Dymocks in the Princes Building in Hong Kong has an impressive window display for the launch issue of Power magazine. Rather than posters and the usual materials we use, they have gone for a less is more approach and let the title speak for itself. This is more in line with the location (a business building) and the general approach to magazine marketing in Hong Kong.
As for the magazine itself, timing may not work out to be that ideal for it.
This is smart – gift cards displayed in front of magazines. While we usually display card products at the counter in newsagencies in Australia, it is the magazine display which gets more eyeball attention – think of how long some people spend browsing. I took this photo at a 7-eleven in Hong Kong. With space so limited here, retailers are smart at embracing every opportunity.
We can easily embrace this for use in Australia.
This photo shows a range of products made from recycled magazines. They use a technique similar to that used for making household items from bamboo. The items I saw look and feel good. The environmental message is strong, especially in the magazine space. These are items which would fit nicely in a newsagency, especially if made out of magazines we returned. There were two companies at the trade show in Hong Kong with items made from recycled magazines.
The Bookazine group have opened a new smaller footprint magazine and bookshop in Honk Kong. The shop would be no more than 50 square metres. Notice the magazine display on the front to the left of the shop – around the corner from this is the main magazine display which is quite small.
I have seen Bookazine evolve over the last few years. This latest incarnation is the best. The smaller footprint has a lot going for it in a shopping mall situation.
I like the this shop – neat, easy to shop, feels like a specialist and not too deep.
The remodeled Dymocks at the IFC centre in Hong Kong has a nice and efficient magazine display. Triangular in shape, it packs a lot of stock into a small space, covering most areas of special interest. The fixturing looks like it is from Kleerex in Ireland. The lighting behind the fixtures makes covers pop – better than shown in the photo.
These flowers were delivered to a retailer in Hong Kong to wish them luck with their re-opening following a re-fit. I wonder how many landlords in Australia would send newsagents and other tenants a nice flower arrangement for luck on the re-opening? I appreciate the culture here is different – but not that much. Australian landlords could learn from this and do more than chase their 5% rent increase every year.
This photo is from the entrance to a supermarket in Hong Kong. Their visual merchandising people have created a black tree as the centrepiece for their Halloween display. It looks stunning. There are many other displays here as good as what I saw at this supermarket – Halloween is big in Hong Kong.
We have been in Halloween for three years through newsXpress. It has grown every year!
Tower Systems is hosting a National Spring Newsagent Training and User Meeting Tour starting next week. Any newsagent is welcome to attend. The meeting will commence with a presentation on how to use the Tower software to increase sales and cut costs – smart business management for tough times.
The dates for the free training are as follows:
Click here to download the booking form for the Spring User Meeting Tour. Bookings can be made on bookings@towersystems.com.au. * – these are the sessions in which I am certain to participate.
Disclosure: I am the owner of Tower Systems.
The ANF has sent a newsflash to members saying that they are in discussion with Pepper Homeloans and the Bank of New York about the Bill Express equipment rental agreements. I am suspicious of the timing of the newsflash given that the ANF opened these discussions three months ago.
Time will tell whether the announcement has more to do with retaining members than actual news.
In the meantime, I suspect there are many newsagents who would say to the ANF and those involved in these discussions that the ANF does not represent them.
Most newsagents do not know the margin they make from what I’d call discretionary product – product where counter staff can play a role guiding the customer to one item over another.
I’d recommend yo take a moment to list all of the categories where your staff can guide the outcome of a sale. Next, find out the margin for every possible product in the category. The, check your sales. Finally, work out what you could have made recommending the most financially beneficial product.
Whether you tell staff to recommend based solely on your margin is up to you. At least make that decision with all of the information at your fingertips.
With Christmas well and truly under way at the majors, we created an initial window display last week to feature some soft toys and boxed Christmas cards. This is the earliest we have gone out with Christmas. It is working, customers are purchasing.
The battle is around space and the battle between calendars, diaries, books, Christmas and the usual flow of promotions. The next two and a half months will be challenging on this front.
Our focus is to create a unique and enjoyable shopping experience while, at the same time, embracing every opportunity of the channel and the season.
This new gingerbread product we have found for Halloween brilliant designs and a great taste. This is a perfect counter offer to fit with our Halloween promotion. From what we understand, we are the first newsagency to offer this line. We are looking forward to seeing how it performs. Our fall back position is that we get to eat what is left. Yum! Seriously though, it is good to have some depth to our Halloween offer beyond witches hats and other costume items.
We sourced this product from Vicki’s Bickies in
This VW Kobmi van USB stick is one of many I saw today at the Mega Fair in Hong Kong. Some manufacturers are creating some fun USB devices – for different demongraphics. There are USB sticks targeted to men, women and kids. The people with this Kombi Van USB stick also had USB memory stick readers in the form of a range of luxury cars – for office desks. Very cool.
Just as you enter Dymocks at the IFC Centre in Hong Kong, next to the counter, is a bold self-service facility from where you can purchase and download digital books to a range of devices. It looks much better and brighter than my photo shows. The display is in the best position in the store – showing the importance of this move into digital to Dymocks.
From the self-service unit you can search their stock database and quickly find titles for which digital editions are available. It is very easy to use – always a challenge for self-service units like this.
The rest of the shop appears to have the same range of books as other times I have visited.
The news reports over recent weeks are enough to make any newsagent worry about business. Worrying achieves nothing positive. Indeed, it can suck you into pursuing failure.
Ignoring the economic news, we are using our point of sale software to pursue growth. Plenty of smart newsagents with good software are doing this. Things like using the software to marketing the business at every opportunity, to improve customer service and to cut labour costs.
The staff roster is a good example. Using your point of sale software to manage your roster makes it easy to make changes. At the risk of humiliation I’d suggest the Coco Chanel approach to rostering.
Since many newsagency employees read this blog, I have a revenue raising suggestion for you to balance the above suggestion that your boss cut hours from the roster: If you are responsible for a part of the newsagency in which you work, ask to see sales and other reports which compare this year to last. Get into as much details as possible Look a your area as if your future depends on you achieving cost savings or sales growth of, better still, both. By you thinking about your part of the business as an owner and with access to new data about your area you are likely to drive a good result for the business and for you.
My point is that smart newsagent computer systems can be your best friend in tough times. Use them to their fullest and worry less.
So, finally – we have electronic device which is a reasonable enough size and weight to potentially replace ordinary paper. This’ll either change the world, or bankrupt the company.
Zack Whittaker writing at ZD Net about the e-paper device developed at Cambridge University and being manufactured by Plastic Logic. Be sure to check out the photos of the device.
This is another reason we need flexibility in or shofit design.
In 1988 the US TV Guide sold for US$3billion. Last week it sold for US$1.00, yes, one dollar. Village Voice has more on this story.
The release of the Phar Lap movie as part of the Australian Movie Collection partwork is timely with the Spring Racing Carnival being in full flight.
We are taking the opportunity to promote Phar Lap (and the partwork series) as part of our overall racing promotion. It is a good opportunity to try and win some additional support for the partwork midway through.
The Sunday Herald Sun yesterday ran the full page ad promoting newsagents. This is the second run they have given this ad. I hope newsagents are thanking their reps. I also hope that newsagents are making the most of this and playing the TVC in their shops and have placed the free A4 or A3 posters in their window.
I am grateful to Angelo from Jindabyne newsagency for sharing this photo of the ad for the Labour Party stuck on page one of the Canberra Times newspaper late last week. Paying to be stuck on the newspaper masthead did not help Labor in the territory election. These ads are a blight. They demonstrate the bean counters winning against editorial.
Speaking at the opening Digital Leadership Dialogue event at POLIS on Tuesday, Emily Bell predicted an apocalyptic period for mainstream traditional media.
Read the full report at journalism.co.uk. Not a positive start to the week.
Change brings opportunities for all of us. We have been working on plans for a shop-fit for our Frankston newsagency. We are embracing change by developing a model which allows every fixture to be movable except for the counter. Magazine fixtures, card fixtures and stationery fixtures will not be built in to outlast armageddon as is often the case.
While I am not expecting an apocalyptic period, significant change has been evident in the newsagency channnel since 1999. Disruption of mainstream media by technology and the current economic situation are to fans pushing change forward. Hence the need for a flexible shop-fit.
Further to my post yesterday about the status of magazines in the UK, Nick Chan, CEO of Pacific Magazines, spoke at the VANA Conference on Friday in Melbourne. He diverted from his prepared speech and explained why Pacific and other magazine publishers think that magazines have a healthy future while acknowledging the challenges of generational change, technology based disruption and the current economic circumstances.
Nick Chan’s comments about the future of magazines are not dissimilar to those of the UK publishers in the interview from the UK to which I referred yesterday. They are also similar to comments by representatives of ACP Magazines. It was good to hear his comments yesterday.
I agree that magazines will have a future – in part because I want them to and in part because I genuinely believe this. The challenge is how hard we (newsagents) have to fight, as retailers, to maintain sales for them to have a viable future in our businesses. This is as much about our resources as it is about external factors such as other sources of interest satisfaction for consumers.
It would be easier for newsagents to protect their market share of top-selling titles if non top-selling titles did not drain our resources. 80% of newsagent magazine revenue consumes only 20% of our resources – labour, cash, real-estate. Put another way, 20% of our magazine revenue is derived from titles which consume 80% of our resources. I and many newsagents want range. The problem is that I cannot control the terms around this range.
While the titles from Pacific Magazines and ACP Magazines are efficient and valuable, the very magazine supply model through which they are supplied also pushes thousands of other products which take our attention from these top titles.
This is our challenge. This is where the future of magazines in the newsagency context is questionable.
There is talk of a code of practice negotiated between magazine distributors, some magazine publishers and the ANF. Besides the ANF not representing newsagents, no code of practice will address what needs to be addressed. The magazine supply model needs to be replaced and this needs to be driven by newsagents – those who control the most valuable asset to magazine publishers, the retail network where their mastheads are displayed, promoted and sold.
Pacific and ACP are often asked for more margin by newsagents. While I would welcome that, I’d like to see if they can use their commercail muscle to help newsagents achieve a new magazine supply model which serves newsagents and top tier publishers.