Marketing Insights Galore From The Magazine Rack – I'm Not Joking

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For all of the links, Blogs, Podcasts and feeds that I’m constantly shoving down your pipes, the fact remains that I love magazines. Used to_ still do. The sad reality is that there is just not enough great consistent content in individual issues to ignite a purchase from me. I’m still quite loyal to Business 2.0, Wired and, to a lesser degree, Fast Company, but that’s about it. Then, this morning, in preparation for my flight to Nashville for BarCamp Nashville, I stopped into my local magazine shop and walked out with – what I consider to be – an impressive stack.
I want you to check out some of this content as well_ it can only help.
First up, I grabbed the latest issue of Wired Magazine and Fast Company (it’s always a good day when both magazines have new editions out on the same day). Cover to cover both Fast Company and Wired never disappoints. Then, through some general snooping, I grabbed Newsweek, which had a cover story called, The Facebook Effect. Unfortunately, there were not any additional articles of interest in this issue and I’ve already blasted through the cover story on Facebook – which was quite standard and pedestrian (meaning, no juicy new tidbits of gossip, etc_).
From there, I scored the latest issue of BusinessWeek (really, this is what you’re now calling a “Special Double Issue”?) that has the cover story, The Future Of Work. My primary purchase decision was based on one article titled, Creating Brand You, by Diane Brady. The teaser reads:
“Politicians brand you. So do Marketers – and your Boss and Co-Workers. If you don’t take control of your brand, you’ll be forever stuck with how the world judges you.”
Knowing my penchant for the world of Personal Branding and how it is implicated in the Digital Channels, it should come as no surprise why I grabbed this copy. If BusinessWeek is now yacking about the power of a Personal Brand, you know this is a concept whose time has, definitely, come. There’s also a sound byte from Seth Godin.
I was also intrigued by a news item in BusinessWeek titled, High-Net-Worth Networking. This piece discusses an online social network called, A Small World. I had heard about this exclusive/invite-only online social network for high-profiled people, but it was interesting to get the BusinessWeek perspective on it (look for a future Blog posting on A Small World).
My last rag grab was Scientific American Mind Magazine. I’m one of those people that always looks at this section of the magazine store, but never buys any of the titles because I’m worried they’re either too high-brow or dry or, worse, waaay over my head. The August/September 2007 issue of Scientific American Mind features a cover story titled, The New Psychology Of Leadership, and it has stunning stats into how similar great leaders are to online social networks. Again, this deserves its own Blog posting, so my writing muse is blasting on all pistons for this topic. That article alone would have been worth the purchase, but I was also intrigued by an article called, Is Greed Good?, which states: “Economists are finding that social concerns often trump selfishness in financial decision making, a view that helps to explain why tens of millions of people send money to strangers they find on the Internet.” Yup, a great read as well. And, as a passionate writer, there was another feature titled, When Words Decide. “Researchers are discovering the myriad of ways in which language can have a profound effect on the choices we make – from foods we eat to the laws we support.”
The Marketing message is the same: “everything is ‘with’ not ‘instead of’.” I have not stopped reading magazines because of Blogs and I have not stopped watching TV and replaced it with Podcasts. I’m enjoying media in all of its shapes and forms. My inspiration for New Media can be (as is the case here) inspired by the most traditional of channels and how they all mix together.
Hint: follow the links on the articles above and you can save yourself a trip to the magazine rack as well as a lot of trees.

8 comments

  1. Mitch:
    Next time you need your mag fix and aren’t heading for a plane, head to the high end grocery store with those huge mag racks….I do the shopping AND the reading.
    Enjoy Nashville,
    – Peter

  2. Hi Mitch,
    Thanks for flagging all those posts.
    The Economist has an interesting article this week about Second Life’s first bank run, caused by the economic downturn, which actually caused the bank (Ginko Financial) to cease operations. The piece is pretty top-level, but interesting nonetheless.
    Cheers,
    Dave

  3. I’m going to check out that article in The Economist now. Thanks Dave.
    Peter – we have this amazing retail chain in Montreal called Multimags. It’s a full on retail operation that only sells magazines. It’s awesome… I love it and I’ve never seen another store like this in all of my travels.

  4. See, if I had a chain like that near me (especially if they had big comfy chairs, I’d be there once a month, just reading.
    Probably better for my time management that I avoid those places :))
    See you Wednesday,
    Best always,
    -Peter

  5. Thanks Dan.
    As I travel more and more, I much prefer to do printouts from the Web than walk around with 72 pages of advertising… a lot lighter and lot better on the environment.
    I often flag stuff and when I travel, I just print off a batch of articles from my files.

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