customer magazines: Let Us Infotain You

 
Maintaining good relations with their client base – that is the most important task of customer magazines in the foodservice industry. Cultivating the company’s image while entertaining its clientele with a mixture of promotion, information and emotion: a brand experience that goes far beyond the visit to the restaurant itself. The advantage of the printed magazine over the online alternatives, which have become the preferred option for not a few foodservice brands these days, is that they can reach all the regulars when they come into the restaurant – also those who do not have access to the internet. Yet, increasingly, a twin-track approach is the order of the day: more and more customer magazines are now also available online.
 
Nordsee is a name that has stood for unmatched fish expertise in Germany for manyyears and is now increasingly to be found in several other European countries. Launched in the autumn of 2007 under the title ‘Strandgeflüster’ (Wateredge Whispers), the customer magazine appeared biannually until the beginning of 2009 when the name was changed to Food & Friends. The reason for the new name was the takeover of the Homann Group by Nordsee’s owners, HK Food AG, who, in a classic example of cross marketing, wanted to provide a customer-communication platform for the new subsidiary. The magazine always contains an editorial by HK Food CEO Heiner Kamps and is available free of charge from all Nordsee stores in the German-speaking regions. Some of the costs for producing and distributing no less than 250,000 copies are covered by supplier advertisements. The aim was and continues to be to intensify communication with Nordsee-restaurant guests. Published every three months, the focus of the 36-40-page magazine is on interesting information about products and offers, as well as healthy nutrition and, of course, the Nordsee philosophy. However, Food & Friends is intended to be more than just a simple PR publication. Hence, it is shifting more and more in the direction of a lifestyle magazine that, in addition to the indispensible recipes for fish and delicatessen, covers subjects such as the home and leisure activities, preferably those associated with the sea. Reader feedback comes from letters and mails – the general indicator of acceptance is the number of copies taken away by customers. In addition, the company’s website provides an online version of the magazine. Not only is the current issue available as an e-paper; all previous issues are also archived there. Competitions are offered in both the print and online media.
 
http://www.nordsee.de/
 

 
Since the recent rapid advance of the internet, the majority of the larger foodservice companies in Spain are now publishing their news and information for customers exclusively on line. Thus, Grupo Tragaluz (www.grupotragaluz.com) has shifted its thrice-yearly magazine onto the web completely. Grupo Arturo Cantoblanco (www.arturocantoblanco.com), which runs more than 180 restaurants, catering and hotel units, has replaced its magazine with a monthly digital newsletter; and the Mallorca company (www.mallorca-catering.com), which specialises in patisserie as well as catering services now also communicates with its guests and customers via the desktop.
 
Grupo José Luís, who have been publishing their guest magazine called ‘José Luis’ since 1991,at first with four issues a year and then, from 2008 onwards, only two issues, have remained faithful to the traditional printed word. Some of each issue’s 10,000 copies are sent out by post to their VIP customers from the middle and upper échelons of Spanish society and the rest distributed free of charge via their current twelve restaurants. There is a broad range of content and, in addition to the preface, which is always written by proprietor Jose Luís Ruiz de Solaguren, there are articles about the Group’s activities, about nutrition and restaurant catering, as well as ideas for leisure-time activities such as art, travel, literature, music and fashion. The presentation is strong on pictorial material, using lots of often large photos. The publication, which contains as many as 120 pages, is edited by the company’s marketing department, with production costs being funded by advertisements placed by suppliers and brands with the same target group focus as their own. “We see the magazine as a way of getting across our company’s mission and vision,” they say. “The best feedback is full restaurants.” www.joseluis.es
 
Other featured customer magazines are ROKUNDCO, MANOR, LANDZEIT, LA PLACE, Paradores Hotels, Pontus Group, Wahaca, Spaghetti House, JD Wetherspoon and Pizza Express
 
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| 12 August 2010 | Marianne Wachholz |