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

Author: Mark Fletcher

From inside the doorway of your newsagency what do you see?

I was in a newsagency this afternoon and what I saw four different marketing messages on posters hanging form the ceiling, five different brands being promoted with signage on the walls and more brands (mastheads) partially obscured by boxes.

Posters, branding and signage should only be there to drive sales. They should be current and relevant to our shoppers. The more you put up the less visual value achieve for each.

A single poster by itself will most likely be wasted visual noise and achieve nothing for you or the brand you are promoting.

I have seen situations in newsagencies where fewer posters and signs result in sales growth.

I urge newsagents to stand inside their door today and see what they are presenting to their customers. Remove unnecessary visual noise, take down signs, posters and the like that have been up more than a couple of months – except for the brand of the store itself. Old signs make your shop look and feel old.

The owner of the newsagency I was in did not realise the number of old messages facing shoppers.

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Newsagency management

Gerry Harvey should shut up, he does not speak for retailers

Gerry Harvey was in the news again yesterday talking down retail in that shrill style that is so him.

Gerry Harvey believes his Harvey Norman chain will be “the last man standing” as other retailers go bust due to tough trading conditions.

The chairman of the electrical, bedding and furniture retailer has predicted a wave of retailers will close in the early months of 2013 as businesses go under.

Retailers offering a consumers a value proposition are doing well and will do well. I am tired of gerry getting media covering for his doom and gloom. He does not speak for me.

Our sales are up wonderfully year on year. We also are attracting new shoppers with new lines. We are not having to use price as a selling feature – unlike Harvey Norman stores. Indeed, our average margin is up inn2012 over 2011.

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retail

Vogue discounts 40% for subscriptions

Subscribers to OurDeal were offered a year long subscription to Vogue magazine yesterday at 40% off the cover price.

Activity by some magazine publishers chasing subscriptions has increased. Their view would be that locking someone in for a year is more valuable to them than possibly getting 12 purchases from a retailer over a year. This is how they price their discount.

Every day in newsagencies across Australia we promote brands such as Vogue with terrific in-store displays and we make the products available for browsing without cost. All of this investment by us helps publishers be able to pitch subscription offers.

It is no wonder newsagents get angry when they see subscription deals like this.  At least Vogue is not pitching at a US subscription rate of 70% (and often more) off.

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magazine subscriptions

Australian Cupcakes & Inspirations magazine popular

Further to my post yesterday about not having room for a new travel title, we did have room in our food category for another new title-  Australian Cupcakes & Inspirations. We sold out the initial allocation and ordered more. They are selling.

While the title is expensive, cupcake bakers and fans love the practical nature of the content – making price a non issue.

Since we’ve had success with this issue we have built an even better story by placing it with other cupcake and cake baking titles.

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magazines

Promoting donna hay Christmas issue

We are promoting the Christmas issue of donna day magazine with this aisle end display facing onto our dance floor.

I love the look of this issue, it stands out from Christmas magazines with a very different cover. This is why we chose it for an aisle end promotion.

Kudos to our in-store team for creating the gingerbread men to connect with the cover shot. This was their own initiative!

We are keen to maintain the Christmas theme throughout the newsagency. Our magazine aisle for the next four weeks will feature different Christmas themed titles.

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magazines

Tatts adds SA to its pool

Tatts Group is acquiring SA Lotteries from the state government leaving only Western Australia as the non-Tatts lottery state.

As I noted recently, LotteryWest runs an excellent community engagement program associated with the sale of lottery products. The community value of this is considered to be significant to lottery agents I have spoken with.

As for the SA deal, the story SA Treasurer Jack Snelling saying they were worried they would not be part of the lottery block. That seems like a pretty weak excuse to me.

SA lottery agents should talk with their Sydney colleagues to get a heads-up on transitioning from a state lottery business to Tatts.

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Lotteries

Fairfax delays in NSW again today

Many NSW newsagents are having a tough Tuesday with Fairfax newspapers hours late. There is speculation that the delays are being caused by industrial action at fairfax. I have no idea. What I do know is that an unreliable daily newspaper is a product regulars can learn to do without.

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Newspaper distribution

Plain cigarette packaging leading newsagents to quit

As the day from which plain packaging kicks in for cigarettes draws closer, more newsagents are quitting selling tobacco products. It seems that this latest move was all they needed to get out of the challenged product category.

With cigarette consumption on the decline in Australia, many newsagents have taken the packaging change as a push ton asses the economic benefit of the product category.

Many newsagents I have spoken with say they have quit or will quit cigarette sales because of the declining financial return. Once they factored in the cost of stock, the value of prime space at the counter, labour and risk to do with age and display compliance requirements, the return was not there.

While I don’t have sufficient a dataset to say how many are quitting the category, I am prepared to guess that it’s somewhere between 15% and 20%. Whatever the number, it will decline with time.

FOOTNOTE.
I quit cigarettes in my newsagency in 1999 having calculated the return on investment we were achieving. I did this of my own free will. What is happening today is not of the free will of newsagents and other retailers. It is happening because of restructuring.

It is disappointing that while politicians of both sides support financial assistance for the auto industry and TV stations to help them fund restructuring, no money is on the table for small business for restructuring it faces.

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Newsagency management

Frustrating increase in supply of discount magazine bundle from ACP

The allocations process at ACP (Bauer) has decided that we should get more stock of the NW / Woman’s Day discount bundle.

There is no justification for then increase in our sales data. This is another recent example of unjustified supply increases by ACP.

Outside of the disappointing oversupply, there is the broader issue of the education of shoppers to not pay full cover price for magazines. These bundles are too available now. It’s a space I am not comfoirtable playing in as there is insufficient upside for us retailers.

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Bagged magazines

No room in magazine department for The Amazing Place

We early returned all copies we received the launch issue of The Amazing Place, a new travel magazine from Australian publisher Citrus Media. Our travel section is full so it was either cut a title to take on this new title or return this title. After considering sales and other factors we decided to not take this new title.

If only the magazine distributor has respected us and asked if we wanted to take on the new title and bankroll the publisher’s new venture. They will say they don’t have time. Well, they need to find time as newsagents are showing how they will respond to this – they will and do early return.

Publishers and distributors can’t just send new stock like this, not now, not with today’s competitive magazine world that they created. Back when publishers and distributors supported newsagents as the premier magazine channel we would have kept this title. Today, we have to run our magazine department on a more competitive basis.

This is the world magazine publishers and distributors created for us yet it is a world they refuse to accept. They treat us today as if we were still in the 1990s. This sees our competitors given unfair advantage over newsagents only leaving us with the mechanism of the early return to fight back.

Supermarkets are paid for space, they control what they get they don’t have to return unsold stock and I suspect they are protected if a title bombs. Newsagent get none of these advantages so we are left to wield the only weapon we have.

While I am against uneducated early returns, I do support the considered early return, as we have done with the launch issue of The Amazing Place.

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magazine distribution

Making the newsagency a destination for Christmas shopping

This is the front of one of my newsagencies from a couple of days ago, showing how it is now configured for Christmas shopping.

The mall-facing display was reconfigured to better connect with Christmas shopping opportunities.

We have some who visit this newsagency saying that it does not look like a newsagency from the front. Yes, it does not look like an old style newsagency.

Our view is that the world has changed. The changes in retail and print media are enough to cause us to change how we configure our businesses. I want people visiting my shops for reasons that are valuable in terms of margin and relevant to the future. This is what we have gifts and cards as our core pulling factors.

The traffic we attract is valuable for more traditional newsagency lines with magazines and stationery continuing to deliver good year on year growth.

Our strategy at this store is to be the go-to place for seasons and key brand-based opportunities. We engage with the strategy by going beyond what shoppers expect from a traditional newsagency. Our Christmas and One Direction commitments are the two recent examples of this.

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Newsagency management

Terrific looking recipes+

I love the cover of the latest issue of recipes+ magazine. It stands our from the covers in our food section. For us it stood out enough for us to move the title from a rear pocket to the front. We are always on the look out for covers that reach out from the shelves, away from other titles. We have it in a full cover prime pocket in food.

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magazines

Moving newspapers further into the newsagency

Two weeks ago we relocated newspapers a further three metres into the store. They are now at the end of our diary wall. There has been no negative impact on sales as a result of the move, no complaints from customers.

We made the move now as we were able to do it as part of a Christmas reconfiguration of around half the floorspace of the newsagency.

Since we are not paid for space allocated to newspapers we need to manage their cost (labour and real estate) and leverage the traffic they generate. The decision to move took into account these factors.

If newspaper publishers offered promotional programs designed to drive over the counter sales then I’d most likely offer them more support in-store. Instead, newspaper publisher promotions are about shifting sales from retail, from us. Near to us, they have a history of happily give their product away.

I know I am not alone in moving newspapers deeper into the newsagency. More and more newsagents are deconstructing their traditional newspaper aisle end display units and using this space for better margin products and products that are more connected to the long-term future of their businesses.

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Newspapers

Refreshing the gamer magazine pitch

Our gamer magazines used to be in the lower section of the magazine display. They sold well from there, better in fact than the older style computer magazines.

So, over the weekend we switched gamer magazines in to the better location previously home to our traditional computer titles.

The review was part of our regular assessment on return on shelf space allocated to magazine categories. We move categories in pursuit of either stemming a decline or chasing above average growth.

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magazines

Disappointing exit for Australian Good Food

I am disappointed with the last issue of Australian Good Food from ACP (Bauer). The publisher has sent us two copies – the current issue and an old issue. They have also increased supply. So, we have a thicker product and more product. Like many newsagents, I don’t have the shelf space, especially at this time of the year.

I suspect newsagents will early return some stock since we are not compensated for shell space used – unlike our supermarket competitors. We are not, yet.

While publishers use free back issues as a gift to drive sales, with Australian Good Food now dead I can’t see the value of attracting new readers.

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magazine distribution

Newsagency marketing tip: the easy way to be found through Google

Newsagents can ensure their business is found via a Google search when they list the business through Google Places. It’s easy to setup, easy to maintain and free.  If you appropriately describe the business and the products and services it offers, people searching for these in your area on a computer, a phone or some other device will see your business listed.

I can’t imagine why any newsagent would not create a Google Places entry. yes, as I have written here before, there are other free listings you should use but Google Places is the first and most important currently.

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marketing tip

Newsagency management tip: treat your landlord like a customer

  1. Put your landlord on your customer list so they receive your regular customer communications.
  2. Always send seasonal catalogues and flyers to them.
  3. Ask them for business – copying, stationery and the like.
  4. Make special offers to them.
  5. Send them a Christmas card.
  6. Send them a birthday card.

All of this will show the landlord that you are a proactive retailer, someone working hard to attract shoppers to their property.

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Uncategorized

Targeting weekend shoppers

We are making sure that this Barbecue cookbook from CustomMade Media is getting extra eyeball attention on the weekends when more barbecue interested shoppers are likely to be out. We give it extra attention by prime pocket placement with food titles as well as with weeklies and newspapers at different times.

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magazines

Quick newsagent survey on magazine supply

I have created a four-question survey to harvest your views on the magazine distribution model and its impact on your newsagency.  Please click here to complete the survey. The survey software allows one response per computer.

While question four about stresses faced by newsagents is not directly about magazines, I am keen to see the responses.

I will leave this survey up to Monday night and plan to share the results here Tuesday.

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magazines

One Direction stationery flying out the door

The range of One Direction branded stationery we have in store are selling very well. Indeed, we will sell out.

On Wednesday we had one customer buy a bunch of items and call her friend telling them to come in right away to get her own set.  Talk about strong word of mouth.

Our continued engagement with the One Direction brand is generating excellent new traffic for well as driving a more efficient shopping basket. We are thrilled with this success story.

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Brand retailing

Covering the magazine cover

Check out how two publishers handled covering the Christmas issues of the top two selling magazines with tip-ons is a lesson in merchandising. Whereas the production team for better Homes and Gardens team ensured that the cover of their bonus cookbook visually merged with the cover of the magazine, the production team at The Australian Women’s Weekly did not when handling the placement of their Christmas cookbook.

The other missed opportunity for The Australian Women’s Weekly is the placement of the cookbook on in such a way that the shopper can’t easily see that it’s Julie Goodman’s feast they are covering in the cookbook. If Julie Goodman has pulling power surely you’d place the cookbook so that you can leverage her name.

While I am no magazine publisher I would have thought that these issues were publishing 101. What is it that attracts a shopper to the title? How important is the cover shot versus the free gift stuck over the cover?

On the gifts themselves, they do not lend themselves to browsing. We have sock damaged by shoppers shoving the magazines back in to the racks.

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magazines
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