Our first Magazine Close-Study Product is Men's Health.
We need to study both the target audience for Men's Health and the audience pleasures that readers get from the magazine.
Notes from the lesson
Men’s Health (UK edition) has a circulation of around 120,000 (down 16% year-on-year and including 40k free copies) and a readership of closer to 1 million. It began as a health magazine in the USA in 1986 and has gradually evolved into a men’s lifestyle magazine. The UK edition launched in 1995.
Definitions
Circulation is the actual number of copies printed and distributed. Readership is an estimate of how many people read the magazine in total (also known as readers-per-copy). For Men’s Health, copies in a gym or waiting room will be read by many different people.
Circulation figures are provided by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) and readership estimates by the National Readership Survey (NRS).
Demographics: Social class
ABC1 men: 64%
AB men: 32%
C2DE: 36%
It is significantly higher than rivals GQ and Esquire in terms of circulation and readership but GQ and Esquire have a more upmarket demographics (higher % of ABC1 and AB readers).
Men’s Health Media Pack focuses on products that reflect a certain lifestyle such as fashion, watches, grooming, fitness and cars. This would suggest targeting the Aspirer and Succeeder psychographic groups with perhaps elements of Mainstreamers and Explorers.
Audience pleasures
There are many potential audience pleasures for Men’s Health readers. Applying Blumler & Katz’s Uses & Gratifications theory, two in particular would be:
Personal identity: Readers enjoy having their lifestyle reflected and endorsed through reading the magazine
Surveillance: Men’s Health is heavily focused on self-improvement and learning how to live a healthier, more successful life: “When it comes to life goals, claim the hat trick”.
Men's Health - Audience blog tasks
Read the Men's Health Media Pack in full to get a good idea of the demographics and psychographics for the Men's Health target audience then answer the following questions:
1) How does the magazine introduce itself?
"Men’s Health is the biggest-selling men’s lifestyle
magazine, both in the UK and worldwide.
It’s success is built on a winning editorial formula which
combines visually-engaging health, wellbeing and
nutrition features with premium content covering
fashion, grooming, watches, tech and travel."
2) What does the introduction suggest about the representation of masculinity in Men's Health's?
3) How do the print statistics for Men's Health compare to GQ and Esquire?
Men's health is the most popular magazine, having a total readership of 650k more than GQ.
4) What is the difference between circulation and readership?
Circulation is how many magazines are printed and distributed, whereas readership is the estimate of how many people actually read the magazine.
5) What was the circulation of Men's Health in thousands at the time this Media Pack was published? What about the readership for ABC1 men? AB men? [Note: this Media Pack was published in 2016 and some of the figures have fallen since then. Up to date circulation figures can be found at the top of this blog post].
At the time of publishment it was 995k.
ABC1 readers = 643k
AB readers = 321k.
6) How do readers generally interact with the digital version of the magazine?
68% Phone, 11% Tablet and 21% Desktop.
7) How many people do Men's Health reach across social media platforms?
FACEBOOK: 944K
TWITTER: 285K
INSTAGRAM: 66K
8) What is the audience profile for Men's Health readers?
905K ARE ABC1, AGED 25-44
700K HAVE A DEGREE
200K EARN OVER £50K
9) What is the Men's Health fashion philosophy? How much do Men's Health readers collectively spend on fashion?
Stylish, contemporary, wearable and individual. They spend £1.1 billion on fashion, three times more than GQ readers.
10) What is the average watch collection value for the Men's Health audience? What do the statistics about watches suggest about the Men's Health audience demographics and psychographics?
£4,123. This suggests that they have a large middle-class audience belonging to the ABC1 or AB demographic group who can typically afford to spend large amounts of money. The psychographic groups that could be targeted are the aspirer and succeeder.
11) What percentage of Men's Health readers use moisturiser daily? What does this suggest about Men's Health readers' view of masculinity?
73% of readers use moisturiser daily. Their view on masculinity isn't toxic or stuck in the past as they aren't afraid to use skin care products that have previously been marketed as 'for women' (for whatever reason).
12) What does the media pack suggest regarding the Men's Health audience for fitness and technology?
"Men’s Health readers are fitness evangelists and early adopters of tech."
13) Men's Health luxe is a series of magazines distributed with Men's Health targeting a specific aspect of the Men's Health audience. What are these three brand extension magazines called and what do they cover?
Urban Active (Sportswear), Synchronised (Watches), and Epicure (Cooking).
...Why are men so obsessed with watches?
14) What do the Men's Health luxe magazines suggest about the demographics and psychographics of the Men's Health audience?
Perhaps suggests a mainstreamer as they encourage following the latest trends and and explorer through trying to better themselves.
15) What additional brand extensions do Men's Health offer?
Survival of the fittest which is the biggest urban adventure race in the UK and the Men's health product range which offers things like healthy food and exercising equipment.
16) What are the global statistics for Men's Health?
Global Statistics
International Editions 37
Countries Published 60
Global Circulation 4.5M
Global Readership 26.7M
Websites 25
Uniques 23.7M
17) What does the 2017 calendar editorial specials suggest about the Men's Health audience?
The specials also suggest that its readers are adventurous and ambitious, trying to become their best man and living life to the fullest.
18) What audience pleasures are offered by the magazine?
Personal identity: Readers enjoy having their lifestyle reflected and endorsed through reading the magazine
Surveillance: Men’s Health is heavily focused on self-improvement and learning how to live a healthier, more successful life
19) What lifestyle and job would you expect the average Men's Health reader to have?
The average reader would likely have a white-collar office job and have rich tastes and hobbies.
20) Why do you think Men's Health has managed to (just) remain profitable when many other magazines have struggled due to the rise of digital media?
They've managed to adapt quite well to the rise of digital media, as they offer online content on a range of platforms. They also seem to have an understanding of their audience and genuinely seem to promote healthy and beneficial presentations of masculinity that men aspire to be like. This could be because of their modern outlook on masculinity that has only been encouraged with the digital era.
8) What is the audience profile for Men's Health readers?
905K ARE ABC1, AGED 25-44
700K HAVE A DEGREE
200K EARN OVER £50K
9) What is the Men's Health fashion philosophy? How much do Men's Health readers collectively spend on fashion?
Stylish, contemporary, wearable and individual. They spend £1.1 billion on fashion, three times more than GQ readers.
10) What is the average watch collection value for the Men's Health audience? What do the statistics about watches suggest about the Men's Health audience demographics and psychographics?
£4,123. This suggests that they have a large middle-class audience belonging to the ABC1 or AB demographic group who can typically afford to spend large amounts of money. The psychographic groups that could be targeted are the aspirer and succeeder.
11) What percentage of Men's Health readers use moisturiser daily? What does this suggest about Men's Health readers' view of masculinity?
73% of readers use moisturiser daily. Their view on masculinity isn't toxic or stuck in the past as they aren't afraid to use skin care products that have previously been marketed as 'for women' (for whatever reason).
12) What does the media pack suggest regarding the Men's Health audience for fitness and technology?
"Men’s Health readers are fitness evangelists and early adopters of tech."
13) Men's Health luxe is a series of magazines distributed with Men's Health targeting a specific aspect of the Men's Health audience. What are these three brand extension magazines called and what do they cover?
Urban Active (Sportswear), Synchronised (Watches), and Epicure (Cooking).
...Why are men so obsessed with watches?
14) What do the Men's Health luxe magazines suggest about the demographics and psychographics of the Men's Health audience?
Perhaps suggests a mainstreamer as they encourage following the latest trends and and explorer through trying to better themselves.
15) What additional brand extensions do Men's Health offer?
Survival of the fittest which is the biggest urban adventure race in the UK and the Men's health product range which offers things like healthy food and exercising equipment.
16) What are the global statistics for Men's Health?
Global Statistics
International Editions 37
Countries Published 60
Global Circulation 4.5M
Global Readership 26.7M
Websites 25
Uniques 23.7M
17) What does the 2017 calendar editorial specials suggest about the Men's Health audience?
The specials also suggest that its readers are adventurous and ambitious, trying to become their best man and living life to the fullest.
18) What audience pleasures are offered by the magazine?
Personal identity: Readers enjoy having their lifestyle reflected and endorsed through reading the magazine
Surveillance: Men’s Health is heavily focused on self-improvement and learning how to live a healthier, more successful life
19) What lifestyle and job would you expect the average Men's Health reader to have?
The average reader would likely have a white-collar office job and have rich tastes and hobbies.
20) Why do you think Men's Health has managed to (just) remain profitable when many other magazines have struggled due to the rise of digital media?
They've managed to adapt quite well to the rise of digital media, as they offer online content on a range of platforms. They also seem to have an understanding of their audience and genuinely seem to promote healthy and beneficial presentations of masculinity that men aspire to be like. This could be because of their modern outlook on masculinity that has only been encouraged with the digital era.
No comments:
Post a Comment