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

2014 Astro Diaries opportunity for newsagents

Universal Magazines is releasing a premium diary for 2014 exclusively through the newsagency channel. I’ve seen the product. It’s high-end, and ideal gift. Newsagents can control supply. You can also request a floor display unit. I’m ordering this for my newsagencies as it fills a valuable niche.

Here’s information from Universal about the Astro Diaries:

  • The Astro Diaries are really two products in one, Each of the 12 Astro different Astro Diaries combines the usefulness of a week to view Diary planner with the fun of a monthly Astrology overview and daily prediction.
  • Finished size 210X200mm case bound with magnetic close flap
  • RRP $19.95
  • Exclusive to newsagents
  • Delay billed for the whole on sale period – No cash outlay-
  • 33% retail commission
  • Full sale or return
  • Our research suggests the Astro Diaries will be a popular gift line this year as they are unique, fun and represent exceptional value as a gift Supplied through Network Services
  • Available to retail 19/9/2013

While I’m promoting the diaries I have no commercial arrangement with Universal Magazines. My support is because I think this product offers an excellent opportunity for newsagents.

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Diaries

Terrific cover story for The Monthly

I love the cover of the latest issue of The Monthly. The cover story, Why we hate refugees, speaks to a issue at the heart of politics in Australia but an issue on which the two major parties effectively agree. The Monthly is playing an important and timely role with the piece by Christos Tsiolkas.

We have The Monthly in its usual location as well as with weeklies. This is an excellent issue for us drive incremental business.

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magazines

Tasty cover for Feast magazine

The latest issue of Feast magazine looks tasty and it stands out from the sea of colour that is the magazine department in a newsagency. We are promoting the magazine with food titles as well as giving it a week with our newspapers. Feast is a magazine shoppers will buy on impulse – if we put it in front of them.

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magazines

Jumbo Interactive growth from online lottery sales

Following form my post yesterday about Tatts Group, check out the Motley Fool article about Jumbo Interactive, the operators of the successful Oz Lotteries website. Their success is another indicator of migration of the lottery customer to online and another reason for newsagents to consider the extent of capital they invest in lottery products

Lottery products are agency products and while there is potential for sales growth thanks to jackpots, I don’t see much everyday growth for high street stores since more lottery customers will migrate online – especially when the online experience becomes even easier. As an agency line, retail success is dependent more on the supplier than retailer lines where we have more levers with which to play to make our own success.

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Lotteries

Placing products by interest can work better than by category

Here’s another example of how newsagents can grow sales by connecting products by shopper interest more so that product type. The teapot calendar sells well when placed with our range of teapots and teas. The same shopper will be interested in all three items yet in a more traditional newsagency the calendar would be in the calendar department and not placed with the teapots and teas.

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Tactical display

A bagged magazine that makes sense

Here’s a bagged offer from a magazine publisher that makes sense to me.  The bagging of Hello magazine with a Price George collectors edition makes sense as it adds value to the magazine. We have this issue in a higher profile location as a result.

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magazines

Online gambling growth for Tatts

A week ago Tatts Group announced its results including growth for its own online sales:

Our continued investment in the Tatts.com website is also starting to deliver results with growth of 35.2% achieved through the online lottery sales channel. Online sales now represent 8.2% of all sales (excluding SA Lotteries)(FY12: 6.6%).

This is important information for newsagents to consider when investing in representing Tatts from signage through to a shop-fit. Invest in a way that respects your business and what you can achieve from it in a reasonable (three years I’d suggest) period of time.

In pursuing online and mobile opportunities Tatts Group is doing what it needs to do to drive shareholder value. Newsagents need to understand that Tatts must and will put its shareholders ahead of everyone else. This is why the objectives pursued by the company may not align with the objectives of retailers.

Footnote. In the results call transcript is an acknowledgement of a dip in sales of instant scratch tickets:

Instants are down 11% and are thought to have been impacted by the “attraction ” to our jackpot games – we are however looking at a number of initiatives to reinvigorate scratch-its.

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Lotteries

Moving wedding magazines, chasing newsagency magazine sales growth

As part of our perpetual magazine relay – we love change – I moved wedding titles on Saturday, placing them below magazines for women (teens through thirty or so). While one has to reach down to pick up a magazine here – it places the titles closer to where the target shopper.

The days of a set and forget approach to magazine layout are long gone. We have to approach the department with a hunger to compete with supermarkets, convenience stores, petrol outlets and other newsagents.

By constantly changing magazine placement we learn more about the titles we sell as well as about the habits of our magazine customers. The sole goal of this work is to increase magazine sales. Think of this work as marketing activity.

While I still think a whole of department magazine relay is vital annually, tweaking the layout regularly is equally important and rewarding. See: How to do a magazine relay in your newsagency.

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magazines

Thoughtful expansion of magazine range

I was thrilled to see Explore Whiskey on our shelves. It’s an unusual title for a newsagency out in the suburbs. The team member who decided to order in the title explained their reasoning and it made sense. It’s an expansion of our male-focused magazine titles, broadening a car and sports-centric magazine department.

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magazines

Sunday newsagency management tip: let your employees make mistakes

Learning from mistakes can be more valuable than formal training. That’s been my experience. Too often I see newsagents micro-managing their employees and denying them the opportunity of learning from mistakes.

A young employee just given responsibility for an area of a newsagency had made some excellent choices in changing product layout.The changes they had made were a vast improvement. I witnessed the owner of the business ignore the opportunity to compliment and point out where they could do better. This same owner has a track record of micro-managing employees, managing away their creativity and not tolerating any mistake.

While the young employee in the above story could have done a better job, this was their first crack. I am certain they will improve with time based on their initial work. If I was the owner I’d have congratulated them and left it at that. Good people improve of their own accord. They also make some mistakes and these are be more valuable for them and us.

I’d go as far as to suggest we need to encourage mistakes – as long as the people working with and for us learn from them. We need to learn from our own mistakes. In fact, it’s good to show off to ur colleagues that we do this.

I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my years in business. The best mistakes are those people have seen me make and see me learn from. These are the mistakes that have been more valuable for me too.

This is my management tip today: don’t micro manage, set your people free and welcome mistakes by those who will learn from them.

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Management tip

Sunday retail newsagency marketing tip: create an award

Retail business marketing is all about extending the reach of your business beyond those who shop with you today and know what it offers. It serves to raise the relevance of your business to others.

Today’s marketing idea seeks to better connect your business with the local community.

Create an award. Create an award that a person or group in your area could be eligible for, an award recognising effort the community appreciates and needs. The ideal would be to recognise unsung effort, something other awards do not already cover.

Call this the 2013 [insert your business name] Award for [insert what the award’s for].

Do your research before you announce anything. Make sure you are up for an annual award – organising the judging, funding the prize and linking with an event where the award could be awarded. This could be the local shop or some other region-wide event. Ensure that the award has appropriate criteria for judging or voting.

Awards could be best best community project of the year, local hero of the year, best regional promotion of the year, best community event of the year.

Set a budget so you don’t go overboard. promote the award for plenty of time, to get the best marketing value possible. Promote the winner in-store.

A good award will extend your community connection and this should play well for sales. While doing good is good, growing sales is more important as this gives you the resources you need to do good.

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marketing

Hero father’s Day gift drives traffic & sales

The Car in a Can has been our hero product this Father’s Day – delivering excellent sales and attracting shoppers from the mall into our newsagency.  I stood outside the shop yesterday and saw first-hand the success of this product in attracting shoppers. Having such a different Father’s Day gift has been valuable. We’ve see the Car in a Can bought for grandpas to new dads – a broader age range than we anticipated.

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Gifts

Fairfax misses an opportunity

The Saturday Age today is promoting a deal offering the 2014 Good Food Guide for a discount with the newspaper. Because of a disconnect between Fairfax and retail newsagents we did not have the Good Food Guide. We lost sales. News Corp. in Victoria is building its connection with retail newsagents. fairfax should do the sale.

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Newspapers

Great window promoting Father’s Day

I love this window display promoting Father’s Day that I saw in Auckland on Tuesday it ikoiko. The display is funny, smart and engaging. When I was there people of all ages were stopping and reading. This window display was doing exactly what it needed to do and doing it in a way that connected perfectly with the type of business Iko Iko is.

Click on the image for a bigger version – to see the detail. I’m putting it in my inspiration folder.

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marketing

NSW State Government shows lack of support for small business

Many years ago the Labor government of NSW hurt small business newsagents by cutting commission on transport tickets. The Liberal government is showing they are no different by crowing that 75% of OPAL card users top up their accounts online, thereby cutting out retailers like newsagents. Their website guides users on this.

While top-up online is to be expected, the promotion is another example of governments selfishly chasing their revenue needs at the expense of small business. These same politicians find money to pork-barrel electorates they want to win and to prop-up industries they want to suck up to. What’s happened here is another reason my call for politicians to do work experience in small business is vital.

The biggest sector to suffer from changes in transport ticketing arrangements over the last decade is newsagents.

While I not a fan of agency business I understand that to many newsagents agency related traffic and revenue is very important.

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Ethics

Peppermint magazine supports newsagents

Great to see Peppermint magazine promoting newsagents as the for the latest issue out this Monday. They tweeted 14,000+ followers with the news. In checking them out I discovered Peppermint is Australia’s first and only eco and ethical fashion magazine. I did not know that. The information makes it useful in promoting the title.

Every social media reach-out by magazine publishers promoting us is valuable as they are speaking to their community.

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magazines

delicious not promoting newsagents

I was disappointed to hear an advertising for delicious magazine on the radio a couple of days advertising a number of outlets but not mentioning newsagents. In the past these ads certainly mentioned our channel but not this ad. It left me wondering if it was deliberate – I hope not.

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magazines

Does Hubbed prefer to attack the questioner rather than answer the questions?

A newsagent attending a recent Hubbed presentation promoted by and held at the ANF / QNF offices in Brisbane says that Hubbed CEO David McLean said that he had an intense dislike of me and intended to bring Mark Fletcher down. He is reported to have said that he has met me to discuss Hubbed.  I have never met with or spoken to David McLean.

While I don’t care what McLean thinks about me, newsagents would be better served and informed is he answered the questions about the Hubbed contract I have published and addressed the broader business questions I have raised.

That I publish my personal opinions here on this blog does not diminish the opinions nor restrict how they can respond.  I’d encourage McLean to respond to my questions as if they were put at a public forum since that’s what this place is – a public gathering place of newsagents. There are 1,300 visitors a day here.  Don’t think of it as a blog but rather a place where newsagents talk.  McLean is welcome to respond here as he would publicly at a Q&A session.

Alternatively, I’d welcome an opportunity to put my concerns about Hubbed to McLean and others in a public forum where newsagents can see the Q&A live.

Transparency is key. From what I have seen so far transparency is lacking in what Hubbed has put to newsagents.

That McLean is responding to my questions by attacking me should itself concern newsagents.  A more potent response from the company would be to answer the questions, thereby showing that concerns were unfounded. That would be a good outcome for Hubbed and for newsagents.

Newsagents have not yet been presented the complete commercial terms and therefore cannot make an informed decision as to what they are signing up for.

If the ANF was not a business partner of Hubbed it could ask the questions I am asking. If the ANF was not a business partner of Hubbed it could act as an association representing newsagents on this matter.

Newsagents have not been presented clean financial information to show how they will get a return on the Hubbed daily fees + the cost of the retail space used + the cost of labour.

Hubbed has not been specific about how it will drive new traffic for newsagents.

Hubbed has not, from what I am told, addressed in any detail how it will compete with the Australia Post self-serve kiosks.

Let me be clear and repeat what I have written previously – I don’t know if Hubbed is good or not as all of the information to make such an assessment is yet to be released.

What I do know is that Hubbed is an agency service. There are some newsagents who will want to remain agents. Those who want to be retailers are less likely to find the Hubbed agency offer appealing.

The people behind Hubbed should welcome scrutiny if their offer is as good as they say it is and they should attack those calling for scrutiny if what they offer does not stack up.

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Hubbed

The Walking Dead 2014 calendar hot!

I’d urge newsagents to get The Walking Dead calendar in-store. We sold our initial order in a couple of days and have plenty more on the way. The TV series is very popular and the calendar is an easy gift for fans. One customer earlier this week bought the calendar and as a result of the discount voucher they received they purchased a greeting card – adding bonus margin dollars to the visit from the customer. FYI.  They didn’t come in to buy either item – more than $30.00 spent on impulse.

This calendar is from Browntrout.

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Calendars

Promoting Disney and Marvel plush

We’re promoting a range of Disney and Marvel themed plush is a good tie-in with other products we have in-store. This is another example where connection with well-known brands can help us connect products from several suppliers to tell a better retail story in-store.

I’d urge newsagents to look at this, at branded products they can source from multiple suppliers.

While the plush is Ty brand, it’s the consumer brands of Disney and Marvel that infrequent plush shoppers recognise. Our plush collectors, however, collect all things from Ty – we love them!

This type of stand is a good example of how newsagents can make a small investment in a new product range for an excellent return. For a few hundred dollars you can usually have earned back the cost of all stock before the invoice is payable. This is what I mean about being a retailer and not an agent.

1 likes
Newsagency management
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