Topline Results: Consumer

Consumers know that customer magazines are fundamentally about selling more products or services. But they still like to read them. Fifty per cent of them read the magazine in detail, and on average pick up each issue 2.7 times. One in four would like to receive the publication more often (this rises to 42 per cent amongst people who read the publication for an hour or more.) Fifty-eight per cent are more likely to read the magazine and respond to offers if it is personally addressed to them.

People like reading customer magazines. Ninety-one per cent think the magazine they receive is informative, and 79 per cent actively enjoy reading it. Two-thirds find it both relevant and entertaining. One in five consumers would even be prepared to pay to receive a customer magazine.

Nearly a third keep them, or pass them on to their friends. And on average, they choose to spend 29 minutes reading a customer magazine (in fact, 40 per cent of readers spend longer than half an hour reading an issue.) In a climate where clients are constantly vying for attention from their customers, customer magazines are a compelling tool.

Do customer magazines have an effect on brand image?

A resounding 'yes' is the answer here. The Millward Brown report also shows that readers of customer magazines are significantly more positive about brands than non readers. This is evident through attitudinal statements relating to reputation, looking after customers, striving to meet customers' needs, and whether or not the named brand is a company you can trust.

Customer magazines can be used to support and personify brand values: 80 per cent of consumers say the magazine fits in with the way they think about the company - and two thirds think that the magazine demonstrates that the company understands their needs and interests.

Even people who don't read customer magazines think that they are likely to have a positive impact on brand image and understand the emotional appeal of the medium. Non readers are fully aware that a customer magazine is a selling tool, but despite this they hold positive opinions about the medium, both rationally and emotionally. Seventy-one per cent believe that a customer magazine helps to improve the company's overall image. Fifty-two per cent think that it helps to promote customer loyalty to the company.

Do they impact on customer behaviour?

Time and again, clients have identified that the USP of customer magazines is their ability to create a dialogue with customers. In doing so, they support other elements of the marketing mix and generate an uplift in sales. The Millward Brown report supports this client view: 57 per cent of consumers have purchased a product or service from a company as a direct result of reading its customer magazine. This represents an increase of 10 per cent since 1999. Forty per cent are more likely to go on using the company or to select it for another purchase in the future.

Trust is one of the driving factors behind the continuing success of the market. There has been a significant increase in the number of consumers who are more likely to trust advertising or special offers in a customer magazine than in other magazines or newspapers (51 per cent, compared to 38 per cent when Millward Brown last conducted this survey in 1999.)

In fact, 78 per cent of consumers think that a magazine is a better way for a company to tell them about its products or services than other media. Just as significantly, people who do not read a customer magazine also express a strong preference for it as a marketing medium: 64 per cent of non-readers agree with the same statement.

And Millward Brown's overall verdict? "These findings clearly demonstrate that customer magazines remain a good tool for building and retaining loyalty."