ducklings™ magazine looks like it could share space on the racks next to Parents or Family Circle. Smiling children adorn the cover of the 4-color publication, along with teasers for articles about creating a simple gingerbread house, preparing a festive fall menu and teaching kids to help around the house. But ducklings isn't a newsstand magazine: It's a carefully crafted publication mailed by a New England-based supermarket chain to customers enrolled in an innovative customer loyalty program.

Shaw's Supermarkets created the ducklings program a few years ago to tap into a highly sought after market-mothers with children up to five-years-old. Shoppers in that demographic sign up for the program at stores or online. The main benefit is ducklings, a complimentary quarterly magazine with articles about raising a young family and at least $10 worth of coupons for products sold at Shaw's.

To create the magazine and other printed pieces for the ducklings program, Shaw's turned to King Fish Media, Salem, Mass. The 5-year-old company specializes in customer retention pieces and services, including magazines, newsletters, web casts, web site design, videos and more. "We don't have one solution. We have infinite solutions," says Cameron Brown, president of King Fish Media. "And we're perfectly happy to recommend a solution that may not make us the most money, but satisfies the client."

King Fish Media supplies three primary printed products for the ducklings program: an introductory binder, periodic coupon packets and the quarterly magazine. "The 1-2 punch of the binder and the magazine allows Shaw's to stay in front of their target audience," says Brown.

When shoppers join the customer loyalty program, they receive a 9 1/4 x 8-inch, 2-ring binder. The cover resembles pink and green plaid fabric and is imprinted with the name of the supermarket and program. The inside front cover reads "All About Me" and includes spaces for mothers to add vital information about their children, such as their names, birthdates and photos. The inside back lists hotline phone numbers for baby product manufacturers, such as Pampers, Huggies and Gerber. It also includes spaces to add local emergency numbers.

ducklings members, who register the birthdates of their children with Shaw's, periodically receive 36-page inserts about health, nutrition and wellness appropriate to the age groups of their kids. For example, King Fish Media has produced inserts for children from birth to three months, three to six months, six to 12 months and so on. "The binder and inserts are intended to be a reference book that goes in a drawer," says Brown.

The coupon packets, called savings samplers, include up to $40 worth of coupons on a variety of items at Shaw's. A sheet of coupons also appears in each issue of ducklings magazine. Launched in the fall of 2003, ducklings features all original content written by freelance writers hired by King Fish Media.

Each issue has seasonal stories, such as an article on making easy Halloween costumes in the fall and one on fun rainy day activities in the spring. ducklings also includes standing departments: For instance, "Up Front" presents new products, "Doctor Is In" has health information and "Quick Dinners" provides recipes for families on the go.

The magazine's circulation is approximately 125,000. It's double scored and perfect bound, and each issue features children on the cover. "When it shows up in the mail, there's a 'wow' factor," says Brown. But creating a showpiece that's also educational isn't easy. "There's a long development process," says Brown, who worked alongside a team from King Fish Media and Shaw's for more than 10 months before launching the premier issue.

The first step for King Fish Media was competitive research. The company studied all other parenting and nutrition magazines, considering what they did well and where they were lacking. For instance, the company discovered a scarcity of articles on fatherhood. So each issue of ducklings includes a "Daddy & Me" feature story about fathers and children interacting. "The overall goal is to fill an editorial void and position yourself as an expert in X, Y and Z," says Brown.

When King Fish Media had a general direction for the magazine's content, it worked with Shaw's to develop a tone. Brown says they settled on "helpful advice from your big sister-someone who's already been there. That's the underlying mission for all our stories." The customer thinks they've succeeded. "[King Fish Media] has been able to execute that consistently through every issue," says John Giaquinto, manager of customer marketing for Shaw's.

Next, King Fish Media generated editorial ideas for one year's worth of magazines. Now the two companies are working on the 10th issue of ducklings. Typically, King Fish Media creates an editorial outline with five or six ideas for each issue, Shaw's selects and signs off on the ideas, editors write the articles, then Shaw's comments on the text. King Fish Media incorporates the input, creates a PDF reviewed by its staff and the customer, makes final edits and sends the magazine to Acme Printing in Wilmington, Mass., for production.

"One of the reasons we've been successful from the launch to this day is that we continually talk about the strategies and purpose of ducklings," says Giaquinto. "King Fish Media remembers that this magazine exists for a strategic purpose for our company. Even though they take a lot of pride in-and ownership of-the magazine, they understand if something is not achieving the objective we want, they should change it. And they do."

Brown speaks highly of his customer, too. "They're a great partner because they understand the importance of keeping customers. It's what they've built their business on," he says. "Some customers you bring along. These people absolutely understand the importance of audience."

Have a solution? Be featured as a Print Matters Solution of the Week.