Study: There is a lot of unused dialog potential in customer magazines
Customer magazines could be used much more for new customer contacts. After all, 25 percent of German-language customer magazines offer readers no contact opportunities at all.
Customer magazines could be used much more for new customer contacts. After all, 25 percent of German-language customer magazines offer readers no contact opportunities at all. This is the conclusion of the current study by the German agency Dahlem + Partner, which examined 196 German-language customer magazines. "The results of the study signal a certain insecurity in dealing with dialog," comments Richard Lücke, Head of Product Management Press Distribution at Deutsche Post, on the results according to Dahlem + Partner. In addition, there is often simply not enough staff to handle the response, Lücke continues.
Although B-to-C communicates better overall than B-to-B, both target group segments are nevertheless wasting valuable dialog potential: just under one in four B-to-C magazines offers no opportunity for dialog and one in three B-to-B magazines sets no dialog signals.
Pharmaceutical magazines stand out in an industry comparison - every issue (100 percent) features response offers. Financial service providers come in second (91 percent). Next come tourism/travel (89 percent), media/entertainment/culture and energy with 86 percent each, retail/consumer (72 percent) and lastly car manufacturers (69 percent).
The study also shows the use of dialog tools to generate addresses: Web addresses are used most frequently, e-mail second and fax third. Response cards and coupons are used by only a few companies (around 10 percent). SMS plays virtually no role.
Although response cards are not among the most frequently used response instruments, they are, together with coupons, among the most favorably positioned visually - because they can hardly be overlooked on stable cover pages or in the waistband. Fax, web and telephone are positioned conspicuously by the majority of the magazines studied. The e-mail address, however, is integrated rather inconspicuously by half.
Although B-to-C communicates better overall than B-to-B, both target group segments are nevertheless wasting valuable dialog potential: just under one in four B-to-C magazines offers no opportunity for dialog and one in three B-to-B magazines sets no dialog signals.
Pharmaceutical magazines stand out in an industry comparison - every issue (100 percent) features response offers. Financial service providers come in second (91 percent). Next come tourism/travel (89 percent), media/entertainment/culture and energy with 86 percent each, retail/consumer (72 percent) and lastly car manufacturers (69 percent).
The study also shows the use of dialog tools to generate addresses: Web addresses are used most frequently, e-mail second and fax third. Response cards and coupons are used by only a few companies (around 10 percent). SMS plays virtually no role.
Although response cards are not among the most frequently used response instruments, they are, together with coupons, among the most favorably positioned visually - because they can hardly be overlooked on stable cover pages or in the waistband. Fax, web and telephone are positioned conspicuously by the majority of the magazines studied. The e-mail address, however, is integrated rather inconspicuously by half.
