Executive Summary

The customer magazine market is showing signs of reaching maturity. Many of its largest clients are becoming more demanding in their requirements, both in terms of creativity and value for money; publishing agencies are having to work harder as their margins continue to shrink.

The overall market has shown a high level of growth since 1999, but the rate of growth has been gradually slowing down, mainly due to the highly competitive market conditions that now apply.

Customer magazines within the retail sector - especially those produced for leading grocery multiples - encompass some of the highest circulation titles within the whole consumer magazine market. High circulation and strong emphasis on lifestyle content mean that these magazines are often seen as strong rivals to the mainstream women's magazine market - exacerbated by the fact that supermarkets are now important distribution channels for mainstream magazines.

The contract publishing industry has its roots in the travel sector; travel publications continue to be highly important to the industry. The travel magazine sector was particularly hard-hit by the terrorist attacks of 11th September 2001 and their aftermath. However, there are now signs of recovery in the travel market, which should filter down to the travel magazine sector.

The automotive sector includes a number of high-circulation magazines, including those from the Automobile Association (AA) and the Royal Automobile Club (RAC), as well as those from motor manufacturers, which use them to keep in regular communication with purchasers of their cars. The sector has seen a number of changes; for example, the AA has switched from having just one customer magazine to having two separate publications.

The customer magazine market has two types of consumer - those who read the titles and the clients that pay contract publishers to produce the magazines for them. Convincing the latter of the effectiveness of the customer magazine medium has become increasingly important as the market becomes more competitive; much effort is being expended by the industry in doing so. The Association of Publishing Agencies (APA) is currently conducting its own programme of research to measure return on investment across all industry sectors.

Key Note's exclusive research for this report probed the attitudes of general consumers and found that 35% claimed not to read customer magazines, 37% said that they read magazines provided by travel companies and 31% read the free magazines produced by the retail sector. 24% had used coupons and/or special offers from customer magazines and 18% had bought things as a result of seeing them in customer magazines. 19% agreed that customer magazines are a good way for companies to communicate with their customers, with 14% feeling that such magazines are generally just as well-produced and interesting as paid-for titles. Very few (6%) actively disagreed that this is the case.

Price:	£ 799.00 GBP ex VAT (£ 938.83 GBP inc VAT )
Publication date:	30 Sep 2004
Licence period:	365 days

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