"Kiki" Magazine
Principles of Marketing Assignments
Read the following case study and then answer the question which follows:
Kiki magazine is a quarterly publication established in the fall of 2007 for tween girls. With
approximately 10 million females between the ages of 10 and 14 in the United States, the founders saw an
opportunity to capture a niche market of girls who wanted a magazine that looked like the glossy
newsstand magazines geared to older girls but featured design-based content, rather than pop-culture
based content.
Magazines, newspapers, and books are the three major forms of print media in the publishing industry. In
2007, the publishing market had a market value of $157.9 billion, with magazines representing 9.4
percent of the total. There were approximately 6,800 consumer magazines and 12,725 business magazines
produced in the United States. Magazines generate income via advertising and circulation revenue, with
advertising accounting for an average of about 55 percent of revenue. Circulation revenue is derived from
both subscriptions and single copy sales. The top 300 magazines in 2006 generated $34.4 billion in
revenue. Of this revenue, the 10 largest consumer titles had combined circulation and advertising
revenues of $7.7 billion.
There are approximately 250 magazines in the United States targeted exclusively to children (8 years and
younger), youth (9 to 12 years), and teens (13 to 19 years). Kiki competes in the youth and early teen
segment of the magazine marketplace, which has a magazine readership of about 48 percent of the
segment. There are three major types of magazines in this age range: sexualized girls' magazines, kids/fun
magazines for both boys and girls, and educational magazines for girls.
There were two major magazines in the sexualized girls category--CosmoGirl! with 1.5 million in
circulation and Teen Vogue with a circulation of almost 1 million. Content in both magazines includes
fashion, celebrity interviews and gossip, dating/relationship advice, and beauty tips. Advertising is
comprised largely of ads for perfume, makeup, and clothing. Despite its high circulation, however,
CosmoGirl! printed its final issue in December of 2008.
Popular titles in the kids/fun product segment are: Highlights for Children, Nickelodeon Magazine, and
National Geographic Kids. All three magazines contain games, cartoons, and very short articles.
Highlights for Children does not contain advertising, though both Nickelodeon Magazine and National
Geographic Kids do. Nickelodeon Magazine printed its final issue in 2009.
Two prominent girls' magazines in the educational product segment are American Girl and New Moon.
American Girl, with a circulation of around 700,000 does not contain any advertising and encourages
girls to be creative. New Moon, with a tagline of "The Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams," attempts to
empower females as they transition from girls to women. In existence for 15 years, the magazine has a
circulation of 30,000. There are two girls' magazines that fall between the sexualized and educational
content segments. Discovery Girls, with a circulation of approximately 186,000, and Girl's Life, with a
circulation of 367,000, focus on school, growing up, beauty, fashion, and self-esteem. Both have content
related to dating and relationships.
Kiki is a quarterly magazine and interactive "creativity" journal targeted to the 9- to 14-year-old female
market segment. Kiki is designed to appeal to girls with style and substance and follows the fashion
design curriculum used in colleges as its springboard to topics such as finance, geography,
entrepreneurship, history, and fine arts. Its goal is to demonstrate that having fun with style and artistry is
compatible with intelligence and creativity. The driving philosophy behind the magazine is the promotion
of self-confidence among young girls. Currently, Kiki does not accept advertisements. The Kiki team has
an overall discomfort with exposing young girls to commercialism and is concerned that outside
influences might force Kiki to compromise on its philosophy. Kiki has a goal of showing a profit in year
five, with a circulation of 30,000 magazines.
QUESTION
The Kiki magazine case deals with analyzing marketing opportunities. You have been hired by Kiki
magazine to analyze the strategy for marketing to the 9 to 14 year old girl niche market. Your analysis
should address the following questions:
1. What types of market research should Kiki employ to determine the market potential for magazine?
-Marketing research is the next step after a product has been finalized. Marketing research is vital
to efficiently scope the current market. Likewise, marketing research data help firms see trends and
determine the need for a product in the consumer market .Using research data; marketers are able to
develop efficient marketing strategies.
Furthermore, Kiki magazine can utilize the focus group strategy and the testing strategy to
develop efficient marketing strategies. Focus groups are conducted in a controlled environment to get
honest feedback from a consumer. Focus groups help a firm assess how their product is being perceived
by the consumer. Likewise, firms use focus groups to sell a specific product to the target consumer. Like
focus groups, testing is a vital part for a marketing research team to implement before introducing a new
product. Testing enables a firm to penetrate a certain market segment just to see how the target market
would react to a new product. Furthermore, Marketing managers take data derived from focus group
strategy and testing strategy and make conclusions on the success of the new product.
2. By targeting the 9 to 14 year old market, Kiki will need to attract new 9 year old girls each year and
will lose readership as they age. What are the challenges that this presents to Kiki?
- Targeting is one of the most daunting task for the marketing department of any firm. Kiki
magazine can create a specific target market so that their targeting methods will be more
effective. Furthermore, firms should thoroughly specify their target market so that a firm
can identify how to serve the appropriate consumers. Specifying a target market is the
toughest step in the marketing process and can generate enormous profits. Kiki magazine
can only target the 9 year old girls instead of targeting 9-14 year olds. Likewise, specific
targets allow a firm to efficiently produce product geared toward the 9 year old target
market.
Furthermore, Kiki magazine should build potential partnerships with another
complementary business. Since, Kiki magazine does not accept advertisements potential
partnerships will be a great opportunity for the firm to effectively reach out to the
specified target market. Likewise, one great opportunity for Kiki magazine is to partner
with the local newspaper and publish the newspaper section on style and fashion. Kiki
magazine can partner with local barbershops to provide copies for their customers. This
mutual partnership will greatly increase the visibility of both firms involved in the
partnership. The barbershop will receive exemplary customer service while Kiki
magazine gets its brand into the appropriate target market. In the end, both business
partners benefit from this healthy business relationship by keeping their customers happy.
Lastly, Kiki magazine can broaden its creativity and visibility by displaying specific and
thorough marketing techniques. This allows both firms and customers to reach a
satisfying equilibrium.
Develop a response that includes examples and evidence to support your ideas, and which
clearly communicates the required message to your audience. Organize your response in
a clear and logical manner as appropriate for the genre of writing. Use well-structured
sentences, audience-appropriate language, and correct conventions of standard American
English.
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