Selective Binding Case

Prompt

Your client is a major fashion magazine that has been offered by its printer a proprietary new process called selective binding which enables publishers to customize the pages included in readers’ magazines based on demographic data known about the reader.

For example, an ad in Better Homes & Gardens for lawn chemical services could be placed only in those issues going to subscribers who live in houses and not to those living in condominiums or apartments. In this way, advertisers can focus their communications on the demographic segment they are targeting.

Would you advise your client to take advantage of this new process and offer selective binding to its advertisers?

Case Study Overview

Ready to dive into your consulting case practice with this case? Start by reading through the prompt. You’ll find that the client in the case is a fashion magazine. The client is considering a new marketing avenue. Your job is to advise them whether or not this will be a good (and ultimately, profitable) decision.

You can use the Profitability Framework to create your framework for the case, but don’t rely on the basic case frameworks. You need to build a custom structure best suited to the specific details of the case.

The qualitative difficulty of this case is 2/4 – good for a case like what you would find in a final round at McKinsey, and makes for great consulting case practice. There are no math diagrams in the case, although the quant portion of the case is fairly advanced (score of 3/4).

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