Research of instituition

Bauer research

“Bauer Media UK is an entertainment network of iconic, multi-platform brands. The business became part of the Bauer Media Group, Europe’s largest privately-owned media group, in 2008. Founded in Hamburg in 1875 and now in its fifth generation of family ownership, the Bauer Media Group operates in 19 countries including the UK, Germany, Poland, Australia, New Zealand and the USA and has 11,000 employees worldwide.”

Bauer is very clearly a large, successful, influential brand therefore it is implied that what they
produce will easily reach a large range of consumers from different groups in societies and largely different demographics.

“In the UK we reach over 25 million consumers. Our portfolio includes heat, KISS, Grazia, Empire, Motor Cycle News, Parkers, TV Choice, Take a Break, Bella, Magic and Absolute Radio. Our scale, coupled with the breadth of our portfolio, gives us an advantage over pure play magazine or radio competitors.”

The suggestion that their products reach a variety of people is emphasised by the diversity of products and genres that they cover, from “Bird Watching” to “Mother & Baby". Instead of only
producing products that target the mainstream society and the stereotypical family/stereotypical figures in society, they cover many different aspects of society and target a much wider audience in doing so.

“In an era where audiences are ever harder to categorise, we build strong cultural connections, drawing people together with the things that they really care about. Our brands become the lens through which our audiences see the world. Our focus is on deep consumer insight and instinct, and when they collide, the sparks fly!”

Furthermore, instead of strictly categorising the audiences they target and trying to isolate them/keep them away from each other the company is clearly trying to draw different types of people together through the variety of niche markets they target. This contrasts the stereotypical representation of an older brand such as Bauer, as they would be expected to be very traditional in the way they create their media products. Despite this, as they are clearly taking a more modern approach it highlights how as a brand they
are able to successfully move with the times and stay up to date with what modern audiences want and create relevant content to keep them engaged with the brand.

“Today we are Britain’s biggest magazine publisher. Our magazine heritage stretches back to 1953 with the launch of Angling Times and the acquisition in 1956 of Motor Cycle News, both still iconic brands within our portfolio. More recently, Closer was launched in 2002 and Britain’s first weekly glossy, Grazia, was launched in 2005. Our Women’s Weekly magazines include Take A Break, which has long been the UK’s best-selling women’s weekly title, and TV Choice, the UK’s biggest selling magazine.  In 2015, we created a new niche within the growing gardening market, with the launch of Modern Gardens, for an audience who want to enjoy their outdoor living space, without having to become expert gardeners.”

In terms of magazine genres, Bauer cover a very wide range of categories with their ever-expanding range of brands that they own. As they target a mass and niche market with their products it allows them to be more successful than brands that only target mass audiences. Trying to target niche audiences can be much more difficult as they have to specifically address a certain field of consumers and therefore can be less successful than if they were to target a mass market. However, as Bauer have a variety of niche
products it shows the sheer variety of groups of people that they are able to target as a large and fruitful brand.

Fashion Magazine: 
I also decided to research into how Bauer as a company address the needs and wants of their consumers when it comes to fashion, specifically through fashion magazines. However, when i tried to research into what fashion magazines they owned i was surprised to find that Grazia is the only Fashion orientated magazine that they offer.

“Grazia continues to be the only weekly magazine within the market to offer a breadth of need-to-know news, whether in the world of celebrity, fashion, beauty or culture, throughout our reader’s week, every week.”

The magazine as a whole is categorised as a “Women’s magazine”, rather than as a fashion or beauty
magazine, allowing the product to contain a variety of different elements that a stereotypical woman would be interested in and target a range of women. This does allow Bauer to report on a variety of news stories and events that may be of importance to a stereotypical woman, however as it includes such a vague range of topics it only specifically targets the kind of woman that they are reaching out towards, rather than a variety of women.

“Grazia has a highly targeted demographic of 25-45 year old women and more AB profile readers than Vogue and Elle. She’s a savvy, affluent, confident, busy and modern woman who actively participates in the world around her.”

This limits the number of women that Bauer are targeting with their magazine as, for example, women who are solely interested in fashion may choose not to buy this product but to instead buy a competitor’s product if it contains what it is they are looking for. Furthermore, there is also no product to cater for men’s fashion alone as well as women’s. This depicts a large gap in the market that Bauer could potentially fill.

“Adding to our curated charts of the week's hottest drops, Grazia brings an added usefulness to its unrivalled fashion offering.”

Although the magazine does offer a look into fashion for their targeted reader, it could be argued that
they offer as limited view on fashion as it only caters for a small proportion of fashion as a whole, especially as it is a “women’s magazine”, it does not consider any other genders and their fashion concerns.

“Our best-in-the-business beauty editors are going further than ever before to test and try the products that truly deserve your money, time and trust. We also bring mental health with new troubleshooting franchise School for Thought.”

Instead they offer a large range of topics that are not fully developed to try and target a wider audience, however instead of this, to increase the successfulness of the business, they could create a new magazine(s) that targets the niche audiences of alternative fashion, men’s fashion and alternative beauty, for example.