News Corp. DVD promotion popular
News Corp’s DVD promotion is proving to be popular, driving terrific sales. The only downside is the inconsistency between retail channels and between newsagents in applying rules regarding purchase of the DVD.
A telling experience with job seekers
My newsagency software company advertised two new roles created in the business. The first role, the one seeking broader and more commonly available experience, was filled within 48 hours and the ad pulled to stop more applicants. Sixty applicants in less than 24 hours was more than was needed.
After talking to several candidates, I realise unemployment is worse than I had thought, especially among those with general or widely accessible skills.
The experience is guiding several changes for my retail businesses that I will write about soon, changes that reflect the economic situation, opportunities it presents and care the situation demands.
The experience also reminded me that for certain roles there are may good candidates. If you have employees engaged on a casual basis you have greater flexibility in being able to ensure you always have the right people on your team.
What is the APN / News Corp. tie-up and why is this not news?
The APN owned Daily Mercury newspaper is promoting Daily Mercury Unlimited, a digital subscription package for the Daily Mercury stories that also provides access to the News Corp. owned Courier Mail as well as Fox Sports.
I wonder if this deal has been facilitated by Michael Miller, former CEO of APN, returning to News Corp. as Executive Chairman. The link itself feels like it ought to be big news as it appears to strengthen the concentration of influence of the News Corp. organisation.
Here is the announcement as it appeared in the Daily Mercury:
How does the ACCC look at such a move? Is there a commercial relationship between APN and News Corp. that the ACCC ought to consider? I am surprised at the lack of coverage about this – or have I missed it?
Check out this follow up ‘story’ in the Daily Mercury making access to News Corp. content clear.
Newsagents selling the Daily Mercury are left wondering about the move. Should they be concerned for the future of the masthead or is the Courier Mail tie-in icing on the cake with their local masthead the main focus? Regardless, it feels like there ought to be reporting on this move by media analysts and reporters so we can be fully informed. All we have to go off at the moment is the APN spin.
One newsagent drawing my attention to this issue commented: The demise of the local paper just accelerated.
What do others think? Am I wrong to be concerned or to question this?
Make the most of the Total Girl opportunity
The free Beanie Boo bagged with the latest Total Girl magazine from Pacific Magazines is a newsagent-only promotion. I urge all newsagents to ensure they have not inadvertently early returned this item as doing so would be a dumb move.
Promote it on Facebook with a boosted post to your local area and you will be sure to attract shoppers who might otherwise not purchase or purchase in a non newsagency location. This type of Facebook promotion is easy to do.
I have a promotion running on Facebook and it will generate new traffic for the newsagency.
This gift is perfectly targeted for the title. Making it a sell out is up to us.
I sell well over $50,000 worth of Beanie Boos a year from one newsagency so I have a ready market for a promotion like this. More than half following the business Facebook page are beanie Boos lovers or collectors.
Ideas for freeing time in your newsagency business
Time is money as they say. Saving time in the running of a newsagency usually saves money. Here are my suggestions on things you could stop doing or change how you do them in order to save time and money in your business.
- Stop labeling magazines. Only label low volume monthlies. All other labels are unnecessary, time consuming and damaging to the covers.
- Stop pricing stationery and other items displayed on traditional shelves. Use shelf labels. Save time and more easily adjust prices.
- Preference suppliers who provide electronic invoices. Manually entering an invoice takes time, generates mistakes and binds you to work bigger competitors do not undertake. Let your suppliers know you will preference electronic invoices. There are ways they can produce these in a cost effective manner for their businesses. Give them time to make the move. Explain it will help you better support their products.
- Feed your sales data to your computer system. Stop double entry, stock mistakes and reduce your accounting costs.
- Stop seeing reps who do not make an appointment.
- Connect your EFTPOS terminal to your POS software. Streamline the counter.
- Do your end of shift balancing using your software. Reduce mistakes. Stop doing manual paperwork.
- Stop writing up a sales ledger for each day. Yes, some newsagents still do this.
- Order using your computer system. Stop generating orders by walking the shop or going off gut feel. Your computer system will save you time and help you buy better.
- Do your roster using software. Build the roster to a target labour cost that reflects a lower cost of business.
- Use the federal government super portal. Less paperwork. Less payment processing time.
- Stop buying stationery at the warehouse. The time it takes is usually more expensive than you can justify based on what you make.
- When magazines are taken off the shelves, scan returns at the counter, remove covers and package ready for return. i.e. one step process.
- Do not store stock off site. You can lose it. It can get damaged. You spend time moving it around.
Simple signs help drive sales in the newsagency
If you want to quit stock I suggest you use simple clearly priced signs for your dump bins. Half price or 75% off may sound good to you but to some customers they don’t know what they mean. $1 is easy to understand. Everything on the display or in the bin is $1. I don’t have to think about it.
I have seen 75% off sales where everything is close to a dollar not work – until the 75% off sign is replaced with $1.
Simple signs in retail are vital to driving shopper engagement – especially in locations where you have plenty of foot traffic.
Sunday newsagency reflection: would you be missed?
If your newsagency closed, would it or you be missed?
One way to reflect on this is to consider what you could do to ensure it would be missed since doing those things could make it more useful to those you serve.
Sunday newsagency marketing tip: make the most of Halloween
Halloween is a fun season. It helps you reset the business into Christmas. It is an excellent opportunity to let your hear down in the shop and in the community.
No, this is not a pagan season, something to upset religious people. It is also not a season to scare shoppers away. Done well, Halloween is a season with which you can show your business as being a fun and safe place for all – yes, including the whole family.
Even if you do not have much stock – as it is too late to buy now – you can still embrace the season.
Here are some marketing tips with which to have fun on October 31.
- Have a fancy dress competition on the day.
- A colouring competition for kids with a prize for the best and a charity donation to encourage engagement.
- Print a recipe sheet and give this away.
- Give away a Halloween cookbook.
- Maybe even involve a retirement village and sponsor a ghost storytelling night in a local park.
These ideas are to get you thinking. Go on, have fun. Boo!
Sunday newsagency management tip: take your website seriously
If you have a website for your business: How often do you check what it is achieving? Do you check the business it generates? The traffic it attracts? Its ranking compared to similar sites? Keyword activity?
These and other KPIs need to be tracked regularly so you understand the usefulness of this resource. Having a website is a business activity. It needs to be managed as you would any other business activity.
There are tools you can use to track your site and steps you can take to improve the stickiness of your site. Not tracking and feeding your website is like sending a marketing flyer out and not worrying whether it has had the desired effect.
A business website needs to be fresh and relevant to the business and to the world in which it exists. As a rule of thumb, it ought to be replaced every 18 months or so. If your website is more than 18 months old it is probably not working for you.
I am writing about this today as some newsagents paid to have websites done that are ow out of date and generating no benefit for their businesses.
Disgraceful newspaper cover-up in today’s Courier Mail
Shame on those at News Corp. involved in the decision to place an ad promoting the Courier Mail over the top of the heart wrenching page-one story of the parents who gave up their one for adoption. What is more important – news or a newspaper promotion? Sure, it is a chicken or egg question. However, since News Corp. invests millions in preaching to Australians on a range of matters, telling us daily what to think, it is reasonable to expect their own behaviour to be better than this. Shame on those involved.
Licences set to drive adult colouring
The life of the peak of the adult colouring craze is being extended by the launch of premium licenced product such as the Harry Potter Colouring Book. This takes the art / craft craze to a new audience while enhancing the experience for the existing audience. While we already have some licenced adult colouring titles, such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Harry Potter is a mega brand, one that ought to appeal more widely.
Looking in detail at the Harry Potter book, it has been done with thought and care – online some of the more rushed adult colouring titles.
I am re-thinking the longevity of peak interest in adult colouring. This is interesting to watch, most exciting.
I heard about this latest book from the WH Smith blog (the source of the images) and from there tracked the supplier.
Inside Sport magazine supports newsagents
Newsagents are pitched as the go to retailers for the latest issue of Inside Sport magazine. It is a thrill to see our channel promoted.
Making the most from the Frankie brand
We are promoting three Frankie products together in-store, in our magazine department – the magazine, the 2016 calendar and the 2016 diary.
I love how the colours work together. I also love being able to bring three separate products together like this under one brand.
Footnote: note the pyramid look of the display … visual merchandising 101.
Growth in entertainment titles in the newsagency
The growth in populatiry of Marvel and other movie franchises is fuelling interest in related magazines. The best way for newsagents to leverage this is to have the magazines placed so full covers are on show. This way people can browse based on the cover story and not just the masthead.
Check your placement of entertainment titles – make sure you have them working for you.
How newsagency suppliers can encourage confidence in our channel
Newsagency suppliers can play a role in promoting the newsagency channel to others and encouraging optimism within the channel. The size and business volume achieved in newsagencies is one angle the creative team at my newsagency software company took when I challenged them to develop a video promoting the size and strength of newsagency businesses. Here is the result:
Newsagency marketing tips for leveraging adult colouring
With some newsagents feeling overwhelmed by the adult colouring products coming from magazine publishers, here are my tip tips for pushing the opportunity to squeeze every possible sale from your business before retreating:
- Always pitch other products next to adult colouring titles – to make the most of the interest. Pens, pencils, erasers, frames, sketch books etc.
- Setup a noticeboard for customers to show off their colouring.
- Talk about the therapeutic benefits on your social media pages – link to professional articles.
- Have a table or some space in store where customers can engage in colouring themselves or with you.
- Host a workshop on BEING CALM WITH ADULT COLOURING. Connect with a local therapist to run this.
- Train employees about the benefits of adult colouring titles as Christmas gifts.
- Package adult colouring books with a pack of pencils as a Christmas gift package.
- Offer a bulk buy discount to nursing homes, retirement villages, schools and for therapists to offer to patients.
Engage beyond being a retailer, engage as a specialist and show how buying from you is different to buying elsewhere.
While I could have published a longer list, this list reflects the ideas I have seen generate the best interest. Give them a go.
Promoting Better Homes and Gardens Christmas decorations
We are pitching the latest Better Homes and Gardens in four locations in this launch week to make the most of the opportunity: at the front of the business (see photo), next to newspapers, in the usual location for the title as well as next to weeklies.
While the wooden Christmas decorations bagged with the magazine are a key traffic driver, the adult colouring wrapping paper is also something to promote. Our plan is to do this on social media.
This issue of Better Homes and Gardens is one we can use to drive magazine specific traffic and impulse purchases. There are shoppers who look out for this issue specifically. Newsagents are better placed than any other retailer to tap into this opportunity.
Bauer Media flips the bird at ‘prudes’
Did the prudes shut down Zoo Weekly or did lack of interest kill the magazine? If you believe the cover, the prudes killed the title. Audit results tell a different story.
But hey, never let the facts get in the way of a good cover – and the cover of the last issue is a ripper.
We are making the most of it by lacing the full cover on show so everyone entering the magazine aisle can see it.
Pacific to launch three more adult colouring titles prior to Christmas
Mumbrella today reports Pacific Magazines is to release three new adult colouring titles prior to Christmas.
While smart newsagents prefer the book titles off of which they make double the margin, the magazine titles play a role in the adult colouring space of any store.
More information on News Corp. Townsville changes
Click here for a FAQ doc. from News. It answers some of the questions being raised following my earlier post. The image is from a letter sent with a contract termination letter.
The move by News Corp. in Townsville is real, it has a timeline and the first steps of implementation have been taken.
Newsagents talking magazine distribution with head of Gordon & Gotch
Newsagents at the newsXpress national conference in Sydney Monday got to spend an hour in a Q&A session with David Hogan, head of Gordon & Gotch.
The planned thirty minute Q&A extended to an hour as David and newsagents talked through allocation processes, partworks, Gotch profitability, US title pricing, the damage of ignorant early returns and other topics.
Nothing was off limits and all questions were answered.
On early returns, one example was given where hundreds of newsagents did themselves out of guaranteed revenue because of early returns.
The conversation was interesting as it provided context to challenges around circulation such as with the partworks model where Gotch is as much a victim as newsagents when faced with a runaway success such as Art Therapy. I know many newsagents in the room were surprised by the lead time.
It was good to have a magazine discussion based on facts. For example, one newsagent wanted to know how to stop a magazine for more than a few months. David shared the answer. The newsagent wanted a guarantee to never get the title again. David explained why that is not ideal.
There was no yelling at each other, no anger – just a good professional discussion looking for mutual benefit.
There was a good discussion, too, about floorspace allocation for magazines in newsagencies and work being done by Gotch to drive efficiencies that should benefit newsagents.
With several newsXpress members engaged in the MPA trial there were some questions on that – with ensuing discussions helping more in the room understand what is happening.
What was fascinating was a discussion led by some newsagents into the type of magazines newsagents feel they could sell. This discussion flowed from comments about adult colouring books. With Mychelle Vandenburg, the Retail Sales and Group Marketing Director for Pacific Magazines, in the room, newsagents, the head of Gotch and a senior publisher representative had a terrific three-way discussion about ideas to help everyone benefit not only from this craze but to explore how similar crazes could be explored cooperatively. I found this discussion specifically valuable.
What happened at the conference is an example of what newsagency marketing groups can do outside what is usual for a marketing group.
I am grateful to have been a participant in this discussion.
With magazines continuing to be an important traffic driver for our channel, it is important we explore ways to transact with the category more profitably. Achieving that requires respectful and engaged publisher and distributor relationships.
Footnote: I reached out to David while he was overseas at a distribution conference and he accepted the invitation immediately. He arrived back in Australia on the weekend and was with us on Monday.