GROWING THE MAMAS & PAPAS BRAND
Mamas & Papas is a magazine about paternity that was started in September 2008 by Nawaal Motlekar in South Africa. The philosophy of the brand is to be trusted, reassuring source for parents. From the early beginning of the Mamas & Papas magazine it was focused on young couples (in age between 23 – 40) that are Black, Coloured or Indian (nearly of 80% of all population of South Africa), and are high end professionals with good educational level and work experience. The main sales channels were medical and health institutions, pediatrician offices. Also, after deep market research, Nawaal Motlekar decided that the magazine will be oriented to English speaking segment.
As for brand positioning, Mamas & Papas magazine tried to win a race with its competitors by being highly informative, up-to-dated, relevant and with special articles for Dads. Moreover, the magazine tried to reach “Black Diamond” group of consumer – the special category of South Africa’s population that was identified by the University of Cape Town. This group includes black middle class of South Africa that was emerged after years of economic growth and democratization processes. This target audience had high level of education, great job opportunities and good personal income. So, Mamas & Papas tried to be attractive particularly for the “Black Dimond” group in case of its positioning.
This positioning was based on the idea that magazine should merge cultural heritage and modern knowledge about paternity. The positioning message was indicated as “to be first, ground-breaking parenting and family lifestyle magazine, calling to papas and mamas”. As a result of such positioning, the major topics that were covered in the Mamas & Papas were Pregnancy, Dealing with children of different years, Special Needs, Working Moms and Dads. The strategies that were implemented to state this positioning included targeting of special categories (pregnant women, young couples), brand activation through wide awareness actions, etc.
As for results of Mamas & Papas magazine in South Africa, the first year after start (2009) almost 50,000 magazines were sold. And this result was reached even without first quarter of 2009. Moreover, in the first quarter of 2010 the result for Mamas & Papas was 18,207 items. The highest level of Mamas & Papas sell was in the first quarter after the start (second quarter of 2009) with 18,309 sold items. To compare, in that period the highest result in the market was in Living and Loving journal with more than 40,000 of sold items. It was still a leader at the beginning of 2010 with nearly 32,000 sold journals. The market share of Mamas & Papas magazine at the beginning of 2010 was nearly 12% (in volume), so it could be considered as a good result after the first year of performing.
According to the strategy’s KPI, Mamas & Papas magazine should reach 30,000 of quarterly print items in 2011. The average period of sell takes nearly two weeks for each issue (when more than 50% of magazine in stocks are sold). So, the results of starting of Mamas & Papas magazine are relatively good. The magazine reached over 10% of market share after the first year of performance and wider its brand with Mamas & Papas web-site and TV show. All in all, it should be focused on its target audience to be successful on the market and in order to reach its goals.
