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

Month: December 2013

Is Black Pete racist in Australia?

dutch-courierI was surprised to see the cover of Dutch Courier newspaper today. The black characters jarred with the Christmas theme. I discovered online that that this is Black Pete (Zwarte Piet) a character, some say servant, who accompanies St Nicholas.

In Canada recently a politician came in for criticism for being photographed with someone dressed as Black Pete.

Siji Jabbar writing for The Guardian a year ago offered a valuable contribution on this issue and race more generally in The Netherlands.

We put this issue of Dutch Courier on display as it’s not our job to act as censor or to judge taste. As to whether this depiction is racist? I’d say it is but I’d also acknowledge that this is a traditional character like the black dolls we used to call golliwogs. Traditions take time to change.

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Ethics

Westfield mistakes ruin marketing promotion and blocks foot traffic – and offers no assistance

I loved the idea of Super Saturday pitched by Westfield to tenants at Westfield Knox City. We completed the form indicating we would offer 25% off all gifts except plush and Christmas. We did this to be an active participant in a whole of centre sale that they would promote through a catalogue and other mediums.

Whereas AMP, the former landlord, would share with us the marketing material well in advance, Westfield kept it to themselves until the morning of.

westfieldfail1Saturday morning we discovered Westfield didn’t follow our request, they were promoting us offering 25% off everything in-store – not just gifts as we indicated. The poster, catalogue and other materials were all wrong. Someone from centre management visited after we contacted them but he offered no solution or compensation for the mistake by Westfield.

westfieldfail2Also on Saturday, Westfield setup a series of outposts and signs out the front of my shop in such a way that they blocked the usual and natural flow of foot traffic from the car park across to the newsagency. The photo does not show how bad the Westfield layout was. Not only did it block traffic, the door outpost was dangerous with people (myself included) tripping on the base of one of the stands. Again, the person from centre management offered no solution.

One outpost was a kids activity area. The centre management guy said it’s bringing people to centre. I doubt that. It was blocking access to my shop. I need access to make sales and pay the rent. That argument appeared to be lost on this guy.

I asked for the centre manager to contact me, they have not yet done this.

I was angry Saturday when I saw the marketing screw up and the traffic diversion because this was to be Super Saturday, the landlord had let us down and upon showing them this they offered no assistance. This same landlord takes a zero tolerance approach to stepping over the lease line and other matters yet they do not hold themselves to the same standard.

What I would have liked is a free spruiker at the shop to attract people walking past because of their barriers and someone pitching the actual offer we had and not the mistake on their posters and in their catalogue.

If they read this blog post they will most likely complain to me and step up ‘compliance’ visits to the store. It’s happened with landlords before. You screw up and they attack, you complain about their screw up and they attack. This is life in a shopping centre.

I decided to not blog about this Saturday or Sunday as I was too angry. The post I wrote in my head was full of venom. While am still angry this morning, the passing of time has dulled the anger somewhat.

Saturday was okay for us, not what we expected, but okay. It would have been much better had Westfield not screwed up.

Westfield needs to look carefully at what it does in its centres at busy times like Christmas.  While they run feel good promotions, they often don’t result in shoppers visiting shops. They fill mall areas with outposts from short term tenants often not represented in the centre and who pull focus from their long term tenants who pay the bulk of the rent. They make mistakes on promotions and don’t fix them. They rarely work with you on programs that will work for your business.

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retail leases

men’s health and support Movember

Pacific Magazines and New Life Media supported Movember in a unique way as I read in Mediaweek:

Australian Men’s Health has been decreed the winner of the inaugural Movember modown magazine challenge, following a unique month-long face-off between Pacific Magazines titleMen’s Health and NewsLifeMedia’s GQ Australia.

Throughout November, in support of Movember, both magazines used the hashtags #magsmoveme, #modown and #movember to drive their modown campaigns via social media, PR and online. Readers were encouraged to back their favourite magazine by joining in and growing a mo’, or donating money directly to the cause of men’s health.
Both teams were judged on the reach and engagement of their campaigns, Magazine Publishers of Australia (MPA) Executive Director Robin Parkes said.

“In the end, Australian Men’s Health was judged by the team at MoHQ to have raised an inch more awareness for men’s health than their counterparts at GQ, but by the barest of margins. All credit to both magazine teams for taking part in such a worthy challenge,” Parkes said.

This is good to see because Movember is a fund and awareness raising month that’s supported on some newsagents. Maybe next year newsagents and publishers could work more closely together on the opportunity.

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magazines

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: pitch Christmas based on what the shopper needs right now

There are two types of shoppers newsagents could appeal to in the next few weeks with display areas and or services target at their very specific needs:

  1. Time poor shoppers. Create a FAST CHRISTMAS SHOPPING area where people can find a card, wrap and gift in shorter time. You could do this with a separate area in-store or you could do it with a shopper assistance on standby ready with suggestions and armed with knowledge of where everything is in store. Personally, I like the shopper assistant idea. This would be someone who can also process the purchase once selection has been made – by jumping and line.
  2. Last minute shoppers. In the week before Christmas find space to pitch IDEAL LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS GIFTS. In some cases these need to be major gifts while in others stocking-stuffers will be what people are looking for. These items don’t need to be discounted – last minute shoppers tend to care less about price.

In both cases I’d suggest you promote the service in advance of launch. Make sure the offer can be seen from outside the business. Ensure your team members are trained on how to make these work.

By focussing on the needs of groups of unique shoppers we can drive sales and attract more shoppers.

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marketing

Sunday newsagency management tip: start planning now for your post-Christmas sale

Whether your newsagency is open Boxing Day or the day after, immediately after Christmas is an opportune time to quit dead stock – any stock that has not sold in six months or more. In fact, I’d class stock as dead if it has not moved in three months.

So, use your computer system to list your slow or not moving stock, decide on your rock bottom price, think about how your will display this and design appropriate SALE PRICE tickets to promote the discount.

If you’re in a shopping centre you will probably need to run a lower price than if you are in a high street situation. My experience over the years is that most retailers in a shopping centre will drop prices considerably in their Boxing Day Sales.

In considering the stock you will cut, target two or three items for cost or below pricing. make these your hero products. They need to be genuinely sought after products. It could be even that you buy in especially. However, the real value for any retailer of a post-Christmas sale is to clean out the dead wood and make space for new product.

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Management tip

Here’s a bagged magazine that is working

baggedmagworkingThe latest issue of Girlfriend is selling well for us, offering an example of a bagged magazine done well and riving sales. The packaging is the key – the promotion of freebies as well as $80,000 in prizes. They package looks like bonus value rather than what many others do in bagging old issues with a current issue. This bagged issue of Girlfriend should sell out for us.

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Bagged magazines

Puzzle book promotion popular

heraldsunpuzzleThe free puzzle book promotion launched yesterday with the Herald Sun was popular, we had plenty of customers asking about their copy. In a good change, our supplying newsagent provided stock. Key to the promotion is the good front page like on the Sunday Herald Sun today. While I would have preferred school holiday timing, I’m happy with this promotion. A side benefit is that it can reintroduce puzzles to people and newsagents are the go-to retailers for these when they want their next fix.

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Newspapers

Opportunities and challenges in lottery jackpots

The OzLotto $50 million jackpot and Powerball $30 million jackpot will generate good additional traffic for newsagency businesses with lottery products this week. One challenge will be to leverage the additional lottery traffic for more than the lottery sale. Another challenge will be to ensure that the additional lottery traffic does not get in the way of what should be an excellent week for cards, gifts and other products in the countdown to Christmas.

I don’t have lottery products in my businesses and am not as affected by these jackpots. Weighing up the positive and the negative I’m happy to not have my plans for my business disrupted by such a considerable event as a major jackpot. That said, I know newsagents who love the jackpots and who make good use of the opportunity.

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Lotteries

Big news day

With the passing of Nelson Mandela yesterday and the unprecedented coverage on TV last night, especially two of the commercial networks (9 and 10), I’d expect interest on newspapers to be especially strong today. I suggest newsagents place newspapers into good locate to lift impulse purchases if your newspapers are not at the front of the business.

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Newspapers

Another product that makes people smile

puttyThis Super Putty is another interactive product we love watching customers engage with.  We have a tub open and actively encourage them to try it. Many who do buy because they enjoy the experience. How good they feel when playing with the putty or watching someone play with the putty is a key factor in their purchase decision – you can see it in their faces, especially parents and grandparents when they see their kids and grand kids having fun.

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Fun

It’s a pleasure selling happy

sellinghappyI love the terrific range of feel-good fun products we have in store at the moment. I love them because our customers love them. Their smiles are a delight to see.

These happy hoppers are a good example.  You can launch them off your hand or any surface. They make kids laugh. We sell them to kids through to grandparents. We’re finding them to be a good stocking stuffer gift.

We have plenty of items like these that are interactive out on the shop floor. They add to the theatre of retail.

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Fun

It’s bagged magazine season

baggedmagIt feels like we are seeing more bagged magazines on the shelves in newsagencies right now than any time of the year. Even publishers who do not usually engage with bagging, putting an extra one or two issues with a current issue, are doing it. Some don’t make sense.  take DNA magazine. This is a title with a high browsing factor. By bagging the latest issue I suspect sales will be hurt – or the bags opened. Newsagencies are browser friendly places. The more bagged magazines we have the less browser friendly we are. Magazines like DNA need to be able to be browsed.

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magazines

Supanews selling magazine subscriptions

supanews-magazinesThe Supanews website, tagged as Australia’s Online Newsagency, is promoting magazine subscriptions. Promoting magazine subscriptions as your only magazine offer is not something a traditional newsagency would pitch. hat this Supanews business is pitching is frustrating because is misrepresents the traditional (online and high street) newsagency business.

My understanding is that this website is operated by a business called Supanews Limited out of Hong Kong. I have no idea who owns that business and their relationship with the owners of Supanews.

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magazine subscriptions

Missteps at People’s Friend distributor move

magspfdecPeople’s Friend magazine switched distributors from Gordon & Gotch to Network Services today and several newsagents have contacted me about the impact of this on their business. Some received less stock and one received more.  It’s not hard for a change of distributor to be handled better than this. One newsagency was so short supplied they could not satisfy put-away requests.

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magazines

Smart campaign from Australia Post

aussiepost-coolI love the Express Post yourself with a Video Stamp promotion being run by Australia Post at the moment. It’s very clever – right from the QR code through which you can get to the site to the process of loading and sending the video. Well timed with the Christmas launch, this campaign engages the government owned business with Christmas in a more personal way. Kudos to the people behind this.

I criticise Australia Post regularly here but can’t find anything wrong with this campaign. It’s supporting why they exist – mail delivery.

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Australia Post

Good counter pen offer

penxmasWe jumped on the Pilot pen opportunity pitched to us through GNS. I like for small format counter unit. These pens are an easy add-on item where people are purchasing boxed and single Christmas cards. We’ve kept the price below $5.00 to drive volume. Adding s $4.95 stationery item to a basked with the average card purchase of over $20.00 is nice icing on the cake. Counter placement is key.

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Gifts

Men’s Health as a gift

magsmenshdec2013We are promoting the latest issue of Men’s Health and the Men’s Health Summer Training Guide in prime position in our sports section. Both titles will feature in our RECOMMENDED MAGAZINES FOR CHRISTMAS GIFTS display from next week. Sales history shows Men’s Health sales are terrific in December and I think this is because it’s a good Christmas gift in many situations.

It’s through seasonal features, like magazines a gifts, where we can grow our magazine sales.

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magazines

That’s Life and Take 5 have good offers this week

Both That’s Life and Take 5 offer excellent value this week that should drive impulse purchases. These are issues to get in prominent positions.

magst5dec2013The Take 5 card Christmas card kit is a nice gift with purchase. Make sure customers can see the whole front cover. This is a good issue to feature at the counter. It’s also one to mention to appropriate shoppers when they are browsing magazines.

magstldec2013The That’s Life free cash opportunity will be popular – it always is when offered with the magazine. This, too, is a magazine to have in a prime second location like the counter. The REAL CASH pitch on the cover is the key – make sure it’s seen.

Both these titles have had a touch time in recent sales audits. The publishers are investing in making them more appealing. We need to equally invest to drive impulse purchases.

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magazines

On Google selling more than newspapers and magazines

Charles warner has written an excellent piece for Forbes about Google. In Why Google Sells More Than Newspapers, Magazines, Warner simply explains why Google is winning the revenue race and speculates that print media will never win back its crown.

While print media companies want to retain newsagent attention, the indicators around us that encourage us to attract shoppers for non print media and other old-newsagent products grow in number.

More newsagents need to pay attention to this. While change is not occurring overnight it is occurring. We need to change as a result.

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Media disruption

Older shoppers like the immediacy of discount vouchers

voucher-shopperLast weekend a customers spent up big, really big, and received a $30.51 discount voucher. Her response: I like this, I could be dead tomorrow. That’s what she said. She added: I could be, I’m ninety next year. She was a hoot!

We talked a bit more. She was serious about the value to her of the voucher versus points. She said that when you get to her age your horizon is closer and you think about the short term more. The points don’t work she said because of the long time often involved.

I’m confident this customer will be back in the next week to spend the voucher. If she is true to her word she will be bringing a friend.

The experience had me reflecting on shopper engagement with the vouchers. There is no doubt that older customers particular like them. Maybe my 89 year old customer is not alone in focussing on the closer horizon.

I loved that she explained her fatigue with the points based loyalty programs. She’s the type of shopper I’m targeting with these vouchers.

Every day we see examples of the vouchers driving loyalty and helping us to continue to achieve valuable year on year growth.

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Newsagency management

Employee theft easier in stand-alone EFTPOS situation

I’ve seen evidence this week of employee fraud against a retailer where the EFTPOS terminal is not connected to the POS software used by the business. The employee recorded the sale in one was on the software and differently through the EFTPOS terminal. Poor back office management of the business meant that the behaviour went un-checked for some time.

I encourage newsagents using EFTPOS to only use it in an integrated way. You cut keystrokes, streamline sales processing and reduce the opportunity for employee fraud.

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Newsagency management

Hot Christmas chocolate gift

hotchocSome major retailers have boxed chocolates under popular game brands: Scrabble, Monopoly and Twister.  I have seen them in several stores this week –  on the shop floor in a high traffic location.

Maybe I missed the opportunity from one of our suppliers. I’d love to have had these available for Christmas – especially Scrabble given the other gifts I can get with this popular brand.

Brands sell – I’ll take branded product over cheaper imitations any time. They carry a better margin and are more trusted by consumers.

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confectionary

Woman’s Day gift tags popular

magswdxmasgiftThe free Christmas gift tags on the front cover of this week’s Woman’s Day are popular, driving a measurable boost in sales in a couple of newsagencies I have spoken with. This is an excellent issue to display at the counter and with the full cover shown.

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magazines

So headlines no longer sell newspapers?

herald-sun-coverupCovering-up the headline with a stuck on not ad for Kogan on the front page of the Herald Sun today shows that News Corp. does not think headlines sells newspapers. It’s this disrespectful treatment of editorial content that maybe causes some newsagents to not regard newspapers as they one might have. Covering an AFL store in Victoria? Nuts!

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newspaper masthead desecration
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