Hachette Filipacchi to put focus on retention
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Hachette Filipacchi will focus its marketing strategy on increasing revenue from subscribers to its core Red and Elle titles rather than acquiring new readers.
The publisher will also place less focus on increasing circulation but will instead look to retain and boost the value of existing customers, instead of attempting to attract new customers with price promotions.
Marketing director Reid Holland says that while the company wants a strong ABC report, its new direction will take a “holistic view” of its brands and long-term audiences across print, digital and further brand extensions.
He adds: “We’re putting product at the heart of what we do and selling it to the right type of customer.”
Holland admits that this year’s increase in Royal Mail postage prices will have a knock-on effect on subscription costs, which means extra value needs to be added to the subscriber package.
As a result, Hachette Filipacchi increased investment in its loyalty clubs for Elle, Red, Elle Decoration and Psychologies, relaunching with new monthly offers from retailers including Urban Outfitters and Liberty.
Lagardere, the French owner of Hachette, sold its international magazine portfolio to US-based Hearst Corporation for €651m (£574m) last month. Hearst, which also owns The National Magazine Company, will take control of 102 Lagardere print titles including Red in the UK and will assume licensing rights for flagship title Elle.
YouGov Insight:
Print Media
· 83% of the public would not consider paying for online newspaper content. The Daily Mail is read online at least once a week by 8% of the public, with the Guardian and the Telegraph trailing with 7% and 6% respectively.
· 59% of the public agree that it is worth paying for a good newspaper.
· 39% agree that newspapers are too expensive now.
· 17% of the public believe that there is no point paying for a paper when you can get it for free. This statistic is the same across the ABC1 and the C2DE social grades.
· Of those willing to pay for online newspaper content, over half (52%) said that they expected to receive exclusive stories and/or interview not available anywhere else.
