The report published by News Corp. yesterday is enough for us to claim royal endorsement of Loom Bands. Click on the link, print the story and display it with your Loom Bands. Sales are still strong for these bands – kids love them … boys and girls.
This report is an excellent opportunity for another push.
Peppa Pig branded plush, cards, stationery packs and other lines have been a hit through Easter. Our front of store placement attracted new traffic as well as extending the basket of some regular shoppers.
Peppa Pig has been the single most successful brand for us this Easter.
The Peppa Pig brand continues to be strong for us. So far in 2014, revenue from the brand is up significantly on 2013. While we are fortunate to be in a centre where parents and grandparents shop with and for kids, our supp==ccess is due to us grabbing it with in-your-face displays.
Coke vending machines that only sell Coke are a relic of an era long past. The latest generation Coke vending machines offer entertainment and opportunities for fun with the core goal of getting you engaged with their brand.
Coke knows that engagement = sales.
The Coke corporate website has examples of tremendously innovative Coke vending machines. I mention this today because many newsagents sell Coke. For us to make the most of the opportunity we need to stay connected with the broader campaign supporting the brand.
As I mentioned in January last year, the worldwide Coke happiness campaign is extraordinarily successful and enjoyable.
I plan to write each day this week about newsagency marketing / franchise groups, to encourage newsagents to engage with the opportunities they present.
Regulars here would know I am a shareholder in and Director of newsXpress. Prior to that I was a member of Nextra and a shareholder in my later years with them following a capital raising. Prior to that my newsagency was a member of Newspower.
The posts this week will not seek to guide newsagents to or from any specific newsagency marketing group. They will provide information that stands up to scrutiny as being fair, balanced and of value to individual newsagents.
Today’s question / topic is: Why join a newsagency marketing group?
The only reason that matters is the commercial reason – that by being a member of a newsagency marketing group, paying their fees and engaging with their advice and the commercial opportunities they present your business will benefit commercially.
Newsagents join a newsagency marketing group to profit.
Yes, some will join to connect with friends but this is not a good reason. Others will join a reason because they think just by wing in a group life will be easier. This is not a good reason. Some will join to get access to a single supplier deal. This is not a good reason.
No newsagency is too big or too small to benefit from being part of a group. Size itself should not be a consideration.
The only reason that really matters is to join a newsagency marketing group so your business profits. This then sets the tone and objective for engagement.
The real value of newsagency marketing group membership comes from active engagement with all they offer. A good group will offer product deals, marketing opportunities, special buying opportunities, retail advice, lease advice and more. Combined, these services and deals are what will make you money if you engage.
The right group embraced with the right engagement will do more for your business than you could achieve by yourself. This is why newsagents should join a newsagency marketing group.
While the Disney Cakes & Sweets cake decorating partwork continues to sell well for us, the bigger benefit is that it part of a broader Disney opportunity for us. We have Disney products from four other suppliers and this enables us to tell a bigger Disney story.
It falls on us as retailers to source branded products with which we can tell a story and thereby achieve more from products which, on their own, may not have sold so well.
Brands like Disney licence their products to suppliers who can extend the reach of their brands. This is why we see several suppliers of licenced brand products. Put in the work to connect the dots and it pays off through a better retail story.
The Disney brand is back in right now and almost anything can sell from a magazine to a gift costing well over $100.
The double page spread in a convenience magazine is an excellent example to other publishers on how to launch a new line to newsagents and other retailers.
They tell us their ad spend and where they will spend it. But it’s their steps for sales success that I like the most, especially how they show the right location. A picture really does speak a thousand words.
How many times do you get a flyer with magazines telling you this or that and end up binning it because you don’t have time to read the essay.
I’d urge all suppliers to newsagencies to look at how Ferrero has pitched the new Tic Tac line and how they have communicated and encouraged retailers.
Click on the image to see the details I mention.
Regardless of your religious beliefs, the world-renowned Serenity Prayer is a powerful and inspiring guide for small business owners like newsagents:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.
I have emphasised the most meaningful words in this from a business perspective.
We in small business spend too much time worrying about what we cannot change and the things we will not change. It seems that on some of these issues we prefer to expend energy and emotion complaining and being angry rather than either forcing change or moving on.
Magazines are good example. We burn through enormous energy complaining and being angry and most newsagents do nothing about it.
In the average retail newsagency business there is plenty we can change. My management tip today is to focus on what you can change in your business.
Start right away. Take out a note pad and write down the parts of your business which you can change: gifts, stationery, toys, plush, how you display magazines, hiring, firing, marketing, employee motivation connecting with the local community. These are all important areas than can impact your bottom line.
This list of what you can change is what you should focus your time and money on. For anything not on the list: do what you need to do, but don’t invest beyond this – save your best investment for the parts of your business you can change.
Think of this as you reclaiming your newsagency for you.
Narrowing your focus on what you can change could change how you manage your business and what you invest in it. I hope it boosts your business and gives you a fresh outlook. I hope that it resets your feeling to one of optimism and love for what you can do.
If you want more customers act on getting them to do business with you. Complaining or wishing will not get them trading with you. Only your action through advertising, marketing or knocking on their doors will work for you.
I know of newsagents growing stationery and ink sales through knocking on doors. I know of newsagents growing toy sales through knocking on doors.
Yes it’s hard work and you probably did not buy your newsagency to be a door to door sales person but if you want to grow your sales this is one marketing activity you ought to embrace.
Every day you are not knocking on doors is another day a competitors could be doing it and grabbing sales that could have been yours.
Being in retail does not mean all your business has to be done in the shop!
While we complain about oversupply of magazines to newsagencies, in the US they are complaining about oversupply of unsolicited magazines to the home. Interesting problem.
Even without what should be terrific sales today Easter 2014 has been an excellent season for us. Cards, gifts and chocolate are all performing well for us in terms of sales and in terms of detracting new shoppers to the business. We are thrilled with the results we are seeing.
For years Easter in many Australian newsagencies was a minor season. Now, for plenty of us, it equals and even passes Valentine’s Day. The key is a fresh offer promoted in a compelling way.
Seasons are vitally important as seasonal shoppers spend more in a visit than a regular shopper. We make our businesses appealing to seasonal shoppers through our displays and out of store marketing. What we get from these seasons is up to us.
We will not discount until tomorrow. No need.
I always thought that Good Health and Women’s Fitness targeted different shoppers – hence my surprise to find them bundled together in a discount pack. While we have removed another title to find room for this pack I’m not planning on leaving it out for the full on-sale.
We are loving the sales being achieved with the Star Trek part series. The customer it is attracting is good for us and the impulse purchases to existing customers are excellent. With easter and Mother’s Day we do not have room for a front opt store display at the moment. Our sales are being driven from in the newspaper aisle where we have given over twelve pockets to the title.
How long do you take to quit products that are not working in your newsagency? A few days? A week? A month? Six months? A year?
If a product is not working every additional day it is on the shop floor or in the store room is additional cost to the business. As this cost increases the value of immediately quitting the products increases. hence the need to quit non-performing stock quickly.
In my newsagency earlier this week we decided to give away for free and or bin two small display units of products that are no longer working. It was not a lot of stock, not even filling two dump bins. Under $100 at cost.
Just having the stock on the shop floor gave off a message I did not like. Hence the decision to quit.
When we decide to exit a product we like it to be done within seven to fourteen days. We usually start at 50% off. After a week days we move to a price, often in a $1 bin and or a $5 bin as appropriate. What is left at the end of two weeks we remove by either giving it away or throwing it away.
It is important we are ruthless in quitting non-performing stock. Important to keep our businesses looking fresh, important to embrace the consequences of bad buying and important to have offers for customers that show they can get deals from us.
I accept responsibility for product I have bought which has not worked. While I’ll ale a write-down deal from a spiller if available, I will not pressure a supplier into giving one that was not part of the buy-in.
Too often newsagents expect suppliers to be responsible for newsagent buying decisions.
If we buy the stock for our stores we must responsible for dealing with it if it does not work as expected.
All products likes come to an end. This is why it is important to have an established process for handling and quitting products that are no longer working as we need them to..
Our Everyday Counter Card sales are up 17% year on year comparing jan-Mar 2014 to 2013. This is off an excellent base. This category of cards accounts for 56.9% of all cards we sell.
17% YOY growth is an extraordinary result. It is valuable with cards delivering the best gross profit percentage out of all categories we sell in our business. I’d be happy to explain our process to anyone.
Talking with another newsagent today, their card sales are up 19% in the same period – a fantastic result.
A customer told the manager of my newsagency the story of how she bought a dozen of these realistic looking bouncing eggs, put them in an egg carton and pretended to trip in the kitchen in front of her family. The reaction was priceless when they saw the eggs bounce.
A customer yesterday purchased one egg and the manager shared the story of the other customer’s prank. This customer left the shop and returned a short time later and purchased eleven more eggs to have enough for her to play the prank.
The story was shared a story, the way we often do over the counter in talking with customers – and not to chase a commercial outcome for us. That was a surprise and delight … the sale of $43.00 worth of additional eggs to a customer who purchased one.
In addition to being retailers, lease negotiators, IR experts, buyers, parents, motivators and plenty of other things, we are story tellers. Sometime our stories are about local events and situations, other times we pass on dories from customers. The joy is when the stories connect with our businesses as this one did.
As I think about this I am reminded that it’s a situation unique to an independent newsagency business. A customer at a supermarket or a Reject shop would not usually be given the time of day for such a story. The experience is a reminder of the value of being in the moment with customers – listening and sharing stories you know will be appreciated and relevant.
These stories we share reflect on the narrative of our business. By that I mean that the stories we tell our customers are stories about and reflective of us. The stories, whether intended to or not, connect our customers with us.
Check out the marketing sent out by the Tatts owned SA Lotteries to customers this week encouraging them to sign up for the Autoplay service – repeat ticket purchases. This is exactly what the majority of lottery shoppers want – weekly purchases without forgetting.
Newsagents need to factor marketing like this into their own business planning. Tatts is doing here exactly what I would do if I were them. That doesn’t mean I like it, I don’t. Newsagents spend more than they should promoting Tatts’ brands and it is because of this the company can leverage more online business.
Tatts promoting online and not equally promoting its retail network is not socially responsible.
In saying this move is not socially responsible I mean that Tatts relies on its retail network for sales fur sure but they also rely on it for brand awareness. The retail network depends on regular purchases. This move to make weekly purchases easy through an online account will impact the retail network and this will put jobs and businesses at risk. This is not socially responsible.
I love the cover of Delicious magazine. The chai cake with ginger cream looks, well, delicious. I’d love one to be delivered. The cover alone should sell this issue. Add to this the excellent chopping board gift with purchase and you have a terrific magazine opportunity.
We have this issue in prime location. It’s sure to sell out.
We have a pocket of Empire magazine with weekly magazines, next to TV Week because of the Game of Thrones cover. This is an excellent opportunity to drive impulse purchases of the title from shoppers who would not otherwise see it. Game of Thrones is huge – apparently.
The backing card supplied to promote the royal tour editions of AWW and OK! is big and covers the magazine behind it. This is okay if it’s a Bauer title as they are damaging themselves but if it’s a competitor product behind it’s unfair.
We have removed the backing cards as I don’t think they do anything to boost sales and, as noted, they detract from other product.
We have been promoting (and continue to promote) the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine in the usual location next to weekly magazines as well as with this position at the entrance to our main magazine aisle.
BHG always responds to tactical placement in high traffic locations like this. We’re using the old Win a Car stand.
In doing some research for postcard products I discovered the Australia Post postcard App. Curious, I downloaded it and sent myself a postcard. I expected that for the $1.99 cost I’d get my photo on a think piece of paper looking good but not like a regular postcard.
I was wrong.
What I received was a terrific rendition of my photo printed on think card stock in excellent colour and on the reverse was everything I included. The photo shows the back side of the postcard. While I went with a particularly geeky message: Hello world, you can type a message of up to ten lines long.
This is an excellent product from Australia Post. It demonstrates how much the organisation is changing, how they are seeking out new revenue stream opportunities. They are doing what we all need to be doing – looking for new new traffic, new revenue and opportunities to leverage our past for our future.
While I am happy to whack Australia Post, this time they deserve kudos.
This photo shows kids loving the kinetic sand we have in front of the newsagency this week. Attract kids and you attract parents and grandparents – perfect for during school holidays.
Not only is the sand selling out but those attracted to it are purchasing other items in-store.
This is the value of a popular product, a product that generates net new traffic that often browses and spends.
The sand is part of a well thought through traffic generating strategy. It is performing well above expectations in terms of return on floor space, return on labour and return on inventory investment. It is working well with and for Easter products.
It is this success I think of when I compare being a retailer to being an agent. Success at traffic generation and success at selling an item with a GP of greater than 50% and powerful basket build factor. Attracting people to things they purchase rather than services they use is more beneficial for the business.
While it is hard work finding items as successful as the sand, the payoff when it works is well worth it. Plus – the success helps inform future buying decisions.
The New Idea Baking Essentials title is proving to be very popular both in-store and in social media. In fact, it was the social media traffic that encouraged us to promote the title in a more proactive way. Customers told us they loved the title. We have New Idea Baking Essentials with weeklies as ell as with food.
There is plenty of noise about on the Heartbleed bug that puts personal information at risk. Here are links to three articles I trust for advice on handling the risk:
We had our Woman’s Day supplies cut to below what we would usually sell. I’ve heard of a couple of others experiencing this too. Anyone else?