The need for integrated approaches

According to writers at New Media Knowledge (NMK), both corporates and consumers are looking for integrated approaches. With the rise of accessibility in high speed internet, users can interact and engage with companies on a level that was never possible before. Through flash media, videos, social networks, users can completely surround themselves with the brand to experience it to the fullest.

The rise of online media portals

The internet gives way to other types of magazine content as well: blogs, newsletters, social networks. There is also the rise in Online Magazines available both free and through paid subscriptions and at such a low cost to distribute for publishers.

However, Monique Talbot, chief executive at Tempest Media who manages sales for well-known beauty portal Shesaid.com.au says that although online media is making some progress, it still isn’t recognised by the major companies. “I flick open a glossy and the first 10 pages are these massive advertisers. It drives me crazy, I have 75,000 women on my Shesaid.com.au database, with 15,000-20,000 women opening the newsletter each week, I mean, where do you get that in offline land?”

It is no secret that the sheer accessibility of online media, the speed or distribution, ease of response and higher evaluative methods makes it a lot more attractive to marketers. Online media can provide almost everything that a print magazine can cheaper, faster and to more people.

New media provides engagement in a different way

Although new media is changing consumer attitudes towards magazines, it will not cause the industry to collapse, writes Online Journalism Review. “Instead, innovation in long-form magazine journalism online is coming from the edges, in the shape of thoughtful audio podcasts, on-the-scene video blogs and in the plethora of thoughtful essays on Weblogs maintained in academic and professional realms.”

Media guru Mohammad Jangda also agrees that although online media provides useful sharing tools and increased engagemet through social networks and video content, having digital replicas of print magazines is still not the same as the hard copy experience. An “online magazines do not provide any additional affordances to the user, making it dead experience.”

The Magazine Experience

In fact, the magazine experience is one of the key differentiating factors keeping the industry alive, writes Jason Fell for Folio (print and online publication for the media industry). “The magazine experience is one of the last remaining opportunities to enter a hermetically-sealed world, an edited experience of our culture created by someone else. And, more importantly, it’s an experience that encourages you to stay in it rather than constantly bounce in and out of it.”

Magazine Industry: steady for now but uncertain about the future

According to the MediaPost, almost 80% of people surveyed through their research still subscribe to magazines. However, only 45% believe that newspapers and magazines will still exist in 10 years, with another 40% being uncertain about the future of the print industry. Although magazines may be surviving for now, their continued success will be a struggle. Is the magazine experience simply enough to warrant it to maintain its current status or will see the slow demise of the media giants giving way to new emerging technologies that are faster, more convenient and more connected? Only time will tell.

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Despite the many benefits we’ve seen in marketing through social media, do the same rules apply to the fashion, beauty and luxury industries? With our ever increasing need to maintain our exclusivity, making our brands widely available through sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube can sometimes be detrimental according to Online Fashion Marketing strategists Macala Wright and Yuli Ziv.

You can’t be a control freak with social media

Why is this? Social media limits the amount of control you have with things that are associated with your brand. For example, your readers or followers may publicly comment or critic your label – this can sometimes good feedback from your customers but you also run the risk of negative feedback or attack from ‘brand bashers’. As a label trying to uphold a certain upmarket standard, you loose the ability filter content and control your message.

Power shift to the consumer

Social media also gives more power to the consumer. Traditionally fashion trends were dictated by the fashion houses and trickled down to the mass markets. With the rise of fashion bloggers, fashion websites, review sites, DIY fashion, this power is shifting towards the end consumer to decide what styles he/she prefers, whether they make their purchase directly from the designer or from a distributor, how much they’re willing to pay, and when things go wrong, whether they will take matters into their own hands and (a marketer’s worst nightmare) publicly humiliate the company online.

SME’s and Mass markets can tweet away

However, it is not all bad. Social media is fantastic for small to medium brands who need low cost promotional mediums and mass market brands who are not as concerned with creating an excessive feel. It allows these companies to turn customers into fans and create an interactive community to engage their clients. However, Macala and Yuli claim that most brands are simply using social media as an online outlet store offering sales, discounts and promotions. The fashion industry having a reputation for being a one way communicator, the brands that do take on twitter and facebook, it’s important to understand that they are social media and as the name implies, need to use it to create content that would hold a conversation with your customer.

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