At the moment described in the case study, Playboy has certain pros and cons within the market. On the one side, the distribution of the adult magazine has grown wider due to publications sold in European and Asian countries. This practice has guaranteed high revenues for the firm and the broader market. On the other hand, there is an issue with the subscription program of the magazines, which is relatively lower than sales in the stands.
The three underlying problems with Playboy are legal issues, the specificity of its target market, and its product marketing. Namely, some conservative groups might easily interfere and influence the sales of the magazines and therefore threaten the stability of the firm’s profits. Next, the limited market of Playboy is traditionally male, which has made it difficult to broaden the sales to other customers. Finally, product marketing returns a relatively small number of revenues compared to the broad range of Playboy products. Yet, the firm’s advantages are its special services such as catalogs and calls for additional information. As a result, some services provide stable returns to the company, while other programs cannot fully succeed due to the peculiarities of the market and its social state.
It is probably that most feminist groups would not support the development of the magazine. The reason for this is the object-like nature of the depicted women on the pages. However, some modern feminists might find it not so offensive but rather empowering. For example, the success of OnlyFans and its support by feminists is notable. Thus, Playboy might have a chance with correct marketing.
Changing the name of the company would be an impractical strategy for the most part. First of all, the rebranding would cost a significant amount of money due to the multiplicity of Playboy’s products with the existing name. Second, the name serves as an intangible asset that makes an impression on many customers and assures their loyalty to the company. Hence, it would be better to start producing subsidiary products with another name but leave the existing ones with the Playboy title.