absolutely everything is in a similar spirit. Personally, all this advice seems nonsense to me and nothing less! So you should not thoroughly follow all the articles published in the journal.

What I remember most was the more than interesting article about editor Yana, who temporarily transformed into an attractive other woman.

Overall: Cosmopolitan is a good women’s and colorful magazine, both containing useful tips and not so much, sometimes you can read it!

Video review

Magazine

Managing a media outlet is a complex task; it differs in many ways from traditional methods of managing enterprises in other industries. In the modern world, commercial publications can exist thanks to two sources: sales and advertising. Thus, the main participants in this marketing process are: the readership, product manufacturers - advertisers and the magazine itself. Often, advertising agencies providing intermediary services stand between the magazine and the advertiser.

The goal of the journal for effective management is to attract all sources of funding through the most complete realization of the interests of both one and the other. To do this, the magazine needs to rely on the results of audience research, which will help it coordinate the editorial part, printing materials that are most interesting to the audience, and attract advertisers, demonstrating the growth of circulation and the diversity of reader tastes. At the same time, research must be structured correctly, since an incorrectly asked question or designed parameter can distort the results so much that the strategies developed on their basis can lead to losses for the publication.

Creating a certain image of a publication forces advertisers to decide on advertising in favor of this publication and not its competitor, even with all other conditions being equal. The image becomes an added value that increases sales or justifies the cost of the publication.

In this article, we propose a research methods framework that every journal could use to improve its competitive position.

Definition of the problem and formulation of research objectives

The object of the study was the specific women's magazines Cosmopolitan and Vogue (hereinafter, for brevity, we will denote Cosmopolitan as “Cosmo”).

Cosmo has been operating on the Russian market since May 1994. At that time in Russia it was the first Western magazine of this class and quality. From the very beginning, Cosmo's activities on the Russian market were quite successful. Over time, however, the time of monopoly passed, and the market situation began to change rapidly. And if just four years ago Cosmo had no direct competitors in the women's magazine market in Russia (there were no women's magazines as diverse in their topics as Cosmo), then the situation soon changed.

In a short period of time, magazines similar in style and subject matter began to appear one after another, and they often differed not in the variety of ideas, but only in the variety of names. Even the recent crisis did not stop this abundance. Vogue magazine was chosen as one of the closest (in format and content) competitors to Cosmo.

Taking into account changes in the competitive environment, a few years ago Cosmo's top management became more attentive to its marketing strategies. Cosmo was keeping an eye on the increasing competition that could soon cause a decline in advertising and sales revenue.

Every magazine, through its management, must recognize that at any moment, no matter how well things are going, the magazine's content and advertising policies may become "not good enough." However, there are certain effective ways to increase sales and advertising revenue in a magazine, which will ultimately help the magazine remain highly profitable and competitive in the market.

How can a journal recognize these “identified effective paths”?

Once the journal's management has realized that such research is necessary, and has also determined which specific variables are most critical for the journal, the journal is faced with the question of competently defining the goals and objectives of the study.

The study will need to answer the following key questions:

1. Who reads our magazine and what are the demographics of our readers? What can we say about our competitor in this regard?
2. Does the content of the magazine match the type of our readers? What can we say about our competitor in this regard?
3. Is the content of advertising in our magazine appropriate to the type of readers we have? What about our competitor's magazine advertising?
4. What new approaches to increasing readership can our research suggest? For example, some of the data we have collected shows that the number of male readers (and not just buyers) is constantly increasing. Cosmo's challenge will be to discover the true size of this group, and to evaluate the feasibility of changing the magazine's content to appeal to this new segment.
5. Can the study's findings help us find additional ways to increase our advertising revenue? For example, if research results show that the demographic characteristics of our readers (compared to our competitor) are more similar to the characteristics of the products advertised.

Collection and analysis of primary information

In order to get an initial idea of ​​​​in which area to concentrate the main research, it is necessary to first obtain basic information about the women's magazine market in Russia and its trends, as well as primary information about our competitor. This approach is also important from a cost perspective for the journal: it cannot afford to spend a lot of money researching something that then turns out to be completely irrelevant.

Many competitors, such as ELLE, Top Model, Harper's Bazar, Officiel, regularly conduct research on their audiences (especially before entering the Russian market), mainly in order to obtain information about their closest competitors and their strategies.

The most valuable and systematically processed information about Cosmo's readership was obtained from an analysis of the results of a questionnaire conducted by Cosmo himself. The questionnaire was attached to the issue of the magazine and was intended only for research of the female audience. The results presented below were published in Cosmo (a total of 1,700 responses were analyzed).

Description of the Cosmo audience who took part in the survey

Young people from 20 to 30 - 78%.
Those living in Moscow and St. Petersburg - 60% or in another larger city - 18%.
With higher (56%) or technical (28%) education.
46% have jobs or 27% are students. 17% - neither work nor study, as well as those who are supported by their husbands.
Income: a third have a monthly income from 75 to 125 US$, another third - from 125 to 300 US$, i.e. are not the poor part of the population.

A brief overview of articles about trends occurring in the market for women's magazines and advertising

“A firm benefits from conducting research and publishing the results when it is confident that the data will be valuable in terms of gaining new clients. If an advertiser sees in numbers that a newspaper has readers who are its potential buyers, then he will place his advertisements in this newspaper, despite the lower prices offered by other publications."

“Cosmo receives a lot of letters from men who love him and read him regularly.”

“Cosmo and other similar magazines have become an important part of the lives of new Russians (rich people) because they are associated with prestige and belonging to the higher social classes.”

Analysis of readers' opinions using a mini-questionnaire

The purpose of such mini-surveys is to obtain a preliminary picture of the overall situation. The information does not purport to be statistical.

1. How many issues of Cosmo have you read?

2a. Which of Cosmo’s columns and articles do you like so much that you read them (or would read them) first (by column and article)?
2b. Sections and articles are less popular, but usually read.
2c. Sections and articles that are only scanned or completely skipped by the majority of respondents.

3. How long do you keep Cosmo numbers?
Here are some remarkable positive correlations between the frequency of reading Cosmo and the period of storage of the magazine (a month, more than a month, a year).

4. Your age, education and income

5. Do you work in the private or public sector?

6. Have you ever bought anything after seeing an advertisement in Cosmo, and if so, what kind of advertisement was it (cosmetics, perfumes and hygiene products, clothing, shoes and accessories, furniture and household appliances, jewelry, drinks, etc.)?

7. What do you like about Cosmo and Vogue?

8. What don't you like about Cosmo and Vogue?

Hypothesis development

Below is a list of hypotheses that most harmoniously integrate both the theoretical model and all the information that we received during the primary analysis. All our hypotheses are aimed at ultimately increasing the profit and competitiveness of the magazine.

In modern research theory, an approach is widely used in which each of the studied dependencies is expressed by two hypotheses: marketing and research (Geoff Alford).

Marketing hypotheses are statements whose purpose is to establish a relationship between intervening variables (in our case, management actions) and independent variables/goals (increasing profits from sales and advertising). In other words, marketing hypotheses contain assumptions that certain actions of the magazine will (or will not) lead to certain changes in the final results of the magazine's activities.

Research hypotheses are statements formulated in such a way that they can be tested based on the information collected during the research process.

The main purpose of this separation is to ensure that the hypotheses tested in the study are closely related to the journal's marketing strategy.

To formulate marketing hypotheses, we used the format of an “if-then” statement. To formulate research hypotheses, we used both neutral hypotheses and alternative hypotheses.

Examples of neutral and alternative hypotheses

Neutral hypotheses

1. Equal shares of men and women read Cosmo.
2. People of all ages read our magazine.

Alternative hypotheses

1. Among the readers of our magazine, men make up the majority.
2. The share of our readers who visit restaurants is less than that of our competitor.

Collection, analysis and synthesis of research results

When administering a questionnaire, it is necessary to adhere to certain procedures, which are extremely important for obtaining accurate and undistorted answers from respondents. We must introduce ourselves, describe the goals of our research, and assure respondents that their responses will be kept completely confidential.

It is also important that respondents do not experience any difficulties in completing the questionnaire. Therefore, the questionnaire must contain all the necessary instructions for filling it out. This will also help ensure complete and accurate responses and avoid the problem of low survey participation rates.

Determining approaches to question content and questionnaire response measurement

I. Frequency of reading magazines

The questions in this part are very important, especially when combined with other questions on the survey. Questions must be closed (complete), i.e. have only a limited number of answer options. A nominal scale is used, which offers several fixed response options, from which the respondent must choose the most appropriate (“yes/no”; “never/sometimes/often”; “1-5, 6-10, 11-15”, etc. .). The question must be asked separately for each journal.

II. Likes and dislikes

The questions in this section are designed to provide information about the strengths and weaknesses of both journals. The information obtained will be strongly related to questions about advertised products and reader preferences. Questions should be open-ended, i.e. The respondent should be given the chance to choose their own answer option(s). The answers in this section may help us develop new hypotheses.

III. Participation in the purchase of magazines

This set of questions will help test some of our hypotheses and develop new hypotheses. Questions in this section should be closed questions. The nominal scale must be used. Questions for each journal must be asked separately.

IV. Reader preferences

The questions in this section can help test hypotheses about possible ways to improve the content of the journal and increase the number of its readers (Hypotheses 1 and 4). To facilitate the choice, the respondent is offered a list of categories. Questions must be closed. An interval scale was used, which prompts the respondent to choose the point that most corresponds to his opinion within a certain interval (“very interested, interested, not at all interested,” etc.).

V. Consumer preferences and attitudes towards advertising

The questions in this section provide us with the information we need to test our hypotheses about increasing our readership and advertising revenue (Hypotheses 1 and 4). Respondents are presented with a list of categories. Questions should be both closed-ended and open-ended, and both nominal and interval scales should be used.

VI. personal information

The information is directly related to questions about the consumer and reading preferences of the respondents and will help test hypotheses 5, 4 and 1. The questions in this section will be closed. The nominal scale is used.

VII. Questions about the format of the questionnaire

The main purpose of the questions in this section is to find out the respondents’ opinions regarding the survey in general and the questionnaire in particular. The questions in this section are closed, a Likert scale is used (in fact, an interval scale, which received its special name as a result of the widespread use of specific phrases in the name of intervals, namely: “completely agree - tend to agree - agree and disagree equally - tend to disagree - completely disagree”, first used by this scientist).

In order to check how fully the questions included in the questionnaire cover the information that the journal will need to test the developed hypotheses, it is useful to create a table in which the questions would be compared with the hypotheses. If there are not enough questions to test a particular hypothesis, you can easily correct the situation.

Sample characteristics and other features of information collection methods

The model of a non-probability (i.e. selected not at random, but in accordance with the parameters established by the researcher) quota approach to sampling is necessary in cases where a certain part of the population is not sufficiently represented in the standard sample. We need to test some important hypotheses about men as readers of women's magazines, a category that is currently underrepresented among women's magazine readers.

Given the above, we will use the following sample:

Gender: 10 men and 10 women.
Age: 50% from 14 to 20 years, 50% from 21 to 27 years.
Reader status: 90% read both Cosmo and Vogue,
10% do not read women's magazines at all.

conclusions

1. Men, as readers of women's magazines, are very interested in sex, attractive photographs and relationships between men and women.

90% of our male respondents were “very interested” or “interested” in material about sex and relationships between men and women.

2. Our magazine has more readers who buy perfumes, cosmetics and hygiene products than our competitors.

This research hypothesis is also supported by the findings. 83% of Cosmo readers are “very interested” or “interested” in purchasing cosmetics, perfumes and hygiene products. Plus, 72% of Cosmo readers buy these products after seeing them advertised in the magazine. For Vog, the corresponding results were 67% and 61%, respectively. The difference is not very big, but the trend is promising. If a similar result is obtained in the framework of an actual large-scale study conducted by the magazine, this will give the magazine a significant advantage in attracting manufacturers of relevant products.

3. There is a strong positive correlation between the number of surprises and discounts and people's desire to buy Cosmo.

This hypothesis is undoubtedly confirmed by our data. 50% of respondents rate the likelihood of the mentioned surprises influencing their desire to buy the magazine as “very high.” The remaining 30% rate it as “high”.

4. There is a positive relationship between the level of education of readers and the materials they choose to read.

This hypothesis cannot be fully confirmed by our data. Reader preferences for many sections and articles are quite similar, regardless of the level of education of respondents. This can be explained by the lack of representativeness of our test sample. But, assuming that similar results were actually obtained by the journal, this would mean for the journal that this relationship is not very significant, and the journal is better off concentrating on more significant variables.

5. There is no significant relationship between readers' occupations and their purchase and/or reading of Cosmo.

The relationship between the social status of readers and the frequency of their reading of women's magazines is quite weak. Employees are the category that, on average, reads women's magazines more often than other categories. But it would be premature to draw any specific conclusions about the truth of this relationship. In such cases, such hypotheses are left for further research, in which respondents will be asked more precise and detailed questions to monitor the significance of this relationship.

Other hypotheses suggested by the data obtained

Often, after conducting research, additional (and sometimes very significant) dependencies are discovered, for which the researcher did not have sufficient prerequisites to detect before.

1. If we increase the number of columns, articles and materials that are mutually attractive to both men and women, and especially intended for joint reading, this will allow us to increase our readership.

We also noticed some interesting data about what might motivate people to buy women's magazines. The majority of respondents (35%) trust the advice of their friends. Therefore, we can assume that:

2. If we increase the amount of content that encourages readers to communicate with friends, then we can increase our readership.

50% of Cosmo readers complain that there are too many ads. At the same time, our magazine advertises some products that are not very popular among our readers: for example, jewelry and drinks (only 25% and 30% of respondents were either “very interested” or “interested” in these products). From here we can assume that:

Naturally, the last hypothesis must be analyzed in detail so that the magazine’s income from an increase in the reader base becomes greater than the magazine’s losses from a decrease in income from advertising the above-mentioned products.

In Fig. 1 - subordination and interconnection of multi-level tasks, by solving which we get closer to achieving the main goal.

At the lowest level, when we have collected the necessary information (we have studied public opinion, rivals, assessed the available information, analyzed it, identified strengths and weaknesses, learned about preferences, identified target groups of both the readership and advertisers, problems, etc.) and have made certain conclusions, we begin to develop our strategies:

• Increase in materials interesting to men.
• Increasing shared reading materials.
• Increased content that encourages communication with friends.
• Increase in surprises (new cosmetics, perfumes, etc. attached to advertising) and discount coupons.
• Preparation of reports for advertisers on the results of the research conducted

• determine suitable PR tools (“direct mail”, institutions created to implement relations with the mass media, presentations, special events and other methods of creating publicity); and
• develop advertising materials within the framework of a single concept and general plan for influencing the opinions and attitudes of people in order to popularize the image, maintain reputation, and create publicity.
• apply them in practice, check how effectively we have developed our program. And there should be no mistakes here.