Want to know your readers? Better go and live with them [The Independent]
The launch of women’s weekly ‘Look’ follows market research that went way beyond normal focus group conventions. So is bonding with potential buyers the way ahead, asks Jane Thynne in the Independent.
“The executives at IPC have taken reader-research to new lengths in the delivery of their weekly glossy, Look. For periods in the two years preceding the launch, editors and executives were required to go way beyond conventional procedures and actually move in with potential readers, bunking up in spare rooms round the country, going down the pub, and sharing the meals, dreams and lives of ordinary young women.”
“It’s called ‘immersion research’, or ethnography – the need not just to understand your reader, but to “know their DNA”, as IPC puts it. While IPC’s research reflects the highly competitive nature of the market now facing magazines, the technique has also been used by other media outlets, including the BBC, where director-general Mark Thompson and Tim Davie, the Corporation’s marketing director, have booked in whole days with ordinary people, noting exactly what they do, say and watch.”
[…] Nell’articolo per “The Indipendent”, Jane Thynne documenta il lancio del settimanale femminile “Look” che segue una lunga fase di ricerche dette di “immersione” o etnografiche, volte a comprendere i sogni e le vite delle giovani donne che costituiscono il target cui la rivista si rivolge. Questa particolare attenzione della casa editrice alla comprensione del DNA delle lettrici rispecchia il mercato particolarmente competitivo del settore dei magazine. […]