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Program Ideas/Best Practices  »   Benchmarking your base magazine RAF Lakenheath

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    Hi All!

    I'm excited to share with you a few more successes that we have had at RAF Lakenheath.

    Like all of you, we strive to push the envelope to bring to our customers industry standard, quality marketing publications. People are much more likely to pick up a magazine that has an inviting and easy to read feel about it.

    Here is a brief snapshot.

    Recently, we concluded our benchmarking study of EVERY base publiction at every AFB that has one. The result of this 3 month study was a dramatic change in our own base publication that we've received wild raves for.

    Method:
    McDill has a great website that has every bases Force Support/Services site on it. I suggest using this as a jump off point for your own benchmarks. Kadena also has an EXCELLENT magazine and we used their lessons learned in our own study.

    We also spent a lot of time in various magazine racks, scouring for ideas for layout, typography and graphics.

    We then tried marrying what we found on the "outside" with the demographics of our base and what that demographic is currently interested in. To sample our demographic, we conducted focus groups and used comment cards to glean information regarding what customers liked, disliked and wanted.

    The end result was that we had to rethink our layout and typography. Graphically we were very strong, but very weak in these other areas. We addressed those areas, researched the standards and brough them in to our atEASE publication.

    Another KEY change was that we changed our layout to serve as it's own tool for cross marketing. Our publication used to be categorized by facility- that only served to be a point of contention amongst facilities who felt under represented and really didn't lead the reader to go through the entire magazine. The new magazine is tabbed out into areas that touch on ALL the Quality of Life points that FSS addresses; dining, entertainment, education, family, youth, etc; Now the magazine is its own study in cross marketing and all facilities are represented on every page. It's been VERY well received.

    I've attached some our before and after magazine covers and a new layout for you to realize the full scope of change we've implemented.

    I hope you find this to be helpful. If you want to chat about our successes, please drop us a line or an email- we would love to share our successes to champion on our fellow marketers.

    All the best,
    Kris Mack
    kris-anna.mack@lakenheath.af.mil

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