Magnetic, the marketing agency for magazine media, has published new research in collaboration with Millward Brown – Why Being Different Still Makes a Difference.

The research looks at how best to achieve growth for brands, with findings showing that whilst saliency does lead to growth, on average brands which boost salience grow twice as much by being meaningful and different as well. These important metrics are also more likely to drive price premium – an objective not impacted by saliency.

The Millward Brown insights found that magazines score highly across five key metrics needed to drive brand growth – meets needs, brand affinity, uniqueness, sets trends and saliency. Magazines are unique in their strong performance (delivering +1.77% uplift in impact on consumers for brands). The research also showed that it’s important to look beyond salience to help brands grow in the most cost effective way.

Sue Todd, CEO of Magnetic, said: “In this fast changing media landscape, we were interested in understanding the sweet spot in terms of magazine media’s contribution to brand growth. The data undoubtedly shows that the medium excels at helping brands differentiate, which in turn has a profound effect on growth. We recommend the marketing and media community consider how brands need to go beyond just being noticed and to make better use of the most cost effective channel for driving brand impact.”

Graham Page, Executive Vice-President & Head of Global Research Solutions, Millward Brown, said: “We know meaningfully different brands can charge more but the new news is that these factors also magnify share growth and repeat purchase. We encourage brands to look at the way being different can generate sustained growth and consider the significant impact magazines have across all of the attributes which help build brand equity.”

To view the presentation – click on the 'grab & go' deck on this page.

The full white paper report is here.

Photos from the morning are here.