SELF Magazine: The Love-Your-Life Guide
Dozens of popular women's magazines paper the magazine racks these days, focusing on everything from fashion to fitness, baking to crocheting. They all have something different to offer, but one really stands apart from the rest, offering the women of today something more. SELF Magazine from Conde Nast Publications takes a multi-faceted approach to improving the lives of American women making it one of the brands we, at Stone Mantel, truly admire.
So what sets SELF apart?
SELF: Helping Women Achieve Happiness
Go to your "Happy Weight"
Probably the most dramatic way that SELF has stood out among women's magazines is their dedication to health and fitness over being thin, rich and painfully fashionable. Gone is the skinny celebrity role model seen in so many other magazines. They feature models with healthy, realistic bodies--feminine curves and naturally beautiful skin and hair. Nothing overly artificial is ever promoted by their models. Rather natural, achievable beauty is promoted above all else and that includes helping women achieve their "healthy" and "happy" weights and fitness levels.
A recent issue of SELF, and a section on their website (more on that later!) promotes this idea of "happy weight." SELF interviewed women on the street and asked about their weight goals. Not surprisingly, many had goals that were either unattainable for their lifestyles, unhealthy for their heights and body structures, or both. The experts at SELF decided to take action. They published a formula (also available on self.com) that takes into account real life issues--height, body frame, obesity in the family, smoking habits, exercise commitments and treat frequency--in order to help women determine healthy, achievable weight goals. Good job, SELF!
You'll never see any promotion of fad diets on the pages of SELF. Every article approaches dieting with a healthful, balanced outlook--with plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean protein sources, low-fat dairy, and healthy fats. That doesn't mean they exclude the important stuff: indulgences. That's right, SELF encourages every dieter to include the occasional thick slice of chocolate cake or decadent serving of tiramisu--whatever treat makes you the happiest. They teach that if that occasional Oreo staves off the feelings of deprivation then you won't succumb to binge eating. How many of us suffered through those low-carb, low-fat and low-calorie diets only to gain it all back when we couldn't take it any longer. Atkins goes out the window with a chocolate chip cookie. Low-fat diets are history with a bag of potato chips. But no foods are prohibited in the diets recommended by SELF. All things in moderation, with a well-deserved reward every now and again.
Fitness sans Fanaticism
Every issue of SELF highlights easy-to-perform, easy-to-understand, and easy-to-fit-in workouts. A beautiful yet realistically fit model, or SELF reader, or fitness instructor, or even member of the SELF staff--someone the reader can identify with--performs the exercises in an easy-to-read-and-follow way. Some of them even come in genius tear-out cards that you can take to the gym with you! All of the workouts are posted on their website and indexed by the area of the body they improve. Site visitors can watch slideshows or how-to videos of the workouts to prevent injury and reap the maximum rewards from the routine. Powerful images and a positive tone motivate women to do the workouts so they can look and feel their best.
Baby Steps
Let's face it: drastic changes are hard to sustain. SELF thinks big changes are important, but admit that they can, and probably should, be achieved by taking many small steps toward success. The self-help articles focus on small, doable steps--small changes that can be made every day, every week in order to bring the person closer and closer to their goals. Small changes give women that feeling of achievement. And that helps them stay motivated, feel powerful and successful, rather than overwhelmed and discouraged.
The "Make Yourself Over" section is all about small changes, and the article that started it all, "The Jump Start Diet," has helped over 250,000 women lose 5, 10, or 12+ pounds over the years. Imagine being part of that exclusive group! So profound is this article that it's now regularly included in each January issue to get women started off right on their New Year's weight loss resolutions. It features a simple step they can take each day to help them eat smarter and healthier. By the end of the program, most readers not only lose a significant amount of weight, but also learn practical tips for eating healthier.
From this original article, SELF has branched out to other areas of women's lives with articles like "30 Days to Get Organized" and "Feel Healthier in Just One Month." Simple steps to achieve a larger goal: genius!
Roadmap to Happiness and SELF-Improvement
Unique to SELF is its focus on happiness. Every issue of SELF is devoted to helping women become complete, well-rounded individuals: the very best and happiest versions of themselves. SELF's happiness section fills the gap that many women's magazines ignore. They address everything from how to deal with medical problems, pain and loss, to how to have a better sex life (addressed tastefully, not with the raunchiness common in other publications.
More, more, more. The multi-faceted focus of SELF is to help women become more physically fit, more beautiful (real, honest beauty), more aware of their body's needs, more happy, more whole and more fulfilled. The January 2008 headline sums it up nicely: SELF is a "Love Your Life Guide."
So is it any wonder that SELF's audience is so large? SELF produces happiness for its readers. Find out how to deliver real happiness to your customers--not just momentary satisfaction--and you'll be well on your way to becoming an industry leader and a business that really makes a difference in the world.