Case Study No. 1: Helping Create Dynamic Publications for the Print Media Industry
The print media industry has had its share of challenges in recent years: newspapers struggling with declining circulation rates, established magazines facing declines in ad pages, and a general, industry-wide attempt to contend with the ever-increasing role of the Internet as a source of news, information, and advertising.
Our media work has covered the full gamut of editorial, design, marketing, and advertising topics. So when one of the most established magazines in the industry came to us looking to make its covers more dynamic and appealing to newsstand buyers, we knew the issue was of vital importance.
As exciting as this assignment was, we knew it would be far from straightforward. For one thing, we needed to focus not just on cover topic strategy, but on concrete, design-related cover tactics as well. We also needed to determine not just what would enhance the covers' general appeal, but what would help covers stand out more effectively in a newsstand environment. Additionally, we had to understand how strategies and tactics might differ by specific topic area.
We began by consulting existing newsstand sales data and issue-reading survey data to gain further insight into cover strategies that appeared to be most and least effective. But we knew we also needed to hear from consumers themselves, to add a human voice to these statistics.
We decided to conduct a focus group study in which we presented consumers with a series of covers in batches—including our clients' covers and competitive covers. By asking them to pick one or two covers out of a group, we were coming close to simulating the actual newsstand experience. We also modified specific cover design elements (headlines, cover image, colors, fonts) to measure the impact of each on purchase decisions.
We then integrated consumers' feedback with the existing data. Using our recommendations, the client was able to tweak upcoming cover designs to create consumer-friendlier covers with higher-selling numbers.
