Thought processes

When challenged about the value of Thrale’s brewery at its auction in 1781, Samuel Johnson replied, "We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice."

Just so. The value of something is not merely the sum of its physical parts. Rather, it is the benefit which that ‘something’ confers on the buyer or beholder - wealth, acumen, self-confidence, health, the approval of others and so on.

I shudder to think what the average subscription marketing manager would make of Dr Johnson’s copy, were the great writer asked to pen a promotion for any of the magazines currently crowding our newsstand shelves. Anything beyond "You’ll save 40% and we won’t charge you for postage either" would probably be summarily deleted.

Now, I appreciate that my comments may not apply to everyone reading this article. But if you are even occasionally tempted to accept promotional copy which, like some crazed missionary, shouts "save save save" to the exclusion of virtually any other message… then read on and sin no more.

Like Thrale’s aforementioned boilers and vats, your magazine has a value that goes far beyond what appears in its table of contents. It holds out certain promises to its readers, and delivers on those promises through the articles in its pages.

And what articles they are! Not just well written and edited, they’re informative, inspiring, reassuring and personally enriching in any number of rewarding ways.

If your subscription copy doesn’t match them in appeal you should, as the spider said to the fly, consider your position.

So what can you do to ensure that your promotional copy really sings? (I’m thinking for the moment about your acquisition direct mailings and external inserts. But my comments may apply more widely.)

First of all, before you sit down with your copywriter or creative team, you’re going to have to do some serious thinking about your magazine. Time consuming it may be, but the work you do at this critical pre-briefing stage will, more than any other creative factor, spell the difference between a new control and a costly dud.

Define your magazine

How would you define your magazine? What is its focus and what makes it unique?

At one level, this is obviously quite easy to determine. For example: "Britain’s longest-established chess weekly." "The only international magazine for connoisseurs of contemporary art." "The most widely-read classic car magazine in the world."

Notice something special about these definitions. Not only do they capture what’s unique about the publications to which they refer. They are also highly specific and they can be backed up with proof. (As, to take a fictional example, "the world’s best knitting magazine" cannot.)

If you’re unable to find anything unique about your magazine (and that really would surprise me), you might try approaching your task by investigating the nature of its readership, both current and potential. But more about this in a moment.

Sometimes, you’ll find that the definition you arrive at leads you to a brilliant marketing concept, because your magazine has moved on since it was first launched… leaving your current market almost entirely unaware of how it has changed.

I’m reminded here of Rolling Stone in the ‘70s, when Jann Wenner transformed the title from a contemporary music magazine into a journal of uncompromising political and social comment. In attempting to define the ‘new’ Rolling Stone, the direct marketing guru Tom Collins came up with a headline that proved hard to beat: "Is Rolling Stone the most misunderstood magazine in America?"

Determine your proposition

What is a ‘proposition’? The aforementioned Mr Collins called it "the mechanics of satisfaction." Or, to put it another way - "what are you going to give me, your subscriber, in return for what I’m going to give you - my subscription fee?"

Maybe you’ll give me a discount off the bookstall price. Perhaps you’ll throw in a free gift or bonus issues. And naturally you’ll return my subscription payment, in whole or in part, if I ever grow dissatisfied.

But is that it? What about improving my chances for promotion (not to mention my salary) over the next 12 months? Guiding me through the steps I need to take to set up my own small business, minimising costs and risks? Inspiring me to create a beautiful and inviting home on a limited budget? Helping me evaluate and compare new digital cameras, ensuring that I get a good deal on the best choice for my purposes?

You’ll notice something special about these fledgling propositions: the promises they make are very specific ("minimising costs and risks", "on a limited budget"). And this gives them both immediacy and credibility – two very important characteristics of good advertising copy.

So that, in a nutshell, is your proposition: a clear statement of what your magazine offers your prospective readers. Your creative brief should state this proposition clearly, as it will form the basis of your copy platform and all supporting reader benefits.

(Note: If your magazine is very well known and you have a very good offer, then there’s no reason why your offer can’t serve as the basis of your proposition. (Remember the Economist’s "We’re free for the next 4 weeks. Are you?") But I would guard against this in the majority of instances.)

‘Select out’ your prospect

So you know what your magazine offers its readers. But who does this appeal to? Who is your magazine aimed at and who, precisely, are you targeting with your subscription campaign?

You’ll have a ready answer to those questions, I have no doubt. In fact, there’s probably so much market research and other key data at your disposal that you’re in danger of overlooking one of the most effective creative treatments available to you.

It’s simple, direct and if you wish, can even include your offer. Take, as an example, this headline from London Review of Books’ current external insert:

"A rare invitation for those who love reading… Request six free issues of the London Review of Books, the magazine for alert, intelligent, word-addicted readers."

Why does this joint headline and subhead work (as it has done for more than 10 years)? It succeeds because it grabs the prospective reader by the lapels and says, in effect, "We know you. You love reading books. And as that’s the case, we have the perfect magazine for you."

In short, it ‘selects out’ the ideal prospect from the vast crowd that will come across your promotion, cutting through the clutter and gaining immediate attention.

But it does something else as well: it flatters the prospect in such a way that he or she is nodding ‘yes, yes, that’s me’ before even turning inside.

Features don’t sell. Benefits do.

Earlier in this article I alluded to benefits – the personal advantages your subscriber can gain from your product. But how do you determine what these benefits are? And which ones will your prospective subscribers find most compelling?

This is the stuff briefs are built on. Good briefs, that is. Briefs written by marketing execs who know their ‘features’ from their benefits.

To wit: features are the categories of articles your magazine publishes (along with its relevant physical characteristics). For example, if yours is a women’s title, these may include "fashion", "beauty", "travel", "health news" etc.

These are not benefits themselves, but they confer benefits. To unearth these ‘potential personal gains’ (to adopt a less repetitive phrase), simply draw up a list of every major feature in your magazine, then assign a specific benefit to each one. Then pare your second list down until you have a ‘hard core’ of rock solid benefits that are believable, compelling and genuinely deliverable by your title.

The longer you work at this exercise, the more detailed guidance you’ll be able to give your creative team. Because every feature will easily deliver more than one benefit. And each of those benefits will, I am certain, meet an important and genuine need on the part of your potential subscriber.

Of course you’ll want to assign a hierarchy to those benefits, based on what you know about your existing and potential subscribers. While this admittedly involves some guesswork (I prefer to think of it as developing ‘hypotheses’), it’s a lot better than letting your copywriter depart armed with nothing more than your magazine strapline!

Benefits themselves can, of course, be rational, emotive, or both. As a guideline, Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’ will give you a glimpse of the rich vein of human emotion your promotions can mine. He includes (and I have made additions from other sources): security, identity, curiosity, mastery / self-mastery, comfort, respect / recognition of others, gains in efficiency, freedom / autonomy, enjoyment / pleasure, pride of accomplishment.

Appeal to these deep-seated emotional needs and you’re on your way to writing copy that wins hearts while it opens wallets.

Which isn't to say that it’s going to be easy. But as Sam Johnson said, "What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure."