It is clearly redundant to say that marketing a weekly magazine is completely different to marketing a movie or even a TV show. Obviously circulation is key the magazine wants to reach as many people as possible - but just as important is the readership.
At first this may sound strange; wouldn't a magazine prefer to sell more copies rather than just have people read magazines that have already been bought? However we have to remember that magazines don't make their money from the small profits of the magazine itself but from the money paid by big companies to advertise, in the case of LOOK magazine these are usually clothing and cosmetic companies.
This isn't to say that that LOOK isn't interested in attracting new audience members or keeping old ones - it's just that advertising a weekly magazine can be very costly. Particularly if one of the key ideologies and selling points of the magazine is that it is up to date all of the time.
Obviously the cheapest way to market continuously and to ensure that your marketing is entirely up to date is through the genius of the internet...
...but more on that later...
LOOK magazine actually did attempt what we might describe as a more 'traditional' form of marketing with some print based adverts that looked like this...
This looks like it's a photograph of a print advert at a bus stop - but the whole text is an advert. A slightly self-conscious not towards the nature of advertising and the fact that the magazine changes constantly (the cover in the 'fake' bus stop changes regularly). Also it appears that whatever city this is in has been invaded by alien females from the planet Consumeriz!
But the advert does its job (and you need to decide how).
LOOK magazine also flirted with TV adverts, the following was the most memorable...
And there were another series of adverts in a campaign called 'That's My Look'
...click on the image below to take you to the website where you can watch all five, conduct a similar analysis of them...
...click on the image below to take you to the website where you can watch all five, conduct a similar analysis of them...
All this is very well and good, but most of these advertising campaigns were to boost sales and more importantly awareness of the product as it was launching - but this kind of campaign is expensive - albeit for ten second TV ads.
So since then, the main source of advertising is inevitably the internet.
We must explore LOOK.co.uk website and ask the following questions...
The notes you make here should not just be about what the website has - but what it offers potential audiences.
Remember to apply theories such as the Uses & Gratifications model as well as the Lines of Appeal.
To really understand how important Social Networking sites are to LOOK magazine you will need to 'Like' the Facebook page, and 'follow' their Twitter account - you must become an audience member to fully appreciate what they do to keep them in your consciousness...
...until then here's a few images of what you're in for...
This article from Media Magazine explains what Grazia - one of LOOK's main competitors - have been doing with the new technologies available.
*reads and makes notes on the benefits of modern technology for the magazine industry*
To really understand how important Social Networking sites are to LOOK magazine you will need to 'Like' the Facebook page, and 'follow' their Twitter account - you must become an audience member to fully appreciate what they do to keep them in your consciousness...
...until then here's a few images of what you're in for...
...and what I now refer to as LOOK magazine's 'relentless' Twitter feed...
So - just looking at a picture of Facebook or Twitter doesn't really tell us exactly how it feels to be an audience - however, even following, friending or liking doesn't always give us an insight into exactly what LOOK magazine are using these social networking websites for.
This clipping from IPC Media's website should help you to understand some of the things that LOOK are doing to exploit the facilities and functions that Facebook has to offer...
Of course when it comes to using new media to market your product even social networking is old hat these days - it's how we access the media that determines so much of our use of the media.
For many of us this will be via a smartphone or tablet - between them, the iPhone and the iPad could revolutionise or destroy the magazine industry.
The decision for the magazine companies is whether they resist or dive in and join the revolution.
*reads and makes notes on the benefits of modern technology for the magazine industry*
Once you have analysed the LOOK website, become an avid fan of their various social networking output and downloaded their iPad app (or at least read about similar ideas in the article above), you might consider writing an answer to the following question...
How important is the internet to your selected industry?
or even
With reference to your selected industry explore how your chosen texts use marketing to advertise themselves.
