When a magazine begins preparing for its launch, it's customary to create a pilot edition and present it to clients and agencies. However, L'Official Japan broke with conventional wisdom by passing on a pilot edition. That's the L'Official way.
In addition to the main magazine, the French edition also includes L'Official Voyage, L'Official Art, the jewelry and watch magazine Monterey, and L'Official Homme, each published four times a year.
In the case of licensed magazines, the lifting method is stipulated in the contract terms. In the case of L'Official Japan, the lifting method differs from traditional licensed magazines, with international travel articles lifted from Voyage and information on the overseas art scene lifted from Art. Fashion articles are planned and photographed from a unique perspective.
Perhaps this is an expanded interpretation of Seven & i Publishing's omni-marketing initiative, but there are also plans for collaborations across publisher boundaries. In the fashion world, there is a growing movement to create new markets through collaborations between luxury brands and fast fashion, creating new synergies. L'Official Japan is currently collaborating with literary magazines, often unrelated to fashion, on book-in-book and supplemental publications, aiming to increase circulation by reaching out to previously unconnected readers. This project likely capitalizes on Seven & i Holdings' bold, large-scale retail-like approach. While the publishing industry has made progress in forming business alliances with competitors, they rarely involve content. Furthermore, L'Official Japan is preparing to launch a licensing business. Fashion magazines, which first arrived in Japan around the 1980s, were heavily involved in licensing business in the home country, primarily for apparel and cosmetics. While some are skeptical of the "licensing business," there's a reason for the bold venture. "Latecomer fashion magazines need solid branding. The idea is that successful branding will lead to licensing business beyond publishing, such as hotels and cafes," says Mabuchi. There's no traditional publisher in sight. It seems they're trying to envision a company aiming for new business development. The website will launch simultaneously on October 1st as an e-book of the magazine. Full launch is scheduled for December 1st, with a mix of magazine-linked projects and web projects planned for the time being. While fully aware of the potential and development of the web, the priority is to enhance the print medium. A creator close to Mabuchi asked him, "Are you planning to sell luxury magazines in convenience stores?" While wealthy people are selective about which supermarkets they buy, they have no particular preferences or prejudices toward convenience stores. In an age where 25 million people—one in five people—use convenience stores every day, the company felt that this advantage could not be overlooked. Kiyohiko Okubo, co-publisher of "L'official Japan" and executive officer at Seven & i Publishing—operates "Machi no Honyasan" (Local Bookstores) in convenience stores. Now that a paradigm shift is occurring in both distribution and publishing, will the launch of "L'Official Japan" be the catalyst that will shake up the publishing world by taking a new step, believing that the reverse is also true?
---Read the first part, "L'Official to be relaunched. Taking advantage of omnichannel to overturn conventional wisdom."
