Mindfood promotion drives sales
The Mindfood promotion I wrote about on May 21 is working with sales ahead for us for this issue of the magazine.
Making the most of the Better Homes and Gardens opportunity
We have been promoting the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine in several locations in the newsagency including this pillar-based display.
There is no doubt that Better Homes and Gardens responds very well to promotional attention. Tactical placement at the counter or with newspapers works especially well for us over the weekends as I often note here. (I keep mentioning this as some newsagents are surprised when I tell them face to face.)
While this issue is less than a week on-sale, results are already excellent for us thanks to the extra work being put in by the team to make the most of the opportunity.
We will leave this pillar-based display up for another week even though we will be challenged for space given the promotions coming out this week.
Sunday marketing tip: connecting with local clubs
Newsagencies are the ideal businesses for connecting with local hobby and special interest clubs given the range of magazines we sell and the connection we have with clubs in other ways.
The types of local clubs and community groups I am thinking of are:
- Knitting.
- Crochet.
- Genealogy.
- History.
- Cooking.
- Stamp collecting.
- Train.
- Gun.
- Hunting.
- Dogs.
- Cats.
- Horses.
- Outdoors – hiking and camping.
- Parents.
- Retiree community activity groups.
- Nationality based groups.
Thinking about the above list, just about every town has a historical society with members. It’s clubs and groups like this which would not usually be on our radar when they should.
We could connect with these businesses in a number of ways:
- Offering discounts to members on magazines and products.
- Getting products from suppliers to give away to the groups.
- Maybe funding a once a year event.
- Giving them a place to meet – some country newsagencies have considerable space out the back.
- Providing free resources – paper, photocopying and the like.
- Hosting a noticeboard for their events and promotion.
- Providing advance access to products of likely interest to them.
This is what being a community business is all about – connecting with the community but in a way which helps them and helps the business. There is no other local business which could connect with many of the community groups I ave listed as well as newsagents could.
I know many newsagents who connect with local groups already. Those who don’t should and those who do could consider enhancing their connection to drive loyalty, word of mouth and, ultimately, sales.
Newsagents can own this immunity connection. This is why we should all engage in it in our local communities – with multiple clubs.
Finally, we get Dumbo Feather
We have been trying to get Dumbo Feather on the shelves for a while since I met the editor and publisher last year. Anyway, we have the title now. This is an important title as it added to the selection of funky and intelligent titles we are building for twenty somethings plus – an often forgotten group of shoppers in newsagencies.
Dumbo Feather is an Australian title, out of Melbourne. It’s a title which shoppers would have looked for in Borders and with Borders stores now closed they would look in a newsagency. We are working to expand our range of these magazines, magazines with intelligent content which people will seek out and loyally purchase from you.
I am glad we have found Dumbo Feather. I encourage other newsagents to check it out. It is distributed by Network Services.
Two AFR.COM subscriptions worth $680 up for grabs
Click here to get the details of a competition being run here with two year long subscriptions to AFR.COM (worth $680) of offer.
Newsagency of the Future workshop in Townsville Tuesday
I am hosting a Newsagency of the Future workshop for Townsville this Tuesday, May 29 at 10am. This session will be at the Plaza Hotel. You can book here. It’s free. Participation is open to anyone. This will be the last session of this round.
The Australian promotes digital offer
News Limited at least let newsagents know they were promoting their digital offer for The Australian this weekend with this email:
Dear Agent,
On Saturday we will be running a post-it-note on the front of The Weekend Australian.
This note will offer readers the opportunity to join up for a free 28 day digital trial with full access to our website.
At the end of the 28 day trial readers will be offered via email a choice of print + digital bundles as a subscription offer.
Kind Regards
Maybe it was to give newsagents a heads-up to be ready to remove the post it notes.
A better approach from News would be to pay newsagents an acquisition fee plus a trail fee for renewals for the next, say, five fears.
Price does not drive shopper loyalty as Gerry Harvey is finding
Gerry Harvey says he doesn’t know why there is negativity toward him – he was on TV again this week saying this. His Harvey Norman retail business grew on the back of a price pitch and their relentless promotion of easy access to finance. The company is not remembered for promoting customer service or brands. The TV and radio ads were all about price.
There is no shopper loyalty when people purchase on price.
Now, with sales falling and profits sliding, Gerry wonders why there is negativity toward him … he has not built a sustainable relationship with his customers. This is what happens when you promote almost solely on price.
While a price pitch may get you some extra sales today, it is the easiest differentiator for a competitor to attack you on tomorrow.
In today’s world of easier than every price comparison and of new-model online retail operations, in Gerry Harvey’s space it really is about price and he has been caught with an out of date and expensive model that struggles to compete.
Newsagents who promote price as a differentiating factor over the long-term and outside of seasonal sales face the Gerry Harvey problem.
Newsagents also risk a challenge down the track when the transition from print to digital reaches a tipping point, when more lottery purchases are transacted online than in retail and when more emotions are expressed digitally than via a greeting card.
We need to work today to ensure that we are not the Gerry Harvey of tomorrow as there will be no parachute and no pity.
It is lonely sitting atop an outdated business model.
Actions we take in our newsagencies today can help ensure that this will not be us. But it’s up to us. Our future is in our own hands.
Cool wraparound for Daily Telegraph
The translucent wraparound for The Daily Telegraph yesterday was pretty cool. It was a clever way to promote the Vivid festival which has just started in Sydney. While the main story was covered, you could see it there and you didn’t have to peel anything off to get to it.
I see this as quite different to the post-it type ads as it connects the paper with a community event.
Promoting food magazines at the counter
As part of our Autumn / Winter feature we are promoting a carefully selected range of food titles at the sales counter. We are running this counter promotion for a week after which we will assess and either replace or tweak to keep it fresh.
There is nothing special about the display, it took a couple of mints to put together once we had selected the tilters we wanted to feature.
Already we are seeing magazines selected from the display and added to baskets as shoppers step to the counter to make their purchases. This is a delight to see – every dollar added is a bonus we cherish.
Thanks Melbourne Observer
The Melbourne Observer continues to support newsagents. Most recently with weekly tweets on twitter promoting the latest issue as being available from newsagents. Other publishers could so easily do the same. Happy to promote the support here.
Win one of two free AFR.COM subscriptions here
Okay folks, who wants a free 1-year subscription to AFR.COM the iPad app and website for The Australian Financial Review. Thanks to the generosity of Fairfax, I have two free one-year subs to give away – along with 19 other bloggers in Australia. Each subscription is valued at $680.
To enter, please comment on this post and tell me in 25 words or less a positive story about your newsagency business. It could be something you have done, a customer experience or a community experience … it must connect back to your newsagency. The competition will be open for a week, to June 1.
Fairfax gave me a free one-year subscription to AFR.COM and I am enjoying it. I get the approach Fairfax is taking is seeking out digital subscribers rather than sitting back and reacting. Their proactive approach to change is what we need to do in our own businesses.
Inaccurate claims on XchangeIT by Access POS
The Access POS software company has published a claim that it is the only software company with 100% XchangeIT file integrity. The claim is misleading in my in that it does not reflect all compliance measures tracked by XchangeIT. It is claim that XchangeIT has been asked to approach Access POS to withdraw . Besides the inaccuracy, software companies are under confidentiality with XIT.
I know a bit about XchangeIT standards as my newsagency software company, Tower Systems, participated in developing the file structures and standards at the heart of newsagent EDI, the structures and standards on which XchangeIT standards are based.
With more than 1,800 newsagents as customers, Tower Systems has 1,000 more newsagents using its software than any other software company. Access POS is trying to make out that they are bigger and better than they are. I respect the 90 or so newsagents using their software but note that size will matter as the newsagency channel consolidates.
Consolidation is one of the reasons I purchased the NewsPOS software business. Access POS claims that the NewsPOS business is closed. It is not closed – NewsPOS newsagents continue to use the software, they get support … nothing has changed except for the ownership of the company. AccessPOS knows this.
Things can get feisty between newsagency software companies. I’ll be in court in a few weeks defending action brought on by POS Solutions in which they complain about why and how 200+ of their newsagent customers came to switch to Tower Systems.
I stand by every claim I have made about my software and my software company.
Where do you put Feng Shui magazine?
I have been contacted by Fraymond Lew, publisher of Feng Shui World magazine – distributed here by IPS. Fraymond has contacted me seeking advice on how to help newsagents sell more copies of the specialised title. It’s terrific he has reached out to newsagents.
Here is some information from Fraymond which could help newsagents:
The magazine itself is more of a lifestyle magazine that mainly caters to women. I would love for it to be placed in the women’s lifestyle section but can’t seem to figure out how to convince the newsagents to do that. I some how think that that would help or I could be wrong altogether.
Please if you can give an insight or advice on what I can do to make the magazine sell better it would be very much appreciated. you can email me or call my shop 03 90786596 or on my mobile 0413731835. Thanks.
I am being a bit lazy passing on the request here but I hope newsagents do contact Fraymond with ideas. It’s niche titles like this which can help us retain special interest customers.
Promoting Handmade magazine at the counter
We are promoting Handmade from EMG at the counter this week as it fits with a theme around Autumn / Winter related magazine titles we are featuring elsewhere.
Pitching the $26 with of magazines at $9.95 shows it off as a specials offer. That’s what we are going for with this counter placement.
We plan to leave Handmade in place until Monday morning when we will assess. Like any counter offer, it has to pay its way.
Growing awesome newsagencies and awesome newsagents
Is that possible? Can we grow an awesome newsagency? I wonder some times with people being so quick to talk newsagency businesses down – Jeff Kennett, Bill Shorten … even those representing newsagents. Everyone says how tough retail is and how tough some of the issues facing newsagents are. And they leave it at that.
I say it’s tough sometimes. But retail has always been tough.
In the middle of the changes and challenges lies opportunity, opportunity which allows us to become awesome. It’s a pity that those who say it’s tough don’t offer something in response to their observation.
Yes, I really do mean awesome. I am so lucky that I get to talk to some awesome newsagents every day. On Monday, for example, I was talking with a newsagent who has had a corker of a trading quarter, banking the results of 10% sales growth over the same quarter last year. He did it through hard work and backing his judgement.
Last week I spoke to a regional newsagent who has created an exclusive service which makes their newsagency the place people will travel an hour ow two to visit.
Just yesterday I was standing in front of a tired run down newsagency which was crying out for an awesome make-over. Without spending any money and investing just a few days and retraining team members this business could be on the way to being awesome.
I reckon too many newsagents get lost in our past of being a servant to a few suppliers who themselves are still locked in the past in some areas of their businesses. The newsagents doing great are those walking to the beat of their own drum, newsagents who are taking a good look around and choosing this path which they want for their business. While some newsagents and suppliers talk us down and shake their heads worrying about tough times, these awesome newsagents are craning to look beyond the horizon because that’s where they want to be – ahead of the curve. It’s where there is fun, excitement and profit.
Yes, I bang on about suppliers who frustrate me and some of the bad stuff which happens to newsagents. But I also write plenty about the success of playing with the model, experimenting with new product categories and pursuing change. There are suppliers who are doing good things with and for newsagents. Some long-term suppliers and some new suppliers.
What irks me is those in the channel who talk it down, going on about tough conditions. For some it’s like they have to do this to match their own achievements. I care less about these people.
I want to see more awesome newsagents and more awesome newsagency businesses out there. More success stories. Now networking about positive things happening in our businesses. Success breeds success, no doubt about that. We have to talk more about this. And if we aren’t enjoying success, we need to make the tough decisions to move which is in the way of us enjoying success.
Our biggest asset is our independence. Our biggest liability is our independence.
We need more awesome newsagents and awesome newsagencies, these businesses are our future. Making them ought to be mission critical.
Magazines I don’t see (part 2)
Check out the magazine I saw in Sarina (just out of Mackay in Queensland) last weekend. It’s not so much the title but the cover story.
Hunting in Iran? It’s the cover story so must sell magazines, I guess.
I feel really out of touch.
Happy Mother’s Day prizewinners
The winner of the Breville food processor we gave away as part of our Mother’s Day promotion collected the prize on the weekend and was happy to pose for a photo. It’s terrific when customers collect a prize and are so thrilled to have won. We love to see their happiness and to see another campaign have come to a successful conclusion – for the winner, our partner supplier – Hallmark and for us in terms of sales growth.
Competitions where one of your customers wins works a treat as it connects us locally with the prize. While this is not possible with a massive prize, it works with this type of prize.
Promoting MasterChef magazine
The giveaway with the latest issue of MasterChef magazine is stunning, it’s the $14.95 Junior MasterChef cookbook from last year bagged with the magazine. Like most newsagents we are promoting the deal in good locations with food titles as well as a second location – newspapers or the counter.
While my views of bagged magazines have softened over the last year, I remain unconvinced in the food space. Browsers like to see the dishes to determine if they would like to make these. This is why we sometimes open a copy for browsers.
The free gift with this issue of MasterChef is one many MasterChef fans would have.
Getting in early with the stocktake
We completed a stocktake yesterday in one of my newsagencies. This is the second store we have done this for in a few weeks. By doing this we eliminate the need for a stocktaker to come in at the end of the financial year.
We do our own stocktake every couple of years, relying on accurate supply, return and sales data in the meantime. The Tax Office accepts the data and we save money.
The data result is terrific getting a handle on shopper theft, space allocation performance and other metrics accurate stock data facilitates.
Magazine publisher tells readers to ignore newsagents
Check out the full page ad which appears in the current issue of The Groundsman magazine. Click on the image for a larger version. The publisher is clear with their message – stop buying The Groundsman magazine from your local newsagent. This is a disappointing message form a publisher who relies on the goodwill of newsagents to carry and promote the title. Indeed, it’s beyond disappointing, it is disrespectful.
I accept that publishers need subscriptions in their supply model and that they need to promote subscriptions in their magazines. However, publishers need to respect their retail partners.
I would’t be surprised in newsagents acted to stop carrying The Groundsman abased on reactions in the past to similar disrespect from publishers when promoting subscriptions.
All the publisher needs to do to make their subscriptions ad reasonable is to change the first two lines.
Newsagents to feature in A Companion to the Australian Media
I was approached last year to write about newsagents for A Companion to the Australian Media being curated by Professor Bridget Griffen-Foley Director, Centre for Media History, Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University. It is to be published in 2013. I am thrilled that newsagents are to be represented in this word tome ands to have been invited as one of 200 or so contributors.
My submission has been lodged . I have tried to represent the history, challenges, opportunities and unique qualities of the Australian newsagent.
New magazine opportunity for newsagents
Newsagents have until Friday to order SHAFT magazine, a new title from Morrison Media, the people behind Frankie and Smith Journal. the title targets men and women working in or connected with mining aged 18 – 40.
Allocations have been done to newsagencies serving mining communities and businesses. If you want to order the new title, contact Gotch and quote the code 12661. I mention here today as newsagents may want to carry SHAFT but may not have been allocated stock. You have until Friday this week to order the title.
Here’s how Morrison describes their distribution:
DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY: Our distribution strategy focuses on servicing regions that have consistent mining interest and are frequented by the Fly-in Fly-Out (FIFO) mining segment. This ensures targeted and relevant supply, a reduction in oversupplying your outlet and high sales efficiencies. There will be a strong focus throughout Western Australia and Queensland to capitalise on the influx of mining activity within these states to capture the burgeoning mining market. SHAFT magazine will be distributed by Gordon and Gotch, and published by Morrison Media (Surfing Life, Freerider MX, Riptide Bodyboarding, Slam Skateboarding, White Horses, Frankie Magazine and Smith Journal).
Smart collateral from ACP for Slow Cooker 2
I like the flag style collateral from ACP for promoting the new Slow Cooker 2 cookbook. It’s different and enables newsagents to use it in a variety of clever ways to promote what should be a top-selling title.
Since newsagents have the title a month or so before any other retailer I’d suggest newsagents make sure they are leveraging the opportunity with the collateral.
The Australian Financial Review launches iPad App
The new iPad App for The Australian Financial Review launches today with a wraparound for the newspaper. I don’t mind the wrap around as it presents the page one story of the day as it appears in the iPad edition today. Very smart.
I know some newsagents are upset that Fairfax is promoting the iPad App using the print product. I understand the frustration. The thing is – how else could / should they promote the new platform? It makes sense even though it is an invitation to migrate from print.
The pricing is appealing for people to get the print and digital editions so newsagents should be happy to see this.
I have been sent a promotional video for the AFR iPad App.
We need to understand that the digital platform will not go away. Consumers have embraced it and publishers need to get there if they are to have a future. The end game for some newspapers will be a complete migration. Given the penetration of iPads in Australia, I’d expect the AFR to be a strong candidate for complete migration from print to digital at some stage. That’s certainly a goal I would have if I were Fairfax.
It is difficult for newsagents to deal with long-term suppliers apparently turning their backs on our channel. The reality is that such moves should not come as a surprise. We can complain or we can embrace the changes we see. Some newsagents are doing this in their businesses with wonderful success.
What we have seen happen with the AFR today is exactly the same News in doing with The Australian and the Herald Sun. Newspaper publishers are doing what they need to do. We should do the same.
DISCLOSURE
On Monday night I received an email from Fairfax about the iPad App. It started off:
Dear Mark,
The Financial Review app for iPad® is now available from the Apple app store. Click here to install your copy now.
We’re keen watchers of the digital space, and are familiar with your work on newsagencyblog.com.au. Our new app for iPad has an array of features developed for a wide market – but certainly, it will provide a valuable tool for small business owners looking for the edge needed in the current, often tricky, economic climate.
So, when choosing 20 bloggers who we think are leaders in the blogosphere for subject matters and audiences relevant to the launch of this revolutionary app, we thought of you. We’re pleased to provide you with a 12 month complimentary digital subscription featuring complete access to afr.com and the new Financial Review app for iPad (valued at $680), and a giveaway of two 12 month digital subscriptions for your valued readers (valued at $1,360).
I was not a subscriber to the App and will certainly engage with it and get first-hand experience.
The email also offered a couple of subscriptions to give away:
To give your readers the chance to win their own digital subscription for the app, please see the attached file, “FINANCIAL REVIEW APP for iPad – EXCLUSIVE GIVEAWAY.pdf”. This has all the steps you need to know in order to run the competition from your website and social media pages.
I am not sure about running the competition here to give away two digital subscriptions. I’d appreciate feedback on this.