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To Mr Gordon Henderson
0th October 00
REPORT ON THE MARKETING STRATERGIES OF A MEDIA OR MASS COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
I have been requested by Mr Henderson to research the history and marketing strategy of a media or mass communications company. The report will include the company background; looking at the structure of the company and also to see how it has been performing financially. I will also be looking at one of the company’s products and investigate who the audiences are for and what products it advertises successfully. This report is to be submitted to Mr Henderson by the 6th of December 00.
The company that I have chosen is called IPC Media Ltd who publish such magazines as; Marie Claire, Homes & Gardens and TV Times. The magazine that I have selected is called Loaded, which is a men’s lifestyle magazine.
.0 INFORMATION
.1 HISTORY & DEVELOPMENT
IPC Media Ltd is a subsidiary company of Time Inc, a division of AOL Time Warner that is established in America. IPC Media Ltd was established in the United Kingdom from May 14 and has been producing many top branded magazines since then. The company is also subdivided into groups (see Fig 1.0) so as to dedicate a publisher to a certain type of magazine. The magazine that I am investigating is called ‘Loaded’ published by IPC Ignite.
Fig 1.0 Company Structure
[Source http//www.ipc.co.uk]
The Chief Executive Officer of IPC Media Ltd is Ms Sly Bailey who was promoted, in December 1, from Managing Director of IPC tx Ltd, which published TV listings. While at IPC tx Ltd she managed to increase the circulation of the TV listings magazines, it was this that eventually got her promoted to the position that she now holds. Ever since her promotion to CEO, she has increased circulation of many of the magazines that the company publishes, for example Marie Claire and TV Times. This can also be seen on the company accounts (see Fig 1.1) where in her initial year, the turnover went up by .5% and the pre-tax profits increased by just over %, which indicates that there was a dramatic decrease in the cost of sales.
Date of Accounts September 000 (£) September 1 (£)
Turnover 5,70 50,850
Pre-tax Profits 6,410 56,700
Fixed Assets 1,0 1,000
Current Assets 71,70 15,450
Current Liabilities 0,10 1,710
Share Capital ,580 ,580
Working Capital 181,610 10,740
Fig 1.1 IPC Media Ltd. Company Accounts
[Source Kompass 00 Ed]
As I have mentioned earlier the magazine that I have chosen is called ‘Loaded’, which is a men’s magazine published by a division of IPC Media Ltd called IPC ignite! Ltd. This sub-company is directed by Mike Soutar, who joined the IPC team in July 000. Prior to his current post, he has had a very strong commercial background, working with ‘Maxim’ in the US increasing the circulation of the magazine to over 16%, and also took ‘FHM’ from circulating 50k to 500k
. TARGET AUDIENCE
‘Loaded’, priced at £.50, is a men’s magazine so therefore is aimed at one sex but not all the general population of men read this. It is specifically aimed at single career minded men who like the hedonistic lifestyle. It has articles involving sex, music, sport, humor and general lifestyle, and advertises many products such as men’s perfume, expensive watches and designer clothes. It is usually read by men aged between 18 to 5.
15 -4 5 -4 5 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 +
Coverage % 1 8 1 0 0
Coverage ‘ooo 861 656 6 0 4
Fig 1. Readership of Loaded
[Source BRAD November 00 Ed]
The table above (Fig 1.) is an illustration of the age groups that read the magazine and the total readership of the magazine comes to just under two million. It is indicating that most of the readers for the magazine falls within the 15 to 4 age group with slight decreases as the age gets higher and higher.
. SUCCESSFULLY TARGETED PRODUCTS
The products that the magazine advertises are designer clothing and perfume, expensive watches and toiletries. It also advertises many other products which they believe that the reader will be interested in, such as computers, films, music and sometimes products directly involved with sex. The back pages of the magazine are usually packed up with little boxes advertising chat lines and gadgets. It also knows that some of their readers are below the age for hedonistic activities so therefore advertises identity cards to prove their age.
The price that the advertisements placed in the magazine range from £4,000 to £10,000 depending on the format and size of the advert, however the price is lower for small boxes of adverts. Below is a list of some of the widely used advert publication prices for ‘Loaded’.
Mono (£) Colour (£)
Page 7,65 ,670
Inside Front 1,845
Inside Back 1,845
Outside Back 1,0
Half 4,40 5,685
Classified Rate 50 50
Fig 1.4 Advertising Rates for Loaded
[Source BRAD November 00]
.0 CONCLUSION
IPC ignite! Ltd is the company which publishes magazines which are men’s lifestyle magazines directed by Mike Soutar. The magazines which are published by this department are; Loaded, Loaded Fashion, Muzik, NME and Uncut. IPC Media Ltd is the company which heads the IPC ignite Ltd and the reason that the company has been subdivided is so that each of the sub-company’s can concentrate on a target audience that the section is involved in. Since Ms Sly Bailey became CEO of IPC Media Ltd, the company was redeveloped into the 1st century and this is the reason that ‘Loaded’ is in 54th position of the top 100 consumer magazines category. Mike Soutar would like to make the achievement that he has done with ‘FHM’ on to ‘Loaded’, however, it is still a long way till it comes to the circulation numbers reached by ‘FHM’.
The magazine is aimed at a certain type of male of a certain age and it is not trying to reach all the males of this population but a certain category. This is the age where expensive tastes and attracting the opposite sex matter and this is exploited within the contents of the magazines, with half naked women and adverts that lure you into thinking that, if you have this then you will have the girl in that magazine. It is this thinking that the company has used and it is this that the post teen adults are lured by. The activities described in the magazine are all about living a hedonistic life, sleeping in the daylight and doing what your parents will never do at night. The magazine does not need to do much to sell pages for advertisements as they know that it will attract advertisers to the magazine due to the circulation figures. The advertisers on the magazine know who the target audience are and place products that will possibly induce the reader into buying the product.
There is only one recommendation that I would give to possibly increase the circulation figures and that is to give complimentary products alongside the magazine, such as posters, little gimmick products with obscenity or anything that might interest a potential customer to buy it. Also another way to keep the consumers loyal to the magazine is to have editorials which span into the next few editions of the magazine. This is what I believe ‘FHM’ are quite good at; they would start with an editorial in one edition and continue it through to a one or two more.
Overall, the company seems to be going in the right direction with the approach that the directors have been taking, but there is a great competition for shelve spaces on magazine stands and the other top competitors will be looking for better ways to increase their sales, it is just a matter of keeping themselves informed about new ideas and approaches that they can pilot.
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