QUESTION 2: Product engagement & distribution

Below, you will see a video presentation of my answer to the question: "How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text ?". I chose to do it using the online platform Prezi. The quality is unfortunately not the best since in order to download the video I would have had to pay a monthly subscription. Therefore, I screen-recorded the video using my phone and uploaded it here.

Make sure your audio is on !

Below you can read the basic, text format of my answer:

Both Ana and I would love for Sylk Magazine to have a printed form. We are aware that the sales of printed magazines are declining, but we still believe that some of our audience would love to have the experience of reading our magazine in a physical format. Therefore, the plan for Sylk Magazine is to interact with the audience online and to make them want to buy the printed version of the magazine.

In order to achieve that, before we even started to create the magazine, we created an Instagram account. At first, we offered the audience a moodboard which acted as a teaser to what would soon come when we would start to create our own content. This attracted quite a few people and made them curious about what this new magazine would be like. Then, we started to document our ‘making-of’ process, which attracted an even higher audience and created a lot of suspense and intrigue towards our magazine. Afterwards, we started to post our own original photos which would be found inside of the two issues. We then posted our final magazine mock-ups. We managed to grow a following of more than 100, which we are really happy about. Sylk received a lot of attention on Instagram and we believe that this social media platform is the key to making our magazine popular and to engage with our audience since it is very easy and convenient for anyone to use. On Instagram, our audience can comment on our posts and tell us their opinion. They can also message us in case they have any questions or advice. Moreover, polls can be created. This is a feature on Instagram which allows the audience to choose between two things and to give their opinion. It would make them feel more involved in the whole process of making a Sylk Magazine issue.

The articles found in Sylk Magazine will cover topics which are relevant in society nowadays and which would help women go through tough times. We will listen to our audience whenever they have any suggestions/advice/concerns and we will shape our magazine topics while taking into consideration our audiences’ wants and needs.

In terms of advertising, a lot of it will be done on Instagram. We are able to pay in order for Instagram to promote our posts or some banners which we would create. We would be able to create our chosen audience on Instagram to which to promote our content to. This would attract a lot of new followers and would make our Instagram page reach a very large audience. We would promote sneak peeks of our upcoming issues, parts of our articles about social issues and many more. This would show the person looking at the advertisement on Instagram, what Sylk Magazine means. Another way of advertising would be by sponsoring influencers from all over the world. They would be women of all different age categories, which would promote Sylk Magazine on their social media platforms.

Sylk Magazine will be sold online, on an official website, as well as occasionally, in pop-up stores in popular cities all around the world, such as Paris, New York, Berlin, Moscow, Tokyo, etc. We would like to do this in order to enhance the fact that Sylk Magazine is aimed at all kinds of women passionate about fashion, no matter their age, religion, ethnicity or race. In addition to the printed magazines which would be sold in these pop-up stores, we would also sell slip dresses. These are the definition of elegance, timelessness and confidence. We would offer a very high range of sizes, as well as different designs depending on each pop-up store. We believe that this is a very unconventional way of advertising and distributing a magazine, which could become something revolutionary in the printing and marketing industry. Each of our magazines could also be easily used as decor, since all the upcoming issues, as well as the two already existing, would portray a timeless and chic look.

Sylk Magazine will be sold exclusively on our official website, both in print and digital form . We will also offer our audience the opportunity of choosing to purchase an annual subscription. The price of this would be significantly lower than buying 12 individual issues, in order to persuade the audience to buy it and would also come with a surprise gift such as a fashionable tote bag. Also, the digital version of our magazine issues will be slightly cheaper than our print ones. But, only the annual subscription will come with a gift. We will focus on delivering the highest quality print version of our magazine, in order for our audience to be able to use the issues as decorative pieces as well. We will pay attention to the paper’s thickness, texture and size. We want to focus on these aspects in order to make it worthwhile for our audience to buy the printed version of the magazine. Price skimming is the strategy which we will use for our magazine, in order to enhance the fact that Sylk is very focused on the quality of its products.

In case any new marketing techniques appear throughout the years, we will adapt accordingly. But, for now, these are the strategies which we will use in order to attract our target audience.