In October, the United Group for Publishing, Advertising and Marketing (UG), a subsidiary of Kuwaiti company AlWaseet International (AWI) operating from Dubai Media City, launched the first Arabic edition of Marie Claire in Kuwait. Owned by French publishing group Prouvost, the monthly women’s magazine boasts more than 46 local editions and is published in nearly 30 countries. Will Marie Claire succeed at what another local version of a famous French title, Elle Oriental, has been struggling to achieve for over two years? Published in Lebanon, Elle Oriental still hasn’t found its place in the Middle East. Initially, problems were blamed on political instability, but there have been other obstacles – including a struggle to get a publishing license, poor sales in GCC countries and tough competition from established women’s magazines in Saudi Arabia – that have contributed to Elle’s lackluster performance (see “Make way for a lady,” page 32, Communicate, July-Aug. 2007). Marie Claire is likely to encounter similar problems while trying carve its own niche.
Two-level competition
In a Middle East packed with pan-Arab women’s publications, including well-established titles that have been building loyalty for years, the risk for yet another magazine to get lost in the crowd is considerable. According to Imad Tueni, CEO of Colidi, a company distributing Lebanese publications such as daily Al Nahar and women’s monthly Al Hasnaa in the region, “Every Arab country has a local women’s-interest monthly. In Saudi Arabia, Sayidaty sells 150,000 copies per week – nobody can compete with it; similarly, Zahrat Al Khaleej sells more than 150,000 in Abu Dhabi. The era of pan-Arab press is already over; there’s no more room for new players, especially if they’re coming from Europe.”
Indeed, the trouble with internationally famous magazine brands is their inherent cannibalistic competition: Arab women can get copies of American, French or British Marie Claire whenever they feel like it, and may not see the point of buying a vague Arabic-translated avatar, even though it’s backed by a large group.
“The magazine Alef, for example, that was backed by Villa Moda [a luxury store owned by Alef’s founder Sheikh Majed Al Sabah], failed,” says Rania Naufal, marketing and sales manager at foreign press distributor Levant Distributors. She says Alef, which closed at the end of 2008, “was a very glamorous and elitist version of Wallpaper, which sells very well in the region. But due to the lack of quality press in the Arab world, readers got used to buying foreign press – in this case, the original Wallpaper, or Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and so on.”
Often it’s the other way around – a magazine tries to be Arab but just doesn’t relate to the region. There is often a gap between the magazine’s editorial team and image – as well as its readers. This issue is all the more relevant for Marie Claire, considering that its editorial team is based in Beirut, closer to its French parent but far away from its core target. “How are they going to appeal to the Kuwaiti audience by writing from Lebanon?” asks Naufal.
“One cannot publish an Arabic magazine with a Western mentality, or people will simply turn to Western editions,” says Tueni. “For instance, potential readers of Elle Oriental preferred the original edition, and Marie Claire may face the same problem. In my opinion, even the title should have been changed to an Arabic one, with maybe a subheading stating ‘under the supervision (or “patronage,”) of Marie Claire.’” When targeting Arab readers, the whole concept should be modified in order to give the magazine a completely Oriental identity. ”
Dodging the usual traps
Tueni qualifies his harsh assessment by saying it will only be a problem, “unless UG goes with local editions in each country, like they did with Alwaseet or Layalina.” Which is how UG convinced Prouvost to grant them the license for the region.
“We believed from the start that the magazine should be local, so we approached Prouvost in December 2006 with a business model completely different from those based on a pan-Arab strategy,” says Elie Wakim, UG’s group magazines managing director.
The plan is simple: 70 percent of the magazine is developed in the central content unit in Beirut, with 30 percent produced in Lebanon and 40 percent sent by Marie Claire from outside the region. Editorial teams in individual markets in the region develop the other 30 percent. All flat plans and contents, including stories imported from abroad, are sent to each country’s editor to be localized.
“We organize focus groups to see what interests readers and we develop content accordingly,” says Wakim. “We do not do a magazine we like; we do one that our readers will like.”
UG already has such teams in Kuwait and the UAE – where a second edition was launched last November – and will proceed similarly with each of the three or four other markets it plans to hit in 2009.
“We expect 60 percent of our total ad revenue to be generated in local markets through local distributors’ budgets,” says Wakim, who says his team managed to give the magazine an overall harmony that will seduce wealthy readers.
Enticing the readers
Marie Claire hopes to target high-end readers. This may seem surprising since the title “is a Glamour, not a Vogue; Marie Claire simply isn’t an elitist brand,” says Naufal, who says she regrets that publishers constantly overlook the middle-market segment. This may also be a mistake because, according to Tueni, “the elite would rather read the original magazines in English or in French.”
However, confident that Arabic shouldn’t be solely considered a language for the masses and that sales of English titles are marginal in the region, UG chose to reach out to its core target, expecting 80 percent of Marie Claire’s 20,000-copy circulation to be based on subscription. “We know that any title merely put for sale on the shelves would require up to eight months to become established. So we put our database – out of which around 40 percent of the women fall under our target readers – to use,” says Wakim.
UG’s consultants call potential readers to inform them they will start receiving the magazine on a complimentary basis for six months. “This, added to high-quality contents, is how we build loyalty,” says Wakim who claims, not giving specific figures, that Marie Claire did extremely well in Kuwait for a new title’s first month and that circulation was boosted by 50 percent the following month.
Using the same model as UG’s other women’s magazine, Layalina, these first experiences will serve as a practice lap before heading to the real grand prize, the Saudi market. With an $8 million package for the region (and an around $1.5 million initial investment for the Kuwait edition) and backed by powerful AWI, Marie Claire at least seems better poised for the challenge than some of its competitors.