A while back I opened my copy of Fortune magazine to discover a tip-in ad for Viagra.
A tip-in is a page or set of pages inserted after a publication is bound. Tip-ins are typically used for the inclusion of advertising features and designed to allow the reader to easily remove and keep the items separate from the publication. Most often a tip-in is a heavier weight stock but can also be used for booklets or items whose dimensions don’t match the publication size.
Back in the day, when CDs were a common tool for sharing large files, you might find a tip-in of a CD (think AOL). More recently I’ve seen examples where a tip-in included an entire media player and promotional video.
In the case of my Fortune magazine, the tip-in was made to look like a leather gentlemen’s toiletry bag – or what my dad called a Dopp Kit – that happened to hold a single use packet of Viagra tablets in addition to a toothbrush, paste, cologne, mints and a comb. It was a very impressive and not an inexpensive piece.
My first thought was to laugh at what a waste of money somebody had spent purchasing these inserts in a full run of Fortune when of course they could certainly segment their male from their female readers and only include this in the circulation for the male readership. That of course assumes that the target market for Viagra is in fact the male reader as opposed to the female reader. Perhaps their segmentation was spot on?
I’ll let you do your own research to determine who in fact is the buyer and influencer in the Viagra market but remind you of the importance, when you’re making advertising and marketing decisions, of spending your dollars wisely by targeting people who actually have the ability to make or influence the sale.
This blog was contributed by Jennifer Koon, Principal of Michael Mackenzie Communications.