We’re at a 75% sell through of the My Kitchen Rules cookbook with sales close to 50 units. We have achieved this from placement with food magazines, a couple of weeks with weeklies and the shop floor placement shown in the photo – next to the impulse Better Homes and Gardens stand.
These TV show tie-in one shots can be a challenge. There’s something to be said for going hard early in several locations on the shop floor.
Sorry for the blog being down this morning. The server farm where it is located has been down with all hosted websites affected. It’s limping at the moment and will be to full speed very soon I’m told.
In Newcastle last week I was walking around looking for a coffee shop when I noticed CB Coffee Cart, a mobile coffee business operating from the back of a van. They were busy filling orders for an office they were parked nearby.
The coffee was terrific and the service efficient and friendly – all key factors for success in a mobile business. I was impressed.
The operators of this business have gone out and created their own success. They’re not relying on a supplier to drive traffic nor are they relying on a brand. For a business in a competitive market it’s a challenge. From what I could tell they have nailed it.
The experience was on my mind this week as I reflected on how much we have relied and still in many instances do rely on traffic from agency lines in our businesses. We complain about these agency products yet they get feet walking into our shops. What if we had to rely totally on our own resources like CB Coffee Cart, what would we do differently? It’s a question worth asking ourselves.
And magazine publishers wonder why newsagents early return. This week we received a 71% increase in supply of Nexus magazine without any justification in our sales data and for no obvious reason in this issue of the magazine.
Our sales data indicates that no increase was warranted yet some person or process within Network Services thinks otherwise.
This is yet another example of gross oversupply over which newsagents have no control, oversupply that disadvantages us and impacts on our ability to effectively compete in the magazine space.
If this behaviour continues consumers will suffer form lack of competition.
Take note magazine publishers – if you want newsagents to keep selling magazines, fix this type of oversupply!
We are promoting the new Barbie partwork on the lease line, facing into the mall. Our weekend traffic is such that we’d expect to achieve most sales of this new title on the weekend – hence the placement.
We’re hoping that the Barbie brand will drag kids and their parents towards us who otherwise might not check us out in this visit to the centre.
It’s good to see the NRL’s Big League promoting newsagents as the go to retailers for Big League magazine. Check out the tweet from a couple of hours ago. This issue they are promoting is all about the state of origin.
I was fortunate yesterday to have time alone in a room with a massive whiteboard, no interruptions and a view out to the sea to do some thinking and planning.
It was like a vacation being disconnected for those few hours.
At first it took time to shake off my own constraints on what business looks like. Once I’d done that, it was fun brainstorming by myself with only myself to make fun of. I wanted to do this in advance of some group planning sessions coming up, to clear my head and dream so dreams without constraints.
I appreciate it’s hard to find the time and opportunity in a small business newsagency for this type of personal thinking time. If there is any way to get it for yourself I say GO FOR IT! All I got was a few hours – the value will be worth far more than that.
Footnote: I’ve blurred the photo as this post is not about what I thought through but the process itself.
Further to my blog post recently about the success I’m seeing with Discount Vouchers, here is an extract from a report showing shoppers use the vouchers.
The image – click on it – is part of a page from a four page report showing vouchers earned and redeemed by departments and categories.
This report one of several comprehensive reports showing how this new approach to loyalty is being used.
Take a look at magazines: 42.08% of vouchers issues have magazines in their sales baskets whereas 69.64% have magazines in sales baskets where vouchers are redeemed.
Take an even deeper look: for women’s weeklies magazines (Woman’s Day, New Idea, NW, famous, OK etc), 7.64% of sales where vouchers were issued includes these in their basket whereas sales with women’s weeklies in the basket where vouchers were redeemed accounted for 23.46% of all redemptions.
This data is interesting to me, it shows shoppers using the vouchers to possibly purchase titles they might otherwise not have purchased. The women’s weeklies segment is benefiting more from the vouchers than almost every other segment at the moment. This is both good and bad news for newsagents. It is something magazine publishers need to understand too.
I am in no doubt that shoppers want a new type of loyalty program – they are tired of VIP points based programs. They want something that is not points based, something that rewards them today and in a way that is easy to engage with. As a retailer I want this and I want the tools to enable good analysis of shopper engagement.
I’m fortunate to have been sent the first tow issues of the new Batman Automobilia partwork due for launch on Monday June 17 from Gordon & Gotch. part two is the car from the 1970s TV series.
I had this car when it first came out so I understand the nostalgia value. The Batman movies also make the series compelling for the current generation beyond nostalgia.
The national TV campaign should drive excellent sales for us.
I have spoken with Gotch about allocation and the need for them to accept initial order allocation requests from newsagents. They say they can’t do this. I have stressed that they should. Proactive newsagents will usually want more and Gotch should find a way to accept and work with this – the result should be more sales.
The other challenge for us for this part series will display given the cars stuck to the front of the product. Our plan is to create a space toward the counter where the cars are the hero.
The latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens has taken off thanks to the Italian feature and our placement in four locations in-store: with weeklies, newspapers, usual location and floor unit in front of store. We’ll support this for the next week in these four locations and then pull back to the usual two locations – regular spot and newspapers.
Better Homes and Gardens is our top selling magazine by far. It responds well to promotional support.
Every year I see newsagents bring in a stocktaker who does a great job counting and valuing stock but who adds nothing to the business operationally.
A stocktake is less about the value of the stock than about getting accurate data on which to base smarter business decisions.
Using newsagency software, newsagents can do the stocktake themselves. It will save time and money. Plus you will be able to:
The benefits are there for the taking – get started by using your newsagency software. I urge newsagents to talk to their software company about it. My software company is running rolling free training workshops for interested newsagents. Others are welcome to promote their training opportunities here too. We all need to help lift the efficiency of this channel.
Don’t do a manual stock take in 2013 it’s a wasted investment.
I received this marketing idea from the publisher of Australian Family Tree Connections magazine and share it here for newsagent feedback and comment:
This year the month of August is being trialled as ‘National Family History Month’ (having previously been a week).
I’m not aware of other promotions newsagents might be running in August, but I believe it would be an excellent opportunity for Family History, Genealogy and Historical Societies (about 2,000+ Australia-wide) to get together with newsagents and help promote their History/Genealogy magazines section.
Societies are not-for-profit and rely on members to run successfully; their members are very knowledgeable.
The kind of co-operation I envisage is for newsagencies to feature their History/Genealogy magazine section for part (or all, for larger stores) of August, and for Societies to have 1-2 members and a card-sized table nearby to help customers with any queries they might have.
For eons, Societies have tended to be inward-looking so linking with local newsagents would connect them with their “outside world” and maybe pick up a few new members. For no cost, newsagents would have a visibly direct link with an interesting sector of the community.
A natural fit, but win-win? I have the contacts if you think it a worthwhile idea.
What do newsagents think?
In addition to sending flyers out to 15,000 houses and businesses around our shopping centre, we are pitching the latest brand name ink sale with this placement of some collateral at the counter.
What I love about this is that a team member took the initiative himself – brilliant!
Visually connecting in-store with external marketing is vital. The majors do this well. Small independent retailers not so much.
This counter placement is just part of a range of steps in-store to connect with the latest campaign.
Queensland newsagents, still reeling from the impact of the suspended/cancelled T2020 newspaper distribution reorganisation, were shocked to be advised last week by News that they will be transferring from 30 day accounts to 7 day accounts.
With their marketplace particularly challenged, as identified by News Limited itself, the significant change in trading terms puts more pressure on newsagencies in Queensland.
While the News move is part of a national transition to a new circulation management model, I would have thought that the fragility of the Queensland distribution newsagent situation, made worse because of T2020, would have seen News delay the move from 30 day accounts to 7 day accounts.
News is making considerable moves to drive operational and financial efficiency within its business. It continues to deny newsagents reasonably opportunities to do the same in their businesses.
An article in The Age yesterday is a reminder about how old points-based loyalty programs are and about the exposure to businesses of contingent liabilities.
While some loyalty programs operators reserve the right to change the rules and points balances without reference to shoppers, the risk of this is considerable – given that the program was about building loyalty and not crushing it.
The CPA website has information about contingent liabilities of loyalty programs.
Some newsagents I have spoken with have not considered the liabilities building up in their loyalty programs and the possible implications for when they sell their business.
There is another travel-related view of airline loyalty programs by Hal Brierley, published by Harvard Business Review. I agree with his core thesis about rewarding a small group of your customers.
A good loyalty program will encourage deeper and more active engagement from shoppers and it will do this with little overhead.
My personal view is that points based loyalty programs are past their use by date. Shoppers want something fresh, something that is easier and more transparent. This is why I have pursues discount vouchers instead.
We are chasing a younger girl demographic with this placement of the broad Top Model stationery and related range capping the entrance to two aisles in our newsagency.
We have given plenty of space to the actual Top Model branding since this will be well known by girls and some of their parents. The brand is the key for us here – given its extraordinary popularity in Australia and internationally.
Our engagement with Top Model is a good example of pursuing an international brand that connects with shoppers we already see and that has potential to pull new shopper traffic for us. It’s also an example of playing in a space that reaches beyond what is traditional for a newsagency. We have to do more of this.
We are a week in and results so far are good.
I have taken to searching for stationery, magazines, ink and cards using Google on my iPhone when I am away from home. It’s disappointing that local newsagency businesses are not coming up in Google searches.
To be listed is free yet newsagents seem to ignore this vital marketing opportunity. There are no excuses for missing this opportunity.
I am liking the new Guardian website for Australian news. Launched yesterday, this site provides a news experience competitive with Fairfax sites.
The additional diversity brought to covering local news is a good thing.
For years, Fairfax has taken a back seat on many issues relating to newspaper distribution and home delivery. Through then on/off T2020 discussions, fairfax has publicly said that they will most likely follow the News Limited lead.
Recent events suggest that Fairfax is no longer taking a back seat. Indeed, the company appears to have an new agenda. I have two stories to share.
A newsagent in financial difficulty put their hand up for help. An agreement was reached to quickly sell the business to a larger distribution only operator. News Limited agreed, Fairfax said they would consider it four weeks later. In the meantime, the financial situation of the vendor necessitated an urgent move. The purchasing distribution agent took on the business. Fairfax cancelled the contract, saying they do not recognise the larger distribution business. They handed the territory to another newsagent, a newsagent who will not make money delivering the lower penetration newspaper of the three daily newspapers delivered in this area.
The Fairfax decision does not make sense. It’s a break with how the company has operated for years. It could disadvantage customers. It certainly disadvantages the distribution newsagent as they now have some quite inefficient deliveries to complete – they will be driving down streets being serviced by the other distribution newsagent, a business with a greater distribution density.
The News Limited approach was more commercial. The Fairfax decision seems, from where I sit, to have been political and petty.
Here is the second story.
Fairfax was recently approached by a newsagent who had upgraded to the windows version of their newsagency software to help with what appeared to be a data discrepancy. I’m told fairfax representatives took a copy of the data back to their office, to match it up with the Fairfax data. I’m told Fairfax invoiced the newsagent tens of thousands of dollars based on what they found in the data. The newsagent asked for that issue to be shelved until the newsagent got the original data issue resolved. I’m told Fairfax refused and advised they would not assist in resolving the data issue until the invoice was paid. I’m also told that Fairfax threatened the newsagent with cancellation of the contract.
The newsagent did not pay and I’m told the contract is cancelled as of this week and another local newsagent found to do the deliveries of the Fairfax titles.
These two stories reflect, in my view, a backward step in much needed newspaper distribution consolidation. For years, Victoria led the way forward. Now, it appears, Victoria is leading the way backward in terms of handling Fairfax titles.
Newsagents are left wondering about the Fairfax agenda and whether the company is hell-bent on breaking the newsagent channel. The company certainly seems to be against the larger distribution-only businesses, preferring to deal with smaller independent newsagents for its titles.
I wonder what News Limited makes of all this…
The masthead of The Australian was partially covered yesterday with a sticker promoting a $10 28-day home delivery / digital subscription offer.
While the masthead and editorial content coverup is disappointing, the offer itself got my attention. For 35 cents a day subscribers get the paper (six out of seven days) and digital access. The usual price – as promoted on the sticker – is $1.42 a day (over seven days).
The cynic in me wonders how much the subscription offer is about driving digital subscriptions compared to print subscriptions. If you look at the subscription offers for The Australian you can see that a six day home delivery subscription is $8.95 while a seven day digital subscription is $2.95. On that basis, News is indicating that printing and distribution cost $6.00, or $1.00 a day. Take away newsagent commission and the delivery fee and then factor in the cost of printing and trucking the newspaper wonder how much News makes from print. The digital product is 100% News. The key is reader engagement with advertising and whether News can get to a point of making anything close to advertising from digital as it does from print.
So, I do wonder how much these bundled, print and digital, offers are about migrating people to digital. Overseas experience indicates that it’s a successful strategy for growing digital engagement.
As a retailer selling newspapers I don’t like these stickers as they seek to get people engaging less with my newsagency.
We’re giving the current issue of Donna Hay magazine a push with this in-location promotion as well as promotion with newspapers through the last week.
This issue has a delicious looking cover, one we felt could help drive impulse purchases – hence the co-location.
The results from my quick phone recharge survey are in and while one could reasonably argue my survey questions were leading, the results from 137 participants make sobering reading for Optus, Vodafone and Telstra.
I hope the telcos take time to read what newsagents think and what they want. They would be ill-advised to ignore the results.
Newsagents want a better deal when it comes to phone recharge. 100% of respondents said they were unhappy.
Newsagents think the telcos treat them unfairly. 99.3% said they felt unfairly treated.
Newsagents are prepared to walk away from from offering the slim margin service unless margin improves. 31.1% say they plan to move away from selling mobile phone recharge / top-up.
Newsagents want to make more money from mobile phone recharge. 18.2% said they want 8% commission minimum, 28.4% said they want 9% – 10%, 19.3% said they want 11% – 14%, 29.5% want 15% to 19% and 4.5% want 20%.
Click here for a full copy of the survey results and see for yourself.
The question is, are the telcos listening? Will they show that their words of support for newsagents are real or will they show them as hollow?
The only parties the telcos need to deal with are newsagents and their commercial representatives. I’m told they are talking with associations. This makes no sense as the associations have no direct commercial relationship with newsagents. The associations are not marketing groups, franchisors or managing any levers with which to encourage newsagent engagement.
We are promoting the latest issue of SciFi Now magazine in a better position thanks o the Game of Thrones cover story. Game of Thrones is a worldwide mega-brand with the TV show attracting extraordinary numbers of viewers. This is a title to use to attract shoppers.
FYI we are having more success selling the recently released Slow Cooker 3 away from our cookbooks, on the shop floor outside of the magazine department itself, than in the usual location for our range of cookbook titles. We’re using the Bauer basket builder stand for this.
Thanks to good buying by many newsagency suppliers we have access to an excellent range of positive products – products that promote happiness, optimism and generally positive messages – like the signs in the photo.
When we first got them they sold out in just over a week.
Now, with more stock, we are using them at the front of the newsagency on the lease line to attract shoppers from in the mall. It’s terrific seeing people notice one of the messages and walk over to browse the range. I am certain we would not get as many in the newsagency if the messages were not as optimistic.
We took care to place the signs so that strong positive messages stood out. A small amount of time invested helped us achieve our goal.
We have no doubt – shoppers love positive, optimistic, products.