Playboy Enterprises (case study)

Playboy started business in 1953 by an entrepreneur by the name of Hugh Marston Hefner. Playboy Enterprises, Inc. is busy in the growth and distribution of multimedia entertainment for mature audiences around the world. The Company operates four business groups: licensing, entertainment, online, and publishing. Playboy is a men's magazine, and Playboy operates a wide range of television networks and distributes programming by means of home video and DVD. The Company's online operations are made up of a network of Websites that have an established and growing subscriber and income base. Its licensing businesses make the most of the Playboy name, the Rabbit Head design and its other trademarks for the worldwide sale and distribution, and manufacture of a variety of consumer products.

Playboy has grown from the core magazine and its famous bunny girls to clothing ranges, clubs, casinos, websites and TV channels. Where is the emblem heading next? Ruth Mortimer reports

A man wakes up one morning, tangled up in his Playboy bunny-themed bed sheets. He comes to for his Playboy towel and jumps into the wash, where he cleans with the brand's toiletries. He strolls down to the Playboy shop, choices out a dress for his girlfriend's anniversary and chooses her a new lipstick from the cosmetics range. That evening, he surprises her with the presents over drinks at his localized Playboy Club.

This scenario might sound over-the-top but it's possible. While most people round the world understand Playboy in its initial incarnation as a magazine, it has now extended into numerous areas in an attempt to become a broader lifestyle emblem. Numerous of its consumers might not arrive into communicate with its centre announcing merchandise at all.

The good life

Markus Grindel, vice president of international authorizing for Playboy and head of branding inside Europe, interprets: "One of the big misconceptions is that Playboy is about sex. It isn't.

"When Hugh Hefner founded the publication, it was about 'the good life'. It's about the flexibility of having fun. Conspicuously, sex is part of that but so are stylish vehicles, luxury items and attractive women. The magazine conceived a way of life and that in turn has conceived an emblem about 'the good life'."

Adam Wylie, organizing colleague at emblem agency 23red, which has worked with purchasers such as lingerie retailer La Senza, adds: "Playboy has habitually been a way of life brand. For many years, [it has been] unique and a cut overhead the top-shelf mags to which it was unfairly compared."

Lucas Binder, the analyst dealing with Playboy at UBS, says: "The magazine actions as publicity for the business as it does not spend much money on advertising. Even if Playboy has a five or six million dollar loss, that's probably worth it." He adds that the magazine's role as a "brand- building product" is necessary to support the company as a whole.

Birth of a legend

Playboy was founded by Hugh Hefner in 1953 as a men's publication that directed to blend images of nude women with value journalism. He acquired a ...