It is important for us to take care when labelling magazines otherwise we can damage the product we want to sell.
The most common mistake I see is the wrong placement of the label on the cover. The barcode label should not obstruct the masthead. Publishers spend a considerable amount of money developing and promoting their mastheads and each magazine cover. A sticker in the wrong place could make it more difficult for a shopper to see a title and this could deny you a sale.
Place the label below the masthead – as shown in the example for Grand Designs Australia. This is still high enough to be seen from traditional magazine fixturing.
Place the label close to the left spine.
Train your staff to always use the same placement.
Most newsagency software packages provide a range of options for what is included on the label: MPA category, arrival date, return date, distributor, code, quantity in, type of return and more. Talk to your software company about what you can include and set your system to give you the labels you want.
Don’t label every magazine. It’s unnecessary. I don’t label weeklies or high volume monthlies
Label preference? Laser labels without a doubt. In my view laser labels are easier to read, easier to manage, take up less cover space and cost less.
Great tips – Should be an Industry standard.
I agree, great advice. I don’t label weeklies either, but that’s to save on the cost of labels. I would say, however, that sometimes magazine covers are quite busy (unlike the cover you have shown as an example) and it’s not always feasible to place a label to the left near the spine.
The other problem is the publishers themselves. Yesterday a woman was unable to find New Idea. New ea was clearly visible the problem was the Id hidden by the picture. I did suggest that perhaps it was a “man look” but I could see her problem.
really it is about time that we demand that the barcode be placed where we all put the stickers and also the return date be there as well – imagine not having to label most magazines
P , problem being overseas mags are all over the place and i presume our mags go overseas as well so recall dates would never match up but yeah i barcode at the top would be a lot better because most mags are not like the one Mark gace as an example , just having a quick look around with out leaving the counter a cxan see heaps of mags that just would not work like the weddings and bride one does a few examples are good food , marie claire,madison, cosmo, prevention,womens health the list could go on forever