The Challenge for Yankee Magazine?: Retaining Loyal Readers While Re-Positioning Its Brand
Richard L. Cravatts Ph.D.
January 25, 2007
Newly retooled Yankee Magazine may be discovering what the Coca Cola Company found out in 1985 when it introduced “New Coke”: that consumers do not like change in iconic products, and that repositioning a brand can be problematic until the positive attributes of the new brand become evident to loyal customers.
One key distinction between these business strategies, of course, is that Yankee Magazine may have had no choice in upgrading its look and format: the decision to undergo radical change came as a result of circulation figures that had dropped from around 1 million to 500,000, readership lifestyle changes, declining ad pages, and a changing demographic no longer of the same value to the publication’s advertisers. The folksy, down-home brand character of the magazine was no longer resonant for the readership successful magazines now crave—middle-aged, affluent women—and Yankee’s publisher, Jamie Trowbridge, admitted himself that existing readers’ “perception of Yankee is frozen in time," a state in which, in an era of podcasts, streaming media, and sophisticated, high-touch publishing, Yankee could no longer afford to be.
Those affluent, savvy women the magazine was looking for needed to be tempted back into a brand that could speak to them and be relevant to their lives. "Fifteen years ago when they were 30, they looked at Yankee and said, 'That's not for me,'” said Trowbridge. “We want them to take another look."
Getting readers to “take another look,” of course, is the key objective of a re-branding campaign, and is generally effected by a repositioning strategy—shifting the long-standing brand image of Yankee into something with the same heart but a different voice. Positioning, a concept conceived of by Jack Trout and Al Ries a generation ago, outlined what marketers could do so that consumers would respond favorably to a product by changing the way customers form attitudes about it; their notion was that “positioning does not change the product; it changes the way customers perceive the product,” a formula that still works, not only for detergent, but also for magazines. But there are challenges that face brands when they begin to tamper with old, once-successful formulas.
No sooner had Yankee published its issue last month with a new, full-size format (a radical change from its long-standing, digest-sized cover), than complaints began coming in from loyal readers who resented a change of the ‘brand character’ of a product with which they had created a, sometimes, long relationship. The trick for publishers, or for any marketers trying to reposition a product without alienating existing loyal customers, is to create a new brand image without diluting the brand, losing the benefit of the built-up band equity, or sacrificing an existing customer base for another, potentially elusive, one.
Levi Strauss was faced with the same challenge in the 1980s when they created the enormously successful pants line known as ‘Dockers,’ a marketing response to a changing demographic who found jeans—the core Levis product—less relevant and useful in their lives. What made the Dockers brand popular so quickly, of course, was the ability of Levi Strauss to transfer the enormous brand equity of Levis jeans—and all of the associations of independence, freedom, comfort, and non-conformity that went with them—to the new Dockers product; the positive brand associations that made Levis jeans perennial favorites became part of the Dockers brand story and immediately turned it into a monster brand.
Yankee Magazine must accomplish the same strategic objective of using its considerable brand equity—all the positive emotional associations and attachments readers have with the publication’s look, tone, feel, history, and editorial mission—and carrying those positive brand associations forward into the newly-formatted magazine. The old Yankee model was clearly not working and needed to be revamped to meet contemporary magazine readers’ needs; but the strength of the Yankee brand can give considerable added value to the new incarnation, which is the reason that it makes good marketing sense to retool the existing magazine rather than completely discard it and a have a brand new magazine created.
The dramatic format change made the Yankee transformation look sudden, but in fact the magazine had been evolving over several years into a product that would attract a different readership and speak in a more contemporary way to both readers and advertisers. There were cosmetic editorial changes, but also the addition of other aspects of magazine publishing, pod casts and streaming audio on the Yankee web site among them, which help engage readers and offer readers a more substantial value proposition.
Do pod casts and streaming audio fit the brand character of Yankee? Not necessarily. But are these types of brand enhancements necessary to retain readership, create relevance, and attract a younger demographic of upscale, busy women between 30 and 65, as Yankee is trying to do? Absolutely. The challenge is to be able to introduce new enhancements to the magazine, including format and content changes, without alienating existing loyal readers or diluting the essence of the Yankee brand by going in directions that are inappropriate for its core editorial mission.
The fact that Yankee’s publishers have seen the writing on the demographic wall and have taken steps to counteract declining circulation and ad space sales shows that they are not, as some of their readers might have thought, “stuck in time.” It is always possible for brands that have a mistaken confidence in their tradition and strength in the market to be slow to recognize that their customers’ perceptions about them have changed, or that the competitive environment has changed so that customers have other, more attractive, products to buy—or magazines to read. Yankee has not done that, and if its strategy is on target, hopefully the strong emotional connections and regional associations that readers have felt for over 70 years can be incorporated into its repositioned, dressed-up, and engaging regional publication.
One key distinction between these business strategies, of course, is that Yankee Magazine may have had no choice in upgrading its look and format: the decision to undergo radical change came as a result of circulation figures that had dropped from around 1 million to 500,000, readership lifestyle changes, declining ad pages, and a changing demographic no longer of the same value to the publication’s advertisers. The folksy, down-home brand character of the magazine was no longer resonant for the readership successful magazines now crave—middle-aged, affluent women—and Yankee’s publisher, Jamie Trowbridge, admitted himself that existing readers’ “perception of Yankee is frozen in time," a state in which, in an era of podcasts, streaming media, and sophisticated, high-touch publishing, Yankee could no longer afford to be.
Those affluent, savvy women the magazine was looking for needed to be tempted back into a brand that could speak to them and be relevant to their lives. "Fifteen years ago when they were 30, they looked at Yankee and said, 'That's not for me,'” said Trowbridge. “We want them to take another look."
Getting readers to “take another look,” of course, is the key objective of a re-branding campaign, and is generally effected by a repositioning strategy—shifting the long-standing brand image of Yankee into something with the same heart but a different voice. Positioning, a concept conceived of by Jack Trout and Al Ries a generation ago, outlined what marketers could do so that consumers would respond favorably to a product by changing the way customers form attitudes about it; their notion was that “positioning does not change the product; it changes the way customers perceive the product,” a formula that still works, not only for detergent, but also for magazines. But there are challenges that face brands when they begin to tamper with old, once-successful formulas.
No sooner had Yankee published its issue last month with a new, full-size format (a radical change from its long-standing, digest-sized cover), than complaints began coming in from loyal readers who resented a change of the ‘brand character’ of a product with which they had created a, sometimes, long relationship. The trick for publishers, or for any marketers trying to reposition a product without alienating existing loyal customers, is to create a new brand image without diluting the brand, losing the benefit of the built-up band equity, or sacrificing an existing customer base for another, potentially elusive, one.
Levi Strauss was faced with the same challenge in the 1980s when they created the enormously successful pants line known as ‘Dockers,’ a marketing response to a changing demographic who found jeans—the core Levis product—less relevant and useful in their lives. What made the Dockers brand popular so quickly, of course, was the ability of Levi Strauss to transfer the enormous brand equity of Levis jeans—and all of the associations of independence, freedom, comfort, and non-conformity that went with them—to the new Dockers product; the positive brand associations that made Levis jeans perennial favorites became part of the Dockers brand story and immediately turned it into a monster brand.
Yankee Magazine must accomplish the same strategic objective of using its considerable brand equity—all the positive emotional associations and attachments readers have with the publication’s look, tone, feel, history, and editorial mission—and carrying those positive brand associations forward into the newly-formatted magazine. The old Yankee model was clearly not working and needed to be revamped to meet contemporary magazine readers’ needs; but the strength of the Yankee brand can give considerable added value to the new incarnation, which is the reason that it makes good marketing sense to retool the existing magazine rather than completely discard it and a have a brand new magazine created.
The dramatic format change made the Yankee transformation look sudden, but in fact the magazine had been evolving over several years into a product that would attract a different readership and speak in a more contemporary way to both readers and advertisers. There were cosmetic editorial changes, but also the addition of other aspects of magazine publishing, pod casts and streaming audio on the Yankee web site among them, which help engage readers and offer readers a more substantial value proposition.
Do pod casts and streaming audio fit the brand character of Yankee? Not necessarily. But are these types of brand enhancements necessary to retain readership, create relevance, and attract a younger demographic of upscale, busy women between 30 and 65, as Yankee is trying to do? Absolutely. The challenge is to be able to introduce new enhancements to the magazine, including format and content changes, without alienating existing loyal readers or diluting the essence of the Yankee brand by going in directions that are inappropriate for its core editorial mission.
The fact that Yankee’s publishers have seen the writing on the demographic wall and have taken steps to counteract declining circulation and ad space sales shows that they are not, as some of their readers might have thought, “stuck in time.” It is always possible for brands that have a mistaken confidence in their tradition and strength in the market to be slow to recognize that their customers’ perceptions about them have changed, or that the competitive environment has changed so that customers have other, more attractive, products to buy—or magazines to read. Yankee has not done that, and if its strategy is on target, hopefully the strong emotional connections and regional associations that readers have felt for over 70 years can be incorporated into its repositioned, dressed-up, and engaging regional publication.
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