A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Month: October 2012

ANF to establish a branch in WA, severs ties with WAANA

In an not unexpected move, the ANF has terminated its relationship with WAANA, the state newsagent association inWestern Australia.

WAANA has been struggling financially since it lost its brokerage business. regulars here would know that I think it is time newsagents had one single association to ensure a single and consistent approach to national issues. Such a move nationally could considerably cut the cost of newsagent association representation. It could also remove local politics which has dogged state associations for decades.

The WA move is not part of any national push. Here is the information released yesterday by ANF CEO Alf Maccioni.

Since becoming the CEO of the ANF my core focus has been unity to ensure that all newsagents benefit from the strength of national representation. The ANF has been working closely with QNF, NANA, VANA, and the ANF Branches to share our resources, ideas and address the changes that are happening in our industry to create a better future for all.

In WA, we have had a number of challenges working with WANA.

The ANF Board has decided after extensive debate that we can best serve the newsagents of Western Australia by re-establishing a WA Branch. I want to stress how difficult a decision this has been to decide to go back into WA, but our ultimate aim is, and will always be, to assist the Newsagents nationally and locally.

We have sent WANA a termination letter today acknowledging their repudiation of the agreement through non-payment.

We have been in close contact with all Association CEO’s and Chairs including WANA over the last 6 months to attempt alternate resolutions without success.

Adam, Colin and I are heading over to WA to meet with the relevant industry partners and newsagents. We want to explain our actions to them all face to face. We will be recruiting a WA membership manager who will be located at the GNS office. This person will report directly to Colin and Colin will be visiting WA on a regular basis ensuring that the agents concerns are met.

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Newsagent representation

Halloween as a general sales season in retail

In the US and some Asian countries Halloween has evolved into a general retail sales season. I saw evidence of this yesterday when I an email from an overseas company with a ‘deal’ on headphones under the banner of a HALLOWEEN SALE – even though the items had nothing to do with Halloween. It noticed the email because of the headline

My first reaction was what?! – how are these headphone connected to Halloween. Then I realised that it didn’t matter. Sometimes a seasonal promotion does not have to directly connect with the season other than the time of the year.  Indeed, some retailers embrace Halloween with sales like: Prices so low you’ll be scared!

So, while many Australian retailers roll their eyes at Halloween, the alternative is to embrace the opportunity … to do with it … and to explore how to use it to get attention for your shop and products. We are not doing this in my newsagencies this year but it is part of the plan for 2013.

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retail

One Direction series continues good business

The sales from the Girlfriend branded One Direction part series from Pacific Magazines continue to be strong as the series rolls on. We are working hard in-stroe to drive sales with promotion at the front of the business, promoting on a column half-way in and promotion with teen girl and entertainment titles.  We have a social media campaign pitching our business as the go-to retailer in the eastern suburbs for One Direction.

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magazines

Promoting Empire magazine

We are promoting the latest issue of Empire magazine in a couple of locations including away fro the usual place for entertainment related titles. This is essential for entrainment titles where sales can fluctuate wildly.

The cover feature of this issue of Empire, Dredd is a movie receiving good reviews but lower than expected box office sales. People into science fiction films tell me it is much anticipated in Australia.

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magazines

Blackhawk gift cards application freeze

Due to Christmas workload, Blackhawk, the people behind giftcards sold in newsagencies for many Australian retailers, has advised that they will not process any new sale applications between: 28th October 2012 and the week commencing 14th January 2013.

While I think this is nuts and very old school, Blackhawk is the biggest branded giftcard supplier in the world – what they say goes.

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Ugh!

What’s the best way for newsagents to tap into digital platforms?

This is a question I hear often from newsagents – they want to connect somehow with e-books and digital magazine subscriptions.

The easiest way I see today to tap into this consumer is to sell tablet computers and smartphones. Hands down this is the easiest and fastest way to be more relevant to the consumer accessing newspaper, magazine and book type content through a mobile device. However, it takes investment in inventory, display space and staff training – especially given the businesses you are competing with.

There are newsagents connecting to this technology opportunity through store-within-a-store concepts and others simply offering the devices for sale. But most newsagents are not playing in this space.

Jenlist is the best company to talk with here – they know the space well and offer a good selection of gear.  No, this isn’t an ad – they don’t know I am publishing this recommendation.

7 likes
Newsagency management

Promoting Crikey! magazine

We are giving Crikey! magazine a shot in the spotlight at the moment with this placement above our weeklies. This simple move will dramatically increase the eyeballs passing across the title and thereby hopefully lift sales.

We often find a simple move like this, undertaken in a minute or so, can get us a couple of additional copies sold. This supports my position that we newsagents can grow magazine sales – with a bit of extra effort in-store.

0 likes
magazines

Feast magazine loved by food lovers

Feast magazine continues to attract good sales in the food category. While some high-profile titles are struggling this year in my stores, Feast is performing well. I think this is because the magazine is a faithful to its roots – the SBS Food Safari program.

Our sales are probably helped by good support for the title in prime position in with food titles. We also co-locate where and when we can through the on-sale.

0 likes
magazines

Are we scared of supermarkets?

I have heard of several newsagents who have decided to not run Halloween this year because of the strong engagement in the season by a nearby supermarket – usually a Coles or Woolworths – last year.

Rather than seeking out Halloween product not sold in the supermarkets, the newsagents I have heard from and or about appear to have given up. We have to fight for business, every day. Yes, it’s hard work. But we must. We can’t let the supermarkets win because of fear!

I have seen the Halloween offers at Coles and Woolworths. They are focused on candy – with some terrific displays – and a limited range of cheap Halloween items like witches hats and some make up items. Neither has what I’d consider to be a full Halloween line. Indeed, I see plenty of opportunities not competing with them.

With several supermarkets near my newsagencies this is what we are doing – focusing on products they don’t have. We’re happy with the results so far – good early sales.

The glitter pumpkins in the photo are the hero of Halloween so far. They attract attention. They work at home or in the office. They take Halloween to a new level – they also make it more accessible. Once we realised this we ordered heaps more. Selling out early in the season is a great reason to get more stock and see how far we can go.

I understand how frustrating it is when a major competes in a season you used to have to yourself. It’s not a reason to give up though. We are retailers, small business retailers, newsagents – just about the toughest type of retailers out there given what we have put up with.

10 likes
Newsagency management

The interesting debate around Alan Jones

The Australian Financial Review today has a fascinating article about the Alan Jones story through the context of old media versus new media. I am particularly interested to see that advertisers don’t consider advertising as an endorsement of the performer their ads are connected with. My take is: welcome to the new consumer empowered world. Social media gives people more power and the Jones story is showing how the power can be harnessed.

1 likes
Social responsibility

Beanie Kid Christmas floor unit working well

I love the floor unit for the Christmas Beanie Kid range. Shopper reaction is that it’s not too early to have this on the newsagency shop floor – I thought it might have been given that we are full up with halloween, diaries and calendars and only have 135 sq m to play with. We have the unit placed to interrupt flow and it’s working a treat – it’s part of our basket building work to drive basket depth.

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visual merchandising

Autumn is for cooking

We are embracing the arrival of Autumn in Melbourne (on some days) as an opportunity to get our Australian Women’s Weekly cookbooks out from their usual location and in front of more shoppers. We have a selection of the most popular titles placed next to the cake decorating partwork – both of which are next to our photocopier.

Just about every shopper approaching our sales counter passes this position – more than the shoppers who would get to where the cookbooks are usually located.

We try and bring a selection of these cookbooks out into front of shop locations at least four times a year.

0 likes
magazines

Promoting 2013 magazine related diaries

Like a lot of newsagents, we place diaries published under a magazine brand with the magazine and in the category appropriate. We also locate stock of these diaries in our diary department. While the co-location works well, it is this placement with magazines that drives early in the season sales.

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Diaries

Using Arnie to promote Men’s Fitness

With all the media coverage given to Arnold Schwarzenegger over the last week it made sense to us to give this issue of Men’s Fitness full cover display treatment. Newsagents should check where they are their copy – make sure the full cover can be seen. If we had the space we would give this issue of Men’s Fitness a shot with newspapers as I am sure it would sell there … that space is in high demand at the moment.

1 likes
magazines

The hours newsagents work

Over the weekend I ran a survey here, asking newsagents how many hours they worked in their business.  The collation of the 137 responses shows, not unsurprisingly, that most work significantly more than an average working week.  Here are the numbers:

Politicians need to understand the time we all invest in our businesses and consider this as they develop polices. While some businesses owners will always work long hours others will happily transfer some of their hours to employees if the conditions are right.

Newsagent suppliers need to look at these figures and consider how they can help newsagents save time. For example XchangeIT ought to deliver on magazine statement reconciliation. magazine distributors ought to give newsagents control over supply and thereby reduce the time we spend on processing returns.

There are many areas where newsagents could save time and thereby achieve a better work / life balance than available with some of today’s archaic processes.

Thanks to the 137 newsagents who voted. Given the percentage of newsagents represented I think the results represent the industry average.

17 likes
Newsagency management

Small businesses need to do more to leverage mega brands on social media

Tic Tac Australia & New Zealand has more than 226,000 fans on Facebook. Their Facebook page is awash with coverage of the new, for a limited time only, green apple tic tacs. It’s a fun and engaging campaign – with Facebook fans having voted for this flavour to be manufactured.

TV channels are carrying plenty of advertising for green apple tic tacs.

I know from recent advertising in Convenience World magazine that year on year sales of tic tacs are up 11.2% and that 47% of shoppers want new flavours. This suggests the recently released green apple product will be a hit.

How the tic tac people are using Facebook and other platforms is a lesson on social media engagement. It is also an opportunity to leverage their leadership for our own benefit. Retailers who connect with the tic tac social media campaign can drive traffic for themselves and create their own local success.

I saw an excellent lift in one of my newsagencies when I leveraged social media coverage around One Direction … and it cost nothing. Why not do the same with tic tacs? While some newsagents will say there is no time, if you could have your message seen by 260K+ people why not invest the time?!

By leveraging I mean engaging on their Facebook page and through their Twitter feed – reaching our to existing tic tac fans. In each case you would need to engage with content that is complimentary to what they post.  This is what I did with One Direction and it worked a treat.

Whether it is tic tacs or other major social media engaged brands, there are excellent social media opportunities for newsagents beyond our own Facebook page or Twitter feed – opportunities we can turn into traffic for our businesses and sales through our registers.

8 likes
confectionary

A Keith Urban opportunity in Country Update magazine

Our sales of Country Update are patchy so we’re making them most of the Keith Urban cover shot on the latest issue by placing this with our weekly magazines. regulars here will know that this has worked for us before – placing relatively obscure titles with weeklies when they feature a cover subject with everyday appeal. Since urban’s appearance on The Voice on the Nine Network his popularity has risen – hopefully enough for us to sell this magazine to people who might otherwise not know about it. Every extra sale counts!

0 likes
magazines

Sunday marketing tip: Look for your business online

Go to Google and search on magazines and your suburb. Dopes your business come up on the first page? Do the same for: ink, greeting cards and stationery.  How dod you fare in these searches?

If you are not coming up on the first page you’re not where you need to be. This can be fixed by completing entries in a number of free listing sites and maintaining these.

If you are in a marketing group get their advice on what to do, they should have pre-prepared advice for you. If you are not in a marketing group email me at mark@towersystems.com.au and I’ll privately share advice with you.

Yes, it will take a couple of hours to get your information into the listing sites – the result will be your business coming up in search results. I was at a conference recently where they said that more than 70% of in-store purchases involved at least some form of online search or engagement.

2 likes
marketing tip

Management tip: chase the settlement discount

One way to achieve a better margin for products you sell is to take the settlement discount whenever possible. Many newsagent suppliers offer this yet the majority of newsagents do not take it.

I have heard of newsagents not taking a 20% settlement discount – preferring 30 day terms. You could pay the bill on time with your credit card, take the 20% and be better off. This doesn’t make sense to me. In one business I looked at recently, they could have added more than $6,000 in a year to their bottom line profit by taking settlement discounts. Who wouldn’t want $6,000 extra profit?

3 likes
Management tip

Promoting Who 20th anniversary issue

We are promoting the 20th anniversary edition of Who magazine in several locations including with newspapers this weekend. This issue has a stunning cover – it stands out in each of the locations: at the counter, with newspapers and in with our weekly magazine titles. This is a title all newsagents should be promoting this weekend!

0 likes
magazines

We’re creatures of habit

Newsagents like consistency if nothing else and when things do not happen as usual they (we) are thrown. The lack of a delivery from Gotch yesterday is a case in point. Several newsagents called me asking if I knew what had gone wrong. I let them know that they needed to read the Gotch website announcement.

1 likes
Newsagency management
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