Research On City Zine’s Brand Communication Strategy

With the development of the times, the connotation and extension of brand have become increasingly abundant, which have also broaden the field of the application. The media industry have transformed into another media brand as well. It can be predicted that there will definitely be a fierce brand war like in the area of merchandise in the competition between media. To build a strong brand is an inevitable choice for the media to be invincible in the fierce competition. On the one side of brand is the consumer, and on the other side is the producer. And communication which combines the two sides together serves as the bridge. Through a variety of means to continuously communicate with the target audiences, the spread brand has become an important factor of brand strategy and brand management naturally.City Zine is a lifestyle magazine which was founded 15 years ago in 1999. It is widely acclaimed by younger generation. After one year of setting up, City Zine has made up a way for brand development. Therefore, not only creating the magazine but also promoting are all around the City Zine itself. It can be said that the brand-centric management and communication strategy are essential for the success of City Zine.As a journal, City Zine itself, representing a way of information dissemination, is the media and this has a great advantage to establish a brand. When coupled with both cultural property and commercial property, journals can meet the basic requirements for the material and cultural needs of people. A variety of communication and management for promoting the brand makes a higher profit and also leads to a sustainable business of the journal. The accurate brand positioning and the high quality content of City Zine provide the protection for the brand’s foundation and influence, which is also the cornerstone for brand development. After entering the Internet age, it focused on the importance of new media in the brand dissemination and made full use of the advantages of new media to expand the brand awareness and strengthen the brand communication power. With the addition of creative ways of activity, it fulfilled a good way to interact with the audiences. City Zine not only won the brand reputation and value, but also reflected the social responsibility of media brand. The all-round and three-dimensional brand communication strategy of City Zine have gradually enriched and are relatively unique in the field, and the study of which shows a certain research value.Therefore, this thesis investigates the case of City Zine and is divided into six chapters. According to the brand communication strategies mentioned above, the analysis is carried out through the combination of communication, branding, advertising, marketing, editing and publishing, etc. With the use of literature analysis, content analysis and data analysis research, the strategies in brand communication is further investigated and the real meaning is also revealed. The work of this thesis can serve as a reference for the development of the magazine journals.