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

Month: August 2014

Coming of age at the Melbourne Gift Fair

giftsIn two days at the Reed Gift Fair and the Home & Giving Fair in Melbourne on the weekend and talking with many wholesalers, not once did someone say they do not supply newsagents, not once did someone criticise our channel. Indeed, man suppliers talked about enjoying dealing with newsagents because of the healthier traffic we have compared to many gift shops.

The reception this year for newsagents is the best I have ever experienced in many years coming to these fairs.

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Gifts

Showing to sell

donutvmI love this photo I took at the Home and Giving Fair at the show grounds in Melbourne yesterday as it is a reminder of the value of showing off a good product.

The donuts are soap. Left in the retail packaging they look good. Taken out and placed on a tray they look stunning. I’d expect a tray of donuts out on display like in the photo would sell far more product that boxes of the products on display.

Visual merchandising experience in the traditional newsagency has mainly been with magazine displays. What a modern newsagency sells today requires smarter and more creative engagement. Indeed, this is essential as we grow our gift, toy, plush, jewellery, fashion and other higher margin category sales.

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visual merchandising

Learning from the Total Girl TV ad

I caught an ad on TV last night for Total Girl magazine and learnt a bit about the title that can help with merchandising decisions.

Newsagents are assaulted every day with e-mail, mail, calls, faxes and reps all wanting attention for they products. I’m sure I’ve read a flyer about Total Girl magazine. This ad last night, seeing it unexpectedly and when nothing else way vying for my attention, it got through. It made me think about the challenge for our attention.

That Total Girl is being promoted on TV is enough of a reason to get it in the spotlight, to leverage the TV exposure.

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magazines

Reaching out beyond the magazine fixture

magreachoutWe have clipped several of these fixtures on magazine shelves to call out titles we want to feature. This week we have chased New Idea Jumbo Puzzler for special treatment. the simple acrylic gives is an additional spot, holding plenty of stock and easily noticed by shoppers.

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magazines

If you work for Bauer Media or Network Services…

Many newsagents have reported that they have not received electronic invoices from Network Services for magazines due to arrive tomorrow. The files should have been received by now. No one at Network Services is responding.

Given the IT meltdown that occurred at Network this week, the company should have taken extra care with files to be sent Friday plus they should have had help desk staff working Saturday.

Unless there is something I and many newsagents are missing this looks like appalling customer service by Network. Publishers with titles coming out Monday will suffer.

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magazine distribution

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: create your own season

marshmallowseasonI had never heard of Marshmallow & Coconut Season and I can’t find anything about it online – except for the season declared (and owned) by Haigh’s Chocolates in a brilliant marketing move.

They promote it in-store with A3 posters.

You can declare your own season around which you can create your own events relevant to what you sell – through which you can engage with your community.

Just as Haigh’s have done brilliantly for their deliciously tasty (yes I tried it) Rocky Road, you can give a product or a range of products a push with marketing you create specifically for the purpose.

While there are plenty of seasons around which we already drive terrific results and other smaller seasons around which we could achieve more, there are one-off seasons we can make up for our own businesses, seasons we can own and through which we can build our business profile and sales.

I love what Haigh’s have dome with Marshmallow & Coconut Season not only because it promotes a terrific product but because it gives the product time in the spotlight and in front of people who might otherwise have missed it.

Now before you say you don;t have the month to do this. If you can print A3 posters you can do this. Have a crack and HAVE SOME FUN!

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marketing

Sunday newsagency management tip: keep your display stands full

emptystandA stand with empty pockets or hooks where products were located can be off-putting to shoppers.

Messages they could take away from seeing this is: oh the best items have been sold or the business can’t afford to top up their stock or that’s a messy & incomplete stand.

My experience is a full stand works better than a half empty stand. This is why it is good practical to keep a stand of good-selling items at ear full capacity.

A full stand also presents a more positive vie wot the business.

While I understand the challenges of managing cash and that it can be necessary to not always order when we want, it is important to prioritise the buying that will give you the best return. This is where knowing your business performance data comes in.

I took this photo in a newsagency where they had delayed ordering replenishment stock for items that had sold out in a few weeks because they had spent money on new speculative items. Replenishing the items on this stand would have provided a more certain return on their investment.

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Management tip

And so it begins

giftfairAcross multiple venues and under various names what we all call Melbourne Gift Fair starts today. I’m spending today at the convention centre at the Reed Fair. Tomorrow I’ll be at Home & Giving. Monday will be back at Reed getting back for more time at places of particular interest and Tuesday I’ll be back at Home & Giving spending more time on the stand my software company has.

Every year at least five years now the number of newsagents attending has increased. I expect the trend will continue this year. The best advice I can give a first time attendee is: You are not your customer.

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Gifts

A book exchange in the hotel foyer

hotel1Another different feature in a hotel I saw last week was a free book exchange, a service whereby you can borrow a book or leave a book behind and take another.

For regular travellers this is a very cool service and not something I;d expect to see in a hotel where you are usually charged for every extra they can get you for.

Seeing the free book exchange changed by view of this hotel – The Diplomat in Canberra. It left me thinking about free services we could provide to get customers thinking of us differently – beyond the obvious idea of a free book exchange.

How we see our businesses and therefore his our customers see our businesses has to change otherwise we are not seen as moving with the times.

We are being confronted with more and more niche businesses chipping away at our core and unless we chip away at ourselves our relevance will fade to nothing.

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Newsagency management

Another different hotel foyer

hotel2Further to my previous post, here is another very different hotel foyer I have seen in the last couple of weeks. This foyer, too, looks like you’re in someone’s home. It looks like a warm and lived-in space – very different to the usual hotel foyer.

Hotels have been the same for decades. The two examples I have written about today offer a fresh approach, one we can learn from as we think about how our businesses look.

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Newsagency management

A different looking hotel foyer

hotel3For inspiration on how to approach business differently, here is the foyer of a hotel in Brisbane. It looks like someone’s lounge room – welcoming, warm and lived in.

It looks different to the usual sterile and cavernous hotel foyer.

I have stayed at this hotel plenty of times and this is a very different look for them. They say its a response to changes in guest habits. It makes me wonder about how much we are changing the look and feel our businesses to keep up with trends – beyond product changes.

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Newsagency management

Promoting magazines and newspapers

nexusmagspromoHere’s how we are promoting the Pacific Magazines Win a $5,000 Shopping Spree with newspapers in another newsagency this week. The two stands are on our dance floor in front of the counter – further forward than newspapers are usually.

From replenishment we know for sure that the magazine floor display unit is working. I am sure some purchases of magazines are on impulse by people coming in for a newspaper.

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magazines

Another good crisis related magazine cover

magstimeI love the cover of the current issue of Time magazine and the topic: COLD WAR II. It’s another good crisis related magazine cover. Unfortunately, the sales won’t be what they would have been twenty years ago when Time content was, well, more timely. Most interested in this topic will have read this or similar content online.

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magazines

Network Services update

All should be okay for newsagents accessing netonline today as per this update from the company this morning:

All systems are now pretty much back on track. The delivery files due this morning for Monday’s onsale will be going out through the normal gateway channel in the next hour or so. Yesterday there were also a few customers who had still not downloaded their early file for yesterday’s onsale, but these have now also gone out.

Any returns files submitted via XIT should now also have come through to us – there may be some processing backlog on these, there will be a confirmation email sent once these are processed.

Our Netonline website is also back online.

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magazine distribution

Does your poo stink?

pooSometimes a direct approach works best. That’s what we are trying our front of store display of Poo Pourri.

The headline, Does Your Poo Stink? shocked when I first saw it. Now I realise our team member who created it did so for attention-grabbing value.

The goal of the headline is to get people to see the video – the video I posted yesterday which pitches the product in a humorous way.

I also like the display and the headline as it has us playing outside what shoppers would consider is traditional for a newsagency.

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Newsagency management

Don’t use Facebook as a megaphone

When using Facebook for your business, use it with care and in a way that respects the kind of conversations you have with customers in your shop and across the counter. Be relaxed, have fun and engage with your customers without trying too hard to sell to them.

If you want to bring products to the attention of customers to get them to purchase, don’t say now in stock or come here and buy this, engage with them creatively and in a way that seeks their opinion.

If you have an item offered in multiple colours – ask which they like. If you offer a product that has to be assembled, make a video and show you doing it. If you see a story in the paper that collects with a local issue, write about it.

On Facebook and Twitter talk with your customers as if they are in front of you. This will build your followers and enhance trust in you.

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marketing tip

Using receipts to promote shopper competition

nxNewsagents promoting the Pacific Magazines Win a $5,000 Shopping Spree competition should include this coupon on their receipts. It’s an excellent use of receipt real-estate and will help drive competition entries and thereby build the marketing database for your newsagency. This coupon was created for retailers using the Tower newsagency software. A similar thing should work on any software.

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magazines

Here’s why you should promote the True Blue calendar

caltrueblueThe True Blue calendar from Browntrout is timely given the launch last month of Hey True Blue, the autobiography of John Williamson, the composer of the famous Australian song of the same name. While the calendar is not connected with Williamson, the publicity for the book is reason enough to get out and promote this calendar.

We are chasing double-digit calendar growth this season by being opportunistic around opportunities like this.

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Calendars

Squeezing in TV Week Soap Extra

agstvsoapextraI had a customer yesterday specifically looking for TV Week Soap Extra yesterday. Talking with her I discovered she is not a regular buyer of soap program magazines and wanted to try this new title because she loves her soaps. We made space for the new title in the shelves by overlapping others – such is the challenge of being sent new product when you have a fixed amount of space.

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magazines

Stunning cover for The Economist

agseconomistI love the cover on the latest issue of The Economist as it captures the terror many think is at the heart of the tragedy of Malaysian Airlines flight 17. I find the representation of Vladimir Putin to be hauntingly stunning. We have the full cover of the magazine on who to make the most of the cover artwork.

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magazines
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