Blooms The Chemist: Health Plus magazine publishing case study

The challenge

Blooms The Chemist Management Services Ltd. (BTCMSL), the centralised support office for over 100 individually owned pharmacies throughout Australia, needed to transform their existing quarterly free customer magazine Health Check. The objectives were to drive health literacy and enhance customer engagement and familiarity with the Blooms The Chemist brand.

Key information

• Challenge: Redesign and produce a quarterly printed magazine to drive health literacy, engagemen, and brand familiarity.

• Target audience: Primarily women in the 25–55 age group who pick up the magazine in-store, with digital hosting to increase reach.

• Strategy: The Content Professionals (TCP) conducted a strategic review to define a renewed concept (including new name Health Plus and new editorial structure), create a new style guide, and implement a contemporary design.

• Delivery: End-to-end production of a quarterly printed magazine (content planning, commissioning, editing, layout, proofreading, printing and distribution).

• Results: Publication of the revitalised magazine on a quarterly basis to a high standard, fitting cohesively within the brand's wider marketing strategy and serving as a principal customer engagement tool.

  
  

"TCP has consistently demonstrated a proactive approach to both seeking and implementing feedback. Their documentation and project management processes have been outstanding; they introduced a completely new structure that brought greater rigour and visibility to our timelines and workflow, which we did not previously have in place. More recently, following an internal restructure and loss of key personnel, TCP provided invaluable support in ensuring delivery continued as planned. They not only upheld the contracted deliverables but also offered hands-on guidance, flexibility and partnership through what was a challenging period for our team."

Annette Williams, Head of Brand and Creative, Blooms The Chemist Management Services

The solution

TCP was engaged to lead the redesign and end-to-end production of the quarterly free magazine. The project followed a phased approach:

• Discovery and strategy: TCP conducted extensive consultation with the BTCMSL marketing team to understand brand positioning, regulatory requirements and customer needs. A strategic review of the existing Health Check magazine identified opportunities for editorial and design development.

• Concept development: A renewed magazine concept was developed, resulting in the new name, Health Plus, new regular editorial 'departments', and a comprehensive content plan. A new editorial style guide was created to codify the language and tone.

• Solution design: The magazine was completely redesigned with a more contemporary, engaging and reader-friendly aesthetic, incorporating the Blooms The Chemist brand iconography and colour palette. The structure includes health-related news and advice, focusing on credible, interesting information.

• Execution and governance: TCP was responsible for the end-to-end production of each quarterly issue, including: content ideation and planning, commissioning and writing (with a team of freelance writers and TCP staff), sub-editing using the comprehensive style guide, layout and design, client approvals and managing the printing and distribution.

The results

The project successfully delivered a complete redesign of the magazine, which was rebranded Health Plus and relaunched with the Summer 2025 issue, distributed in December 2024.

• Brand alignment: The magazine fits cohesively within Blooms The Chemist's wider brand marketing program.

• Customer engagement: The highly successful redesign and high production standards have made the magazine informative, engaging and readable. It has been relied upon by the client as a principal way to engage Blooms The Chemist customers.