I spend a lot of time dissecting terrible marketing practices and badvertising. Today, instead, I want to wax lyrical about my local supermarket chain Albert Heijn’s monthly magazine, allerhande (I just picked their February number). See, I know the main purpose of this publication is to sell me stuff. Stuff found in their stores. However, the magazine comes packed with great cooking recipes. The current edition has around 80 of them, and they publish twice as many in their Christmas/ Easter/ Special Season editions. These are not recipes along the lines of “Chocolate as a snack” absurdity, but proper meal/dessert/etc recipes. And while, again, their main purpose is to sell me the ingredients with which to cook these, the reality is that they can be made with products bought anywhere (competitor supermarkets, grocery stores, market, etc.). The recipes rival paid magazines in quality and quantity, with the added bonus of being heavily geared towards seasonal products.
So yeah, if I ever need to point to a good marketing and advertising practice (one that includes quality added value for the consumer), this magazine would probably be at the top of my list.
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