Magazines act as a trusted friend

People’s trust in traditional sources of authority continues to wane as their cynicism of Government and corporate institutions grows. Instead, they are increasingly putting their faith in their closest, most immediate networks of friends and family.

For individuals, belief and confidence today reside largely in what Henley Centre terms “MY world”, rather than “THE world”.
This goes for commercial messages too. As a result, the most powerful piece of product promotion tends to be a recommendation from a personal source. Magazines dovetail well with the concept of “MY world”, because they enjoy many of the same characteristics of a close friend.

Leaders often tend to be fiercely loyal to particular titles and because of their nature and their qualities, magazines are referred to and kept around more than other media – long-term companions rather than disposable contacts. Like a good friend, magazines can always be called upon when needed.

As a result magazines are triggers for conversations between friends and with work colleagues. Within people’s personal networks at home and at work, magazine content will often be discussed and copies passed on.

People look to their magazine as a trusted agent, filtering and sorting reliable information, sources and offers. As such, titles fulfill an important role as an advocate and source of referral, elements which are crucial to people when generating points of view, making sense of information and news and deciding which personal recommendations to make in their day-to-day conversations.

Given their ‘MY world’ attributes, one of the most significant advantages that magazines hold over other media – and can more fully exploit – is their ability to present marketing messages. People are happy with advertisers’ material not just because of this trustworthiness which rubs off from the host title, but also because their marketing material is most usually surrounded by relevant and useful content.