Whitebook
Whitebook mentioned in lead articles by the Nikkei Marketing Journal (May 18) and Nikkei Weekly (May 31). Both articles describe the Whitebook as the leading innovative cross-marketing tool in the luxury products and services category.
Luxury brands share client magazine
SHIN KURODA Staff writer
Visitors to the Porsche showroom in Tokyo's Shiodome district may notice several copies of a 90-page, full-color magazine placed on a desk, alongside a group of luxurious Porsches.
In addition to stories about the latest Porsche models, the magazine features articles about eight other brands, including Giorgio Armani and Citigroup Private Bank, a unit of Citigroup Inc. of the U.S.
"Whitebook" magazine is not available to the general public. Rather, it is targeted at customers of luxury brands. The magazine is designed to introduce current and potential customers of one brand to the products and services of the others. For example, owners of Porsches can read about U.S. jeweler Harry Winston. Each article describes the history of a company and its products with the aid of lavish photographs.
Not intended for sale, the magazine is published quarterly, with a press run of about 20,000 copies distributed on behalf of nine clients. The clients think the new type of public relations magazine has been successful not only in pushing brand power but also in allowing each of them to "share" the customer base of other corporations.
They aim to secure the patronage of regular customers while gaining new ones among a well-heeled class. Participating clients offer the magazine to their core customers and place it in hotel rooms, showrooms and elsewhere.
Attracting the rich
The magazine is the brainchild of Andreas Dannenberg, president of Ad-comm Group, a Tokyo advertising agency. His company has been working primarily to promote luxury cars, fashion goods, alcoholic beverages, jewelry and other products that target wealthy consumers.
Dannenberg noticed that advertisements carried in newspapers or on television were failing to appeal to the rich. He felt his company should create a new medium to reach the audience of luxury brands.
In spring 2003, Ad-comm published the first issue of the magazine for nine brands - Porsche, Giorgio Armani, Citigroup, Harry Winston, the Danish maker of audiovisual equipment Bang & Olufsen, Dom Perignon champagne, the Italian furniture brand Cassina, the German brand of kitchen utensils Bluthaup, and Hyatt International Hotels & Resorts.
The advertising agency selected those brands based on such criteria as the social influence of the brand, the type of customer base it enjoys, and characteristics that make the company unique with consumers.
The magazine's title derives from the term "white book," which means a report compiled by government offices to present information about a specific subject. Ad-comm sought to create a magazine "that describes everything about a high-quality lifestyle."
Each of the nine brands is assigned eight pages per issue and awarded a different version of the front cover. The number of copies distributed to each company ranges from 2,000 to 3,000 each issue.
Officials representing the participating companies said they are highly satisfied with the magazine. "In addition to raising brand value, the magazine has also contributed to our gaining new customers," said Kazuo Makino, marketing manager of Porsche Japan KK.
With the fifth issue, which came out late last month, the Japan Airlines group joined the magazine as a client. It replaced Bluthaup to become the first Japanese firm to participate in the publication.
"We hope the magazine will help us increase the number of customers traveling first class," said Eiichi Yamaguchi, chief of the International Passenger Marketing & Sales Planning division at Japan Airlines International Co.
Among the articles that have appeared on page 1 of past issues are essays by novelist Jiro Asada and other popular writers such as Natsuki Ikezawa and Nozomu Hayashi, and an interview with ballet dancer Tetsuya Kumakawa.
The magazine has also published articles introducing people who engage in humanitarian activities at the Association for Aid and Relief, Japan, a nonprofit organization helping refugees, the Japan chapter of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), the Japan Guide Dog Association and other organizations. Readers have also enjoyed stories on the work and activities of distinguished Japanese artists from a number of fields, including sculpture and calligraphy.
Dannenberg hopes the magazine will motivate readers to support social and artistic activities, thereby helping to increase the richness of contemporary society.
By using Whitebook magazine as its base, Ad-comm is able to promote a wide range of activities intended to form a cross-marketing community.
Last year, for example, the company arranged a Christmas party for readers of the magazine. This year, it plans to offer a trip to the French winery of Dom Perignon where readers can meet the chief vintner and another to visit the head office of Harry Winston on Fifth Avenue, in New York, to let participants see how jewelry is made.