Author: Mark Fletcher

With Jack White featuring on two music titles, our team has taken care to place them together and thereby chase the purchase of both by fans. In addition to the feature display I wrote about yesterday for triple j magazine, we have this placement of Rolling Stone and triple j magazines fronting our music section. I’d urge newsagents to check how they are treating these titles. Given them time in the spotlight as Jack White is hot right now.

We are promoting Slow Cooker 2, the sequel to the runaway Slow Cooker ACP cookbook from a couple of years ago. We sold hundreds of copies of the first edition and are hoping for a repeat of this title with all new recipes.

We are promoting Slow Cooker 2 with this display on the column facing shoppers as they enter the newsagency.

We also have a couple of pockets with food title.

The placement we expect to work the best for us is the stack next to our daily newspapers for it is this location that worked best for the first edition of this title. We will leave Slow Cooker 2 next to newspapers for the next two weeks at least … as long as their sales.

ACP has let newsagents down by not providing marketing collateral with which to promote the title. While I understand it is coming in a couple of weeks, we needed this collateral on Wednesday, the day the title went on sale.

With more publishers getting on the One Direction bandwagon identified early by Pacific Magazines, we have squeezed some space from what was to be our Mother’s Display for the three titles we currently have available.

The latest title, 1D Downunder – from ACP, as a feature in our front of store display. The opportunity to win 1D tickets should help this title move well. Thankfully we have been able to get as much stock as we want of this and the other titles.

The latest issue of MasterChef magazine is out and, frankly, it is disappointing. Rather than this latest issue being something special to coincide with the start of the new TV series, it is more of the same – a food title which is struggling in a competitive marketplace. Check out the cover – it’s not what I’d expect for a magazine that represents the hit TV show. You only have to place it next to Feast, Good Food, Gourmet Traveller or Donna Hay to see that it misses the mark.

We are supporting MasterChef with good in-location promotion but nothing else. It’s not special enough.

Grand Designs Australia magazine launched  yesterday. This title lives up to the expectations of fans of the TV show and packages the projects and stories in a magazine format which, I predict, will see the title a hit.

We are supporting Grand Designs Australia with a display at the entrance to the magazine aisle. We are also featuring it at the counter indicating it as the launch issue – offering customers a reason to take a look at the title.

We have other plans for the title through the on-sale to make sure that we achieve the best sales result possible for the title. In addition to this, we have the title located with home and living titles.

This launch is a wonderful opportunity for newsagents. Get behind this title.

I hope that newsagents have not early returned the title.

We are giving the latest issue of triple J magazine the star treatment with this placement in the free-standing floor unit in our men;s magazine section.

Jack White is a hot music property at the moment so the cover should attract good interest. That said, shoppers who may be interested may not browse the music aisle – hence this placement in with sports and car magazines.

We are four weeks in with this stand. We like it. Customers don’t complain. It is working at offering us a fresh approach for promoting magazine titles outside of their usual location.

I like the rich colours on the cover of the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. What I like about the cover is that it stands out among the sea of colour in the magian aisles.

In addition to the in-location placement (see photo) we are supporting the title with a free standing unit next to newspapers. This is moved each weekend to the front of the store where it works a treat at attracting shoppers.

We are also supporting Better Homes and Gardens as part of the Win a Barina Spark! competition being run by Pacific Magazines. This competition is working a treat at driving sales.

We moved our quilting and related titles next to our country related titles and took the opportunity to place  Australian Homespun and Australian Country Collections next to each other. While they are different titles they have a similar look and are of the same quality. In my view they sit nicely next to each other. I’d note that the move is only temporary as it was brought about by other changes which took away our quilting and crafts specific section at the entrance to our women’s magazine aisle.

We are giving the latest issue of UFC magazine a few days on an aisle end in our men’s magazine section. This is what guys see when they turn to leave the men’s magazine reading area.

We have found with guys that a simple display works better than something which is too, um, pretty.

We have the Girlfriend One Direction one shot at the start of April and that sold its socks off for us. Then we have the It Girl title which Gotch hid and one we got it it too sold its socks off. Wednesday we get the ACP one shot and next Monday we get another Girlfriend one shot. These latter two titles featuring content from their Australian tour. On top of this we have the posters and calendars.

Listening to the fans – in-store and on social media – I suspect we will not be overloaded. We are certainly embracing all the 1D opportunities and banking excellent results. Being a Ticketek outlet is helping with this.

You know a group is hot when they sell out tickets to the pre-concert sound check.

We have found that Family Circle magazine works well when placed next to newspapers. It’s not a title shoppers look for given that it is not our every month. So, placement with newspapers reminds them and sure enough we get a nice sales kick. People who do find the title love it. We also have Family Circle in a prime full face position with our food titles – showing off the delicious cover.

We are promoting the latest issue of Top Gear Australia with this aisle end display facing shoppers as they enter our magazine department. This is the best promotional position in the magazine department.

Besides promoting the latest issue, the feature display is helping us store some of the stock which is wider than a usual copy of the title once folded out.

Check out he magazine wall I saw at a Dymocks store in Hong Kong (in a shopping mall) a couple of days ago. Okay so they don’t have space for displays and promotions, but they do offer range.

By overlapping some covers they are able to fit more than 300 titles on this wall, far more magazines than we would fit in the same floor space.

When you’re paying upwards of $1,200 a square metre on rent return on space is an important factor, especially for lower margin products like magazines.

I don’t think we are in a position in Australia of moving to this approach yet but I do think it will be an active option for some newsagents as they having the changes, challenges and opportunities of magazines over the next few years.

I can see some newsagents creating a wall like this for range and maintaining premium space which is more friendly to merchandising the high volume titles.

Special interest shoppers will look for what they want, especially if those titles are in fewer location.

These are topics we need to discuss and debate. Collectively we need to work through the options.