MEDIA CHOICE: REAL HEALTH & BEAUTY

I have to confess that despite having worked in the advertising

industry for the past 13 years, surrounded by women’s magazines, I

rarely read them thoroughly because I find many of them too

patronising.

Like every working mum, I have very little time to either read about

being healthy or to do much about it.

My hour of netball every week and my daily walk up the escalators on the

London underground are not exactly a routine that would be recommended

by a real fitness title.

What I am looking for in a health and beauty magazine is one which

offers me the information I need to make up my own mind, not one which

is heavy on advice or indeed laden with product information.

So how does Real Health & Beauty fare? At first glance there is perhaps

a value for money issue. At pounds 2.20 for 98 pages, it seems expensive

versus say Zest, also at pounds 2.20 for 164 pages, Marie Claire Health

& Beauty at pounds 2.50 for 148 pages and Top Sante at pounds 1.95 for

122 pages. The fact that it is not perfect bound may also work against

it.

Although weak on quantity, I felt the quality of Real Health & Beauty’s

journalism was pretty good. The magazine doesn’t patronise and is heavy

on ’real life’ features - ones that I have never read about anywhere

before. It is not too heavy on advice or overtly pushing beauty

products.

This gives it a point of difference over its competitors. It also

includes more lifestyle features under the banner of health. Pieces

entitled ’How not to get stressed out at Christmas’ and ’How to spot a

liar’ make it more of a general women’s magazine than a health and

beauty title.

This article was first published on Marketing