A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Author: Mark Fletcher

Bauer Media increases Yours supply without justification

magsyoursincreaseOur supply of Yours was increased by close to 20% by the Bauer Media allocations team without any justification in our sales data. With a consistent (except for one issue) sell-through of between 40% and 50% there is no reason for any increase in supply.

This is gross oversupply by Bauer.

I’d love to know if other newsagents have experienced a similar increase in supply of Yours without justification.

Yours is loss making for us on the current numbers. sales are not covering the retail real-estate and labour involved in carrying the title. the extent of the loss is extended by what to me looks like a broken supply model.

Bauer owned Network Services raves about its Sales Based Replenishment facilities. With Yours being a fortnightly title there are several options for top-up through the on-sale.

A fairer model would be skinnier supply and top up based on sales data. This makes the publisher and distributor more accountable rather than the apparent current model of using the small business newsagent as the warehouse and the back.

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magazine distribution

With Peppa Pig in the news…

peppaabcnewsWe have had our Peppa Pig spinner and products in prime position this past week with Peppa Pig so much in the news following a report that the show may be axed as a result of budget cuts.

While the report of possible axing was soon shut down, the brand got plenty of media coverage so it made sense to me that we exploited this with a refresh of our offer. We did resist the temptation to put up a sign – get your Peppa Pig stocks while they last.

In addition to the plush we have small suitcases, play sets, stationery sets and other items. We’re competing with the majors as well as the ABC Shop – and doing okay.

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newsagency marketing

Win a Tablet promotion kicks off

tabletThe Pacific Magazines Win! a Tablet promotion kicks off today with excellent consumer collateral as well as excellent collateral to newsagents promoting the opportunities for their businesses. This is a well thought out low-tech promotion assigned to drive loyalty to Pacific Magazines titles and to participating newsagencies. I like the point of difference it provides us with.

Harvesting shopper contact details sits at the core of this promotion. Newsagents actively using the Pacific Magazines Nexus marketing program will know the value of a good shopper database for out of tore marketing.

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magazines

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: get out there and promote

marketingsignThere was a time when newsagents could put products on the shelves or the shop floor and it would sell thanks to the traffic for newspapers, lottery products, transport tickets and magazines. Now, with all these important traffic generating categories available elsewhere, traffic for most newsagency businesses is down year on year and too often nothing is being done to source net new traffic.

Take Loom Bands. If you had them in your newsagency what did you do to promote them outside your business? If you did nothing then you did not maximise the opportunity. If you promoted on your front window to passers-by kudos to you. If you created a flyer and handed this to customers, well done. If you promoted through a letterbox drop, using social media or in the local newspaper, fantastic! Newsagents who did this would have had more success with Loom Bands.

Now more than ever in our history newsagents need to engage in out of store marketing if we are to make the most of opportunities and attract business-essential new traffic. Such marketing does not need to be expensive. Indeed, anything is going to be better than the nothing being done by some.

We are each responsible for the traffic coming through our doors, no one else.

When we got Loom Brand is we promoted availability with posters facing into the mall. Being in a shopping centre this works well for us. We also positioned the product in a high traffic impulse purchase location. it worked. We sold through, ordered more, sold through and now have minimal stock.

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marketing

Sunday newsagency management tip: check-in daily

Open regular communication is important to getting the most from everyone working in your newsagency. I rely on a communication book for noting tasks to be done and sharing information. This is supplemented by a noticeboard in the back room – if the business has a back room.

It’s a daily (or otherwise regular) check in on the phone that I find of the most use. An agenda free catch up with the manager or senior person in-store can provide insights that feed into key management decisions. Comments made in passing, not thought important by one person, can turn out to be invaluable in guiding decisions.

In addition to finding out what’s been happening in the business, the daily check in also lets your key people know that the business is important to you and that you value their input. This can be encouraging.

If you don’t work in your newsagency every day, my suggestion is a daily check in call – at around the same time each day. Not to check up, but to check in.

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Management tip

A different location for AWW has paid off

awwolderlocWe placed the latest issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly between magazines for women 60+ and fashion and it’s been selling well. Our usual location, between weeklies and food titles, continues to work well. Our usual secondary location for AWW is with newspapers but this new secondary position is performing better.

For big selling titles it’s a race to grab customers before they see it elsewhere. This is why multiple locations is important in the first week of there on-sale.

Newsagents growing magazine sales are more likely to be those engaged in this additional activity.

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magazines

Who’d be a magazine distributor?

Source Interlink, one of the biggest magazine distributors in the US announced Friday that it will soon end “substantially all” of its business operations, putting 6,000 out of work. The Wall Street Journal report documents some challenges for the category:

Companies such as Source Interlink play a major role in the magazine business, arranging for printed magazines to be distributed to retailers large and small. It has become a more difficult part of the business in recent years, as consumers increasingly use the Web to read digital content, including magazines. That shift has upended the economics of newsstand distribution.

While this story has no direct Australian connection, the challenges and economics are not dissimilar.

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magazine distribution

Newsagents need to do better with pens & markers if we want more stationery business

officewpensPens and markers account for 33% or more of all stationery sold in a typical newsagency yet we do little to support such a hero category. Newsagents usually leave pens placed on a wall, in a permanent fixture, often away from the main traffic thoroughfare – almost like they are not important when in fact they are vital to the health of our stationery department.

We need to do better than this. The solid contribution pens and markers make is an excellent base off of which to drive growth. But it takes a commitment of space, time and inventory investment.

The photo shows what confronts shoppers at the entrance to an Officeworks store I visited this week. There is no mistaking their commitment to pens.

While we complain (me included) about Officeworks and their ethically questionable price based advertising, on their shop floor they pitch everyday stationery like pens and markets well.

We need to do better if we are to convince shoppers that we are destination shops in this category.

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Newsagency management

Cool Coles trolly impulse line

colestrolleyAt the entrance to a Coles supermarket yesterday I noticed a line of dump bins with $15 shopping trolleys. This is smart buying and placement by Coles. I’m sure they will sell out in no time – they would have done their homework.

Any retail business with excellent traffic like supermarkets and newsagencies – needs to actively pursue impulse purchase lines that leverage traffic opportunities beyond destination purchases.

I’m positing this photo of what I saw at Coles as inspiration.

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retail

Promoting another new partwork

sewstitchWhile I love artworks launches I wish they were better spaced out. We cannot do the launch of Sew & Stitch justice. While we found an aisle end for it, this is the worst promotional position in store – down the back facing the men’s magazines. We have no other space. Launching this title away from the other recent launches would have given it a better opportunity.

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partworks

Aussie newsagents are not the only ones oversupplied with magazines

ukmagspocketguideA colleague newsagent from Ireland shared this story and photo, demonstrating that the magazine distribution challenges that frustrate us here in Australia frustrate newsagents on the other side of the world:

The World Cup is fast approaching and we are inundated with various World Cup titles trying to cash in.

When going through my magazine delivery this morning I came across a supply of “Pocket Guide World Cup” which is a “box out”, not ordered.

That in itself is bad enough but what really took the biscuit is that it was clearly on sale in another shop first, as their “Centra” price tag is still on the magazines.

Obviously this Centra store returned the magazine to EM News who then decided to pass them on to me, thanks very much!

Its the old chestnut of not being able to get the titles and supply you need whilst battling the box outs you don’t need and can’t sell, especially the ones that other stores couldn’t sell either.

Looks like it’s the same issues for Newsagents all over the World!

I share the frustration expressed.

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magazine distribution

How selling sand helps sell magazines

sandWe sold more than $2,000 worth of kinetic sand in my newsagency in less than six weeks from this floor display unit on the lease line. If that was all the sand did for us I’d be happy. But it did more, much more.

Shoppers attracted by the sand often purchased other items – cards, magazines and gifts – in the same transaction. If that was all the sand did for us I would be thrilled. But it did much more.

Sales generated by the sand offer resulted in discount vouchers and side sand purchasers were usually not regulars they more often than not spend the vouchers immediately. In order of popularity the vouchers were spent on magazines, cards and impulse toys.

The sand helped drive magazine sales, some sales which we would otherwise not have achieved.

This is what retail is about – attracting shoppers with compelling products and offers and having product placement strategy that attracts shoppers deeper into the business, supporting this with a commercial offer that gets them spending more than they intended and underpinning this with promotion of categories that are at the core of what defines your business.

It’s been a thrill to unpack the value of of the sand beyond the sales of the product itself. The results show that some products are worth far more than the gross profit you achieve from them alone.

I am also excited by how more and more shoppers visiting to purchase other products add a magazine or two to their purchase once they are in-store. This is one of the reasons our magazine sales are so good.

Gone are the days of newsagents being shopkeepers doing the basics. We are in a complex business serving sophisticated and engaged shoppers. The more time and thought we invest in our success the more we will achieve.

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Newsagency management

Check out The Checkout and see how Bunnings and Officeworks fare on price comparison

The episode of The Checkout last night on ABC TV was terrific in covering the lowest price guarantee tactics of Officeworks, Bunnings and some others. If you missed it, watch for the episode on iView. The evidence they presented is an indictment of these large retailers and how they dupe consumers with expensive advertising promoting pricing benefits that are all too often not reflected in the reality of their shop floor pricing.

We need to bring it to these retailers, price comparing and showing our customers where our prices really are better – as is often the case.

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Newsagency management

Brilliant InStyle sales

instygwpInStyle sold out very quickly and we were fortunate to get extra stock and we’re set to sell out of that. The success is primarily due to one of the best gifts with purchase that we have seen for years. The Camilla iPad case and clutch have appealed to the target shopper perfectly.

We helped drive excellent sales with having the full cover on display plus the gift on display – showing the full value of the purchase. It has been important to promote this issue outside usual magazine fixtures.

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magazines

Nostalgia covers help Rolling Stone appeal

magsrstThe KISS cover on the latest Rolling Stone helps us pitch the magazine to the irregular Rolling Stone shopper, leveraging nostalgia interest in KISS. There are customers who will buy this issue of Rolling Stone because of the cover story but who will not look for it – this is where we have to do our job as professional newsagents of getting the magazine in front of them. I bit of extra attention can help us achieve incremental sales.

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magazines

Promoting BHG with newspapers

bhgnewsWe have the latest Better Homes and Gardens with newspapers today and through the weekend. This is where we will sell more copies than any other location in-store. Placement of BHG next to newspapers is the single most important placement of the title.

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magazines

Small everyday items like learner driver books can define our newsagency businesses

learnerdriverNewsagencies are destination shops for learner driver books. We often treat this destination product as a poor cousin, hiding it in the back of the stationery department when, in fact, we ought to treat it as a hero product – something to show off us as carrying.

One approach could be the creation of a learner driver display with these books, L plates, P plates, car magazines and in-car accessories we might carry. This way we could make learner driver books more of a hero product and remind our customers that we are the retailers for these types of products.

Newsagencies have other products like learner driver books – products that serve us well and for which we are well known. The more complete we embrace these and built incremental business around them the more valuable they become to us.

Back in our past there are many more opportunities like these.

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Newsagency opportunities

It pays to be connected

I supplier yesterday offered newsagents and other retailers a deal on a limited-stock range. 24 hours later it’s just about sold out. Newsagents who only look at emails every few days or who prefer to receive notices by fax or prefer a call from a rep have missed out.

Just as retail is changing rapidly so must we respond to opportunities quickly.

Lead times are shorter and fewer opportunities are open ended. The more connected more always on newsagents will get the better deals.

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newsagency marketing

Clever approach to advertising

adgirlsWith commercial advertising being out of the reach of many newsagents I thought it worth sharing this cool idea I saw in  Hong Kong at the gift fair – suitcases with sign writing being walked around.

I could see this working at local events with family members in uniform pulling the suitcases around.

I could also see something similar being done with sports clubs for kit and the like.

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marketing

Newsagent confidence survey highlights challenges

confidenceOf the76 respondents to my Newsagents Confidence Survey over the weekend, 60% indicated their confidence has decreased this year and 67.11% said the confidence of their customers had decreased this year.

Click here to access the full survey results.

What I found interesting in the results is that 26.32 of responders are either very confident or somewhat confident about business right now. That’s a good base off of which to build greater confidence in the newsagency channel. The 27.65% who feel average confidence is okay as well.

The other aspect of the survey is the gap – between very confident and not confident at all.

Confidence can be driven by many factors including noise coming at us from all sorts of directions. The real indicator of confidence ought to be how our businesses are doing and this is often a function of the investment we make – not as much money as attention.

The confidence of our customers can be boosted by us presenting a more confident and optimistic business. This comes back to how our business looks and feels.

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Newsagency management

Stationery News profile

I’m happy with the profile published by Stationery News recently. It accurately reflects my views on stationery and opportunities we have. For me, the key quote is:

Newsagents have control over stationery – what they range, how it is displayed, how it is priced and how it is promoted yet they all to often do not embrace these opportunities.

Our success or otherwise with stationery depends on us. reading the article again is a reminder that we can do more with this core department.

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Stationery
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