Leave It to a Marketing Magazine to Show How Not to Market an iPad App

MAGapp is a new magazine title for the iPad, aimed at those who work in the field of marketing. Or as its publishers say …

A magazine for marketing and communications managers, and for anyone who has an interest in branding or marketing.

It’s touted as a title that ‘brings you specialised and interactive digital content that will inform and engage you’.

It’s published by a company called Leading Brands, an apt name for a marketing-focused firm if ever there was one.

Here’s the thing though – these guys are crap at marketing.

The screencap above is the entire content of their email promoting the app. Just in case you can’t see the text of it clearly, it reads:

Can You See the Future? iPad magazines with audio, video, social networking, and internet

Huh? Can you see the present? These elements are basic stuff for iPad magazines, and have been for well over a year. There’s nothing futuristic or cutting edge about anything they’ve mentioned. Isn’t at least the tiniest level of market awareness kind of an important part of marketing?

This also made me smile – the app’s one listed In-App purchase item is something titled ‘Social Media 101’. They should have added ‘from the future marketing experts’.