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

Author: Mark Fletcher

When customers buy your collateral

We had a customer, a grandmother, in last week wanting to purchase one of our posters promoting The Blob – an iPhone / iPad / sat. nav. stand sold exclusively through newsXpress. She wanted the poster because her grandson is (lovingly) called Blob. She wanted the poster for his room as a gift.

We sold her an A1 poster for $10.00. She was thrilled. We were thrilled too.

I know we are not the only newsagency to be approached by customers wanting to purchase marketing collateral. We’ve had it before ourselves with One Direction and Bieber themed posters. This time we were especially excited as it’s a product no one else has and this request boosted the hype have been nurturing.

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newsagency marketing

Making the most of the Cake Decorating opportunity

We have sold more than 110 copies of the Cake Decorating partwork and are contemplating ordering more stock as we are very close to selling out. We are making the most of the opportunity by placing additional food titles next to this second location of the partwork near newspapers.

I firmly believe that we create our own success and that this starts with personal accountability. These beliefs see us use highly advertised products, like cake decorating, to sell other items. We do this by their location in store and product adjacencies. The result is a higher return from the launch issue prices at $1.99. Promote only the $1.99 item and you get a $1.99 sale. Promote it with other items appealing to the same consumer and you drive far more efficient business from the $1.99 appeal.

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Newsagency opportunities

Promoting Grand Designs

We have been promoting the latest issue of Grand Designs magazine with this placement with weeklies. Yes, the issue is more than a month old. We know from the launch issue that it sells through the on-sale … hence our continued promotion.

Too often, newsagents only promote a title early in the on-sale – some respond eight and more weeks in.

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magazines

Marketing tip: promote your brand

Newsagents push a bunch of different brands through their businesses and I am not talking here about branded products. Think about shopper bags, uniforms, name badges, the shingle above the door, the floor mat, in-store signs, magazine headers, department place signs, business cards, vehicles, in-store radio, receipts – what is the brand on all of these. It should be the one brand on all, the brand under which you trade.

I have seen a newsagency recently promote their business under three brands across the mediums I list above. This confuses shoppers and dilutes the brand message of the business.

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marketing tip

Management tip: Learning from a US department store about customer service

I was fortunate to hear Jamie Nordstrom, of the great Nordstrom department store group ($10B in annual sales) speak at the shop.org conference earlier this week. He was there to talk about their highly successful engagement across a range of platforms and formats, to share insights into tech strategies they are using in their omni-channel model.

But it was not the tech stuff that engaged Nordstrom the most. He was his most passionate when talking about customer service, something Nordstrom has been known for for decades.

For the most part, Nordstrom does not have unique products . The Nordstrom point of difference is customer service. It’s embedded in their DNA.

  • The have pushed decisions to be as close as possible to their customers.
  • They talk with their customers across multiple platforms.
  • Their use of Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest is authentic, smart and customer-focussed.
  • The invest considerably in employee training.
  • They believe that great customer service makes price less of an issue.

We don’t have unique products in our businesses, only unique customer service.  Nordstrom attributes its exceptional growth to their focus on customer service.  Each experience have had shopping there was memorable.

The question I ask myself and all newsagents should ask themselves is: what can I do to improve our customer service?

Nothing earth shattering, nothing new here. However, the extraordinary same store growth at Nordstrom suggests they are getting this customer service thing right.

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Customer Service

Promoting with newspapers

We are promoting the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine along with Best Ever Recipes with newspapers for the next week.

This is a prime location for us in driving impulse purchases. We know BHG works a treat here. Our hope is that Best Ever works just as well – this is a challenge because of the high cover price but it’s more of a book than a magazine.

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magazines

Co-locating some food titles

We are giving some food related titles additional support with this placement directly below weekly magazines. This is a category that works well for us so extra coverage is certain to help achieve incremental business and that;s what we want from the additional commitment.

We have selected titles for this spot that people will not be seeking out – we are chasing impulse purchase business.

We’ll leave this up for two weeks.

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magazines

A newsagent has never heard of Quarterly Essay?

Ever since the David Marr report about Tony Abbott in the latest issue of Quarterly Essay made the news this week we have had the title in prominent display with newspapers. We will sell out of the initial allocation and have ordered more stock.

We made a sale today to a customer who had come to us after another newsagent had told her they had not heard of the title. While I am thrilled we won the business, I am disappointed to be connected to someone who did not even take the time to provide even basic customer service.

This story represents the weakness of our shingle, that our business is tied to another providing such poor customer service. Businesses with the shingle are only as good as the worst operator. We let ourselves down yet we ignore this and complain about our suppliers as the cause.

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Newsagency management

Fairfax covers-up Black Caviar headline

The Sydney Morning Herald today has the headline promoting a story about champion racehorse Black Caviar covered up with a stuck-on ad from Citibank. I can’t understand why they would promote a story on page one of the newspaper if they are going to cover the promotion in this way with an ad. I feel for the folks who worked on the Black caviar story and for the retailers who lost sales because people who may have purchased the paper for the Black Caviar story missed it. No matter, the story is free online.

I am grateful to a colleague for sharing the picture.

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newspaper masthead desecration

Myer to close stores Sundays due to penalty rates?

I was interested to see news coverage yesterday of consideration being given by Myer to close some stores on Sundays because of the high cost of penalty rates to the business. While Myer was part of the problem many years ago calling for Sunday trading, I am glad to see the company talking about the debilitating cost of penalty rates to efficient retail trade.

Retailers operate in a global economy. More and more our competitiors are worldwide. Just as politicians understand, and tell us, that Australia needs to be competitive on a global stage, they need to legislate to enable our businesses to be so competitive. The current penalty rate arrangements for weekend casual employees harms our productivity and sales.

I am certain that if newsagents and other small business retailers did not have to pay penalty rates for casual employees we would employ more people, improve customer service and sell more product and therefore pay more tax.

Read this: I support Nick Xenophon’s proposed penalty rate change.

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Newsagency management

Nice gum dispenser from Wrigley

Check out the gum dispenser I found in a newsagency a week back. I like this a lot as shoppers will notice it as they hand money over and accept change.

This type of unit has been used for used for instant scratch tickets.

Ideally, the unit could be used for different products every few weeks – sharing the high-traffic space with other items.

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confectionary

Careful magazine adjacency drives purchases

We take care with our magazine adjacencies. This placement of vegetarian titles is a good example. By taking care to get common niche titles next to each other we tend to drive multiple purchases from the same niche.

It can be a challenge to get this done when putting magazines out – so we run through the department later in the day, tweaking placement solely to drive multiple title purchases.

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magazines

Promoting the Pacific Magazines Fiji holiday competition

We are have been promoting the Pacific Magazines Win a holiday in Fiji competition this week with this display at the counter. I love these displays by the team at the counter around a single promotion or theme. It drives shopper engagement and connects us well with the prize on offer – in this case the Fiji holiday.

We love promoting great competitions as it reinforces a a good value proposition.

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magazines

Promoting Dolly and the nail kit

We have been promoting the latest issue of Dolly magazine (and the free nail kit) with this aisle end display plus a waterfall placement in the usual location for the title. Both allocations will run for the first week of the on-sale.

In week two we will pull back to the waterfall and maybe a promotion elsewhere space permitting.

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magazines

When to quit tobacco in your newsagency?

Days into his presidency, early in 2009 US President Barack Obama signed into a massive tax hike on tobacco. The result is a historic reduction in people smoking. George Bush twice rejected a tax hike on tobacco.  The cost to the health system and lives as a result of the lack of a tax hike years is immeasurable.

It is data like this that will spur governments to adopt the Australian plain packaging laws and other measures on tobacco product sales.

Regardless of your position on tobacco, newsagents who sell tobacco need to think about exiting the category. It’s in decline. This will increase on the back of the amazing US result announced a few days ago and the expected result of plain packaging here.  There will come a time when tobacco products are not paying their way – for the space and labour the require.

I quit the category in 1999 when our sales were around $1,500 a week.  We didn’t skip a beat.

Beyond the issue of social responsibility is the matter of business performance. With governments around the world closing in on big tobacco there is little upside for retailers, especially when there are many other uses for time, space and capital.

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Social responsibility

Great gift buying for newsagents this weekend

I expect hundreds of newsagents will get to the Reed Gift Fair in Sydney this weekend – if previous years are anything to go by. My sense is that newsagent attendance is up each year by more than 10% as the channel looks for new products to offer in-store.  It’s well worth checking out if you can get there … I’d even say mandatory for newsagents who have never been.

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Gifts

Newsagent suppliers should support Nick Xenophon’s bill on penalty rates

Newsagent suppliers – and I know there are plenty who read this blog – should support newsagents by making a submission to the Senate Committee considering Nick Xenophon’s private member’s bill seeking to establish a fairer penalty rate regime for small businesses including newsagents.  Read more about this here and here to see an email from Nick Xenophon on this.

If penalty rates for weekend hours were reduced entrepreneurial newsagents would employ more staff and increase sales on the weekend. Suppliers wold benefit from this.

So, if you are a supplier, please support the cause.

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Newsagency management

Diaries on the wall

We have put our initial range of 2013 diaries on the wall, next to stationery. This move to the wall has been driven by the demand for floor space and as part of our process of locating key product categories in permanent and well-signposted homes in-store. The wall placement of diaries also helps us present the diary range in a more structured and co-ordinated way – in keeping with the approach taken by our corporate competitors in the diary space.

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Diaries

Why we are promoting Smith Journal

I have received several emails over the last couple of days querying why we are promoting Smith Journal so prominently.  The answer is simple: it sells well. Our sales so far are: 15, 17 and 13 – for issues #1, #2 and #3.  It is popular with guys browsing the store.  This is especially valuable since converting a browser into a shopper is vital to the newsagency retail model.  Given the men’s magazines our channel sells, newsagents should be doing well with this title. The key is to let shoppers know you have it – this is what category specialists do..

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magazines

The future of retail

I am here in Denver for the Shop.org Annual Summit.  The first two days have been excellent and the last looks just as good.  While this is essentially a conference about retail and technology – mobile, social, Internet – it is, at its heart, a conference about retail today and into the future.

It has been interesting listening to speakers talk about the challenge of online retailers and the threat many think they pose to high street retail and how high street is in the better position because of a range of undeniable economic factors (which I won’t go into here) yet high street retailers worry to the point of harming their own businesses.  This thread is particularly interesting given the challenges newsagents face: disruption around plenty of what we sell, fundamental restructuring of key parts of our businesses and inability to leverage our biggest asset.

This conference reinforces for me the extent of change taking place in and around retail and the need for everyone involved in retail to have a plan for embracing navigating and change. Change goes beyond what we know today. Just one stat which is mind-boggling: 10% of sales achieved by UK retailer Marks & Spencer are done online.  This is a business that was technologically in the dark ages just a few years ago.  M&S are entering new countries without opening stores. Nordstrom, a US department store with US$10B+ in sales and more than 200 stores is achieving excellent online growth.

While the stories gaining the most attention are from large retailers, my core interest is small and independent retailers.  I attend these conferences to learn about opportunities for this sector – to help us compete in the changing world.  As with so many things in business it comes back to customer service … but that’s a post for another day.

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Uncategorized

Clever visual merchandising Apple

Check out the clever back to college window display I saw at an Apple store here in the US yesterday.

Click on the image to see the detail of how they place their product.  Nice!

Like everything they do, this window display is clean, on-topic, eye-catching and focused on driving sales.

While we don’t sell these products, I take inspiration from the display.

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visual merchandising

They have cards for everything in the US

I have been fortunate to see plenty of retail during a brief trip to Denver this week. In one store I saw a range of cards created especially for the election. They were pretty funny.  The store owner said they were not selling that well because Americans get passionate about their politics.  Hmm … given the lax gun control laws here I doubt I would send a card making fun of a politician.

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Greeting Cards

Comic wrap a hot seller

The new line of comic-themed wrapping paper has been selling like hot cakes.  While we have a pretty good range of wrap, this line is outselling all others easily.  We are not promoting it in any special way – customers are finding it for themselves.

We’ve ordered more as based on demand this design will sell well for some time yet.

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Greeting Cards

Treating UFC FIT differently

I must have missed the note about the rebranding of UFC magazine to UFC FIT. No matter, we are treating the magazine differently, now placing it with fitness titles as opposed to the usual placement with sports titles.

While this may not seem like a big move I know from watching shoppers that it will be noticed by different shoppers thanks to this move.

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magazines

Card fees the next big battle in retail

A court case between Visa, MasterCard and major banks in the US and retailers on excessive fees appeared a step closer to resolution with a $7.25B (yes, Billon) settlement proposal from the Visa, MasterCard et al. Peak retail body, The National Retail Federation, (not a party to the case) has come out today against the settlement. They say the proposed settlement does not progress the issue of ever-increasing fees imposed on retailers for the use of cards.

We face the same fee problem in Australia but worse. There is less competition for the provision of EFTPOS services. The government, through the Reserve Bank, put the banks and a couple of major retailers, effectively in charge of regulation.

Pushing back against unreasonable fees is something newsagents and other retailers should be working on through those who represent them. We should be looking carefully at the battle being waged in the US.  Losing the percentage we lose of each card based sale for what are often mediocre services is unreasonable.

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retail
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