Model Engineer Workshop No Show

Are there any problems with subscription deliveries of Model Engineers Workshop? I see a copy for sale in my local news agent but my copy has still not arrived.

Hello Senior,

I assume you mean issue 243? It should have arrived early last week, but with so many copies sent out it's surprising more don't go astray in the post each month.

Use the contact details here:

www.model-engineer.co.uk/editorial/page.asp?p=908

and give them your subs details and they will send you a replacement.

Neil

I noticed that in the newsagent, MEW issue 243 comes with a free issue of ME, yet the subscription copy I received through the post had no such addition - are the subscribers being short changed?

No, the newsstand buyers are getting an extra bonus in order to get them to pick up the mag, read it and perhaps become regular buyers or subscribers. Existing subscribers are getting what they paid for.

No, subscribers benefit in other ways such as special offers, reduced renewal costs or free gifts.

In any other field of marketing no-one seems to get upset when targeted marketing is used, why does it upset magazine subscribers?

Plus, remember that, as with any magazine, we have a gradual turnover of readers and without marketing initiatives to attract new readers and subscribers the readership would slowly fade away and the magazines wouls cease to be viable.

Indeed to take the point to the extreme, readers numbers allowed us to justify adding an extra eight pages to MEW a year ago, so clearly subscribers can directly benefit from such promotions.

Neil

It's not the free ME that makes them buy it Hopper, it's the fact they can't have a free read of the article that interests them due to the placky bag so they have to buy that months MEW

Edited By JasonB on 22/06/2016 08:54:57

No, its a promotion to increase the sales of ME. Been done before, and the same niggles have been expressed.

Its called Marketing Strategy.

.

Sorry, Neil ... I have to disagree

Lots of people are upset when their Bank, Building Society, Credit Card company, etc. uses 'targeted marketing'

... Remember the ' Brand New Customers Only ' TV advert ?

... It wouldn't have been effective if there wasn't an underlying truth.

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 22/06/2016 10:01:41

My original question was made with a certain amount of tongue in cheek ;o)

With regards targeted marketing in an attempt to increase the readership of ME, surely the MEW subscribers are actually a more valid set to target as they already subscribe to the sister publication, and a free copy of ME is a gentle reminder to think about buying into that subscription as well.

The casual MEW reader may/may not be interested in a subscription to either of the magazines, who knows what their reasons are for picking up the magazine at the newsagent, you may have increased readership of MEW issue 243 simply because it has a free ME issue attached and people love to think they are getting something for free.

Edited By Timothy Moores on 22/06/2016 11:19:06

Not if you live outside the UK

Russell.

On the subject of targeted markeing - Target, the US pharmacy, set up a Hadoop cluster (Big Data for trend analysis) to allow them to spot trends in their customer's buying habits via their loyalty cards.

One thing they discovered was that when female customers started buying certain products, it usually led to them buying maternity items soon afterwards - i.e. they were pregnant, but did not necessarily know it yet.

Target then started sending out discount vouchers for maternity items to households where someone had suddenly started buying these products.

In one household that that received some of these vouchers, the Father in the family took issue with Target, as he was convinced that there was nobody in his household who was pregnant, especially not his daughter.

As it turns out, his wife was pregnant, but she had not told her husband yet.

What Target now do is that they still send out the maternity item vouchers, but they mask it by sending out a bunch of unrelated vouchers as well as a disguise.

Edited By Timothy Moores on 22/06/2016 13:54:01

Yes, so many people forget the offer they benefited from when they see one aimed at someone else.

Neil

Hi Neil,

Thanks for coming back to me, I called the number in the magazine and yes they are sending me a replacement.

Great service 👍

Ah, if i had a penny for every one of these threads...

Michael W