We are supporting the News Corp. newspaper sales promotion of board games with this display with newspapers. It is a bold display well placed to pitch to the right shoppers. Yesterday saw terrific engagement.
In addition to this promotional space with papers we have a ton of games product to manage and fund – the timing of supply is another cost burden on newsagents for such a slim margin promotion.
Most independently owned retail businesses do not have a marketing budget, an amount they spend promoting the business outside the business. My rule of thumb marketing budget advice for a retail business like a newsagency is at least 2% of revenue where revenue is product sales revenue plus commission from all agency lines.
A newsagency with, say, revenue of $500,000, the suggested marketing budget would be $10,000 spent over the year on out of business advertising and marketing. This amount should not include banner group fees or association fees. It would include print ads, flyers, local radio, local TV, facebook and other special media ads.
Setting a budget is important as it guides your weekly activity. The $10,000 plays out at $192.30 a week. There is plenty you can do with that. The key is to measure success from each spend, to ensure the business is benefiting.
Using a close-up photo of part of a magazine cover can get you a significantly better result from a Facebook than using the whole post. Take the current issue of Better Homes and Gardens. While it looks terrific, a close up of the pav was the hero so that is what I used for a post yesterday. And it worked a treat. Hundreds of shares in a few hours – extending the reach of the post beyond the like base of business I was promoting.
Here is my marketing tip: If promoting a magazine, look for the image that differentiates your pitch from what others will do to promote the same title. If you pitch the whole cover you are not offering a differentiation for your business.
One reason suppliers maintain reps on the road is the results they can achieve by being in front of retailers. Some people find it harder to say no to someone in person than by email or on the phone. Too often I see retail businesses, not just newsagencies, overloaded with stock that does not deliver the return necessary.
If a rep claims a product is working particularly well, ask for proof. It is your money. Satisfy yourself the claims are true and that you can expect such results for yourself.
It is okay to say no, even to a rep who has become a friend.
I have reports from some newsagents that their local supermarket is selling games from the Hasbro collection ahead of the start date of the promotion in the area. Some others, where the promotion has already commenced, have reported supermarkets not asking for the coupon News Corp. require.
The purpose of this post is to give newsagents somewhere to comment about what they see in their area.
Smiggle stores have a terrific Advent calendar and there are two key points to make about this:
1 – wow! Brilliant idea and execution by Smiggle including the Golden Ticket promotion. The calendar is excellent value at $45 – I have seen all the products included. Parents will love that it is not chocolate.
2. Get Advent calendars out now. Majors have them out already.
Here is a look at the products in the Smiggle Advent calendar. They have one at the counter for people to see and they happily hold it for you to take a photo. Nice.
It is frustrating hearing from a retail only newsagent who is not supplied promotional material and giveaways. This happend recently when a capital city daily had a free for all who purchased the paper yet the distribution agent, who also has a retail outlet, refused to supply the freebie to their competitor retail only sub agent. They had plenty of stock. The only problem was their inability to fulfil their obligation as a distribution agent. This is the attitude of a business person scared for their future.
As part of the Pacific Magazines nexus marketing program we are actively leveraging the free backing tray with the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens. This is a terrific gift with purchase with which to leverage traffic as if differentiates us from others with the magazine.
Officeworks outlets across Australia have boxed Christmas cards, Christmas gift bags, gift tags and more out on display in-store with this ready-to-display unit. The unit is delivered to them loaded with stock, retail ready.
On the unit there are two major colour themes. Here is the second:
The products have a low cost feel yet the prices are not all that low. To me, this is typical Officeworks – source from China and price with a generous margin yet still pitch to connect with their we’ll never be beaten on price pitch.
I think Newsagents need to respond to what Officeworks is doing. We need to not cede ground to them. we do this by being engaged, now. Even if you don’t have an Officeworks located nearby you should be engaged. Here is the advice I provided newsXpress members when I first saw the Officeworks boxed Christmas card pitch:
The best way to respond to what Officeworks is doing is to engage with boxed cards as if you are serious about them.
Shari recently commented on my post: Toy insights help newsagents grow sales, sharing insights so valuable that I wanted to post them here to ensure a wider audience. In Shari’s own words:
I’m an occasional reader here; I discovered this blog while looking for some info on Frankie magazine several months back and ended up becoming fascinated by the insight into news agencies. (As an American living in Australia, it took me awhile to realise that my local newsagents weren’t the Oz equivalents of overpriced/dodgy convenience stores.)
Today I was catching up on posts and this one struck close to home. My husband and I are modern board gamers. If you’re familiar with board gaming, you might know that we’re in what everyone is calling a golden age for the hobby. With every passing day it seems that more and more people are finding out that not only has the world moved on from Monopoly/Cluedo/Life/etc., but board games aren’t just for kids. Many of today’s board games are suitable for couples, families (with willing participants at all ages), co-workers, and so on – even solo players. (Much of this might be laid at the feet of Wil Wheaton’s excellent Tabletop series on YouTube.)
In recent months the amazing growth of the hobby and its penetration into the mainstream has been exemplified by US retailer Target’s changes to their toy section. Not long ago, Target’s board game selection was about the same as what the Target stores here in Australia carry: the usual classics, a lot of kiddie games, a few party games, and a bunch of flash-in-the-pan games based on current TV shows and movies. But now, not only does Target in the US carry modern “gateway” games (Pandemic, Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne…) and a few ‘heavier” games, but they’ve licensed exclusive editions of the most popular games. Meanwhile, uber-bookstore chain Barnes & Noble’s game section has, in many stores, started to rival a dedicated game store.
Why am I mentioning this? Well, Australia’s mass-market retailers still have cruddy game selections. Not every town has a game shop, and many game stores either don’t appeal to the general public (the nerd factor) or else people don’t wander into a game store in the first place because they have no idea that board games have changed so much. (I hear “I never knew board games had become so cool!” over and over when teaching games.)
As a fan of the blog, I wanted to pass on this info. Some news agents might do well to investigate the modern board gaming phenomenon for themselves and consider stocking and showcasing a few gateway games. After introducing a modern board game to someone, I usually have to direct them to an online retailer for their own copy, which is a shame when they’re excited and want their own copy or something similar ASAP.
Anyway, just passing on thoughts. There’s a hole right now in the marketplace where “regular” people in Australia aren’t discovering modern games naturally nor finding anything other than the same-old at Toy World, Target, Big W, etc. when they try to seek something out. (Meanwhile, chains like Games World can be overwhelming and seem like a sea of serious fare.) An attractive display with a few titles, some signage about date night or family game night or office lunchroom, and who knows? Obviously this gap isn’t going to last, but there’s definitely an opportunity to differentiate.
Thanks for the enjoyable and informative posts. I always buy my Frankies from a news agency now!
I love this cover of Frankie:
Online retail giant Amazon is reportedly to introduce convenience stores in the US. Milk and groceries. Disruptive.
This Tweet from Tim Burrowes demonstrates ridiculous action by Fairfax in my view – to read the rest of the column you have to go online where you have to pay to get to the column after paying a hefty cover price for the ever thin Australian Financial Review.
News Corp. in Queensland has released details of a Hasbro games offer with the purchase of News Corp. products. This is timely promotion given the terrific growth in game sales in Australia this year. Engaged newsagents will promote other games at the same time as this promotion to make the most of the opportunity.
Newsagents used to be the biggest retailer of diaries in Australia. That has not been the case for some years.
You only have to go into an Officeworks to see an extraordinary pitch for diaries. Calendar Club, too, are in this space. Plus we have Typo, Kikki.k, discount variety stores, K-Mart, Target and supermarkets. Then there is online – from websites in Australia and overseas.
Looking online, I found diaries for a raft of special interest niches available at less than Australian recommended retail and with free delivery from overseas websites.
It is a tough challenge for newsagents to win back the diary business. But we have to try. The channel has to try. The alternative we we mark this down as another loss for us. We should not stand for that.
Here are some management and marketing tips for newsagents to win back diary business:
My hope is these ideas get you thinking of ideas for yourself.
Diary sales growth is here for the taking for small business newsagents. If you do what you usually do your results will be in line with your past trajectory. If you are happy with this, don’t change. If you want to do better then you need to do better.
Good luck and let’s all work to win more diary revenue for newsagents this season.
While I have no time for the Jenner / Kardashian games and self promotion. this cover of Vogue magazine is stunning.
With Tatts not doing anything to counter the false and misleading portrayal of newsagents by Lottoland in their TV commercials, it falls to newsagents to act.
Newsagents selling lottery products need to actively engage and pitch that they are not the grumpy old white guy they see in the TVC. They need to embrace every opportunity to promote local personal service. They need to find ways to add value.
Lottoland and Tatts want lottery customers to migrate from in0-store purchases to online. Lottoland is a pure online play. I say Tatts wants people to migrate because of the extent of their investment in online and because of their failure to confront the Lottoland attack on the Tatts retail network.
While I no longer sell lotteries, I sold my newsagency with Tatts in 2011, I have some ideas on how newsagents can counter the Lottoland pitch. I have developed this list specifically to address the representation of newsagents by Lottoland:
All newsagents selling lottery products need to urgently ensure their businesses look nothing like the Lottoland depiction. You have to distance yourselves from the Lottoland depiction.
This work is urgent. No one will do it for you. Tatts appears asleep at the wheel on Lottoland. Or, as I suspect, they like the idea of educating people to move online.
Take a careful look at our business today in the contact of the list I have published here. Then, act!
Hopefully, more ideas will flow from this post in comments from others.
Here is our Halloween story as at October 8, 2016.
I took a look at Halloween at a couple of Coles stores yesterday, to understand their focus this year. Here is the main display:
Plenty of stock. I like the mix of products, the adjacencies especially. See:
Their prices aren’t good though:
What I like about the Coles pitch is that it is bold. Their commitment is helping to educate shoppers about Halloween and that helps us. The key for newsagents is to differentiate.
Yes, I have written about this before. It is important and needs repeating. If you decide to quit stock, quit it fast. I suggest seven days, no longer. Dead stock is a stink in the business. It does not serve the future of the business. Quit fast. Find the price that works so this happens.
I have participated in marketing events in several newsagencies this year where feature products have not, until the event, been available in the business. A purpose of the event was to test if there was sufficient. In each instance, there was. In fact, in some cases, several thousand dollars in revenue for the new products on the day of the event.
Hosting an event for products you don’t usually sell is another way to extend the reach of your business, to attract shoppers who do not usually shop with you. It can be a valuable marketing activity.
I also love this idea for the excitement it provides when the retailer sees products they don’t usually stock selling in their business.
This is a great way to build optimism.
I was in a newsagency recently where they labelled newspapers for customer pick-up. It was a thrill to see this part of the newsagency software being used. It is professional, enables tracking of collection and provides confidence in your business.
This is my tip today: if you hand write customer names on newspapers, stop and use your software for a more professional approach.
I love the cover of the current issue of Donna Hay magazine. Kudos to all involved.
The sticker offering 30% off the cover price of The Weekly Times if you subscribe has no place in a retail-only newsagency if the business plans to sell newspapers in the shop into the future. I don’t like to see these offers in any retail-only newsagency.
