I launched the newsagency channel’s first ever magazine loyalty card in August 2004 at my then called Forest Hill Newsagency. That program was nationalised late in 2005 almost a year after I joined newsXpress. Today, the program runs in more than 160 newsXpress stores. It was copied (poorly in my view) by Newspower, Connections and a few others.
Today, six and a half years on, the Magazine Club Card loyalty program more important than ever to participating newsagents. It delivers a tremendous point of difference, something with which the supermarkets, petrol outlets and convenience stores cannot compete. It continues to drive new traffic, deliver a deeper shopping basket and generate good word of mouth.
This loyalty program delivers to participating newsagents and their customers are loyalty program which is extraordinarily more valuable and powerful than programs like FlyBys and the Woolworths rewards program. Those programs do not genuinely reward customers. This Magazine Club Card does reward customers. BUT, customers have to spend more than they usually would in order to access the reward.
The offer is simple, buy eleven magazines over eight weeks and your twelfth magazine is FREE up to the value of $10.00. Compare this to needing to spend $15,000 at Coles to get a $50 shopping voucher – as consumer group Choice recently reported and was covered on A Current Affair. at the time.
The card we use today is five versions on from what I started with back in 2004 – in artwork only. The campaign remains unchanged.
When I launched the program I expected it to run for six months. Like a drug, I can’t and don’t want to let go. Customers love it. I love it. The excitement you see on a customer’s face when they collect their free magazine. The connection you make with them at that moment will bring them back and this is what I want. I want their loyalty and am prepared to pay a price for that.
The execution is the key to the success of the campaign. This is why those who have copied have not achieved the same success. There are important business rules, an essential management structure, vital front line team training and essential performance tracking. failing in any of these areas can lead to a failure off the program.
For a few years I would show people how the program worked and provide them with artwork and the like. I don’t do that any more since newsXpress has packaged that up and made the program its own. Indeed, the success of this program is one reason some newsagents started looking at newsXpress before they joined the group. They wanted the magazine sales growth delivered by this and the other newsXpress magazine pillars.
But it’s not my intention to turn this into a newsXpress advertisement.
What I wanted to note is that here is a campaign which focuses on a challenged yet important category for newsagencies. It is just about the only magazine marketing campaign which works on the whole category and not just certain suppliers. Yes, I think magazine sales will decline due in part to migration to digital. I continue, however, to work hard to ensure that the decline in my newsagencies is less than the industry average – through programs like the Magazine Club Card.
we have been running ours for about 2 years and it has been a huge success .i would recomend it to anyone .
we do a lot of printing for coffee shops etc for loyalty cards and it was after doing a lot these that we decided to give it a go for ourselves and we have not looked back since . the next move for us is to reward customers for buying books ,which i am sure will be a success
We have year on year growth of around 45% at present, partly due to expanding our magazine range since obtaining direct supply with G&G but greatly assisted by the magazine card. We know we are developing a loyal customer base with the magazine card winning customers over from Coles and other local competitors. By offering better service and range we excpect to keep growing our magazine sales even when we start comparing figures on the same stock levels. The magazine card seems to drive extra sales with customers buying magazines they may not have considered in the past. This is a mix of customers buying a few extra mags to get a free one and customers becoming hooked on a magazine they take as their free mag and continue buying ity.
we made sure just about every staff member from woolies had a loyalty card as well ,this way it gets them buying our mags instead of woolies even with there staff discount they are better off coming here , and while they are here they buy a drink and a chocky for smoko as well .
Gees 45% growth that is huge
Mark how does it work .if they buy 10 thats life and get a $10.00 mag you have lost money
Mick that is the glass is half empty view. The reality is that is not what happens.
Just like Brendan we too enjoyed huge growth with the Magazine Club Card (as well as other newsXpress magazine initiatives). In our 1st year of using this we seen a 44% growth in magazine sales. We continue to push this card with the results speaking for themselves. Getting your customer to stay loyal to you really is easy to do when they recieve REAL value for money.
Cheers
Al
Mick , it is the overall big picture . most customers will buy what they have throughout the previous sales but you do get the occasional few that will look for something $9.99 , the thing is you now have this customer buying other things or you now have this customer from else wher and they now come to you . most will not only but the magazine they will buy other things to go with it . This is the oportunity to make an extra sale that you never had to start off with . we have a few customers that will buy 3 thats life and 3 take 5 (the other 2 being for neighbors ) just so they get through there card quick and these are the sales you may never had before .
Makes sennse and something that I’ll have to look at (in my own non-NewsXpress way 🙂 ). We’ve been running a greeting card loyalty program and the results have been building from month to month. With most people their free card is very rarely one of the dearest ones, but just one that they would have paid cash for anyhow.
yep you don’t have to be Newsxpress to do a loyalty card anyone can do it it is not rocket science there is no book on it it is just plain and simple and it works a treat
Shaun but thanks to the hard work of newsXpress you have something which has been finessed to a point where it is easy for you to copy. Credit where it’s due.
was it newsexpress that first invented the loyalty card ?? not to sure
we did not copy any of your art work we have our own and i must say it looks better 🙂 . loyalty cards have been around for ages or did all the coffee shops use newsexpresses idea as well ?and correct me if i am wromng but didn’t yuou mention you came up with the idea before you were part of any marketing group ?
Anyways who cares i thought this post was not about newsxpress .
We’ve done our own cards for coffee for a couple of years, now, which has worked wonders.
If it weren’t for our coffee, we wouldn’t still be in business. The paper/coffee deal didn’t fly at all, unfortunately. Most stores are different, and news/mags just don’t do it for us. Coffee on the other hand is the only product/service we offer that has had rising figures – some months, 200-300% growth. It was worth it to us to cut our mag range as savagely as we did.