JKAMN DEC. 2013 | Page 6

COMPETITORS

Competitors:

InStyle

Allure

GQ

What we are competing with:

Covers

Who is on the cover

Content

Media Magazines

The hard copy paper magazine industry is losing its sales due to the triumph of digital mediums. According to a New York Times article published in August of 2013, sales of weekly celebrity magazines and women’s titles were the hardest hit and have struggled to compete with rival content online. Every magazine is struggling to do the same. JKAMN, our fashion magazine is in a big market, competing with other top named fashion magazines such as Allure, Nylon and GQ; now we are not only competing with just magazines we are competing with the digital branding market as well.

Although sales are declining, InStyle is still one of the top single-copy selling magazines as of June 2013, according to the Alliance for Audited Media. The magazine does so well due to various factors. The content of the magazine is the backbone of the high sales; but the look, and the appeal of the magazine, what catches the reader’s eye, is the foundation and the main factor for the high sales.

The cover is the most important asset to selling magazines. To again readers, you have to attract them first. In order for JKAMN to survive in this market, its basis has to have a good beginning and a good look. Looking at our competitor’s covers:

it is noticed that the title is very clear at the top with big bold letter making sure everyone can see it. It also catches the eye with the nice fonts and how the fonts and colors contrast. The fonts, colors and title all play an important role when viewing the magazine at first glance but one of the main contributors to top sales is who is featured on/in the magazine. Who is featured is a challenging task to come up with but it’s all about strategy. InStyle did a brilliant job in getting Jennifer Lawrence on the cover of their December issue due to the fact that Jennifer Lawrence is the star of the movie the Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which recently just sold an estimated $161.1 million opening weekend (CNN). JKAMN can compete with the competition by being strategic and smart about who is placed on the cover, and how we can make them look appealing to attract readers.

Another asset of competitor’s success is the content of the magazine. The content of a fashion magazine needs to be innovative, attractive, and trendy. All of competitors seem to do that, some better than others. If you look inside of InStyle you have trending fashions, tips and tricks and the feature story. In order to top our competition we will have to do that but add more, have more interesting topics, have better trends, and always be one step ahead. Not only do we have to be ahead, we have to continue to be ahead. The key to success is always be better than the opponent, if they have one better issue than you it can be the demise of the entire project that has been started.

Mentioned earlier the competition is now doubled with the added media platform to compete with. Mostly for every magazine there is an online magazine now. That declines the print industry and makes it harder for magazines everywhere to survive. According to Wall Street Journal, 289 magazines had digital replica versions with a combined circulation of roughly 7.9 million. That means we have to appeal to every aspect of social media, whether that be Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, it is needed for our fashion magazine industry to survive in the market. In terms of the online magazine, its just like the magazine, including the articles and topics, but it has an easier function. It should have headings to each topic of discussion. If looking at GQ’s website it is easy to use and very excited, it also catches peoples attention.

JKAMN has tough competition but if we are smart about the decisions and make the best efforts in growing our magazine it can be done. We have to become unique, original and innovative.