Business plans suck and other fascinating titles for publication by Sofia
Creating a women's magazine does not seem to be the best marketing idea right now. Advertisers like the idea but will not invest for the first few issues (large advertisers like Apple) and distribution is a problem since the magazine would be placed in the technology section of the kiosks and women don't look there for magazines. I have been staking out the magazine racks and watching women shoppers... they don't go anywhere near the computer section which is right next to the men's magazines and automobile magazines.
One of the reasons I thought a magazine would work for marketing is because of Time, Inc. This large publishing company owns Southern living magazine. If you are familiar with Southern Living, they have started a direct sales company selling products that are similar to those advertised in the magazine The direct sales company is doing really well mainly because of the branding Southern Living. It is not the products which are so special.. you can find many of the items at local stores... it is the brand that people are gravitating to.. so I want to create a brand that people will gravitate towards when purchasing products.
With the idea of affiliating with a publishing house, I talked to Future Publishings business development department. I was told that they will not invest in a new idea for more than three issues.. so if a magazine is not making some money in three issues they pull it. That is not going to help my company. I need to have exposure for more than three issues.
Another problem I am having is trackig down products that I want to sell. I decided I wanted to focus on the women's market but where is all the product. There is very little actually that is focused on the female consumer. It is frustrating... so once again, I am changing the focus of my project. In the business plan I have five areas of interest for distribution and one of those areas is children's educational. So now my company business plan's entry market is not women but parents and I will be securing products to educate children.
Finding products for children is not difficult. Finding products for children that I want to distribute is harder. I want something Unique that will not be deeply discounted and can be sold at a premium. I also do not want to limit the distribution to just software because that market is not fully developed in Europe so I will be selling multi media products... books, CD,DVDs, etc. I find that the expat community is held hostage in a way when it comes to this area so they will pay a premium for quality products. Tracking down a product from Italy, I have my first high quality educational product in the form of Language learning products created by the University of Rome and the European Union's Socrates program. OK, now I have one product line...How do I get people to know that it exists......
One of the reasons I thought a magazine would work for marketing is because of Time, Inc. This large publishing company owns Southern living magazine. If you are familiar with Southern Living, they have started a direct sales company selling products that are similar to those advertised in the magazine The direct sales company is doing really well mainly because of the branding Southern Living. It is not the products which are so special.. you can find many of the items at local stores... it is the brand that people are gravitating to.. so I want to create a brand that people will gravitate towards when purchasing products.
With the idea of affiliating with a publishing house, I talked to Future Publishings business development department. I was told that they will not invest in a new idea for more than three issues.. so if a magazine is not making some money in three issues they pull it. That is not going to help my company. I need to have exposure for more than three issues.
Another problem I am having is trackig down products that I want to sell. I decided I wanted to focus on the women's market but where is all the product. There is very little actually that is focused on the female consumer. It is frustrating... so once again, I am changing the focus of my project. In the business plan I have five areas of interest for distribution and one of those areas is children's educational. So now my company business plan's entry market is not women but parents and I will be securing products to educate children.
Finding products for children is not difficult. Finding products for children that I want to distribute is harder. I want something Unique that will not be deeply discounted and can be sold at a premium. I also do not want to limit the distribution to just software because that market is not fully developed in Europe so I will be selling multi media products... books, CD,DVDs, etc. I find that the expat community is held hostage in a way when it comes to this area so they will pay a premium for quality products. Tracking down a product from Italy, I have my first high quality educational product in the form of Language learning products created by the University of Rome and the European Union's Socrates program. OK, now I have one product line...How do I get people to know that it exists......
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