TAXI DELIVERS KNOCKOUT PUNCH - Strategy

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custom publishing
IN the ’90s, Ontario’s LCBO stores sought to improve
customer service by delivering information about its
products and suppliers in a package that spoke to their
customers’ lifestyles. The result was Food & Drink, the
LCBO’s custom magazine that is published six times a
year and currently boasts a readership of 2.3 million
people per issue. “It became the guide for entertaining
responsibly and gave our suppliers a vehicle for
talking directly to the consumer,” says Chris Layton,
LCBO’s media relations manager. The result? The LCBO
experienced a substantial sales uplift and increased
in-store traffic. “There was also a long-term benefit,
because it developed a more knowledgeable and
engaged consumer,” adds Layton. And LCBO’s success is
something that Transcontinental is replicating for liquor
boards in Quebec, all the Atlantic Provinces and with
the forthcoming launch of the magazine for the Liquor
Stores Group in Alberta.
Maintaining customer relationships and building long-term
loyalty will be key to weathering an economic downturn. This
is custom publishing’s premier strength: meeting objectives
and creating brand loyalty by focusing on the customer
of the brand, not just the product it represents. And new
initiatives on established and emerging digital platforms
are increasing the opportunities for ongoing contact with
customers through bespoke content. Says Eric Schneider,
president and CEO of Toronto-based Redwood, “Gradually
we’re getting marketers to look at audience segments that
represent value across a portfolio and ask, How do we
build a relationship with them and within that relationship,
how do we start talking across the broad spectrum of our
clients’ products and services?”
november 2008
s17