Despite the travails of its namesake, Martha Stewart Living readers are renewing their subscriptions at above-industry levels, reported the Associated Press last week.
While anecdotal evidence suggests that women are renewing out of solidarity, another reason for the renewals jump is that folks like to own a little piece of scandal. As nobody got hurt or lost scads of money, this is an easy one to embrace. The whole shebang smacks of a brilliant, carefully orchestrated marketing strategy.
But this renewals bump will lose some steam as Stewart enters her post-incarceration probation period, and maintains a clean image. Renewal levels are bound to slip – unless the magazine generates a few circulation-boosting strategies. Some suggestions follow.
Subscribers will expect the magazine to tip whether Stewart, hardened by her stint in the pokey, will headline a celebrity boxing match. Although Martha Stewart Living doesn’t have a sports section, right around her release date it may feature Stewart demonstrating how vintage grosgrain ribbon makes an ideal hand-wrap before lacing up the 16-ounce gloves.
Assume that the coverage of Stewart’s bad behavior is boosting renewal rates. Should she want to do right by her magazine, she ought to earn some extra time in the big house. Every additional 30-day sentence should be good for at least a 1% increase in renewals.
For example, a carefully calibrated set of snooty observations about the tackiness of guard uniforms should earn her 60 additional days – and her company a 2% renewals jump. Comments directed at the tackiness of the guards themselves could generate up to 10%, if she really puts her mind to it.
Second, upon release, Stewart must make a series of egregious, self-serving and contemptuous pronouncements. “No, I don’t plan on doing anything different” should be worth a 2% jump. But a reprise of her famous pre-incarceration line, “I want to focus on my salad, because that’s why we’re here” would be even better. That should net an easy 5% gain – especially if she says it on “Nightline.”
Third, she should seek further run-ins with the law. A minor altercation involving her car and a fire hydrant on her Connecticut estate would be good. Assaulting a shopkeeper for not stocking star fruit would be better. Shoplifting linens from KMart, especially if they’re not her personal brand, would be the best of all possible worlds.
If all else fails, and despite her best efforts she is no longer able to command respect as an evildoer, it will be the publication’s turn to catch one on the chin. It will have to do so by resorting to the most vilified magazine sales strategy of the last 100 years.
In her name, it will have to use a sweepstakes mailer. Alert the state Attorneys General – and the media.
To respond to the opinions in this column, please contact e-mail: rlevey@primediabusiness.com
