Last-Minute Gift Testing Ideas For 2003

Circulation Management, April 1, 2003

If you're still in search of an inspired test or two to round out this year's gift program - perhaps a way to rev up your two-for-one offer - here are some twists that come recommended by consumer marketers with heavy-duty experience in this lucrative source.

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Give the two-for-one the attention it deserves. Offering one, low price for a combined renewal and gift sub is hardly a new idea: In fact, it's become the linchpin for many publishers over the years. But, according to John Klingel, president of consumer marketing for Reader's Digest Association, giving the offer its creative due is the key to harnessing its full power.

"I've worked with a lot of magazines that have used this offer, and the typical approach is to take some of the current renewal and gift packages and just adapt them," Klingel said during a DMA Circulation Day session. "But one of the things we're seeing at the Digest, where we have full-time creative people on staff, is that developing packages from scratch around the two-for-one has, in some cases, produced amazing lifts. The offer is so strong that it pays to build the creative around it."

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Forget the Christmas or even gift theme. Play up the offer. In a 2002 test at Southern Progress Corp., simply adding the word "Christmas" to a package significantly depressed response, reports VP, consumer marketing Pat VanderMeer. "The word 'holiday' is fine. Christmas trees are fine. But stay away from 'Christmas,'" she advised at Circ Day.

Susan Allyn, consumer marketing director for FHM, suggests that the offer should take precedence even over the gift angle. "Even though two-for-one's only work around the holiday season, they shouldn't look like Christmas," she says. "They should be positioned as special-value, limited-time savings offers. They should look almost like an advance renewal. You're not trying to sell a Christmas gift; you're selling 'Renew yourself and give a gift to a friend.' With this approach, you should get an 8- to 15-percent lift."

"An immediate incentive - whether it's price, premium or sweepstakes - is the main reason to give a gift sub," Phyllis Rotunno, VP, subscription circulation for Playboy Enterprises, told CM. "There has to be something in it for the giver."

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Don't be afraid to downplay the delayed billing option. The "Renew now, give a gift for free, and we won't bill you until January" approach has become a staple for many Meredith Corp. titles. "It's never been a problem, because gift pay-up is incredibly high," reports VP, consumer marketing Karla Jeffries. "In fact, it's gotten to the point where we now give them another option: 'Pay with cash now or, if you like, we'll bill you in January.' This has increased cash in incredibly, and hasn't hurt response."

Allyn notes a trend away from deferred billing by some majors, but thinks it's still a good idea for smaller titles. "Gift-bill volume is so small that you can end up paying a fortune [on lettershop costs]," she adds. "Instead of mailing 200 bills each month July through September, and higher numbers later, you can send out 2,000 in January and greatly decrease your costs."

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Bundle donor and donee promotions early on and unbundle them later. "When Dick Benson first proposed the two-for-one concept back in the 80's, we would sell them as a unit - 'Renew your subscription and give a free gift,' and later, we would separate the offer," says Klingel. "We would renew the person in the renewal series and then we would send donor renewals to renew the donees. In other words, we created two renewal series. Over the years, most of us have evolved into renewing the gift and donor together. But at the Digest, we've found that bundling for the first few efforts and unbundling at the end is the best way."

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Reactivate expired donors and/or subscribers with a super offer. Giving lapsed donors and subscribers the opportunity to renew with a two-for-one (two for basic price) may be an effective way to get them back on the file, said Karla Friedle, director of renewals and billing for Hachette Filipacchi, during a recent FMA session. She has seen this work in the past. "In many cases, we renew the subscriber again and also renew the gift recipient."

Caroline Villela, consumer marketing director for Fitness and YM, reports success using this approach. "We went back to people who had not given the previous year - not with a two-for-one, but at $2 less than the regular gift prices," she says. "That helped us grow the donor file and bring in new gift-givers last season. It basically came in as a break-even, but we're hoping that these people will continue with us and that we'll make money next time around."

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Try flat pricing instead of a two-for-one on insert cards. Friedle says that two-for-ones don't work on insert cards, in her experience. Now, the company is testing flat gift prices on insert cards in sub and newsstand copies, along the lines of 10 issues for $10 or 12 issues for $12, but allowing for more than one gift sub per order. "There is no tiered pricing," she notes.