Out of store marketing is best focussed on what your you are not known for as this marketing is likely to attract people who would not usually shop with you. Differentiate your business from expectations rooted in history through change-driving buying and leverage those products in new traffic targeting marketing.
Through my work with newsXpress I am engaged actively in using social media platforms to attract new shoppers to newsagencies.
newsXpress trains its members on how to use Facebook and other social media to attract new customers. As a gift, this training is being made available to all newsagents in a FREE live workshop.
BOOK NOW. Here are the dates:
This will be a practical session with live engagement with business Facebook pages so you can see first hand how good posts can work for you.
Lottoland has written about another winner, a $300K prize for an Australian player. It is interesting to see the space they take explaining the games and their offer. The apparent confusion is something newsagents could leverage.
Reminder: My Advice on how newsagents can compete with Lottoland.
The newsagency counter is the best location in the business for easy to read calendars. The calendars are purchased on impulse without hesitation – usually two and more at a time. Check where you have yours placed. If not at the counter, I suggest placement there. Another location where they work is with newspapers so consider that as a second location. And, yes, these calendars have been selling for weeks now.
Given the cover of the latest issue of Smith Journal you may want to place it with your stamp magazines and / or with newspapers.
The cover is vital to impulse purchases of this title and this cover has a special interest appeal that we should be able to leverage in our businesses – if you place it thoughtfully.
The traditional card department in Australian newsagencies has not significantly changed in decades. A good looking card department may not be enough in this new marketplace with more competitions than we have ever had before.
Too often card departments are located too far into the business to be seen from outside.
In a new David Jones store in Wellington yesterday I saw the card department located adjacent to menswear. This is an odd placement since many would say men are far less likely to purchase cards than women. However, David Jones shop layouts are carefully considered and placements deliberate.
I think they have done this in part because of the challenges of their space and because they think it will work adjacent to menswear.
Maybe it is time you placed cards in a different location in your business. If you are open to this, think about what is right for you. You are more likely to have the right answer than your card company as you are the retailer and they are not.
In addition to department location and layout, think about what you pick to shoppers as they leave. Coles has recently started rolling out this placement near the store exit. My understanding is this is a Coles driven initiative.
I have covered this in my newsagency management workshops and at this blog.
Walk from your counter to outside the business and actively notice what you pitch to shoppers as they leave.
In one of my stores I have replaced a hole magazine unit with freestanding fixtures, including three card spinners. The spinners and other units in the photo run next to a magazine unit on the right, just out of shot.
The objective of the placement of the three card spinners is to offer magazine and other shoppers in the two aisles a secondary card range pitch to drive impulse purchases. The three spinners offer plenty of range, accessible from both sides. We selected these spinners as the cards they offer lend themselves to impulse purchases. Plus, the three spinners together tell a card range story – far better than a single spinner would do.
This location of cards with magazines is one of four card locations in the business.
I think newsagents can no longer run a single card department with cards in one location.
We need to change our approach to cards if we want to increase the performance of cards in our businesses.
Here are the two tweets from a newspaper or magazine publisher supporting newsagents in the last week:
Check out the lottery counter of a lottery outlet I saw in Auckland yesterday. This is a shocker of a business:
Now, check out the counter I saw in a Whitcoulls in Wellington.
I have seen this more professional and corporate look in many retailers here, but not independent superettes.
The Whitcoulls fit is space efficient and should cost less than what Tatts is asking retailers to install.
What is surprising is the difference between retailers here. It is greater than I see in Australia when it comes to lottery product branding.
I am glad I don’t sell lottery products as the cost of the refit required is a heavy cost on an agency line where the supplier is pushing hard to get the consumer to make the purchase online.
Check out the magazine space allocation in a Whitcoulls store in Wellington that I visited yesterday. This display supports 350 titles. I saw a similar space allocation in two other Whitcoulls stores yesterday.
I mention this today as there is a live question for our channel – How many magazine titles do we need to stock in 2017. I mention 2017 as there is no point looking beyond 2017 in my opinion.
If Whitcoulls has decided 350 is reasonable, should we? I feel 350 is too low a number and that the better number is between 500 and 700 titles – if you want any recognition as being a magazine specialist.
While there are differences in magazine retail in New Zealand, Whitcoulls is not that different to a large Australian newsagency.
I have been contacted by a journalist in the UK who is doing a story on tobacco and as part of the story they were keen to hear from retailers about any impact on sales of the change in tobacco pack size. Comments here welcome.
I was surprised to see this stand in a Woolworths close to a newsagency promoting the same Hasbro games offer with the Herald Sun. The newsagency had posters and no stand. The stand is the better deal in my view.
I wonder if News put money on the table for Woolworths to run with the stand. Newsagents received no payment for posters, floor stickers and other material they were asked to put up for the promotion.
Every time newsagents see what appears to be favouritism of a supermarket chain it encourages newsagents to retreat further from the traditional supplier.
Bauer yesterday launched a three month long promotion exclusively in Woolworths supermarkets across Australia. The stand in the photo is the in-store offer:
BUY ONE GET ONE ½ PRICE.
The Bauer titles involved are: Woman’s Day, NW, Take 5, OK!, Yours, Australian House and Garden, Australian Women’s Weekly, Cosmopolitan and Homes+.
A supermarket person I spoke with yesterday said they expect Bauer would be paying Woolworths for the space for the floor unit in each store for the three months and compensating for the cover price discount.
I get that publishers need to pitch different offers in different channels from time to time. Most of these promotions run for a week, two weeks or maybe the on-sale period of a monthly.
This three month long campaign by Bauer and Woolworths is too long. It has serious potential to divert purchases from local newsagencies to Woolworths. Is this what Bauer wants? Their actions suggest it is.
The newsagency channel people at Bauer, people who probably had nothing to do with the Woolworths decision, would remind us of the money the company spends on our channel – merchandisers, the Connections program, a business building program and reader rewards. None of these investments has tangible value for newsagents in my opinion. I would rather the company make a more direct and practical investment in our channel.
Newsagents account for 50% of magazine sales. This makes us the largest single channel of magazine sales in the country. The investment in our channel should reflect this and it should consist of offers and marketing that shows us as the dominant magazine channel.
The thirteen month long promotion in Woolworths is a mistake by Bauer in my opinion, inexcusable. It is an attack on small business retailers, the very retailers Bauer executives claim are important to the company.
I was at the Bauer Connections conference in Brisbane a few months ago and listened to the usual round of praise for newsagents and statements of how important the channel is to Bauer. The thing is, these statements are hollow when confronted with the Woolworths promotion.
This three month long promotion by Bauer exclusively in Woolworths has come at a time when the company is flexing its muscles with some newsagents. They are demanding magazines be located in prime space and that Bauer titles be given 50% of space. This is truly ridiculous. If they push that with me I will quit their titles as Bauer titles taking 50% of magazines space and magazines being in prime location in-store would not pay for the retail space.
The issue of Bauer space demands and the Woolworths promotion are connected as they are all part of today’s magazine world. The publisher is doing what it thinks is best to address crashing circulation and in that mix of activities is forcing newsagents to commit to prime space allocation and paying Woolworths to discount titles so as to pull sales from nearby newsagencies.
Yes, this is the conflicting world in which we find ourselves.
What should Bauer do?
They should produce compelling magazines that are highly sought after for content. They should make magazines harder to get. This will see shoppers value them more. They should support newsagents as magazine specialists as I have outlined here before when I called for magazine publishers to ditch support for supermarkets.
Yes, I know, I am not a publisher, what would I know? I could be wrong on this but I think Bauer getting closer to Woolworths will not work for Bauer in terms of their newsagent relationships nor in terms of the long term Woolworths relationship. I see Australia’s two big supermarkets as greedy, selfish and not good for local communities. I’d not want to be part of helping them hurt communities. I see newsagency businesses as family run, and local, vital to local community health. I know which of the two is better for Australia and Australians in my view.
We further trimmed magazine space without cutting titles and introduced John Deere toys where we previously had magazines. The result is a terrific uplift on John Deere purchases and no impact on magazines.
We are perpetually changing product locations, space allocation and product adjacencies. Standing still is not option in any retail business today.
This move, taking out a whole fixture of magazines, was risky as we had to find a way to maintain magazine range without hurting sales. Thankfully, it has worked.
This video has been a factor in the extraordinary success of the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens for us. Social media content has to entertain and it has to be short.
Placement of Graduation gifts with newspapers works as it puts the gift purchase opportunity in front of those who might otherwise not have purchased for the season. We have found this tactical approach to work better for us than a pretty display on an aisle end.
One comeback Tatts retailers can have against Lottoland is that they don;t sell lottery tickets. One way Lottoland combats this is with stories about winners, like this online story from a few days ago:
The advice I published here two weeks ago on how to combat Lottoland remains the most comprehensive advice provided to Tatts outlets thus far.
Too often newsagents include a photo of a cover of a magazine say say something like out now or the new issue of xxx is out now. This is the type of post many retailers do.
To me, the best posts about magazines either focus on an image on a cover or some other aspect of an issue of a magazine that lets you personally endorse it.
Take the current issue of Yours. We do love Denise Drysdale – who does’t?
This posts is a perfect opportunity to give something of ourselves and pitch a magazine without being too loud from a sales perspective.
Here is an example of a food related post, a close up of the cover of Better Homes and Gardens.
What is interesting is the shares and where they took the post. Looking at comments with shares, most were about how delicious the Christmas pay looked.
These are two examples of Facebook posts newsagents can do with magazines that work and look different to what others do with magazines. I am sharing insights with newsagents on how to use social media at a social media masterclass workshop series over the next few weeks. This is a newsXpress run workshop and is based on newsXpress training. Access is free and any newsagent can attend.
I will add Perth as well. The sessions will be interactive with plenty of time for questions. Spaces are limited as we want to ensure everyone can engage.
Another newsagent was hit by a ransomware attack last week. They paid $5,000 to get access to their computers again. Had they and their staff followed my suggested computer use policy they would have avoided the attach.
IGA supermarkets say support local businesses. Then, they team up with News Corp to give away newspapers, undercutting local small business newsagents.
News Corp. says it supports and respects newsagents. Then, they team with IGA and other supermarket chains to educate people to stop buying newspapers at newsagents and, instead, but from supermarkets. Thanks News Corp.
Here is a one sent to some newsagents in Queensland about the latest campaign.
If their actions are true to form, associations representing newsagents will ignore this issue. Me? I care more about newsagents than offending News. This is an offensive campaign from News Corp. It demonstrates actions as not matching words. It is, in my opinion, socially irresponsible.
Mediaweek yesterday carried a link to a terrific report from Zenith forecasting that 75% of internet use in 2017 will be via mobile devices.
Mobile devices will account for 75% of global internet use next year, according to Zenith’s new Mobile Advertising Forecasts, published today. The mobile proportion of internet use has increased rapidly, from 40% in 2012 to 68% in 2016, and we forecast it to reach 79% by 2018.
If you have a website, it must be mobile friendly.
Your Facebook business page posts need to reflect that they will more likely be seen on mobile devices.
The growing level of internet access on mobile devices means we have to change how we communicate through our various online platforms.
I look at website platform access data for a range of websites and there is no doubt about the growth of mobile and the importance of being mobile friendly.
Being mobile friendly with newsagents starts with being able to be found by people using their mobile phones. Do a search for you business. If you cannot be found, fix that. How do you fix that? Talk to your =marketing group, ask them for their mobile marketing training.
A newsagent told me yesterday two customers had referenced the Lottoland ad to them at the counter in the last week. One made the fun of the ad while another said they tried Lottoland as a result and liked it. In each case, the customer initiated the discussion about Lottoland.
Until the comment at the counter, Lottoland was not on the radar of the newsagent. Now, they are concerned as it brought the competitor to their attention.
What is interesting is their view since this happened. The newsagent has realised the vulnerability for their lottery business from online and the lack of engagement by Tatts on the Lottoland competitive challenge. The lotto land comments across the counter were like a light being turned on in a dark room.
I would be interested to hear from others as to whether Lottoland is being mentioned in the newsagency.
I love the sign created by the manager of one of my stores seeking new staff. Like everything about the business, this does not read or feel like a traditional newsagency.
It is important we embrace every opportunity to pitch our businesses as our businesses and not what people think they might be. This applies as much to what we do in-store as it does to putting u0p signs of vacancies.
Doing this is even more true today in the continued running of the Lottoland TVC that denigrates newsagents and their businesses.
I have seen several situations recently of suppliers refusing to assist retailers in dealing with goods that have been found to be faulty after their purchase from the retailer.
The law is clear on this, the supplier is responsible. Each state refers to this under their consumer law. Click here to see the Victorian rules. Click here to see the South Australian rules. Click here to see the NSW rules. Other states are similar.
Suppliers / manufacturers have the ultimate obligation for the goods they supply to retailers to sell. If a retailer contacts them on behalf of a shopper, they have an obligation to address the issues. If they do not, the retailer and shopper have other courses they can follow, against the supplier.
I am not going to name suppliers here. They know who they are. Their recalcitrance is wasting retailer time and damaging their reputation with the affected shoppers.
It is one thing to market products and another entirely to inspire people so they love your products. This sign on a wall in a Moleskin outlet can be seen from outside the shop. I stopped when I saw it. I saw other people notice it, stop and smile. I say the sign is inspiring because of what we can learn from it.
Any of us selling items that rely on a love on handwriting would love this sign.
In a business meeting today I was told the health of a retail business can be determined by looking at their toilet. A clean toilet = a well run business, he said.
I think I agree with him.