Comag Marketing Group, LLC

In North America . . .

CMG recognizes that the nuts and bolts of basic distribution services are critical to single copy sales management today. To ensure the most effective, efficient product allocation under current channel conditions: Each U.S. wholesale distributor is serviced by a dedicated team of product allocation managers and distribution analysts who are experts in that company’s particular operations.

Our Canadian wholesale network is managed by product allocation managers strategically based at wholesale distributors’ facilities throughout the Canadian provinces. All channel-specific retail (CSR) distributors, which provide service to specialty accounts throughout the U.S. and Canada, are managed by director-level marketing and distribution experts.

And, Abroad . . .

CMG representatives implement tailor-made marketing programs for individual titles based on knowledge of each region’s unique consumer buying patterns, distribution systems and pricing formulas. CMG global marketing activities involve timely collection, interpretation, monitoring and updating of key market data, as well.

A PROACTIVE APPROACH

When the era of wholesale and retail consolidation began in 1995, publishers and their marketing representatives largely reacted to distribution changes implemented by wholesalers, who were vying for retail accounts in a hyper-competitive environment. Longer delivery routes and other cost-cutting measures implemented by wholesalers inhibited magazine unit sales, which have alternately declined or stagnated ever since.

CMG’s IMPACT Program was launched in 2002 to incentivize wholesale distributors to restore higher retail service levels, maintain full on-sale periods and spearhead improvements in business practices. Routine store-level sales data sharing and periodic marketing reviews (both requirements under IMPACT) have helped publishers to capitalize on sales opportunities. Perhaps most important, IMPACT contracts between CMG publishers and wholesalers have codified standard business practices in areas such as payments and data transmission that will be necessary pre-conditions for future trading practices like pay-on-scan or scan-based trading.