THE OTHER SIDE OF FREE GIFTS

Magazines generate a lot of positive sentiment through the use of cover gifts and premiums, but those good feelings are wasted when the gifts are no longer available.
Take September's Singapore edition of Cleo magazine. The gift was "fully redeemed" at one bookstore chain in the city state - and this was just five days into Spetember.
One of the issues here is that, unlike Thailand, magazines start to appear well before their cover date. This edition was on sale as early as August 9th but, with only a limited number of gifts available, those who waited will be disappointed.
Some magazines offer bagged gifts with every copy of their magazine, but from a publishers' perspective there's a lot of sense in creating the demand to buy the magazine with a limited number of premiums. I just wonder how much damage is done to the brand when that gift is gone?