Product Type: Market Research Report
Published by: Mintel International Group Ltd.
Published: August 2006
Product Code: R560-2230Description This report monitors developments in the children’s comics and magazines market since Mintel last reported on it in 2004. Mintel concluded then that publishers had become far more sophisticated in developing their titles to accommodate key aspects of the market such as the fluctuating popularity of different characters and parental anxiety over their children’s development. It also noted the possible negative implications of growing involvement in alternative media.
Since that point the market has continued to grow in value as publishers have introduced new titles targeting both children (especially the harder to target boys) and parents, who are becoming increasingly important to purchase. Nevertheless there are indications that as more time is spent online for instance, or with computer games or other print media, this is having some impact on comic buying among older children.
This report seeks to assess whether comics and magazines are destined to be bought only by parents as children themselves become ever more interested in other options - the internet, their computer games and mobile phones. This is a key aspect of the current teenage magazine market as teens’ attitudes and media usage change.Table of Contents - INTRODUCTION AND ABBREVIATIONS
- Definitions
- Figure 1: Children’s comic titles, July 2006
- Figure 2: Other children’s titles, July 2006
- Consumer research
- ACORN
- ABBREVIATIONS
- EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
- A market in rude health
- Positives and negatives
- Growth spurt in the early years
- Target the adults
- Specificity and variety
- Major players rule
- Covering all angles
- Supermarket growth
- Children’s leisure choices
- Future prospects
- MARKET DRIVERS
- Quality not quantity
- Figure 3: UK child population, by age, 2001-11
- Limited spending power
- Figure 4: Average weekly pocket money, 7-12-year-olds, by gender, 2001-05
- Competition for money
- Figure 5: Where money is spent, 7-12-year-olds, 2001-05
- Other media options
- Figure 6: Access to other media/technology, 7-12-year-olds, 2001-05
- Figure 7: Computer usage, 7-12-year-olds, 2001-05
- Picking up the mobile habit
- Figure 8: Mobile phone features, 7-12-year-olds, 2001-05
- Children’s attitudes towards media
- Figure 9: Attitudes towards media, 7-12-year-olds, 2001-05
- And what about free gifts?
- Figure 10: Attitudes towards free gifts, 7-12-year-olds, 2001-05
- Cross-media fertilisation
- TV feeding magazines
- The power of the OFT
- MARKET SIZE AND TRENDS
- Figure 11: UK retail sales of children’s comics/magazines, 2001-06
- Volatility
- Innovation
- Cover prices and parental purchase
- MARKET SEGMENTATION
- Targeting by age
- Figure 12: UK retail sales of children’s comics/magazines, by age category, 2003-05
- The parental role
- Greater variety
- Targeting by gender
- Figure 13: UK retail sales of children’s comics/magazines, by gender, 2003-05
- Invigoration
- New product ventures
- THE SUPPLY STRUCTURE
- Circulation trends
- Figure 14: Most popular audited children’s comics/magazines, July-December, 2005
- Figure 15: Circulation of most popular audited children’s comics/magazines, July-December,2003-05
- Publishers and market share
- Figure 16: Market shares of children’s comics/magazines market, by publisher, 2003-05
- BBC Magazines
- Look and learn
- Online strategy
- Egmont Magazines
- Breadth of offer
- Consistent quality for growth
- Panini UK
- An older readership
- Plus a wider remit
- Panini online
- Redan Publishing
- Fun To Learn
- And it can bring success!
- Titan Publishing UK
- Strong foundations
- Rapid growth
- DC Thomson
- Growing competition
- The plus side
- Corporate growth
- Other publishers
- ADVERTISING AND PROMOTION
- Figure 17: Main monitored media advertising expenditure on juvenile magazines, 2001-05
- Programme of advertising
- Consistency with the classics
- Promotional presents
- DISTRIBUTION
- Figure 18: UK retail sales of children’s comics/magazines, by retail sector, 2003-05
- Jostling for space
- Shopping habits
- One-stop shop not all
- THE CONSUMER
- Parents subsidise the market
- Figure 19: Magazines/comics readership, 2002-06
- Figure 20: Source of magazines, 2001-05
- Singling out the only child
- Order of service
- Figure 21: Frequency of purchase, 2001-05
- Figure 22: Days on which magazines are obtained, 2003-05
- Un-comical competition for publishers
- Figure 23: Children’s activities, April 2006
- Change in ages
- Figure 24: Leisure activities, by gender, age and Internet usage, April 2006
- CONSUMER - DETAILED DEMOGRAPHICS
- Figure 25: I read less because I spend more time surfing the net, bygender, age, social grade,region, technology use, children in household and adults in household, 2005
- Figure 26: Source of magazines, by gender, age, social grade, region, technology use, children inhousehold and adults in household, 2005
- Figure 27: Frequency of purchase, by gender, age, social grade, region, technology use, children inhousehold, adults in household, 2005
- Figure 28: Most popular children’s leisure activities, by gender, age, social grade, marital status,lifestage, age of own children, Mintel’s Special Groups, working status, tenure, region, ACORNgroup, technology users, daily newspapers, commercial TV viewing, supermarket used, householdsize, car usage, detailed lifestage and aged finished full-time education, April 2006
- Figure 29: Other children’s leisure activities, by gender, age, social grade, marital status, lifestage,age of own children, Mintel’s Special Groups, working status, tenure, region, ACORN group,technology users, daily newspapers, commercial TV viewing, supermarket used, household size,car usage, detailed lifestage and aged finished full-time education, April 2006
- THE FUTURE
- Strengths and weaknesses
- What of the future?
- Vulnerabilities
- Content and form
- FORECAST
- Figure 30: Forecast of the children’s comics market, 2006-11
- Factors incorporated in the forecast
- Forecast modelling
- Figure 31: Modelled sales, 1990-2011
- APPENDIX: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
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