Ownership - P1(a)

Ownership is the ultimate and exclusive right conferred by a lawful claim or title, and subject to certain restrictions to enjoy, occupy, possess, rent, sell, use, give away, or even destroy an item of property.

• Meaning: Conde Nast is a multinational company which produces many different magazines such as Allure, GQ, Lucky, Glamour, Details and others. Also this company is a division of Advance Publications. The magazines of the company are aimed at different markets such as niche, specialist and mass. 

• Purpose: As Advance Publications is a parent company for Conde Nast it has a power and control over the decisions of Conde Nast company.  Conde Nast is a privately owned company and, therefore, it has small number of its owners or shareholders compared to publicly owned companies. General public cannot purchase or sell the stock and shares as it's not available on stock market exchanges. To make business decisions the company Conde Nast needs to get a permission from Advance Publications. Usually parent company has significant number of shares so it can control any decisions made by the subsidiary company which is Conde Nast for Advance Publications. This is very common in business. My case study will be based on the Advance Publication's/Conde Nast's magazine brands Glamour magazine. 

I have referred the following websites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_Publications

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condé_Nast

Operating Model - P1(b)

Operating Model is an abstract representation of how an organization operates across process, organization and technology domains in order to accomplish its function. An operating model can describe the way an organization does business today. Alternatively, a fictional model can communicate how the organization wants to transform its business.

Condé Nast is largely considered to be the originator of the “class publication," a type of magazine focused on a particular social group or interest instead of targeting the largest possible readership. Its magazines focus on a wide range of subjects, including travel, food, home, culture, and other interests, with fashion the larger portion of the company's focus. Nast remained committed to publishing the highest-quality magazines. Condé Nast introduced innovative typography, design and colour. The company launched Conde Nast Entertainment in 2011 to develop film, television and digital video programming. In May 2013, CNÉ's Digital Video Network debuted, featuring web series for such publications as Glamour and GQ. In July 2010, Robert Sauerberg became Condé Nast's president, ushering in a new era less reliant on print adverting and increasingly focused on the development of digital platforms, innovative products and new marketing services to generate revenue. In May 2011, Condé Nast was the first major publisher to deliver subscriptions for the iPad.

EXECUTIVE TEAM WHICH OPERATES THE COMPANY:

Charles H. Townsend became Chief Executive Officer of Condé Nast in 2004. He leads the company’s Executive Management team. Prior to being named CEO, he served as Condé Nast’s Chief Operating Officer and was Publisher of Glamour magazine.

 








Robert A. Sauerberg Jr. is President of Condé Nast. He was previously Group President of the company’s Consumer Marketing division, which he joined in 2005 as Executive Vice President.

Anna Wintour has held the position of Editor-in-Chief of Vogue since July 1988, and was named Artistic Director of Condé Nast in March 2013.  In addition to editing Vogue, Ms. Wintour executed the development and successful launch of Teen Vogue in 2001, and serves as Editorial Director for the title.

John Bellando is Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Condé Nast. He presides over the accounting, finance, treasury, strategic sourcing, real estate/office services and editorial rights and permissions departments. Mr. Bellando also oversees the corporate fiduciary responsibilities for Condé Nast, Fairchild Fashion Media and Parade.

Louis Cona is President of the Condé Nast Media Group (CNMG) and Chief Revenue Officer for Condé Nast. CNMG consists of corporate sales, marketing and digital sales efforts for all of the company’s consumer magazines and Web sites.

Jill Bright is the Chief Administrative Officer for Condé Nast. She oversees Corporate Planning & Strategy Development and Corporate Communications.

Joe Simon is Chief Technology Officer at Condé Nast, overseeing all digital and technology operations. He leads the company’s innovation efforts, including the development of next-generation digital products and services.

Thomas J. Wallace was named Editorial Director of Condé Nast in 2005 and oversees the editorial direction of the company’s portfolio of magazines. He also leads the group responsible for developing special editions on all print and digital formats, devices and platforms.

• Meaning: Operating model is how the company does its business, how it achieves its business objectives. Basically, it is what Conde Nast does to publish their magazines, the process of publishing magazines. 

• Purpose: Conde Nast company has its executive team which is responsible for company's operating model. So there are special people who is looking after company's innovation efforts, editorial direction, company's strategy development, revenue, marketing and sales. All these people are very important in order to achieve a success and to make the company competitive against its rivals. The team helps to achieve the aim of the company and to operate as good as it's possible.

I have referred to the following websites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condé_Nast

http://www.condenast.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_model

Products - P1(c)

Media Product is a text that has been designed to be consumed by an audience. E.G a film, radio show, newspaper etc. 

The company publishes different popular magazines such as Vogue, Teen vogue, Allure, Glamour, GQ, Lucky and others.

I have chosen Glamour magazine for my case study so I will discuss it in more details. 

Glamour Magazine is a women's magazine published by Conde Nast Publications. There is local editions of this magazine in the number of countries such as the UK, United States, Russia, Spain, Brazil, Mexico and others. It is published monthly and it is a kind of a guide for women how to be fashionable and what is in trend now. Fashion takes a significant place in life of almost every woman. Within the time trends are changing so the magazine helps a woman to be sure they are in trend. 

Meaning: Glamour Magazine is aimed at women who is interested in fashion, style, beauty, trends and celebrities' lives. The information inside every edition is useful for many women who would like to look gorgeous in every situation and to get the attention from others. This media product has its own portfolio and is important for company to get a good revenue.

Purpose: The purpose of publishing Glamour Magazine is to make a significant number of sales and to achieve its target audience. Good number of sales is important for achieving a high market position to be able to compete with other media publishing companies.

I have referred to the following websites:

http://brianair.wordpress.com/film-theory/glossary-of-media-terminology/

http://www.condenast.com

Market Position - P1(d)

Market Position is a ranking of a brand, product, or company, in terms of its sales volume relative to the sales volume of its competitors in the same market or industry.


Over the past twenty years, Condé Nast has reached record profits, tripling its topline growth and exponentially expanding its content distribution.  During the same period, the company earned more editorial, design, digital, advertising, video and business awards than any competitor in the industry.  In 2013, the corporation was recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in the digital video business and as one of LinkedIn’s Top 50 Most In-Demand Employers in the World.  In late 2014, the company will relocate to its new global headquarters at 1 World Trade Center, where it will play a leading role in the resurgence of Lower Manhattan.


MAGAZINE AWARDS OF CONDE NAST

Condé Nast

Condé Nast posts new ABC figures, combining print and digital sales, for the period July to December 2013. The quality glossy portfolio continues to perform robustly, with 7 titles displaying digital edition and subscription growth.

VOGUE

The fashion bible, Vogue announces a new ABC of 201,077, with UK actively purchased copies up 5% period on period and 2.1% year on year.* Digital edition sales have increased by 9.4% period on period and 124.5% year on year, while UK subscriptions have grown by 10.6% period on period.

HOUSE & GARDEN

With a new ABC of 120,008, House & Garden has increased UK subscriptions by 2.7% period on period, and is the pre-eminent quality magazine for design and decoration.

BRIDES

The leading quality bridal magazine, Brides posts an ABC of 53,073. UK subscriptions rise by 5.9%. Gross brand reach exceeds 1 million (1,032,392) for the first time.

TATLER

The original social media, Tatler announces a new ABC of 83,209, maintaining its position as the leading chronicle of Britain’s high society. Digital edition sales have risen by 2.6% period on period and 19.4% year on year.

THE WORLD OF INTERIORS

Announcing a new ABC of 58,008, The World of Interiors remains the go-to magazine for design professionals and opinion formers.

GQ

GQ continues to dominate the sector as the market-leading quality men’s monthly, announcing an ABC of 127,040, with an increase of 2.6% in UK actively purchased copies period on period. Digital edition sales continue to grow, with an increase of 3.3% year on year.

VANITY FAIR

An ABC of 90,018 is posted for Vanity Fair. UK actively purchased sales have increased 2.7% period on period, with digital edition sales up by 4.4% period on period and 12.2% year on year. UK subscriptions rise by 2.9% period on period.

CONDÉ NAST TRAVELLER

The world’s most discerning travel title, Condé Nast Traveller announces an ABC of 78,014, an increase in UK subscriptions of 2.4% period on period. The title is the leading luxury British travel publication.

GLAMOUR

The market leader, Glamour posts a new ABC of 415,258, an increase of 2.5% period on period. UK actively purchased sales have risen by 1.4% and total actively purchased copies are up by 2.8% period on period. Digital editions are up 4.4% period on period and 12.5% year on year.

WIRED

Wired has a new ABC of 57,497, level period on period. Digital edition sales continue to display growth, increasing 1.4% period on period and 18.1% year on year.

GQ STYLE, the definitive bi-annual guide to men’s fashion in the UK, continues to perform strongly, while edgy bi-annualLOVE sets the style agenda and has just published the ‘Fantasy’ issue.

Nicholas Coleridge, President, Condé Nast International and Managing Director, Condé Nast Britain, comments “It’s great to see a surge in sales for Glamour in the past six months, and our titles making similar progress in digital editions. This is a terrific time to be publishing quality magazines.”

* In each case Condé Nast’s period on period and year on year comparisons refer to total combined print and digital circulations, to allow for parity with this period’s ABC print and digital combined gross total.

* source: www.inpublishing.co.uk


These two diagrams below show the total revenue by publisher and circulation by publisher where we can see the position of Conde Nast. On the first diagram the following things are shown by colours:

 Green  - revenue by subscription
 Olive    - revenue by single copy
Orange - revenue by advertising

As we can see Conde Nast Publications are on the 3rd place with total revenue of  more than 1,500M. 

On the second graph Conde Nast Publications are represented by the green line. Within the time the circulation was going up and the publisher has a good position among the its competitors (the 4th place for its circulation).

Meaning: The information about marketing position of the company helps to understand the executive team how competitive their company is amongst the others. It allows them to be sure they are competitive in relation to its nearest competitors such as Hearst Magazines, Time Inc and Meredith. The executive team of Conde Nast can analyse the information they have got to improve the company's image, for example, they could ask   the editors to make their magazines more creative and interesting, to put there more useful articles which will help them to meet the needs of target audience.

Purpose: Conde Nast is able to measure its progress using the information about their market position. It can also see the progress of their particular magazine brands and how well it's selling. Every brand, in this case Glamour magazine, must be able to run independently a viable business. Publishing houses like Conde Nast use the market position to supervise the business.

Competition - P1(e)

Competition is rivalry in which every seller tries to get what other sellers are seeking at the same time: sales, profit, and market share by offering the best practicable combination of price, quality, and service. Where the market information flows freely, competition plays a regulatory function in balancing demand and supply.

• Meaning: It's important to know about the competitors in order to improve the company's image to attract more customers. Conde Nast needs to know what their competitors are and their market position. It's very common in business to have an aim to be better than the competitors but without information about them company cannot achieve this aim. To be competitive Conde Nast should analyse its prices, quality and service and to compare them to competitors' decisions on the marketing mix.

• Purpose: The purpose of awareness of Conde Nast's competitors is mainly to understand what are the company's advantages and disadvantages over the competitors and to use them in the right way. Conde Nast will be able to advertise itself by showing the benefits of choosing their media products and trying to correct its drawbacks. This will allow the company to attract more customers, to increase sales and, therefore, revenue and profit. 

I have referred to the following websites:

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/competition.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearst_Corporation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meredith_Corporation

Analysis of a Media Product - P2(a-g)

Demographics of the Target Audience - P3(a-d)

DEMOGRAPHICS - the statistical data of a population, especially those showing average age, income, education, etc.

Analysis of the target audience is very important when making decisions on the marketing mix. Marketing mix consists of product, price, place and promotion. Knowing the interests, age and spending power of the target consumers, business can decide what price to set, what articles to include and what promotion to use to attract as many customers as possible. This helps to increase the number of sales of the magazine and, therefore, to increase revenue.

The great contribution to making Glamour popular magazine was made by Cynthia Leive. She is its editor in chief. Under Leive, Glamour has received a record number of editorial awards. Furthermore, Glamour's circulation has risen to its highest levels ever, with a rate base of 2.25 million.

From the information above we can make the following conclusions:

Gender: the magazine focuses mainly on females, as 96% of readers are females. As a result, the articles of the magazine are focused on women's interests such as beauty, fashion, news about celebrities. This helps the magazine to attract customers and to increase its market share. 

Age: the age of readers varies from 18 to 49. To make the magazine interesting for such a big range of ages, Glamour makes useful articles about beauty and saving the good appearance within the years which might attract 30-49 years old women.

Lifestyle: Glamour is a fashion magazine, so their target audience is the women who are interested in fashion trends and who would like to be stylish. To attract more customers, the cover must represent that the content of the magazine is aimed at fashion trends, beauty and advices from celebrities (eg. what is fashionable in the opinion of stars, how to choose outfit according to the event, what to eat to support the weight or to achieve the same body as particular celebrity).

Spending power: 67% of readers are employed that means that they are able to spend money on a good magazine monthly. This can allow Glamour magazine to set up higher prices. However, the management team should be aware of the fact that 70% of the readers are young ladies who study in college. This means that their spending power is limited as a lot of money they spend for educational purposes. Therefore, the price of the magazine needs to be available for those who can't spend a lot on magazine monthly. 49% of readers have children in their households and the most proportion of their income they spend on their children. This information is also useful when setting up the price for the edition. Availability of the magazine can help to increase number of sales and, therefore, to increse revenue so as profit.