Price, product, promotion and place (4Ps): magazines

The idea

Magazines are a print-based promotional medium that businesses can use within the promotion element of the marketing mix. A business buys advertising space in a magazine, choosing titles whose readers match its target market. For example, a sports nutrition brand might advertise in a monthly running magazine to reach active adults. Magazines allow detailed copy, high-quality images and vouchers or QR codes, and they can target a specific audience through specialist titles. However, lead times are long, costs per thousand readers can be high, and readership of print magazines is falling as readers move online. A business must therefore judge whether a magazine reaches enough of the right customers at an acceptable cost compared with other promotional methods.

What earns the marks

• Identifies magazines as a promotional medium where a business pays for advertising space in a printed or digital title.
• Explains targeting: choosing a magazine whose readership matches the business's target market, such as a gardening title for a tool retailer.
• Explains advantages: detailed messages, quality images, vouchers or QR codes, and a defined specialist audience.
• Explains drawbacks: long lead times before publication, relatively high cost per reader, and declining print readership.
• Applies the medium to a given business context, judging whether it suits the product, budget and target market.
• Compares magazines with other promotional methods, such as social media or television, in terms of reach, cost and targeting.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Treating magazines as a product rather than a promotional method.

  Put it right by linking magazines to the promotion element of the marketing mix.

• Assuming all magazines reach everyone.

  Put it right by explaining that titles have specific readerships that may or may not match the target market.

• Ignoring cost and lead time.

  Put it right by weighing the expense and delay of magazine advertising against its targeting benefits.

Exam tips

• Name the specific type of magazine that fits the case study business and say why its readers are the right customers.
• Use the case study context in every application point rather than writing about magazines in general.
• When evaluating, give a balanced judgement that weighs targeting and detail against cost, lead time and falling print readership.