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“I keep going over a sentence. I nag it, gnaw it, pat and flatter it.”
- Janet Flanner |
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Survey Says ... Custom Pubs Are Integral to Marketing Today |
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| Summer 2000 |
If we believe what Andy Warhol says, the 15 minutes come and then, unfortunately, go. But the Custom Publishing Council is again in the limelight with a breakthrough survey that shows that custom publishing is now a fundamental and crucial part of U.S. companies' relationship marketing initiatives.
According to confidential queries conducted online, the CPC's second industry probe forecasts future growth and an increasing reliance on custom pubs as turnkey marketing solutions. While previously it may have been uncertain to what degree marketing pros used custom publishing, there is now no question that this tool is the choice of the day and promise of the future.
The most recent study reveals that custom publishers will grow an average of 10.4 percent for the year 2000, compared to a forecasted 8 percent spike in the consumer magazine advertising market. The 1999 study positioned the revenues generated by custom publishers as a billion-dollar-plus industry.
Diana Pohly, CPC co-chair and president of Pohly & Partners, Boston, says that the industry has not yet reached its peak and the robust growth fueling this niche is expected to continue as relationship marketing becomes part of the corporate communications fabric and as competition drives more companies to increase the quality of their custom communications by outsourcing to specialty firms.
The ABCs of the CPC & the 1,2,3s of the Study
The CPC, a committee of the Magazine Publishers of America, has produced two studies in the past two years, with its most recent research effort conducted by the Publishing and Media Group (P&MG) and released this summer. Both reports have helped quantify and qualify an industry whose size and impact went previously unmeasured, other than anecdotally. Its newest study, however, also indicates:
* Players coming on board: More than 71 percent of custom publishers surveyed in 2000 entered the business post-1995;
* Anything goes: Custom publishing, an editorially driven discipline based on building ongoing communications with customers, isn't media specific. The model extends beyond print to Web sites, e-mail, audio/ video and CD-ROMs;
* Most ad dollars go to print efforts, but not all: Custom magazines account for the largest piece (52.7 percent), but newsletters and brochures (24.1 percent) and electronic media (16.5 percent) are also notable contenders;
* Not just big fish: The most recent study indicates that large companies aren't dominating the market. More than 75 percent of respondents say their yearly revenues are under $10 million, with 8 percent reporting revenues over $20 million.
"These findings and numbers underscore that custom communications is becoming a central battleground for the entire marketing industry and for the best of companies;" says Jeremy Morris, VP of strategic development at Hanley-Wood Custom Publishing and chair of the CPC Research Committee.
"Our findings suggest this growth is likely to continue, with a host of companies - not just dedicated custom publishers, but other kinds of publishers, advertising agencies and major holding companies - coming into this space as well."
Sidebar: Sister, Sister
"No question, the custom publishing industry is on an upswing," says Deb Gallagher, director of marketing for Inc. Custom Publishing, an Inc. magazine sister venture that specializes in events, custom publishing, software and consulting.
"We have financially staked part of our future growth on this, and internally we have several initiatives addressing this fact. We have put marketing dollars behind our custom publishing efforts. We have hired talent and expanded our resources. And we are going out into the custom publishing market to get more business."
The company's largest client is United Parcel Service, for which it produces an external newsletter, InBox, that is sent quarterly to about 200,000 of the Parcel Service's small business customers.
Sidebar: The Split:
The PMG survey, completed for the Custom Publishing Council, looked at the sectors generating the most revenue for custom publishers, which are presumably the sectors most inclined to outsource their custom publishing needs to specialty firms:
| Finance, insurance & real estate | 11.7 percent |
| Technology | 11.0 percent |
| Healthcare | 7.8 percent |
| Education | 5.8 percent |
| Travel | 4.5 percent |
| Non-profit | 4.5 percent |
| Entertainment | 3.9 percent |
| Government | 3.9 percent |
| Food | 3.2 percent |
| Apparel | 3.2 percent |
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