Inadvisable as it may seem in these tough trading times to heed ancient wisdoms unchallenged, there’s at least one hand-me-down that still appears to be worth the metaphorical tablets of stone it was chiselled on.
I’m thinking of the three golden rules of cover image as practised to the letter by Ignite and, for all I know, several other editorial departments.
Simply, this dictum states that, in order for a front cover to work most effectively, the cover image must be of:
1. The right subject
2. The right image of said subject
3. And that the right image of the right subject should be published at the right time.
The saying goes that three out of three – right subject, right pic, right time - you’re on a winner; two out of three, you’re on reasonably safe ground, one out of three you’re barking up the wrong tree and zero out of three, you should probably be sacked. (more…)

It’s a dangerous job, working in NPD.
You’re always on your guard against the temptation to take what you’ve learned from researching one brand and bring it to bear upon another. You don’t want to discover that the Womans’ Weekly reader is drawn, trancelike, to all things pink only to find yourself trying to import it into the colour palette of Golf Monthly. That way disaster will surely lie.

On the other hand, the privilege of working across so many brands in so many areas can lead to unearthing an emerging trend in reader/user habits or preferences which working on solely one brand might not reveal.

Recently one such trend to surface alongside the crucial need to give VFM (value for money) in our competitive markets is the issue of believability. (more…)

Jimmy Bullard’s call-up this week into Fabio Capello’s England squad for the World Cup qualifiers reminded me of a recent round of research that clearly illustrates how delicately we must handle our editors when their brands are under scrutiny.

The thing is, when you’re creating stimulus material to take into research - new franchises or features usually, sometimes cover treatments - the work you are undertaking is completely counter-intuitive to the brand guardian. He or she has been thoroughly schooled in producing work which completely satisfies the customer - work that answers all the questions, if you like. If they weren’t doing that effectively, let’s face it, they’d be out of a job. (more…)

People are now making what they want of your customer silos. People online have more options than ever before to access the information they want. The tool they most often use is a search engine, and with mission statements like this “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” who can blame them. (more…)

We are constantly being reminded - not least by the current tough trading climate for print brands - that our customers have way more options than they used when it comes to accessing their information and entertainment. And we are quite rightly encouraged to monitor all these choices with a view to making absolutely sure we maximise our opportunities.

In some cases this can mean embarking upon a rigorous course of brand extensions - witness NME’s recent forays into TV, radio and staging events. In other cases, though, it can mean looking at changing your core proposition to try and capture different facets of the market. And herein, if research tells us anything, can lurk very real dangers. (more…)

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. (more…)

OK, so I’ve been exaggerating. Not all of your readers are nuts… but they sure have a knack of tangling themselves up in knots when it comes to research. (more…)