Discussion Shonen Jump Marketing

[ZayCon]

Intro:
I've just started my first year as a student, and I'm going to take a bachelor in marketing. Marketing is a pretty big subject, because there's so many different aspects and meanings. Marketing involves things like: Sales, CRM (Customer relationship building), Research, Distribution, Setting goals and target groups etc. But that isn't really important now.

The reason for my choice of study field, is of course my huge enthusiasm and interest in marketing!

Main:
Lately I've been wondering a lot about how Shueisha is doing their marketing when it comes to Weekly- and Monthly Shounen Jump. This is something I really want to know everything about, both because I love those magazine and because it would be great to see how companies from a completely different continent with a very differing culture do it.

I really want this thread to become a good discussion with lots of facts and opinions!

Questions:

• How important is marketing in this business?
• How much money is used on marketing WSJ and MSJ?
• How is the distribution of these money between the two magazines?
• How important is the TOC (Table of Contents) when it comes to marketing?
• Do WSJ emphasize their relationship to their customers, or do they think only about sales?
• Will WSJ change their target group, now that their average readers is much older?

These are just examples of what to discuss, and their in no way a "template" for how you should answer this thread!

Hoping for some good replies and a very good and learning discussion about Shueisha's marketing!

 

[perroloco]

Re: Shueisha (Shonen Jump) marketing

I have heard that magazines in the U.S. when released have to get some sponsorship i.e. Add-buyers, then the magazine will have some profit, this means the magazine needs to have adds and stuff like that in order to be profitable in the U.S. and people buying the magazines of course.

Anyway I have heard that there are some weekly/monthly magazines that lose money and recover it from tankoubon sales, don't know if this is true for WSJ.

Anyway WSJ marketing is pretty straight-forward, the first couple of pages are colored pages (from the manga, likely getting a double color page) then IIRC like 10 or so pages of pure adds (in color) the mayority of times the adds are of new games and merchandise, if the manga has an anime adaptation then it can cover it too, then in them middle section other adds but I don't remember if they are in color, IIRC they were in bichrome..
I don't have the WSJ issues at hand but I might check other day.

 

[Asarii]

The mere fact that WSJ has published countless hits is a marketing tool in of itself through collaborations with famous brands (ONE PIECE) or continuing promotions for Dragonball and Yu-Gi-Oh even after they've ended.

Also, unlike other magazines where they advertise through TV commercials and popular idols, WSJ takes a different approach: they have their own television show (Jump BANG!) and the Jump Festa event they hold every year.