Reading Mazy’s blog about making happiness your business model reminds me of a series of recent research groups we conducted in deepest sarf London around one of our most esteemed pillar brands.
The brand has heritage, a deep relationship with its readers and a real place in their lives so it was fascinating to hear two groups of ladies - one in their upper 40s to mid-60s, and one in their early 30s to late-40s - talk through the pages.
Now, apart from the fact that a surprisingly high percentage of them seemed to be married to cab drivers, the other thing they held in common was their avowed and repeated love of coffee. Particular features and franchises they liked were repeatedly referred to as “being a good read over a cup of coffee” or “just right for a coffee break”.
This was useful information, obviously, because one of the things we’ve found extremely useful in researching our brands recently is to discover where and when our audience interacts with them. Nuts, for instance, was created with inhalability its credo to perfectly fit that 10 minute slot when the white van guy is waiting outside his local shop at 6.30 in the morning for his lift to work from his mate. Y’know, bottle of Locozade to see off the hangover, 20 Bensons and a quick shot of Nuts to start the day with a smile.
More than that though, if we can discover when and where our audience are consuming our magazines (and, even more forensically, which bits of our magazines where and when) then we can also discover when they are using our websites, our radio and Tv stations, reacting to our mobile applications etc. Not only does this help us remain in our audience’s lives as near to 24/7 as possible, but it also may help us to take the first steps on the road to understanding what our audience enjoys about each facet of our brand and how we might retool our operations to best entertain them. Y’know, quizzes on the radio, long reads in the mag… or big pics on the mag, chat in the forum online etc.
We spend a lot of time puzzling over how we develop our brands from our magazines onto other platforms. But remember, this process, which places the mag at the heart of the brand, is only de facto because of our history as a “mag publisher” first and a “media” organisation second. The big win is to discover not only how our mags perform as brands across multi platforms but what that means to the magazines themselves - how they, too, must evolve within the new multi-platform environment.
Which brings us back to the coffee. Listening carefully to our ladies we discovered that, although they all shared the coffee break in common, they were not all talking about exactly the same thing. For the younger group, coffee meant a quick feet up from running around after the family, doing the shopping, loading the dish washer, dropping the kids off to school etc. And what they were saying was, “keep it quick, keep it light, keep it frothy and pack it with info. We don’t have much time on our hands.”
On the other hand, when the older ladies were talking about coffee, they were talking about a guilty pleasure. These are wonderful people who have devoted their lives to their kids, hubbies and neighbours and who don’t feel that time with their feet up is time well spent. Therefore, a good read with a cofee “justifies” the break, makes it ok to stop looking for things to do so that they feel useful.
What they were saying is: “give us something to chat about, make it easy but informative, make it last as long as a leisurely cuppa and, most of all, make it a worthwhile experience.”
So, our task is crystal clear. Within this seemingly innocent little phrase - “coffee break” - lies the key to the mag part of the brand’s entire future relationship with their lifelong readers and those who may well be their diehards in the future.