OK! is our magazine of the week as a reminder that this title is now published on a Friday. We have this small stand at one of our lottery counters to encourage impulse sales. While we still have OK! in its usual place, we felt it was important to promote to those not browsing our magazine department and because of the difference in weekend versus weekday customers. We created the display unit by modifying a spare acrylic stand we had.
This is the artwork for the poster for newsagents to promote magazines as a Christmas gift.
The poster is a free service for all newsagents from Tower Systems and is available A2, A3 or A4 size.
We will finalise artwork mid next week with fresh magazine covers.
I have funded the development of this poster for the same reasons I funded the recent TV commercial – to help newsagents have pride in their unique offer and to help increase sales in newsagencies, especially of magazines.
I was prompted to do this when I saw the email promotion of magazine subscriptions by Magshop. I realised that we did not professionally promote magazines as Christmas gifts in newsagencies. I took this as a challenge to create an enticing poster which newsagents could use in-store for this purpose.
While we could complain about the Magshop pitch, their offer makes sense. They will attract different consumers to those who visit newsagencies. Our job is to connect with our traffic. Hence the importance of a poster such as this connected with back end processes for putaways and the like.
I hope that newsagents like the poster and can put it to good use.
We have written to magazine distributor NDD requesting that the cancel supply of all titles from Maximedia. We took this action following a review of the performance of their products. Poor sales, oversupply and long shelf life makes the Maximedia titles uneconomic for our newsagency and, I suspect, every other newsagency in Australia.
I will be in Townsville next week (Wednesday, 2pm at Jupiters Hotel and Casino) and Darwin the week after (Wednesday at 2pm at the Holiday Inn) talking with newsagents about strategies for building stronger businesses. These sessions are part of the Tower Systems Spring User Meeting Tour which has attracted newsagents from around the country keen to work on building better businesses. If you would like to come along to the free workshop, please drop me an email. All newsagents are most welcome.
As I have traveled around Australia over the last month on this tour it has been a thrill to meet with newsagents who are embracing change and focusing on the opportunities in the marketplace. I am excited by the innovation I have seen and heard and the positive attitude of so many newsagents.
For years, the Tower Systems software has made it easy for newsagents to promote their businesses on receipts. You can include any image easily. This could be a coupon or some offer to lure customers back. Coupons work extremely well in the
The artwork for the two coupons has been emailed to Tower newsagents. If you would like a free copy please email me. All you need is POS software which can include images on receipts.
Receipts are free advertising space for us – it makes sense to leverage this opportunity for our own businesses. After Christmas, use the coupon space for back to school offer or a back to uni offer. Keep using this space to pull customers back in.
I really did think Groovy Grandmas was a porn title when I first saw it. It’s not, Groovy Grandmas is a good magazine. It appears to hit its demographic. This new title is hard to locate in our vast range and difficult to find space for in an already full fixture. My bigger concern is the financial aspects of this title. NDD decided we should get 19 copies. At $9.95 each, this means we are providing $141 in funding for the launch copy. With a four month on-sale and the space requirements, there is no way we can cover our costs – expecially given that we received no marketing collateral.
NDD gets upset when I point the finger at their broken magazine scale out model. They say that they have a good relationship with the ANF and are working with them on magazine KPIs. Well, this NDD/ANF relationship is now three years old and we still get grossly oversupplied with long shelf life product. Based on Groovy Grandmas a fair assessment would be that NDD will do what NDD wants. On Groovy Grandmas, like other titles, I suspect that NDD is paid for each copy they move. Newsagents shold be on the same terms.
The scale out of this title would be a good test case for the ACCC to review as it demonstrates all that is wrong with the magazine supply model – oversupply, supply not based on sales data and a long shelf life.
Newsagents cannot be the banker for independent publishers and magazine distributors any longer.
We will promote the title for the next couple of weeks but we expect to be early returning at least half what they sent us – probably topped since I should not have to pay the freight for another NDD stuff up.
Rumors have been circulating in
VANA has a long track record for playing outside the traditional association space. As a VANA member I would prefer to see more robust representation on association matters and less on competing with existing industry suppliers.
Since VANA and GNS had a falling out a couple of years ago, VANA has spent member resources competing with GNS is some areas. Member funds could have been better spent elsewhere rather than spiteful competition.
Disclosure – I am a Director of newsXpress, a marketing group for newsagents.
Chewing gum is the most efficient segment of the confectionery department in the newsagencies from what I have seen in recent sales data. Sales are strong, stock turn good and return on real-estate excellent. Gum outperforms chocolate bars in return on investment in the stores for which I have data. This is because of the space taken, faster stock turn and easier stock management. We have been looking at this for our Frankston store where we are allocating less counter space for confectionery and had to cut some lines.
While gum goes against the idea of driving a point of difference, the data shows it works so why not? There are deals around too for good volume business.
A challenge for newsagents in this changing market is to find ways to support new categories with existing fixturing designed around the newsagency of yesteryear. We have been fortunate to find opportunities to display gifts adjacent to or near our card department. This makes sense given that just about every card sold could be sold with a gift. The slim unit we have hanging at the end of one card stand is selling well at Forest Hill. These keepsake type trinkets work with our demographic. We are still feeling our way with adding fixtures to our stores which find extra display space for us. The key is for the placement to be a natural fit.
If you are into the party goods check out the Kids Birthday Parties blog. It is an excellent resource with ideas for customers planning parties. Its tips are also useful for visual merchandising around themes. While the content is skewed to the US marketplace, I have found plenty of ideas which translate to the Australian marketplace.
The 2006 and 2007 issues of Australian Senior’s Guide to Digital Photography from Maximedia each had a sell through of 0%. NDD sent us three copies of the 2008 issue – with a six month on-sale. The sales history which NDD has ought to have resulted in supply of this title being cut entirely. NDD’s decision is inexcusable.
At the Maximedia website consumers can buy this title for $14.95. The price through newsagencies is $16.95. Maximedia will do deals if you buy 20 or more copies – discounts start at 25%. While I understand the need for publishers to pursue a multi channel approach, the disparity between the direct to consumer versus newsagent offer is concerning.
We are early returning the copies we received in each of our newsagencies.
On the title itself, I think it is a dud, certainly not worth the prices they charge. Our shelves are well stocked with better Digital Photography content.
Market Watch has a story about Newspapers Direct releasing their newspapers on the iRex reader. The iRex reader is very cool – quite suited to newspaper reading. 800 newspapers are now available for this device.
These small keychain calendars are selling well at the counter at our newsagencies. I am sure they would not sell as well if we placed them elsewhere – away from the counter. They are a perfect impulse item. I have noticed they are popular with older women who are pleased to have found something for a granddaughter. It is pleasing to see a $1.10 sale turn into a $10+ plus sale thanks to the placement of these mini calendars at the counter.
This is a question Steve Rubel poses in his excellent blog post, The End of Tangible Media is Clearly in Sight. While I am not sure I am completely on the same page as Steve, his thesis is essential reading for anyone making a living off of print media. It was the CD question which got me. I have an iTunes account and realised recently that buying a CD makes no sense anymore – smart hardware has disrupted music distribution, turning it upside down.
We received more than 150 applications for two casual positions we advertised on SEEK for our newsagencies a couple of weeks ago. This was an overwhelming response. Most were lazy applications where people attach a resume and send it without really researching the job. The volume of applications meant had to make some broad stroke decisions, meaning we probably said no to some we should have considered more carefully.
Of all those we said no to, one responded and what followed was an email conversation about how we went about the process and her own situation. This interaction reminded me that each application is a person and that sometimes you have to dig for gold.
The challenge is time and this will get worse if unemployment rises – I can see us getting more than 200 applicants for a position advertised next year. If each application is given fair assessment time, it would take more than a day to review them all. Our next job ad will have some rules which will make it easy to sort out the lazy applicant from those with attention to detail. This will help us quickly cut the list to something more manageable.
While Amita, the applicant with whom I corresponded following my rejection email does not meet our needs because of travel plans, her interaction was gracefully handled encouragement to review our application processes and for that I am grateful.
We are constantly trying new products in our newsagencies as part of our commitment to constant change. We enjoy the failures as much as the successes. Both teach us plenty about our customers and our businesses. Sometimes we hit a real surprise. Take these scratchette things – they are used for scratching instant lottery tickets. I thought they would be a sure fire hit at the lottery counter. I was wrong. We have tried them in several locations and at different price points over two months. We have sold very few. Our customers prefer to use a coin for scratching the instant lottery tickets. The most popular up-sell items at the lottery counter are Liquorice Allsorts followed by New Idea or Woman’s Day.
If anyone would like to try these please let me know. We have a pack we can send for free.
I was disappointed to see the Herald Sun report yesterday about the ACCC decision about Tattersalls’ handing of their dedicated area and the introduction of Intralot. I am one of the newsagents who received the letter from the ACCC referred to in the report. I received my letter in August following a meeting at my shop with representatives of the ACCC.
My personal view is that the ACCC has got this wrong. Tattersalls has lost what was a key part of their business – instant scratch tickets – yet they have not relinquished the real-estate they had set aside for them. Our scratch ticket bay remains useless. This is holding my business back. It is also an impediment to the active promotion of Intralot in the high traffic part of the business.
I have been in Perth for the last couple of days and have had an opportunity to visit several newsagencies. While I see differences between newsagencies on the Eastern Seaboard, the differences between newsagencies in the east and west of Australia are far greater.
Visiting newsagents in a variety of situations is important for anyone working with newsagents nationally – essential for any association claiming to represent newsagents.
Our Forest Hill team has rejigged our counter now that our Darrell Lea Christmas stock has arrived. Even though margin on Darrell Lea is slimmer than magazines, it is an important range to have here at the front of the shop next to our main lottery counter.
This display attracts good impulse business – as does the Herald Sun stand you can see in the photo.
newsXpress last month became the first newsagency marketing group to establish a page on social media site Facebook. The purpose of the page is to provide a link for everyone connected with newsXpress -suppliers, store employees, newsXpress members and others. Several newsXpress stores have also set up their own Facebook pages.
Social media sites like Facebook are an important glue, connecting people who otherwise may not do so all that easily.
The magazine circulation results announced last week were not good for any of the top selling titles. Rather than get lured into a negative mindset about magazine sales we are promoting our Magazine Club Card harder than ever.
Every card we hand out demonstrates our point of difference over other retailers in our centre and most nearby newsagents. While we have seen some falls, in the main they are lower than the numbers published last week.
What is it they say, when the going gets tough the tough get going. That’s how we view this marketplace, pursuing every opportunity to offer an excellent retail experience based around valued product with deals to respect loyalty.
These small owls are a successful new product we have found for our Frankston newsagency. Without any special promotion of feature location, they have sold well – outside the traditional graduation season. We sought a range of graduation gifts given that we sell plenty of cards around the event. The owls work because we are moving more to a
I have written to Network Services and NDD advising that I do not wish to receive any Universal Magazines titles in my two newsagencies in the future. In the letter to each I have outlined two scenarios under which I would gladly reconsider.
Retail real-estate is expensive. Labour is expensive. Once these are factored into the cost of managing long shelf life magazines (greater than 30 days on-sale) most of them become uneconomic.
We newsagents have the magazine supply model we have because we permit it. The space is ours. The labour resource works for us. The key asset everyone craves is our network reach.