Sunday newsagency challenge: reduce visual noise
Stand outside your newsagency and count how many different messages you are pitching from the shingle to posters to window displays to signs to what you can see from out there into the business.
Write each message on a list. How many messages do you have pitching to people outside your business?
If you have more than four messages, decide which of the messages can be cut.
People walking past your shop most likely do not stop and read all the messages. You have seconds to grab their attention. The more messages the less opportunity for them to notice anything.
This challenge is about you deciding what messages are most important today. Yes, today – because the messages you want to focus on in a week will be different.
My own experience is that less is more. A narrower focus can increase traffic and engagement because people notice a marketing pitch if it is delivered in a less crowded space.
Sunday newsagency marketing tip: 10 school holidays marketing ideas
Don’t be a victim of school holidays – you know, a retailer who does nothing special, a retailer who looks at the numbers and says it’s school holidays.
Be a retailer who says it’s school holidays, let’s lean in, let’s embrace the opportunity.
Here are seven marketing ideas to help school holidays be more valuable for your newsagency. They are the tip of ideas you could embrace.
- Place two or three dump bins with special offers at the front of the store containing products to appeal to the largest age group of school kids in your area.
- Reset your primary gift displays to focus on items likely to appeal to families shopping. Ideally, the display will be of new product regulars have not seen before.
- If you sell confectionery targeted at adults, consider a school holidays survivors discount.
- Publish a series of posts on your business Facebook page with ideas of what people can do locally during the school holidays.
- Do more product demonstrations in-store during the expected peak days, demonstrating thinks like a slinky, kinetic sand, goop balls, jigsaws and the like. Create some retail theatre.
- Maybe have t-shirts made for staff: Holiday Crew or something similar. This helps them look different to everyday and that is key to making the most of the holidays.
- Host an event appropriate to the season:
- A papier machier pumpkin mask competition for September holidays.
- A paper plane throwing competition for summer holidays.
- A Easter art competition for all ages for the Easter break.
- A winter bake off for Winter – maybe connected with the cookbooks you sell.
- Run a best joke of the holidays competition.
- Promote graduation gifts.
- If you run discount vouchers, change the name to something like: SCHOOL HOLIDAY BONUS or HOLIDAY SURVIAL $$$. Have fun with it.
- Find out what groups host school holiday events in your area and publish a list as a resource for parents.
These ideas are designed to help you create a business during any holidays period that is looked at differently to the rest of the year, to help you gain a reputation as the best school holidays place locally.
Sunday newsagency management tip: document supplier agreements
Each time you agree on a term or condition with a supplier, document this back to them in an email.
For example if a rep says if you take a spinner of product from them they will make sure no one else nearby stocks the spinner. Document this in an email to the rep and the company. In the email say you are doing this for confirmation of what has been agreed, the basis on which you are taking the spinner.
In another example a rep may make sales claims for an item, claims that resulted in you taking on the item. Document this.
This simple single communication step could avoid difficulties in the future if a term or condition that was a factor in your taking on a product is not met.
A clever way to deliver a warning message in retail
Read the sign on the camel about sitting on him. I love it. I found it in the massive Hamleys toy shop on Regent Street in London.
The sign is a lesson in how to deliver an important message with humour and in context for the type of business it is in. It is far better than a sign saying Do not sit on the camel.
Stunning retail theatre in London
A couple of days ago I got to visit and get a good look at Choccywoccydoodah, a chocolate shop selling chocolate cakes and confectionery.
Their displays are stunning and inspiring, showing the value of allowing good products to be the hero. The fittings and the shop itself are not relevant as the products are all you see.
When you first enter the shop you are hit with a sea of colour – so much so it is hard to notice individual product. Once you have been in the shop for a couple of minutes and have realised that everything on display is edible you realise you are in a special place, especially for chocolate lovers.
This is the sort of shop you talk about once you have returned from a trip. It is a one-off, a wonderful place you’d probably want to visit again.
Thinking about it over the last couple of days, while we do not sell these stunning chocolate cakes, the challenge for us has to he to create stunning retail experiences that set our shops apart from others selling what we sell. We can do this through our buying but more so through thoughtful displays that leverage colour to create a visually rich experience.
Twitter gives newsagents the best opportunity of talking with Rupert Murdoch
News Corp head Rupert Murdoch is active on Twitter, using the handle @rupertmurdoch. While he only rarely responds to Tweets to him, posting a Tweet referencing his handle gives one the feeling that he has at least read what you typed.
Following a series of tweets from him Thursday night, I sent this Tweet to @RupertMurdoch. While he didn’t respond I felt better that I’d at least made the suggestion. I sent it at a time he was on Twitter, increasing my chances he saw it.
I think if more newsagents engaged with him it would place Australian newsagents more present in his mind.
I like Twitter in that you have little room to make your point. This can be good in helping you focus your message down to your core goal.
Inspiring, innovative Visual Merchandising
The most innovative and inspiring visual merchandising I have seen over the last few days in the UK was in a pop-up gift shop on Carnaby Street. Nothing purpose made here. A trestle table and some bricks. The natural timber and brings provide a warmth base to the display and the shop overall. Click on the image for detail.
Diverse newspaper voices reach beyond major cities in the UK
I love the competition between newspaper proprietors in the UK, especially the ;level of competition I have seen outside the major cities.
In the village of Lifton in Devon (4 hours from London) Wednesday night, the photo shows how I found the newspaper stand in the one and only shop in town. This stand is in the entrance to the business. Thirteen daily newspapers. Those visiting the shop are point for choice.
Leaving aside the challenges for distributors and retailers for a moment, consumers who rely on print for news and opinion benefit from such a diverse mix of voices. This is something we lack in Australia.
Free water with the newspaper
It is in train stations in the UK where you see the free and discounted items with newspapers to drive newspaper sales. This photo shows the free water offer with The Daily Telegraph I saw at Waterloo station in a WH Smith outlet.
As with all the deals, they are set as self-service. I saw no evidence of upsetting at the counter to drive engagement.
Curiously, in no outlet did I see subscriptions being promoted.
Another poster for promoting adult colouring partwork
Here is art for another poster newsagents can use to promote the adult colouring partwork that launches Monday. I have the poster courtesy of Gordon and Gotch.
I suggest newsagents remove the website address at the bottom as anyone going there is encouraged to bypass newsagents and subscribe.
Right click on the image to download a copy to your computer for your own use.
Knowing your adult colouring customer
This poster is next to the door to the ladies toilet at Exeter railway station in the UK. Besides the purposeful placement, that they are advertising this adult colouring title speaks to a crowder adult colouring space.
The advertising poster is a further reminder to be careful on your stock holding of adult colouring titles in your newsagency.
Magazines and newspapers in Starbucks
This photo shows the range of magazines and newspapers for sale this morning in a Starbucks in Exeter in the UK – the biggest magazine and paper display I’ve seen in a Starbucks. There are two newsagents within easy walking distance as well as supermarkets.
The only way to preserve a specialist retail channels is for all (including suppliers) who want this to respect specialisation.
Ryman Stationery is a stationery model newsagents ought to emulate
Every Ryman Stationery store I visit in the UK is inspiring. They offer a good range of stationery at competitive prices. Brands are blocked together. The layout is consistent across the network. I especially like how they manage floorspace in small format stores.
One store I visited yesterday was no more than 70 square metres yet they offered an excellent range laid out in a shopper friendly way with enticing impulse purchase opportunities along the way.
Any newsagent visiting to the UK should include visits to Ryman outlets on their agenda. There is much to learn. They make shopping for stationery desirable.
Reminder of the stamp up-sell with the greeting card purchase
This simple sign I saw in in the card department of a bookshop in London yesterday is something we could use in our newsagencies.
It looks professional, part of the fixture and delivers such a simple statement.
This pitch is perfect in location and execution.
A message like this could also drive card sales as it makes using a card easier. Imagine if you see a card you like and want to send it right away before you forget but you do not have a stamp. The sign eliminates that barrier.
Small moves like these can drive good outcomes for our businesses. They cost almost nothing to implement yet can drive valuable sales for us.
There is no one big move newsagents can make to drive better outcomes for their businesses. Success comes from many small steps, like this simple sign in the card department.
I think some in our channel obsess about big things, often things over which they have little control, and ignore small steps they can make in their businesses that will 9increase revenue and traffic.
Confusing newspaper marketing message in the UK
Check out the marketing pitch confronting shoppers at the newspaper stand in a WH Smith outlet I visited yesterday. Two newspaper publishers are pitching discounted books offered when you purchase their newspaper.
I say the offers are confusing because they get in the way of the newspaper shopper who has to consider the books and weigh up if they want them. Since publishers are using the books to drive newspaper sales one needs to consider each book as well as considering the respective newspaper titles.
I think they are also confusing as the offers are not in every location with the newspapers.
I prefer the days when publishers relied solely on their products to drive sales.
Resources to help you sell Art Therapy issue #1 launching next week
The Art Therapy partwork launches Monday next week. Courtesy of Gordon & Gotch, here is a poster you can print for customers to colour in.
You could also use this poster in online marketing to leverage the most from this launch.
My suggestion is you start your marketing for this immediately, ahead of the launch of the title as none of your competitors are likely to do this.
Laughter is an instant vacation
Laughter is an instant vacation.
Milton Berle, 1977.
I was reminded of this a couple of times today. First up I noticed the quote on a sign in a coffee shop devoid of laughter and devoid of good coffee for that matter. What is the point of a sign pitching a message of inspiration in your business when you ignore it?
Later in the morning I visited Hamleys, the biggest and best known toy store in London, to see their merchandising of ranges I am connected with back in Australia.
On every floor at Hamleys I heard laughter from kids and adults as they interacted with demonstrations of products ranging from magic tricks to drones to art kits. The demonstrators, and I lost count at fifteen throughout the store, were engaging and funny.
Visiting Hamleys was a tonic. I found myself smiling plenty as I walked the various floors. I had a good laugh when one demonstrator had some fun with a drone at my expense.
The whole experience was a reminder of the importance of laughter in retail.
I imagine there are people who work nearby who visit Hamleys for a reset during a particularly tough day. Leaving the store today I wanted to suggest to the folks at the coffee shop they visit.
A WH Smith exclusive
I noticed this Pictorial History of World War 11 is exclusive to WH Smith – there is a sticker in the top right corner. With over 1,000 retail outlets, WH Smith can make a compelling pitch to publishers not only in terms of retail critical mass but also in terms of discipline across their retail network.
New Build A Precision Mechanical Solar System partwork on the way
I saw this in a WH Smith in London today, the launch issue (a re-launch actually as this has been out before I’m told) of Build A Precision Mechanical Solar System, a new partwork. The first issue here is 99p – A$2.18 on the current exchange rate. I expect we will see it in Australia sometime. It would sell well. Merchandising issue 1 would be easy as it is less bulky that other partworks.
Adult colouring titles growing in the UK
I am in London at the moment and an seeing even more adult colouring magazines and books than when I was in the UK a month ago.
This photo shows the range I saw near the counter of a WH Smith store on Oxford Street today. Deeper into the business they had a large range of adult colouring magazines in their magazine department. Even more interesting, none of the high street newsagents I visited today has adult colouring magazines.
What is interesting is that I noticed few bookshops and card shops with adult colouring titles than a few weeks ago. However, it is hard to tell if this is a trend because a few weeks ago I did not get to London.
My advice to newsagents is to be thoughtful when ordering. Adult colouring will peak. You do not want to be loaded with stock when that happens.
