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Targeting Upscale Consumers in a Downscale Economy
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Business New Haven
8/04/2003
By: Susan Cornell
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If you’re earning six figures plus and reside in certain areas of Connecticut, you’re probably receiving a new, fancy-schmancy magazine gratis. The publishers want you and have targeted your household.
But those not fortunate enough to make the cut either because of a lack of moolah or some other reason will have to pay for a subscription. Seem backwards? No, that’s simply marketing and demographics.
The products, Living in West Hartford, Living in the Valley, and Living on the Shoreline, are the new babes of Hometown Marketing, a West Hartford-based company with three divisions: publishing, media, and marketing services.
Explains Tom Hickey, publisher of the Living Ins, "These days, we like to remain diversified so if media placement is down, publishing is up. Or, if publishing is down, marketing services is up. It keeps the company moving along in the right direction."
Hickey’s inspiration was twofold. First was his mentor, Chris Larsen, "who we all used to work for at Imprint Newspapers. He had been doing Nantucket Magazine. It’s beautiful and it’s 300 pages and full of great, beautiful photos and wonderful editorial and interesting ideas."
Second, he informed that his media division had been placing ads for a number of Fairfield County-based businesses in town magazines along the Gold Coast. "Greenwich Magazine, Westport Magazine, New Canaan — they all have their own individual magazines."
"The folks down there all basically said the same thing: If you can find communities that truly have a love for themselves — great pride, a wonderful support base such as a chamber of commerce — that’s really exciting. I remember chuckling to myself, if they’re not describing West Hartford, I don’t know what they’re describing."
Hickey’s Hometowners devised their own formula for what Living in West Hartford should be. With no deep pockets and just as the economy was slowing, he explains, "This had to be supported by advertising. So we went out to all the advertisers that we know by virtue of everything that we do in this company. We asked them to commit to the first four issues for the first year.
"Chris Larsen had said something to me that stuck: Great magazines like Fortune were started at the height of the Depression. If you’re putting together a tool that can be a true resource to advertisers and readers, timing in a slow economy can be the one thing that differentiates you from everybody else."
So, he says, he went to advertisers "saying that we’ve identified the 8,000 wealthiest homes in West Hartford through fulfillment houses by buying lists and tweaking them and spending a lot of time because we know the communities so well," Hickey says. The Hometowners also explained to the advertisers that, "In an economy that’s slowing down and you’re tightening up your budgets, you need to make sure that your message is delivered to consumers or people who would be interested in your business and to people who can afford them."
Says Hickey: "It was always our plan that we were going to move into other towns. The first year was going to be West Hartford. The second year was going to be the Valley. The third year was going to be the shoreline. But, when the product came out, everyone at holiday cocktail parties said, ‘Ah, this is perfect for Madison and Guilford.’" So, onward march.
To be on the list to get the magazine free, the income cutoff is "more like $125,000 income break while West Hartford is more like $90,000," he said. He confesses, "We want the list to change ever so slightly each time we publish because — if you get all four issues for free — you’re less likely to think you have to subscribe. And, we want to convert these to paid subscriptions.
What about the plebs who don’t make the cut? Are they offended? "With the first issue, there were e-mails and phone calls from those who thought it was an elitist magazine and resented it. I personally made sure I spoke to every one of them," says Hickey. He explains to them, "The distribution — what enables the product to get printed and delivered — is satisfying the needs of our advertisers."
Hickey said that in putting together an issue, he wants to make sure that it is of interest to everyone in the community. "We’ll do a feature on schools — we’ll want to make sure that it includes a school from the Elmwood section. People are surprised by this, but we are reaching households from every single part of town."
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