Marketing Plan Post

From the research, I've gathered from similar magazine, my plan for marketing Fleur Sombre will be on social media, telecommunications, and physical handouts.

Fleur Sombre will work with celebrities that it will feature for an issue and have them push the product, as well. On a platform like Instagram, we can post a post that says celebrity X will be featured in our next issue and tag them in it. Celebrity X can also post something telling their followers to check out Fleur Sombre because they will headline it. Depending on the fame of the celebrity, they can directly advertise to hundreds of thousands to millions of people on social media from their page.

With telecommunications, I will buy spots for commercials where I will present Fleur Sombre to the world. I will pick a network that focuses on sports as well as the bigger networks. Men tend to watch more sports so channels like ESPN and TNT would be viewed by a lot of men. Also, I could have issues that feature an athlete, further putting Fleur Sombre to the sports world. For instance, Jayson Tatum was just put on the cover of GQ and he posted on social media announcing it. Tatum has millions of followers and he is a star in the league, so he receives a lot of attention for both on and off the court activities.

For physical handouts, a great place to have magazines and pamphlets would be in waiting rooms of businesses. In some waiting rooms, there are magazines available for customers to use while they wait. This could get good exposure for the brand. Also, Fleur could try to get in grocery stores and appear in the aisles right at the checkout. These magazines are purchased more often at grocery stores because they catch the consumers' eye as they checkout.

Another method I could use would be to work with musicians, as well. If I could have an issue with a superstar like Drake, then his already superstar status will display his feature to the world. People have streamed over 880 years worth of Drake's latest album, meaning his reach and influence is so great, Fleur Sombre is sure to gain popularity.

Target Audience Research 3 - Slam Magazine

Slam's primary way of getting their audience is on the popular social media app, Instagram.

Combined between their Slam Online, Slam High School, and Slam Kicks, pages, they have 2.5 million followers. Their audience is primarily teenagers and adults under 35. Their appeal is really universal for people who like or follow basketball. Their magazines feature professional players the majority of the time, so that is a universal appeal. Also, they have these Instagram pages who film high school basketball players to put out their highlights which gets theme exposure as well as draws people to their pages to watch these players.

Target Audience Research 2 - Esquire

Esquire's product is similar to GQ, so it makes sense that they have similar audiences.

Esquire and GQ both revolve their articles at least partially around men's clothing and things that generally tend to appeal to men. This make sense as their audience is 65% men. However, they are also a pop culture magazine, meaning they appeal to everyone. Even though a lot of things in the magazine as "for men," there are a great of non-gender influenced articles that draw many more readers. With almost 20 million viewers, 35% of them being women with he kind of magazine is great use of their articles. These people also tend to be young adults to people in their 30's for the majority. They are cashing in with their universal appeal to these social groups to maximize their viewers and their profits.

Target Audience Research 1 - GQ

What I found in my research is that GQ's audience is primarily under 35 years old and is male. This makes sense because GQ is a men's magazine and I feel that younger people would relate and find the articles more interesting than older people. I believe this is due to older people resonating with the older style they grew up wearing where this is the style this generation is wearing. 73% of people who read GQ are 34 years old or under and 63% who read are male. 75% of these people are employed and 38% of the readers buy products featured in GQ.

GQ realizes that their audience is young and how much influence they have. Since they recognize this, they can use their specific social group to make all of their sales. Also, what's interesting is that over 1/3 (37%) of their readers are women. They can appeal to women trying to buy things for their male friends or if they are interested in some clothing. GQ's influence is so great that even while being a men's magazine, they are still appealing to women readers.

Feedback/Revisions

I received both positive and construction feedback when I first showed my magazine.

A positive I received a lot was the quality and placement of my pictures. They said my pictures accurately displayed the meat of my article, but they recommended I get a wider variety of pictures. Another strong point I received was the layout of my magazine. The people who reviewed it said it was very cohesive and resembled a magazine they had seen before. The placement of the pictures complimented the bulk of the text in the middle and made a very smooth feeling.

Where I need to revise was getting a wider variety of pictures of more people in more outfits. Also, some text on the cover and in the article was hard to read, so I'll put an effect behind the cover text to have it stand out I'll most likely have to put a different background to my TOC to have my words stand out more. For the article, I'm unsure if I'll change the color of the text or if I'll go with a total;ly different color background. I like the light blue that is the background already, so I'll first try to experiment with text colors to see if gets an easier to read.

Use of Conventions

Fleur Sombre uses the aspects of traditional men's magazines today, including GQ and Men's Health. It strives to appeal to men, but can have a universal draw to anyone interested in it. Fleur Sombre combines health, style, sports, and pop culture into a melting pot of literary enjoyment. The magazine doesn't challenge any of the norms but rather accentuates the highlights of these kind of magazines. The articles in the magazine and targeted to people who can afford popular and some upscale brands. While this might limit the audience, the appeal for looking at these nice brands is still prevalent in the general population. The magazine can be viewed by people of all ages as it is not only a sales oriented magazine. There are stories about sports and pop culture that discuss topics and don't have style in the spotlight. These articles can be for the casual reader looking for different opinions and an entertaining read. Fleur Sombre is an entertaining read targeted for men and encouraged for all ages.

ToC Template

For my Table of Contents, I wanted the title of the magazine to be at the top and the top stories to hug the right side. I put my model, Ethan, on the background and had him gazing at the stories. If the background contrasts with the picture too much, then I will change the color of the text and possibly add a shadow behind it. I will keep the blue theme going on in the table of contents and keep the same font of Garamond.