Selling with readership studies

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept 1, 1991 by Josh Gordon

Your publisher hands you your first competitive magazine readership study. Finally, there it is in black and white: You are the best-read publication in your field. Next week at a big media day you present the study, expecting the house to come down. it does. It falls on top of you as the chief account executive says, "You're the fourth book to present a readership study claiming to be number-one. Do you take us for a bunch of fools?"

The good news about competitive magazine readership studies is that they boil the illusive story of readership into hard numbers. The bad news is that they have been so misused by publishers over the years that they often have very little credibility in the field.

I was amazed once to find that the entire media department at one of the major New York ad agencies is trained not to look at competitive publication readership studies. Although this is an extreme case, I always encounter varying degrees of cynicism from the people to whom I present readership studies. One reason is the inherent, implied put-down of the other publications. Considering this, some client skepticism is probably justified. Here are some tactical approaches to presenting competitive readership studies that can help you overcome this skepticism or use it to your advantage. Go for maximum credibility Your client may nod and smile while you present your study, but unless you take an extra step to convince him that your study is a truer picture of readership reality than other studies he has seen, your client may well dismiss the study as nonsense shortly after you leave his office.

one approach is to build credibility by showing studies created by other magazines that have similar results. Or, if you can get hold of studies done by competitors that consistently show your magazine finishing second, you can say, "Look, everyone wins his own readership study, but we come in second with all our competitors. So who do you think is really numberone?"

If your study's methodology is very clean, you have something to talk about. Check with your magazine's marketing maven on the specifics of sample size, response rate, tabulation, and so on. You should be aware, however, that this "high-road approach" can quickly bore those people who buy media, but are not research experts. Prove another concept The numbers you present in your readership study will have far more power if they are used to back up an idea or a concept.

For example, "Things have really changed in this market. Cable Viewer has made tremendous progress in the marketplace over the past year. We've added editorial staff and redesigned the book. [Show lots of redesigned pages and describe who these great editors are.] And all this effort is giving results. Let me show you a recent readership study where Cable Viewer tied with the long-time market leader, Cable Watcher."

Here it is not the readership study that is center stage, but the improvements in Cable Viewer. The readership study is simply proof' that the improvements are real.

if a debate erupts, it should be about the improvements to Cable Viewer, not the rate of response or some technical detail of the readership study.

A well-documented idea, like the improvements in a magazine, Will stick in the client's mind far better than a bunch of numbers. Deepen your selling dialoque You present the study and your client waffles. "This study says you are number-one and Tomato World is number-two. I don't believe it! Tomato World was in here with their readership study last week saying they are number-one. And besides, they've been in the business the longest so they must be best read."

It's true that your study isn't "sticking" when you hear something like this. But you have flushed out what your competition is doing and how your client really thinks readership is built.

When you really dig into your client's mind and find out just how he thinks readership is developed, you often find something akin to voodoo. Over the years I've heard, They must be better read because: * They're the official association book. * They're the independent voice of the industry. * They are the fattest. (The other advertisers in this market are no fools.) * They are the skinniest. (Who has time to read that fat one?) * They come out more often. (Frequency builds readership.) * They come out less often. (Who has time to look through all those issues?) * Because everybody I know reads them. * Because I like to read them. * Because they have so and so writing for them and everyone reads his stuff.

Once you know what that rationale is, you can deal with it. Even if your study doesn't "stick, " it can be a great dialogue starter. Create a strategy How can five direct competitors all come up with readership studies that show they are number-one? Typically, what is happening is that each magazine is measuring a slightly different aspect of the market's readership to become " the number-one book. "

A weekly in the market may ask, "Which publication do you pick up first?" or "Which publication offers the most timely information?" Here, the "number-one book" is really being defined as the book that offers the most immediate information.