Last week, we wrote about how both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times were going to begin offering tabloid newspapers specially designed and written for 18-34 year old customers. The logic behind the move is that these people aren’t reading newspapers anyway, so it makes sense to create products tailored specifically to them; we questioned whether it made sense for food retailers to take the same kind of initiative.
According to Crain's Chicago Business, however, “both papers featured slick designs and a paucity of original content,” consisting “mostly of wire stories and re-purposed news, sports and entertainment content.” In other words, nothing terribly relevant to the audience the papers are both trying to reach.
According to Crain's Chicago Business, however, “both papers featured slick designs and a paucity of original content,” consisting “mostly of wire stories and re-purposed news, sports and entertainment content.” In other words, nothing terribly relevant to the audience the papers are both trying to reach.
- KC's View:
-
So okay, maybe the newspaper metaphor isn’t ideal in this case. But we still think that it would be very interesting if a food retailer or two would create a store that would appeal to this demographic in basic, user-friendly ways.
It sounds like the papers made a central mistake – they paid more attention to the concept as a marketing idea than to its core value as a way to disseminate news and information. It became more about the wrapping than what was inside the package…, which is a mistake a lot of businesses make.
It seems to us that the first thing you have do with a business venture is establish what the heart and soul of the venture is…and then make sure that this singular component is the lead dog.
