Erin Warren Genre: Beauty and Fashion Launch Date: 1988 Editor: Trish Halpin Address: The Blue Fin Building 110 Southwark Street London SE1 0SU

Overview Marie Claire UK is a UK edition of the original Marie Claire, firstly published in France It is a beauty and fashion magazine, as it combines high end fashion with beauty tips, to inspire women who want to look both smart and amazing, linking to their motto “Think Smart, Look Amazing”. This magazine is highly iconic as it is published in 36 different countries. Marie Claire fills their pages with fashion and beauty from the catwalk and high- street. Marie Claire is published by IPC Media Limited. The magazine has a total readership of 946, 00 per month with a basic cover price of £3.80 Marie Claire is a magazine which mostly features glossy high end fashion and style straight from the catwalk. With the special insight on the cover star who is usually an international celebrity who is relevant in society and the fashion and beauty world. Appealing to wealthy women, who have interest on high end fashion, they also appeal to high street shoppers, offering cheaper alternative.

Content This helps the reader distinguish the different elements within the issue. The cover story section is basically the main stories in this particular issue, so most likely what drew the attention of the reader so they would want to find the page for these quiet easily. The style, beauty and fashion commonly feature new trends and tips for the reader. These sections include aspects for the wealthy readers and less wealthy ones, having stories like “street chic cliques” and “under £100” to ones like “the collections” talking about the catwalk fashion. The magazine is written in fairly colloquial style, yet uses field specific lexis’ about the fashion and beauty industry, accommodating for both readers that are quite uneducated in the topics but also the educated readers, who are experienced and expect useful and professional views and tips. Marie Claire is split into the following elements: Cover Stories Style Features Fashion Beauty Every Month

Audience & Marketing The front cover of Marie Claire magazine promotes itself by have the masthead at the top center, in bold red. They also feature largely famous people on the cover, which will attract the audience as these people will be famous within the industry. The celebrity on the front cover will be wearing fashionable, high end clothing and looking glamorous this will then make the reader want to find out how they look like this and want to get tips and insights to get that style. As Marie Claire is predominately a fashion magazine, this would clearly attract the female audience. The age of the audience can arguably have a wide range, but according to ABC1 it is women aged The audience demographics this magazine would fits into section E, D but also the higher end demographics like A and B. The reasons for which Marie Claire would fit into demographics E and D would because the magazine features sections on high street fashion, therefore attracting people who have a minor income, so the magazine offers cheaper alternatives to accommodate to their needs. They also offer features for higher paid customers, reaching the A and B demographics, with fashion from top designers like Chanel and Louis Vuitton. Clearly, these are expensive brands and only affordable for high paid professionals.

Audience Theory Taking into consideration Maslows Hierarchy of Needs, Marie Claire falls into the self-esteem category as it is a fashion and beauty magazine. It gives tips and tutorials on beauty and the latest styles so giving confidence and self-esteem to readers and inspiration to follow the trends, by buying the magazine. AS the audience is generally females from a wide range of ages, including younger readers like student, to middle aged working women, all these women will have interests on following fashion trends, and will gain confidence by using the magazine as a guide. Looking at the Hypodermic Model, which implies that the media has a very strong and direct influence on the audiences and their behavior. Applying this to Marie Claire, as a fashion and beauty magazine, it strongly influences women on what to wear and how to look.

Distribution Marie Claire distributes their magazine in numerous ways. They have both a hard and digital copy that can be purchased via news stand or through a subscription. Marieclaire.co.uk mainly focus’ on articles on fashion, celebrity style and gossip. The website offers video footage and slideshow of images alongside their articles, things that the reader would not be able to access through the paper copy of the magazine. This gives exclusive access to readers as they can view footage of interviews or shoots that have featured in the magazine which adds value to the website. They also have surveys and giveaways that you can enter online, involving the reader with the magazine. Through the website you can also get their newsletter, receiving weekly exclusives. In addition to their online website, Marie Claire has a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram that readers can follow, to receive updates on upcoming features. Also, this almost acts as self promotion as they will encourage followers to purchase their magazine. The magazines use of convergence, bringing together a variety of multimedia connects the reader to the magazine more personally, as they can receive updates and become involved in surveys and questionnaire. Also it benefit s Marie Claire as their involvement with social media will promote the magazine to users of the websites, gaining subscribers.

Production The publisher of Marie Claire is IPC Media. IPC Media is a Time Warner Company and produces over 60 iconic media brands. As the UK leading consumer magazine publisher they reach almost two thirds of UKL women and 42% of men, and as a total of adults 26m. Collectively engaging 25 million users globally each month. IPC's diverse print and digital portfolio offers something for everyone. Ranging from TV magazines, to fashion magazines and rugby magazines to boat owner. It also publishes NME which is the third largest musical magazine in the UK. Their business is split into five distinct publishing divisions: IPC Connect, IPC Inspire, IPC Ignite, IPC Southbank and IPC TX. Alongside these is Marketforce, the UK's leading magazine distribution business. IPC employs over 2,200 people, and it's their creativity, innovation, talent and commitment that drives our market-leading position in UK consumer publishing. IPC’s mass market women’s division (IPC Connect) comprises popular women’s weeklies like Now and Look magazine, and also TV magazines including TV Times. Then their upmarket division (IPC Southbank) focusing on the three key markets of Fashion, Women's Lifestyle and Home Interest, including Marie Claire and InStyle.

Circulation According to ABC’s standard certificate of distribution confirms that: for the 6 issues sold between 1 st January 2013 to 30 th June 2013, in total, 230,973 issues have been distributed. 208,636 of these were sold in the UK and 22,337 of these were sold in the other countries. Digitally, the average circulation is 1,764. 1,094 of these were from the UK and 670 of these were from other countries, making the UK and ROI the leading consumers.

Regulation User terms: These User Terms apply to websites operated by IPC Media Limited, which accounts for Marie Claire magazine. These User Terms form a binding contract between the reader and IPC. By using this Website, you therefore confirm that you are 18 years old or more, or if you are under 18 years old that you are 13 years of age or more and have received your parent's or guardian's consent to enter into these User Terms. These User Terms apply whatever method you have used to access the Website, including but not limited to the web, digital television services and mobile phone. If you do not agree to any part of these User Terms you should stop accessing this Website and navigate away from it. If you register for any services, forums or enter any prize competitions or other promotions with Marie Claire, separate terms and conditions which are located on the Website may also apply in addition to these User Terms. IPC's Standard Competition Terms and Conditions shall also apply to any competitions in addition to these User Terms Marie Claire’s terms and conditions “Marie Claire is sold subject to these conditions: that is shall not, without written consent of the publishers first given, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of Trade at more than the recommended selling price shown on the cover” “It shall not be lent, resold, or hired out or otherwise disposed of in a mutilated condition or in any unauthorised cover by way of Trade or annexed to or part of any publication or advertising, literacy or pictorial matter whatsoever” ]

Own Experience I find Marie Claire a very successful magazine as it is sold internationally, and is popular in each of those countries. I also really like how diverse their audience is, as their content can relate to people of different classes and still be enjoyable and relevant. This makes, for me, the magazine more appreciative as you can look for both high street and cat walk fashion, which is something not every magazine offers; therefore it’s relatively different from other fashion and beauty magazines. Also, I really enjoy the way that they focus on more classy fashion, and solely targeted at women so the magazine as a whole is more sophisticated.