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Milia 96: International Publishing and New Media Market Conference9 - 12 February 1996: Cannes, France (Sponsored by Reed Midem Organisation) Marketing New Media to Women |
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Michael Bush
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Copyright (c) 1996 - Future Systems Inc.
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To promote its new title Karen Mulder at the Milia conference, the multimedia publishing group Hachette Filipacchi Grolier sponsored a press conference in the form of a roundtable discussion that was moderated by Serge Siritzky (editorial director of the magazine Total Ecran) and included cover girl Karen Mulder; Georges Ifrah (writer and founder of Elle Magazine's new column on multimedia); Chine Lanzmann (moderator of the French TV show, Cyberculture from the French cable TV network, Canal+); and Hervé Digne (CEO of Hachette Filipacchi Grolier).
The Karen Mulder CD-ROM is one of several products developed by a group that specifically targets women. Perhaps it is not the first of its kind, but anyone who observes the multimedia marketplace for more than a few minutes is obliged to conclude that the existing users of computers are mostly males interested in products that implement the arcade game paradigm of violence and/or hand-eye coordination.
Hachette Filipacchi Grolier is a relatively new multimedia publishing group that was organized in February 1995 as a subsidiary of Hachette Filipacchi Presse/Filipacchi Médias, the world's largest magazine publishing group, and Grolier Interactive Europe, publisher of online and CD-ROM-based reference materials.
Given its knowledge of the consumer marketplace, the publisher's willingness to address a heretofore unexploited (some might say non-existent) segment of the market is noteworthy. Indeed, one of their first products released in 1995, 2,000 Recipes from Elle, sold 5,000 copies in France during its first month in the marketplace and ended the year in the top ten in sales for the Christmas buying season.
Hervé Digne said, "Until now, the feminine public has not made up a very large percentage of consumers of multimedia products, but this lag may well be eliminated once appropriate products are available. For example, the Elle Web site is getting today about 75,000 hits per weeks of which 71 percent are women, according to a survey that we just conducted." The site was launched in November 1995.
For Mulder, the CD-ROM started out as a personal care video project. She said, "I was thinking at first of producing a video. But after having discovered CD-ROM, I found this medium to be exciting, given its rich content and options." She said she intends to continue working in the "complementary" environments of CD-ROM and video.
Hachette Filipacchi Grolier also announced The Elle Beauty Guide, which will be marketed worldwide. Writers from Elle magazine, along with professional beauty counselors, will give tips and instruction on ways to "make oneself more beautiful in all circumstances"
