Store flyers have evolved in recent years from simple newspaper inserts into high-gloss lifestyle magazines, packed with insightful features, handy shopping tips and tricks on how to incorporate store products into your home.
Whether it's Home Depot's DreamBook or The Magazine by Rona, shoppers can't wait to get their hands on a free copy.
This "must-have" attraction is the result of savvy marketing.
Home Depot was one of the trail blazers of this trend, releasing its first biannual DreamBook in the fall of 2003. Two million free copies of the spring/summer and fall/winter issues are distributed in store and by mail.
Peg Hunter, vice-president of marketing and communications at Home Depot, says these publications act as inspiration for those who need help putting a room together, but can't afford to hire a personal home stylist or interior designer.
Home Depot still distributes smaller weekly flyers to help consumers track upcoming specials, but DreamBook is meant to influence the bigger picture.
"With any home renovation, it starts with a dream, it starts with an idea, it starts with an inspiration," says Hunter. "So that is really what this specialty book is meant to do -- to inspire. To show people the latest trends, the latest products that they can use to get the desired result."
The goal is not only to get consumers started on their renovation journey, but show them it's possible to get all the products displayed -- categorized as eclectic, contemporary and traditional -- under one roof.
And she says it's not unusual for a customer to walk into the store with a page tagged that features a decorated room, asking to buy every item shown.
"They'll come into the store with the book and say, 'I want that, give me all the product that gets me that,' " says the marketing executive. "Or they want to take a piece of the design and incorporate that into their own style."
Sobeys, the second largest food retailer in Canada, now offers a quarterly publication, Inspired, a 48-page tabloid-style magazine that features articles on entertaining and tips for easy meals.
"We recognize that our customers' needs are evolving in not only the type of information they want to receive, but also in the manner in which they choose to engage with our stores," says Belinda Youngs, chief marketing officer for Sobeys Inc. "We need to be available for them wherever they are, with everything they need to help them make good food choices as easily as possible."
While most stores just give out the magazine, others include them as part of a special customer appreciation program, such as the Sears Advantage Membership, designed to reward their most valued customers. Perks includes exclusive savings and their quarterly magazine, My Advantage, which features fashion spreads, consumer tips and recipes.
Rona's summer edition of The Magazine includes step-by-step home-improvement projects and a fun two-page feature by HGTV's popular design duo, Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan, called Decorating 101, highlighting dozens of practical wallpaper and paint ideas.
Pierre L'Heureux, Rona's vice-president of marketing, image and sponsorship, says the magazine's effectiveness as a marketing tool is evident in the sales that typically spike shortly after it's released, which is four to five times a year.
"The bottom line is we can see results," says L'Heureux. "Not only just comments from our consumers, but also their reaction, the pickup in the stores when we launch the issue is very positive. So those magazines are carried away in the stores and they are used."
-- Postmedia News
