Print
Solutions December 2005
case
study
COMMERCIAL
PRINTING
Magazine
Markets To Moms
ducklings
magazine looks like it could share
space on the racks next to Parents
or Family Circle. Smiling children
adorn the cover of the 4-color
publication, along with teasers
for articles about creating a
simple gingerbread house, preparing
a festive fall menu and teaching
kids to help around the house.
But ducklings isn’t a newsstand
magazine: It’s a carefully
crafted publication mailed by
a New England-based supermarket
chain to customers enrolled in
an innovative customer loyalty
program.
Shaw’s
Supermarkets created the ducklings
program a few years ago to tap
into a highly sought after market—mothers
with children up to five years
old. Shoppers in that demographic
sign up for the program at stores
or online. The main benefit is
ducklings, a complimentary quarterly
magazine with informational articles
about raising a young family and
at least $10 worth of coupons
for products sold at Shaw’s.
To
create the magazine and other
printed pieces for the ducklings
program, Shaw’s turned to
King Fish Media, Salem, Mass.
The 5-year-old company specializes
in customer retention pieces and
services, including magazines,
newsletters, web casts, web site
design, videos and more. “We
don’t have one solution.
We have infinite solutions,”
says Cameron Brown, president
of King Fish Media. “And
we’re perfectly happy to
recommend a solution that may
not make us the most money, but
satisfies the client.”
King
Fish Media supplies three primary
printed products for the ducklings
program: an introductory binder,
periodic coupon packets and the
quarterly magazine. “The
1-2 punch of the binder and the
magazine allows Shaw’s to
stay in front of their target
audience,” says Brown.
When
shoppers join the customer loyalty
program, they receive a 91Ú4 x
8-inch, 2-ring binder. The cover
resembles pink and green plaid
fabric and is imprinted with the
name of the supermarket and program.
The inside front cover reads “All
About Me” and includes spaces
for mothers to add vital information
about their children, such as
their names, birthdates and photos.
The inside back lists hotline
phone numbers for baby product
manufacturers, such as Pampers,
Huggies and Gerber. It also includes
spaces to add local emergency
numbers.
ducklings
members, who register the birthdates
of their children with Shaw’s,
periodically receive 36-page inserts
about health, nutrition and wellness
appropriate to the age groups
of their kids. For example, King
Fish Media has produced inserts
for children from birth to three
months, three to six months, six
to 12 months and so on. “The
binder and inserts are intended
to be a reference book that goes
in a drawer,” says Brown.
The
coupon packets, called savings
samplers, include up to $40 worth
of coupons on a variety of items
at Shaw’s. A sheet of coupons
also appears in each issue of
ducklings magazine. Launched in
the fall of 2003, ducklings includes
100 percent original content written
by freelance writers hired by
King Fish Media.
Each
issue has seasonal stories, such
as an article on making easy Halloween
costumes in the fall and one on
fun rainy day activities in the
spring. ducklings also includes
standing departments: For instance,
“Up Front” presents
new products, “Doctor Is
In” has health information
and “Quick Dinners”
provides recipes for families
on the go.
The
magazine’s circulation is
approximately 125,000. It’s
double scored and perfect bound,
and each issue features children
on the cover. “When it shows
up in the mail, there’s
a ‘wow’ factor,”
says Brown. But creating a showpiece
that’s also educational
isn’t easy. “There’s
a long development process,”
says Brown, who worked alongside
a team from King Fish Media and
Shaw’s for more than 10
months before launching the premier
issue.
The
first step for King Fish Media
was competitive research. The
company studied all other parenting
and nutrition magazines, considering
what they did well and where they
were lacking. For instance, the
company discovered a scarcity
of articles on fatherhood. So
each issue of ducklings includes
a “Daddy & Me”
feature story about fathers and
children interacting. “The
overall goal is to fill an editorial
void and position yourself as
an expert in X, Y and Z,”
says Brown.
When
King Fish Media had a general
direction for the magazine’s
content, it worked with Shaw’s
to develop a tone. Brown says
they settled on “helpful
advice from your big sister—someone
who’s already been there.
That’s the underlying mission
for all our stories.” The
customer thinks they’ve
succeeded. “[King Fish Media]
has been able to execute that
consistently through every issue,”
says John Giaquinto, manager of
customer marketing for Shaw’s.
Next,
King Fish Media generated editorial
ideas for one year’s worth
of magazines. Now the two companies
are working on the 10th issue
of ducklings. Typically, King
Fish Media creates an editorial
outline with five or six ideas
for each issue, Shaw’s selects
and signs off on the ideas, editors
write the articles, then Shaw’s
comments on the text. King Fish
Media incorporates the input,
creates a PDF reviewed by its
staff and the customer, makes
final edits and sends the magazine
to Acme Printing in Wilmington,
Mass., for production.
“One
of the reasons we’ve been
successful from the launch to
this day is that we continually
talk about the strategies and
purpose of ducklings,” says
Giaquinto. “King Fish Media
remembers that this magazine exists
for a strategic purpose for our
company. Even though they take
a lot of pride in—and ownership
of—the magazine, they understand
if something is not achieving
the objective we want, they should
change it. And they do.”
Brown
speaks highly of his customer,
too. “They’re a great
partner because they understand
the importance of keeping customers.
It’s what they’ve
built their business on,”
he says. “Some customers
you bring along. These people
absolutely understand the importance
of audience.”
—Susan
Keen Flynn
1.
Too many companies launch quarterly
or monthly newsletters or magazines—and
make a fuss about the first issue—then
send out subsequent issues late.
Or worse, they never publish another
issue. “If people see this
beautiful magazine show up in
their mailbox and never get another
one, you’ve wasted your
money,” says Cameron Brown,
president of King Fish Media,
Salem, Mass. If your customers
publish newsletters or magazines,
decide on one year’s worth
of editorial before you print
the first issues and ensure that
the publications are printed and
mailed on time.
2.
Often, articles for company newsletters
or magazines are written in house:
The company president bumbles
through a monthly message, the
marketing manager writes advertorials
or an employee in accounting who
yearns to be a novelist drafts
an endless article. “We
build an audience by using professional
editors and writers that understand
the audience,” says Brown.
King Fish Media outsources its
customers’ text to freelance
writers with expertise in each
publication’s subject matter.
3.
If you want to know if a newsletter
or magazine has value, ask the
readers. King Fish Media included
a readership survey in the third
issue of ducklings, a magazine
it creates for customers of Shaw’s
Supermarkets who have young children.
The first 50 readers to return
the 25-question survey received
$50 in free groceries from Shaw’s.
One thousand readers, or slightly
less than one percent, completed
the surveys. Based on comments,
King Fish Media and Shaw’s
eliminated some regular departments
and features and added others,
making the magazine more valuable
to readers.
