Nonfoods Talk: Making a Play, Boy

Can Playboy magazine’s new PG-rated photo policy boost its single-copy sales?

Are you going to start carrying Playboy at the front end magazine section or even within the full-line magazine area?

That is a question that I am certain Playboy executives were asking when they made the dramatic decision in mid-October to get rid of the nude photos in their monthly magazine in favor of much less racy PG-themed photos starting next spring.

From Playboy’s perspective it was the only move. The magazine’s monthly circulation has dropped to just 800,000 or so from a high of more than five million a few decades ago. Single-copy circulation has mostly vanished. There are a number of reasons for the dramatic drop in circulation, but this is a family-value oriented magazine, so lets just say that the Internet’s growing popularity has had something to do with it.

Now, the magazine’s top execs hope that less skin will accomplish two things. One is to get mainstream advertisers—that may have been reluctant in the past to advertise in Playboy—to reconsider now that the publication has toned down the photos. That may work to a degree. There are some big manufacturers that would love Playboy’s high-end demographics now that its pictorial selections have changed.

The second is to convince retailers to start to carry the magazine and place it in a visible location to help spur single-copy sales. If I were a Playboy official, I would not be holding my breath that this will take place anytime soon. Virtually no supermarkets stock Playboy at this point and it will be hard to convince many retailers—with space at a premium already—to devote much needed space to Playboy magazine.

This may be Playboy’s fault. The problem, of course, is that the magazine has done such a superb job over the last six decades developing an image that is pretty much the exact opposite of what it is trying now. Always known for a good editorial product in terms of articles, Playboy made its name off of its photo essays and it will take time—a lot of time—and education to get consumers to stop viewing the publication as too risqué to be placed on home coffee tables, especially if there are kids around.

But it is worth a try.

Rarely have I received as much of a response to a column as I got from the one about razor blade companies pricing themselves out of the marketplace. It seems that many retailers agreed, and more and more are placing their larger blade counts behind locked doors to protect against pilferage. That does little to help spur impulse sales and even dampers planned sales of razors.

A number of retailers agreed with the comment that higher price points are hurting overall sales and profits for this key HBC category. At the same time, many said they realized that little could be done to change the segment’s business model.

Interestingly, however, two new razor blade suppliers weighed in with their own comments, mostly about the fact that high prices charged by the industry leaders gives them a great opportunity to enter the market with their own products—at much lower prices. They also point out that razor blade clubs are gaining in popularity as more consumers seek alternatives to these high price points.

It will be interesting to watch how this all plays out, but one thing is certain: the razor blade market is primed for an all-out price war.