Every week we, like most newsagents, diligently put up the promotional material from publishers on aisle ends and elsewhere. While I am certain the effort is important, an immediate sales kick to match the labour and real estate investment is not always evident.
The Real Living display this week is different. We have noticed a significant sales kick. I’d say this is in part due to the free organiser and in part due to Real Living being more of an impulse purchase. We display each issue next to Notebook in a high traffic area yet Real Living does not perform as well as Notebook.
Seeing the sales kick this week makes me wonder why publishers don’t push titles like Real Living more as opposed to the higher selling destination purchase titles. While newsagents can do this in-store, we need materials such as extra posters and other materials to enable us to create appropriate retail theatre.