How important is your newspaper’s brand?
October 1, 2008 by marek.miller
During the INMA Outlook conference, Inge Van Gaal began her speech on the importance of branding with the statement that the most important issue of every newspaper is how it is perceived by the consumer.
Inge Van Gaal
According to the speaker, what characterizes the newspaper are its name, constant quality, constant look, good reputation and its strategy strongly supported by communication. Those are the elements which create the brand of newspaper. In order to build a strong position by strengthening their newspapers, the publishers should focus on why the brand should be so important to them.
Inge Van Gaal stresses that brand:
- gives identity to the newspaper
- builds trust in its readers
- orients buyers (both advertisers and readers), so they know what they are getting
- promises high quality (or the quality readers want to perceive)
- represents competence
- builds social prestige (sometimes)
A good newspaper should be seen as a brand (not only understood as its logotype or a sign, but foremostly as its content). And in a good newspaper, all departments should see their product as a brand and know exactly what it means. If the definition of the brand varies in different departments of the company, it may vary as well among its readers.
In order to build a strong brand, a newspaper should carefully analyze its main goals. According to Inge Van Gaal, these goals should be:
1. Increase in sales
2. Preference building and differentiation from competitors
3. Building a loyal customer base
4. Enabling of price premium because of its uniqueness.
5. Increase in enterprise value
6. Specific branding for different customer segments
7. Specific branding for different platforms
The core brand values of a printed newspaper are understood as:
- the integrity of a newspaper
- connnecting communities
- reflecting diversity
- keep being a watchdog
- keep being reliable
Implementing or keeping the above five values in the newspaper is essential to build and keep a strong position of the brand on the press market.
Inge Van Gaal also recognized three different strategies for building a brand by media companies:
- Multi product branding. This is a strategy taken for instance by the Telegraaf Media Group which builds different brands for different products (such as “De Telegraaf” or “Spits”)
- Umbrella branding. “The Guardian” is a good example of such strategy, where all the products have the Guardian brand included in their names (“The Guardian”, guardian.co.uk, guardianjobs.co.uk)
- Brand extensions. “De Morgen” in Belgium extended its brand by creation of multiple online platforms created to satisfy their readers needs.
Inge Van Gaal is the European coordinator of the International Newsmedia Marketing Association.
[...] summit began with speeches about the importance of the brand of newspaper. Inge Van Gaal, the European coordinator of the International Newsmedia Marketing Association, [...]