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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
With the everyday comic range thinning and a stronger than ever interest in pop culture, the best location for comics in the newsagency enemy opinion is next to movie titles. This is where we have our limited range of comics. Genuine kids titles are elsewhere, in the kids section.
We have been moving the CDU for K-Zone and Total Girl magazine to locations relevant to the target reader of the titles. This week we have it placed behind kinetic sand. This position is passed y all who head to the counter. Thoughtful placement can help drive sales. Units like this CDU can help us create space that otherwise might not be useful.
The ATO has a set of benchmarks against which it can assess businesses in various channels, including benchmarks for convenience stores.
In the wake of the 7-Eleven employee wages and entitlements scandal that has broken over the last few days, we can ask where was the ATO in this? Were they companying business returns with the ATO determined benchmarks? If not why not?
I have been questioned about business KPIs against ATO benchmarks several times. They are thorough in their questioning.
I’d like journalists working on this story to dig deeper.
All 7-Eleven franchisees and employees are tainted as a result of the actions of some in ripping off some who work and worked at 7-Eleven stores. 7-Eleven corporate is in damage control to preserve some value for the brand.
What has happened since the story first broke on the weekend in Fairfax media and gained momentum last night with the 4 Corners report on ABC TV, is a rising up of voices against the entire 7-Eleven network.
Personally, I am all for the rising up against 7-Eleven. They promote their businesses on price. Now we know plenty of their stores could afford the cheap prices for coffee, for example, because they were not paying award wages to their employees and they hired some such that others missed out on work. On a side note, I am also against 7-Eleven as it was this organisation that agitated for many years for the deregulation of the distribution of newspapers and magazines in Australia.
The scandal hitting the whole 7-Eleven network is what happens you are part of a branded network. Your ethics are only as strong as the ethics of the most unethical member of the network. The resolution of any scandal is only as strong and good as the leadership and capacity of the owner of your brand.
I think one reason not publicly discussed for declining foot traffic to newsagencies is the unprofessional standard of some businesses trading under the Newsagency shingle. Some poor operators are hurting others in the channel and we are doing nothing about it.
Newsagents trading under the N symbol are only as good as the worst store. Likewise newsagents trading under the generic Newsagency shingle and newsagents trading under each of the marketing group names.
The difference with some marketing groups is that they have mechanisms in their contracts for discipline of members – even to exit them from the group for damaging the brand. No such discipline exists for the N brand or the Newsagency shingle.
If you missed 4 Corners last night, catch it on iView.
The help desk of my newsagency software company has recently taken calls several small business owners hit with ransomware – where they have opened an email with a virus that controls the computer and criminals demand payment to unlock the computer. TAKE CARE. here is our advice:
This is real folks. Ensure you are protected. The best way to do this is be vigilant.
A cloud backup service could help you recover quickly should you be hit.
We have been promoting the latest Your Garden magazine with newspapers and shoppers are picking up the title on impulse.
I encourage newsagents to try this. We found space by placing it above papers. If papers are on a flat shelf, shuffle them for room next to your top seller.
Your Garden is quarterly and people forget about – hence the importance of driving impulse purchases.
Bauer Media has announced Top Gear Australia magazine will close from the October 2015 issue. This is not surprising given sales for the title and that motoring titles in general are achieving a greater sales decline rate than magazines overall. Mediadweek has the details.
It is a tough time to be a magazine publisher or a magazine retailer.
While the display of adult colouring art therapy titles at the front of the shop attract shoppers from the busy mall, this second location half-way into the shop and near the card department is driving excellent sales.
The table in the photo is placed in front of the main magazine aisle. It has been placed to confront destination traffic as well as to push people either side to ‘notice’ other products we have in-store.
Adjacencies are everything in retail. Get them right and basket depth grows.
Time spent thinking about product adjacencies and destination traffic disruption can pay terrific dividends for us in our retail businesses. If you look at the photo you can see the cul-de-sac we have purposefully created for the shopper. It is working a treat.
Putting adult colouring titles in is okay. Do9ing so with thought to maximise the opportunity is vital given the competitive marketplace.
We make our own success and earn our own failure.
I like the branding Newslink stores are using for their adult colouring titles: Colour Me In. I think it is important to bring together all related adult colouring products under a common brand as it defines your narrative.
WH Smith does this in the UK with their Explore a world of colouring branding. newsXpress does this with Colour Your World poster, shelf strip and digital marketing collateral provided to members.
Putting relevant stock on the shelf is part of what we have to do as retailers. Telling a story to encourage customer engagement is key, especially with so many retailers offering these products. This is where proactive groups play a key role – along with providing access at preferential pricing.
Newsagent retail businesses have evolved without having to be as retail savvy as other retailers thanks to the terrific traffic in decades past from newspapers, magazines and lotteries. Now, with those products available in other retail channels, we have to be better retailers. How we are handling adult colouring is an example of this.
I have no doubt that newsagents who tell a story with a sub-brand like this will do better.
With adult colouring titles now at supermarket checkout positions newsagents ought to be wary of their stock holding as low margin magazine distributor distributed titles as they will suck up some interest in this niche at the expense of better margin products we carry in our newsagencies by choice.
I don’t get it when people step on to an escalator and stop. I am not talking here about those with trouble walking or who are older – no, I am talking here about healthy people, especially those who could do with climbing some stairs.
It’s like some people crave not exerting themselves.
What frustrates me is these people who like to stand still get in my way.
When I get on an escalator I want to walk the steps, I want to keep moving – for the exercise and to save time. They are slowing me down. And when I try and get past, often they express frustration.
It’s like I have to stand still because they want to stand still.
The escalator is a shared conveyance. It is not there to slow us all to the same speed. Just like the sidewalk, it is a conveyance we can use to travel at the speed that suits us.
If their is a staircase next to an escalator I will usually take that unless it is too crowded. However, is the escalator is the only choice all on it need to be respectful of each other.
In some countries they have a line in the middle of each escalator step and a sign saying stand on this side and move on that side. I like this because people can choose what they want.
If people want to stand still and be conveyed without investing their own energy fair enough – but don’t block me. There is no time for unity on the escalator – we all have our own lives to live. Get to of the way for me and I will not encroach on your space where you stand.
Fair enough?
I guess I could move to Wyoming where I understand they only have tow escalators, both of which are in a bank.
The from page of The Sunday Age has a post-it note type ad stuck over the main photo of the day, which is unfortunate for the photographers and journalists. That said, it is promoting a new Fairfax App, Skim, which I started using Saturday, an App I think is terrific – much better than using the mobile enabled website. I suspect this is a platform launched to drive revenue from digital. The Skim App is also available on the Apple Watch.
If you customers cannot see it they cannot buy it. It’s true!
Why do newsagents fill their back rooms (and elsewhere) with stock? If the answer is because they got a good deal I am suspicious as a deal is only good when you sell and only then if you have not held the stock for too long.
Here is my challenge today: move all the stock you have to the shop floor and confront the challenges of that.
Don’t make excuses. Do it.
Any stock that does not look good enough or appropriate to your business today, discard it.
Stock you can’t sell is a dead weight on the business. Stock not on the shop floor is not paying its way.
I love this poster promoting Happy Socks for Father’s Day. It mocks (in a good way) the Father’s Day tradition of the gift of a tie by using a sock as a tie. It makes the gift of socks relevant, funky even.
The Happy Socks marketing people have recast their products in a more relevant and engaging way and as a result should expect good Father’s Day sales.
We can make similar decisions in our newsagencies, casting products traditionally one way to appeal more widely as a result of a clever pitch. In our stationery, magazine and card departments we have products that lend themselves to visual merchandising pitches that are against tradition and therefore more likely to attract shopper attention.
These are moves we ought to make for ourselves, in our businesses to the needs of our local shoppers.