I’ve heard that the latest issue of Wellbeing magazine is selling well, ahead on recent sales for the title. Seasonally this is a good time for the title – we’re out of winter and for those of us in colder states out of hibernation. The redesigned cover is another reason to give the title time in the spotlight.
I like the material sent by Morrison Media to newsagents promoting the latest issue of Smith Journal. The information explaining the title and the ideal placements in-store is useful for us. I’d urge newsagents to make sure they read it and get the person responsible for magazines to read it – and action the suggestions. Smith appeals to an important shopper for newsagencies. As for the cover of the latest issue, I love it!
Click on the image for a larger version.
I like the campaign being promoted by Boost Juice in the lead up to the election this weekend. They’re driving sales of their protein balls on the back of a survey where you nominate your preference of Tony Abbott or Kevin Rudd. It’s a simple and topical campaign with a commercial outcome focus. If you’re not a protein ball lover you can’t vote.
The headline of the story on the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald this morning is covered with an political ad.
It’s disappointing to see the news of the day treated in this way by newspaper publishers. Many customers don’t like these stuck-on ads.
The ANF sent a notice to members yesterday apparently in response to some of the questions I have raised. Their repsonse included:
Yesterday ANF CEO Alf Maccioni sat with David McLean from Hubbed to once again go through the CONNECT contract which is going out to newsagents. He asked a number of questions and suggested changes to the contract. The main cause of concern was a clause which made it seem like this was an exclusive agreement and that the newsagent had to ask permission from Hubbed to allow competing services. This clause has now been removed from the updated contract.
The ANF membership has a 5% stake in CONNECT to ensure the interests of newsagents are paramount and Hubbed will continually work with members to ensure that their questions are being answered. There is an extensive list of Q&As on the ANF website.
ANF CEO Alf Maccioni said he believed that the CONNECT suite of products will add a new dimension to the newsagency channel and will ultimately attract younger customers.
As previously stated, the ANF strongly recommends that all agents should also get independent legal advice on the CONNECT contract and any other contract in relation to their current business and personal circumstances. If for any reason you feel uncomfortable about signing or you are not sure if this system would work in your store then don’t sign.
I heard about this from an ANF member. The ANF, as with Hubbed, is welcome to respond here to the questions I have raised.
If the ANF thinks newsagents will believe that their 5% stake is to ensure the interests of newsagents are paramount and Hubbed will continually work with members to ensure that their questions are being answered then they must think we’re stupid.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
A One Direction fan bought a copy of British GQ magazine because of the Harry Styles cover story. We facilitated the impulse purchase by placing the title with our One Direction magazines. Nice! It pays to look at magazine covers and co-locate.
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.
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.
Today we saw one of the heaviest magazine loads in recent memory. It felt like some of the usual first week of the month wednesday stock shifted to the first Monday.
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.
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.
We have placed some of our allocation of the latest issue of Scientific American with our food titles because of the cover story on food. We often co-locate a title based on the cover – often driving adding additional sales.
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.
We made the most of the free Nutella pack with the Sunday Herald Sun today by having the product at the counter and actively giving it way with the newspaper. We treated the gift as a counter offer. This made pitching it easier. It also helped us differentiate ourselves.
Senior management from Network Services advises they are working on a problem with electronic invoices delivered through XchangeIT for WA and SA newsagents for tomorrow. I’ll share here anything further I hear.
UPDATE: Network advises that an update at 6PM should see all missing files dispatched.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.