Экономические науки/6. Маркетинг и менеджмент

PhD M. Yu. Ababkova,

Master’s Degree student O. Yu. Lazareva

Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University

Physiological features of the information perception by using electronic and traditional communications (on magazines example)

Nowadays printed issues (especially glossy magazines) are the most expensive advertising medium. The magazines core audience is practically constant and most magazines frequency is monthly but it also varies from once a week to twice a year. Bulky magazines require slow and relaxing reading and attract user by bright and colorful images. After first reading it is also allowed to give the issue to someone else or reuse it, for example, on Christmas as gift wrappings or as a press cutting for a pin board etc. This is why the magazine advertising has a progressive persuasion.

In fact everyone now is online: the laptops were replaced by the cell phones and the world communicates on the phone, gets the recent news from the web sites, can buy books and magazines online, download and read them with e-readers.

The purpose of our work is to find out what is the future of printed issues (especially magazines) under these circumstances; if digital issues completely displace printed ones and if it is necessary to modify advertising to maintain its efficiency in digital issues.

Both types of publishing have advantages and disadvantages. Firstly let’s define key advantages of digital issues that will be automatically referred to disadvantages of printed editions:

1. Practical information storage. A lot of magazines issues are easy to buy and download to your e-reader and right after that you can read it. It is mobile and compact. And if a person buys a printed issue he has to do some acts: firstly, he goes to the news-stand, secondly, while transporting printed edition feels its bulk and finally needs to clear a space for keeping it at home etc.

2. Depending on the device e-readers have an ability to bookmark and text search and turn the pages in a similar way and other different user options.

3. There are a lot of international printed magazines that are not available in several countries by some reasons. And this problem can be solved by subscribing to the iPad, Kindle, Nook or Android editions. Usually it means that a person gets scanned pages of the printed issue.

4. Just after reading an article or a magazine we have an opportunity to discuss it with friends or find a forum for discussion or we can search for extra facts or information about the subject if we have internet access.

The key disadvantages of digital publishing are:

1. Anne Mangen and other psychologists say that the similar but not the same way of page turn does not let the brain acquire information correctly. When a reader uses the printed issue he can hold it in hands and feel its weight, pages roughness, the smell of the book cover. All it helps a reader to create a mental map because a person always associates the information he gets with its location in the book. E-readers do not give a person such opportunity and when a reader “turns the page” he touches only one spot on the screen. And while reading e-books a reader’s brain is getting tired much faster than if a person is reading printed magazines.

2. Scanned pages are hard to read on a small screen.

3. Fiction is mostly free to download but specialized literature and glossy magazines are usually available only on subscription.

4. Battery life. New e-book readers with improved batteries appear from year to year. But dead battery is still an often situation. That is why electronic readers are not useful if you go on a hike or you are away on business and you can’t charge the battery of your device etc.

Digital type of publishing has a lot of weaknesses but many printed issues are stopped printing and go to online. Mostly it happens when the publishing company bears losses even if it is the worldwide known publishing company with a great history. For example the management of well known Newsweek magazine decided to work just online starting from 2013 (but later in 2014 they resumed print version). And finally printed editions have many competitors that create free online-magazines for the same target audience.

In a time of digital information there are also a lot of printed magazines that issue digital editions only in addition. Extremely popular action-magazines, such as TransWorld Snowboarding, Powder Magazine, Onboard, Cross Country, Kitesurf, Skydiver, Surfer, Diver Magazine, Canoe & Kayak, have attracted a new audience by creating additional electronic versions and didn’t lose the primary users which just had to choose the best format for them. Action-magazines are always focused on particular consumers (pro-athletes, amateur athletes etc.) and graphical information here is even more important element than text information. That’s why such issues constantly contain high-quality professional photography. It looks great especially in a printed edition and, for example, iPad version loses here.

In action-magazines you can find not just colorful pictures but a creative advertising too. It attracts and inspires. Advertisers always find new ways of product promotion. As an example we would like to mention double page spread in Russian sports magazine “Verticalniy Mir”. It starts as an article about walking tour but at the end we can see sports equipment advertising. The advertiser becomes a user of the equipment. Professional athletes test products in real life and check if its characteristics correspond to the facts. And a potential consumer gets a sense of confidence.

Previously it has been mentioned of the different way our brain acquires information. And magazines are perfect advertising medium. Under that logic the advertizing in electronic editions should be modified as well to be still efficient (of course scanned pages we can’t modify). A user can easily close the reading program or skip tabs. That is why electronic advertising must be minimalistic, low-pressure, creative, unexpected. Neurologist Sanda Aamodt found out in an experimental way that a man while reading an electronic issue has problems with attention concentration. It means that information is perceived worse and must be simplified. It is also true for advertising.

In conclusion it necessary to say that in our view in the near future digital and printed issues will be combined because they complement each other and attract at least twofold amount of consumers.

References

1. Зубков А., журнал «Вертикальный мир», выпуск №108, М.: «Вертикальный Мир», 2012. – 136 p.

2. Cockrum Jim, Free Marketing 101-Low And No-Cost Ways To Grow Your Business Online And Off, Published by John, Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hoboken, New Jersey, 2011. – 320 p.

3. Mangen A., Experimental reading on tablets and e-book, 2013 г. [Electronic resource]

4. Харламов П., Будущее печатной прессы: цифры, факты, прогнозы и прогнозы, 2014. [Electronic resource]

5. Aamodt S., Does The Brain Like E-Books, A Test Of Character, The New York Times, 2009. [Electronic resource]