I love the cards packaged with the latest Dolly magazine. They are beautiful and well targeted at the Dolly shopper. They are similar to a line of small format cards we sell in-store … and this is what will challenge some newsagents who don’t want gifts given with magazines that they might otherwise sell. For me it depends on the gift. In this case, the gift is terrific and just like products we have – I can argue both sides.
The gift with the latest Girlfriend is challenging too as it is perfectly targeted yet promoting a brand in fierce competition with newsagents. The notebook is like ones we sell. Typo is hurting our stationery sales. It will gall some newsagents that they are being used to promote Typo. Yet I understand the publisher connecting the Girlfriend brand with the popular Typo brand. We don’t have a single notebook brand the publisher could have used for the gift.
I don’t know what the answer is here. On the one hand we want publishers to offer thoughtfully targeted gifts with purchase that drive purchases of the magazines. However, we do not want this to impact similar priciest we can see for good margin in-store. It is a complex issue I would like to see explored more fully by publishers.