A major, enduring question for publishers who sell their magazines on newsstands is what elements on the cover affect sales. People unfamiliar with consumer magazines would be amazed at the amount of time art directors, editors, and publishers spend trying to make the cover more appealing and sell-able. Kit manufacturers ask a similar question: what elements on the box help or hurt sales? Playboy has some answers.
Years ago I attended a seminar conducted by Playboy‘s circulation manager, who had just concluded the publishing industry’s most extensive analysis of magazine covers. The company took every element on its magazine’s covers and conducted a correlational analysis of decades of newsstand sales results.
Was the cover girl a blond, brunette, etc.? White, African American, etc.? Lots of cleavage or not so much? Was the model facing the camera or profile? Was there a prop, such as a bicycle, or not? Each background color ever used in the magazine’s history. Lots of cover language (“blurbs”) or not so much?
So what elements do you think correlated with higher sales?
None of the above.
The factor that consistently correlated with strong newsstand sales was the size of the issue. And that makes sense, if you think about it.
Imagine you’re looking at magazine at a newsstand. You pick one up that has a cover price of $3.95. Does it feel like it’s worth $3.95? If it does, you’re more likely to buy it.
I suspect the same may be even more true for kits. You probably can’t open the box to see what’s inside. The cover is attractive and interesting, but does it feel like it’s worth $9.95?
So therein lies the conundrum for publishers and kit manufacturers. To reduce costs, you decrease the size of the issue or lighten the weight or shrink the size of the kit without lowering the price. But then the item or issue isn’t as likely to feel like it’s worth it.
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