Clients & Case Histories
Time Magazine
Eileen NaughtonThe Tait Subler team approached TIME – a venerable, global brand – with appropriate care and respect. TIME can be a bit intimidating, even to prospective readers. But the Tait Subler team did not shy away from conducting a very rigorous and unvarnished assessment of TIME's brand equities, its brand position, and the unique attributes that TIME could exploit to reaffirm its brand leadership. These guys cut through mounds of data, research, product history, marketing materials and reader feedback with great efficiency, and arrived at a crisp synthesis of TIME's brand essence that was both insightful and actionable. Their work inspired our management team to claim more affirmatively the competitive ground that only TIME can own. It was an invaluable exercise.
President
The Challenge
TIME Magazine is one of a very few iconic media brands. But in a changing world with 24-hour news cycles and instantaneous internet access to news, how could a weekly magazine still define itself as a “news-weekly”? The term itself suddenly felt like an oxymoron.
What We Did
We conducted exhaustive interviews with the editorial and publishing staff at TIME to understand their challenges, vision and theories about the future of the media and the publication. Then we dug into the impressive history of the brand and the vast amount of consumer data already available. Finally, we did a deep dive with readers and non-readers at various ages.
The Outcome
We defined a clear brand target for a brand that seemed at first to be ubiquitous. Then we helped articulate a strategic point of view that both the editorial and publishing sides of the business could rally behind. Finally, we worked with internal teams on both sides of the magazine to create specific action plans against the strategic point of view.