Last night in the Training & Development Management class, the lecturer was discussing business strategy. Suddenly he turned to me and asked, “Ricky, how can a magazine compete?”
Without much thinking I replied, “Don’t be a magazine.” Before that, I had been habitually telling people to operate a successful bookstore, don’t be a bookstore; to be a successful nasi lemak store, don’t sell nasi lemak. That is, be bold to come out of your product category, create your own market space and be perceived as offering something different or more than what you sell.
As a matter of fact, I know of one magazine which is not really in magazine business. The company behind is actually in branding business. They charge clients fees to certify their brand, give them brand awards, and promote them in a number of ways, magazine being one main channel. No wonder I can’t find advertisements in the magazine.
I guess the lecturer asked me about magazine because he knew I used to write a column for a magazine called MBA Edge Quarterly. Again, if I had resources and owned a magazine like this, I would do it in different way, rather than a traditional one going around soliciting for advertisers and presents only good things about MBA. Create an MBA 2.0 magazine!
