'A Fashion Brand and Their Future Publishing Trend'. HailStyle.com

With the launch of Porter magazine this month I thought to myself, this is a step in a very exciting direction for the world’s biggest online shopping destination; Net-A-Porter. But it is also another fashion publication that is placed upon the shelves in our local newsagent, there is a vast array of choice nowadays, the question is will we stop buying our usual Vogue’s and Harpers Bazaar’s, or will Porter be our new obsession?

The 284 page women’s luxury glossy “delivers an authoritative global point of view and a bespoke curation of fashion, beauty, travel and culture”. This new £5 go-to magazine brings a not-so-typical trend upon trend summary such as Alexandra Shulman’s Vogue. Instead it provides an individual outline of the Net-A-Porter customer, a magazine published by a retailer as apposed to a publisher is an exciting forthcoming. This magazine that is issued six times a year, provides a similar shopping experience, catering for the high earning stylish Net-A-Porter woman, the paper view features brands from their website so the reader knows they will find what they are looking for. So in favour it appears that this new idea could increase sales for the brand, as a digital version of the magazine is set to make an appearance very soon. However the garments featured in the magazine are not available on the site, but it is safe to say that women will instantly visit the site after flicking through the newly formed Porter.

Vogue is said to be one of Porter’s main rivals in fashion publishing, and the competition was evident when the editor of the British phenomenon Alexandra Shulman said the retailer’s new project “sounds like a grand Sainsbury’s magazine”. A cheap swipe maybe but I guess it is to be expected when you see that Net-A-Porter has used their specific consumer website to their advantage, and has invented an idea chosen for that exact lady instead of your typical fashion student/working woman. Porter’s editor-in-chief Lucy Yeomans has aimed its audience of the “high net worth” with “huge purchasing power”, definitely not for the loan borrowing, money budgeting student then.

So with a magazine that costs a bit more than your typical fashion editorial and has less coverage by about half, but provides a specific solution to Mrs Porter’s fashion worries, I think its safe to say that she can stretch the extra £’s if it means knowing what the next amazing creation from Chanel would be.

A magazine that is catered to the luxuries of your D&G’s, Stella McCartney’s and McQueen’s, it is every woman’s dream to have a magazine index that matches her shopping haven. There is research shown that branded content and marketing is on the up since brands have become publishers, consumers say that it is the elite way to choose and purchase their desired products. Clare Hill who wrote, “How branded content is taken over magazine publishing for the MediaTel found that, “57% said they felt more positive towards brands that generated content for them”. This explains the 25% net increase in brands such as Net-A-Porter who spend on their own sources of media. With £4million spend annually on ‘owned media’, it surprised me that branded content is more popular than I thought, so what other brands will follow suit?

     PORTER delivers an authoritative global point of view and a bespoke curation of fashion, beauty, travel and culture in one luxurious glossy package.”

ASOS is another prime example of ‘owned media’, a brand whose target audience of a fashion-forward twenty-something delivers a style catalogue of catwalk trends and interprets them with their high street brand offerings and ASOS pieces that are accessible on their site. Launched in 2007 and still going strong with a readership of approximately 449,971, the ASOS brand is one of the forward thinking and provides an online version so it’s customers can browse and buy.

So with Porter, ASOS and the likes of River Island all providing us fashion savvy addicts with our own personal archive of the next floral feature or monochrome suit, it begs the question what more big brands will follow the brand content publishing trend? It seems to make sense after all; it’s likely it will increase sales as well boost new consumer numbers. I’m all for a shelf full of Porter’s, Topshop’s and Zara publishing magazines. The more the merrier!

Check out this article at HailStyle.com