Home Sweet Home Magazines

It’s really encouraging to hear that the homes magazine sector is doing well, as discussed by Isobel McKenzie-Price, editorial director at Ideal Home and housetohome.co.uk, in today’s campaignlive.co.uk article.

Only a few weeks ago, I blogged about home interest magazines and how they are as popular as ever since we can no longer afford to move and so want to make the most of what we have.

It’s very encouraging therefore to hear that Isobel believes in homes mags and their role in helping their readers to get what they want when decorating their homes. I love nothing more that flicking through the latest issues and gaining inspiration from the latest trends and clever ideas for getting more for less, particularly as I will probably be in my current home for a few more years yet.

What’s interesting about this interview is the shopping trends of the readers at this time. With consumer confidence at an all time low, we’re spending more time deliberating about our choices before committing – as Isobel says, ‘we’d rather buy once and buy well’.

This ethos will certainly make brands consider how they communicate their differentiation, quality and service as they all vie to be chosen by today’s critical homeowner. We are less loyal to brands than ever before so price and believability will become key.

This latest insight into the home magazine arena proves yet again how PR’s too need to work even harder to get into the good graces of the consumer press as if they buy into a product or service, then their readers are more likely too. However, competition is fierce and PR’s need to do everything they can to convey why their client is exactly what they’re looking for.

Improving Not Moving

It’s a well used term by the home interest magazines but it seems to be truer than ever – people are improving their homes rather than moving, and they are using the web to do their research.

With the recent demise of far too many high street home retailers to mention, and the property market still stuck in the mud, homeowners are sending a clear message; they can’t afford to move house and can’t afford big ticket items for their home.

The home magazines have known this for some time, emphasising ‘quick fix’ and ‘maximise your space’ interior solutions and looking to real readers homes for inspiration on a shoestring. You may wonder who is still buying said magazines in light of this consumer hesitancy but circulations are still up and new titles such as Style At Home, from IPC Media, are appearing on the newsagent’s shelves.

It seems that home magazines give us the best of both worlds; we can indulge our nosy natures and see how other people live whilst maintaining our mental mood boards of what we would like to do to our own homes, one small update at a time.

What’s also great to see is how our favourite reads are really making the most of online, communicating with eager homemakers via their websites, blogs and on Twitter and Facebook. Whilst this might not seem out of the ordinary, it has been a long time coming as just a couple of years ago, it seemed the magazines saw online content as their enemy, resorting to only the most basic of websites.

Times have changed and rather than competing against themselves for readership, the key home interest magazines have their own online plan for engaging their followers and providing them with daily inspiration.

One obvious yet shining example of this is the housetohome network. Bringing together content from the IPC Media stable, including Ideal Home, Homes and Gardens, Country Homes and Interiors, Livingetc, Beautiful Kitchens and 25 Beautiful Homes, this online resource is invaluable to the window shopping homeowner who dreams of a new kitchen but will probably settle for some new cutlery for now. Real Homes and Your Home also offer lots of ideas for home improvement to enjoy over your lunch hour.

With consumer confidence in online shopping at an all time high, the home interest magazines had to evolve if they wanted to compete but there’s no doubt in my mind that our favourite interiors tomes will be around for a long time yet. After all, what else is a coffee table for other than displaying our lifestyle aspirations?