TVC promoting newsagents
Here is the TVC running right now supporting the Pacific Magazines Official Olympic Pin promotion that is exclusive to the newsagency channel.
Here is the link: https://youtu.be/KRwSbxLkdpM
The WH Smith newsagent proposition in the UK
With WH Smith growing their presence in Australia in the last year through their acquisition of Supanews, Wild and Kennys Cardiology, I found it interesting to compare their current UK retail offering with what we see in Australia.
I visited several WH Smith High Street stores last week plus several transit locations. While store sizes and product range differs, there is a consistency in look and feel.
Common among the stores is the focus on what mass retailers call value – 2 for, 3 for 2 and similar.
While the WH Smith stores are neat, consistent in layout and not bad looking, they feel out of date to me but I’m not the shopper.
Here are photos from the Manchester Arnddale Centre store:
Newsagents can learn from publisher actions
Fairfax has cleaned up its balance sheet with a billion-dollar write-down announced today. This financial clean-up is something newsagents could take as a guide to cleaning up the newsagency in terms of space allocation to print, space allocation to dead stock generally and the management time commitment to slowing and dying product categories.
To me, that is the focus of today’s Fairfax story – what we should be doing in our businesses in a similarly future-focused mission.
How newsagents can make the most of the Olympic Pin opportunity
Right now, today, newsagents have the opportunity to show how much they appreciate exclusivity. Because, starting today, we have it. It is 100% up to us whether we get such an opportunity again.
The Official Olympic Pins supported by Pacific Magazines titles New Idea, Who and That’s Life are exclusive to our channel. If we do this well we can expect more exclusive opportunities. If we do this poorly, this will be the last such opportunity.
So, how will we do?
Unfortunately, as with any chain, we are only as good as our weakest link. We owe it to each other to haul into line any newsagent letting us down. There is no excuse.
Here are my tips for making the most of the opportunity.
- Understand the product: these are limited-edition pins, collectible, their purchase supports the development of Australian Sport through the efforts of the Australian Olympic Committee.
- Wear a pin in-store.
- Talk about each pin on Facebook in a series of separate posts over several days. Pace yourself.
- Email your customers to promote the pins.
- Offer the pins at the counter to shoppers buying the supporting magazines.
- Make sure the titles, New Idea, Who and That’s Life are in the best position in your magazine display.
- Co-locate New Idea, Who and That’s Life at the counter for the first two days of on-sale.
The goal has to be for this campaign to be an extraordinary success, so much so that Pacific does more newsagent exclusives in the future and so much so that other suppliers do as well.
How this goes is up to us. I have seen all the pins. They look terrific, well worth the $1 spend. The fund-raising cause is strong, people love the Olympics.
I hope all the newsagency marketing groups are 100% behind this newsagency channel exclusive. I know newsXpress is. Here is one Facebook sponsored post newsXpress pitched to 20,000+ people. This is one of several engagements leading up to today’s launch:
Promoting the Australian Olympic Pins on receipts
Here is an image provided by Pacific Magazines that newsagents can auto-serve on customer receipts to promote the newsagency channel exclusive Official Australian Olympic Pin Collection and the supporting titles: New Idea, Who and That’s Life.
The receipt a valuable marketing platform for communicating opportunities like this.
I encourage all newsagents with software offering the ad-serve facility to use it.
Sunday newsagency challenge: be prepared to walk away
If your lease turns out to be too expensive for your business it is on you. You signed it, you accepted the terms. This is why, during a lease negotiation, you need to be prepared to walk away.
Too often, retailers don’t walk away because they have invested considerably in their business and have not achieved the return they want, thinking that will come when the business is sold.
The reality is you make your most money while running this business. Choose this as your mindset, be prepared to walk away and any lease you ultimately sign will be better for you and the business.
Sunday newsagency management tip: pitch your business when looking for new hires
The notice in the window of the Scribbler card shop made working there sound appealing. They set the agenda for candidates by saying We need great managers. While you could dismiss the line by saying every retail business needs this, the question is – how often does a retailer pitch for new managers in this way? Not often if my recollection.
The sign also serves as a marketing message. It is visually appealing and confident. I love it.
Sunday newsagency marketing tip: pitch to customers as they leave
This sign seen by shoppers as they leave a Warhammer store is as much about promoting the business as it is appreciating the visit. It fits the business and promotes one of the characters available from the business.
Too often we see signs as signs and as not part of the narrative of the business. Warhammer shows how it is done.
Check your signs for their connection with your narrative.
Ryman Stationery sets the benchmark
It is back to school season in the UK and Ryman stores have a consistent pitch. These photos speak to a terrific range, excellent value propositions and professional marketing. The photos ought to inspire newsagents focussed on stationery and newsagent suppliers:
Lottoland unfairly depicts small business newsagents
Watch the latest TVC from Lottoland playing on Australian TV now:
The ad includes an unfair, disparaging even, depiction of a newsagent. They set this up by placing the ad inside what looks like an old-style newsagency, something Australians will recognise.
You can let them know what you think at: support@lottoland.com.au. Here is the email I sent them:
As a small business newsagent and as CEO of newsXpress, the newsagency marketing group representing 220 small business newsagents, shame on you for your portrayal of newsagents in your latest TVC.
You show an out of date business that does not reflect the newsagency of today and the future. You have a newsagent portrayed in the ad in a way to mock us.
Your ad denigrates our channel, those who own the businesses and the thousands of families that rely on our businesses for food on the table and clothing on their backs.
Your ad is unfair as it mocks us, misrepresents us and disrespects the intelligence of Australians.
You owe newsagents an apology.
Learning from a pen specialist
The Penfrined shop in Burlington Arcade in London was a delight to visit. It is a pen lovers haven with products and customs service to match. What fascinated me we hearing how many people purchase pens to add to their collection – rarely to use, mainly to sit in a display cabinet with other pens they have collected.
The Panfriend visit today reminded me people purchase items foe reasons beyond what we retailers expect. The more we know about why people buy what they buy the better we can target out marketing.
Take this pen shop. It can promote itself as a pen shop to people who love and use pens. It can also promote itself as a business selling collectibles and thereby attract those who understand and appreciate collecting including those who collect solely for investment.
Special retail is about diversifying to leverage the maximum shopper traffic for the product category in which you specialise.It is about attracting people to the product category for as many reasons possible.
The other surprise fro Penfriend today was the discover that they offer nib grinding. I had never heard of it. Reading up on it now, the service makes sense for this specialty business.
How to fit more magazines into less space
As newsagents reduce magazine overheads by cutting space, the fanning of titles along the shelves is necessary if you want to offer range.
The photo shows the common approach of newsagents in London. What is interesting is that the number of titles in the businesses does nit appear to be falling as much as is happening in Australia. I suspect this has to do with our starting position of 1,000 to 1,400 titles a few years ago.
Strong interest in secondhand magazines
I talked to a retailer in London today who sells vintage magazines. They are grouped by decade. The magazines form part of a large commitment to vintage products going back to the 1940s. The magazines are all bagged with a backing card for the decade to which they belong. It was encouraging to see the magazines getting a second chance at life.
QLD newsagents ought to consider Lottery Agents Queensland instead of the ANF
I urge QLD newsagents to please complete and return the membership application to Lottery Agents Queensland. LAQ is currently negotiating with Queensland Government officials, including Attorney General Yvette D’Ath, Golden Casket representatives, the shadow attorney general, the Katter party and other stakeholders to ensure a fairer deal for Queensland lottery agents.
Without membership support, LAQ will not have the weight to demand change. LAQ is the ONLY Queensland-based industry representative for lottery agents and holds ACCC authorisation. Without healthy membership, agents will have no voice on Queensland-specific issues.
Without LAQ intervention and representation, agents have no chance of better conditions.
It costs less than $1 a day to support the work of the LAQ. I think this is a good investment compared to investing money in the ANF.
I think I just experienced the laziest retail sales person ever
I took my £75 worth of purchases to the counter of the specialty retail store in Manchester today. The person behind the counter was sloshed on a stool. I guessed they were doing something so I waited. After a minute or so they slapped their hand flat on the counter in front of them and said over here. I walked around the counter to face them. They rang up the sale while sitting. I only got a receipt and a bag when I asked. They put the bag on top of the purchases on the counter as they were distracted by a mate who called their name. They got off the stool and walked over to the mate and hugged.
I cannot recall a worse customer service experience in retail.
As they rang up the sale I figured they were unable to freely move on their legs. But the dash to their mate proved otherwise. I also thought they may not be a talker but the chat with their mate showed otherwise.
Retail is a people business. For almost everything available in retail shops there are alternative retailers. Customer service is a key differentiator.
If this was my shop there would be no stool behind the counter. I would make it my business to know the quality of service provided and I’d performance manage this person based on the experience today.
This business is relatively small but it is part of a national chain of 20 stores.
My experience tells me the manager of this store is not a good leader, not strong enough to combat laziness, not strong enough on basic retail principles to say no to a stool at the counter.
This experience as a customer reminded me of what bad customer service feels like. It have encouraged me to review leadership and processes back home to ensure our approach is best-practice.
Aldi has magazines
The Aldi I checked out in Manchester has magazines, unlike Aldi stores in Australia. Here is the range I found near the checkout area:
Crikey shines a light on low margin, low sellers in newsagencies
I am glad to have discussed the low margin we receive on print products, especially books supplied that are not a good fit with our businesses with a Crikey journalist recently. The Crikey piece was in their daily email plus it got good coverage on Twitter:
Newsagents confronted with privacy requirements by Seven West Media
Home delivery newsagents in Western Australia last week received a letter from Seven West Media seeking their commitment to de-identify customer records from customers who lapsed five years or more ago.
This relates to newspaper home delivery data held by WA newsagents for West Australian customers.
To comply, newsagents will need to either manually remove customer records of old customers or have facilities in any software storing customer identifying data.
Besides the costs of compliance, there is a question about the five year age of identifying data and the ATO requirement of seven years for business records. ATO officers can go off-script when conducting an audit.
I have outlined to the Seven West Privacy Officer the challenges the requirement places on newsagents. Further discussions are to follow.
Good reading for newsagents on this topic can be found at the website of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
A DIY way to get more impulse purchases of pens with crossword titles
Here is how the manager at one of my stores is leveraging pen and pencil purchases in the newsagency. I love it. They are using a bulldog clip to hold the pen / pencil container to the magazine fixture. Simple, easy.
Here is a close-up I took to show the shelf connection.
While this is not rocket science, a newsagent I mentioned this to Monday was surprised so I said I’d share the idea here.
I’d be happy to share other DIY ideas here if you want to send them in.
Pitching Uncensored this Presidential election season
We are promoting the latest issue of Uncensored in the newsagency in time with the US Presidential election campaign. While the magazine content is not for me we didn’t want to get in the way of Donald Trump selling some extra magazines.
Media Watch looks at women’s magazines
Click here to see the story on ABC TV’s Media Watch last night about women’s magazines. Fascinating.
Being connected matters
I am currently on a flight from Melbourne to Manchester via Dubai for a quick business trip. Thanks to in-flight internet access, I will not land at the other end to emails and messages. While it is important to turn off occasionally, it is even more important to be connected so business can continue regardless of where in the world you are.
The blurring borders of retail channels
At the AFTA trade show for fishing and outdoors retailers on the Gold Coast on Sunday, my software company’s stand was next to the stand for Gibson, a gift supplier to newsagencies. The adjacency was a reminder of the blurring borders between retail channels.
Gibson has ranges of eyewear that are ideal for fishing and outdoor businesses. They work equally well in newsagencies in some location.
The experience was a reminder of why we are seeing products previously only in one channel appearing in other channels. The same is true for newsagencies as we carry products today that even last year had never been sold in a newsagency business.
I think the blurring of lines between retail businesses is good. It diversifies those businesses engaged and that strengthens them.
I certainly picked up some newsagency-relevant ideas from the AFTA show on the weekend.
Launching Marvel Draw The Marvel Way part series
I expect strong interest in Draw The Marvel Way that launched yesterday. We have a ton of Marvel licenced gift, collectible and other product in-store plus there is the News Corp. promotion – so, between all this now is the time to do anything Marvel in the newsagency.
Nostalgia sells in the newsagency
I like the Treasures From The Archives title under the AWW brand from Bauer.
I like it because I know nostalgia / vintage sells. I also like it because it connects with serval ranges in other departments in-store.
I’d love to see more one-shots like this one from several publishers – but not all at once. Exclusive to newsagencies though as only we have access to products to pitch with these opportunities.