Serving Men Well Leads To A New Women’s Mag
With a tagline of “you and improved,” the about-to-launch, Women’s Health magazine published by Rodale already has my attention. Of course, I have a personal passion for fitness and sports, but there is a marketing lesson in there too. Men’s Health is a magazine that has been very relevant for a lot of men, for a long time. The buzz about that “men’s” magazine soon led to many women subscribing, including a friend of mine who recently said that part of why she subscribes is so her husband might occasionally glance at it and be inspired to work on his health a bit more. Plus, she thinks the articles are well written and likes the humor.
So, I will be taking a closer look at it – as a possible example of how serving men well doesn’t alienate women at all, but attracts enough interest to lead to a separate women’s entity. It’s a little akin to the ESPN example Lisa and I mention in Don’t Think Pink, in that the developers of Men’s Health really figured out the writing style, the images, the editorial content and obviously, the advertisers, that worked for their target market. Of course, you can’t call it transparent marketing because they did call it “Men’s” Health. However, no man would continue to read it, or subscribe to it, if the style, images and content didn’t truly resonate. We’ve all got enough to do without finding yet another magazine we need to read.
I look forward to seeing if Women’s Health reflects that same sort of in-depth knowledge of the core readership and how to reach them – or if it is just another women’s fitness, health and sex tips magazine. My guess is that Rodale will do a great job, given the success of Men’s Health – but I’ll check back in with you after I’ve seen the first issue. In the meantime – I’d love to hear your comments on the new mag, as well.
P.S. I realize that the industry of media has much more invested in consumer research and can much more easily stay on top of trends and the interests of readers/watchers/users. Certainly, they can evolve daily, weekly or monthly whereas most businesses take longer to figure out their core customers and then take longer to make changes etc. I share these examples merely to keep us marketing types thinking. Perhaps something, somewhere, in my various Learned On Women posts will trigger a new perspective that does help you with your marketing approach. That, of course, is my hope.
