Country Home Launches New "Be Creative, Be Yourself." Brand Positioning Campaign

Furniture World Magazine

Country Home magazine today unveiled its new "Be Creative. Be Yourself." brand positioning campaign. The magazine, published by Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP), worked with renowned advertising agency kirshenbaum bond + partners to develop the new integrated marketing campaign that celebrates the rapidly emerging American trend toward creativity and self-expression. The million-dollar campaign includes trade advertising; a direct mail campaign; a branding video presentation; market research; a guerilla marketing campaign; branded signature consumer and trade events; and an updated editorial design and content that will be effective with the September issue of Country Home, the largest September issue in the magazine's 25-year history. The magazine collaborated with the highly regarded design firm The Valentine Group to create the publication's new look of the magazine. "Today, Americans crave creativity," said David Kahn, publisher of Country Home. "They want experiences rather than things. Our readers are innovators that drive trends and influence others. They have always looked to Country Home for expressions of personal style, and this new campaign reflects that." Along with recent studies by Yankelovich and Roper, books such as The Rise of the Creative Class have documented this trend toward self-expression, which is being led by an influential group of 40 million consumers. Whether by downloading their favorite songs onto an iPod or ordering a grande half-caf skinny latté at Starbucks, these influencers are driving a societal shift from survival to self-expression with demands for products and services that can be customized to reflect their individual tastes. "Working on this has been a passion project for us because of the team at Country Home," said Aaron Reitkopf, president of kirshenbaum bond new york. "It was such a great opportunity to take a publication that has been so easily misunderstood and bring its existing core equities to life through a new brand positioning." A subscriber survey conducted for Country Home confirms the creative bent of the magazine's readers. Eighty-eight percent said that cultivating their creativity is increasingly important to them; 89 percent said home decorating and remodeling is an outlet for their creativity; and 88 percent said they don't follow dictated décor looks, but instead choose to create a look that is as unique as they are. Interestingly, 94 percent said magazines are the best source of creative inspiration, while only 11 percent said they look to friends and relatives. "Country Home readers understand that 'country' is more than physical place, it's a mindset," said Carol Sheehan, editor in chief of the magazine. "Country is where there's space for ideas to breathe, where it's quiet enough to hear your own thoughts and where there's the feeling of endless possibilities. "Our readers, and the people who fill our pages, are living with the things they love and creating the life they want," continued Sheehan. "We tell the stories of people who are focusing on the things that really matter, such as their passions, expressing their personal style and spending time with family and friends. Their style choices reflect their individual tastes, not their bank accounts. In the magazine, you'll find an original mix of formal and familiar, classic and casual." Country Home worked with renowned design firm The Valentine Group, whose clients include Aveda, Henri Bendel, Marshall Field's, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Neiman Marcus among many others, to create the new look of the magazine. Robert Valentine, president and creative director of The Valentine Group, said the intent was not to redesign the magazine, but to "re-present" it, and create not just a look and feel, but a language and a vocabulary that will evolve with the magazine over time. "Our overall goal was to simplify, clarify and focus the design platform of the magazine to allow its unique persona to come forward," Valentine explained. "We brought in new design elements that could work in tandem with existing elements integral to the magazine's equity. For example, we added a cleaner, warmer font to complement the typography and articulated a strategic, conceptual direction for the photography." The September issue of Country Home will be the largest September issue in the magazine's 25-year history with 115.67 advertising pages, and the 10th largest issue ever. New bellwether advertisers to join Country Home this fall include: Ralph Lauren, Liz Claiborne, MasterCard, Crate & Barrel, Riders, Woodbridge and Dockers. The September issue will be available on newsstands July 27. About Country Home: For 25 years, Country Home magazine has redefined the vision of country. Country Home speaks to the desire for creativity and self-expression with editorial features that blend formal and familiar, classic and casual, to inspire readers to explore their own personal tastes. The magazine presents fresh, actionable ideas that are relevant to all aspects of readers' lifestyles, including home décor, food and entertaining, fashion and well-being, travel and shopping. Country Home, published by Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP), has over 7.5 million readers, is published 10 times per year and has a rate base of 1.25 million. About Meredith Corporation: Meredith Corporation (NYSE:MDP) is one of the nation's leading media and marketing companies with businesses centering on magazine and book publishing, television broadcasting, integrated marketing, and interactive media. The Meredith Publishing Group, the country's foremost home and family authority, features 17 magazine brands, including Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies' Home Journal and American Baby, and approximately 150 special interest publications. Meredith (www.meredith.com) owns 13 television stations - including properties in top 25 markets such as Atlanta, Phoenix and Portland. Meredith has nearly 300 books in print and has established marketing relationships with some of America's leading companies, including The Home Depot, DaimlerChrysler, and Carnival Cruise Lines. Meredith's consumer database, which contains more than 75 million names, is the largest domestic database among media companies and enables magazine and television advertisers to precisely target marketing campaigns. Additionally, Meredith has an extensive Internet presence, including 25 Web sites, and strategic alliances with leading Internet destinations. About kirshenbaum bond + partners: Kirshenbaum bond + partners is a network of marketing communications specialty companies founded by Richard Kirshenbaum and Jon Bond, including kirshenbaum bond new york, kb san francisco, Dotglu, LIME Public Relations + Promotion, and The Media Kitchen. Founded in 1987, the kb creative network has since grown to include over 200 employees, offices in New York and San Francisco, and combined billings of over $500 million. In 2004, MDC Partners acquired a majority stake in the company. Clients include Target, Verizon, Liberty Mutual and The Timex Corporation. About The Valentine Group: The Valentine Group was established in 1991 by Founder and Creative Director Robert Valentine because he believed that the most memorable and evocative branding and positioning could only be achieved by the marriage of the highest possible levels of strategy and aesthetics. Since that time, The Valentine Group has offered some of the most respected brands in the world capabilities ranging from strategic brand development and positioning to advertising, direct mail and corporate identity. And services from editorial design and photo shoot art direction to product development, packaging, special events management, and public relations. Robert Valentine is the rare editorial designer whose career includes both consumer and trade magazines. He helped develop and launch Real Simple magazine, and helped fine-tune Martha Stewart Living during its infancy. In 2002, Valentine renamed, redesigned and relaunched STEP Inside Design magazine to compete against the top graphic design magazines in the industry. Other clients of The Valentine Group have included among others Aveda, Chic Simple, Henri Bendel, Interface FLOR, Marshall Field's, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Neiman Marcus, Sundance, Trish McEvoy Inc. and Turner Classic Movies.