I’ll publish all phones sent to me of newsagencies impacted by the Queensland floods – so the broader newsagency community is informed about their colleagues.
This photo is of newsXpress Laidley. This same business was flooded out just two years ago. The photo was taken this morning. I got the photo from Facebook.
Please send photos to: mark@towersystems.com.au.
In case newsagents were not sure of the extent of the challenges and opportunities as a result of media change, The Australian today has a comment piece by Mark Day: Year of change ahead for old media.
Day is a Murdoch acolyte, this is reflected in his musings. The headline is accurate, the commentary only half so. he could have covered more and from a broader perspective.
For newsagents, the headline is the message here. I’d tweak it to say: Year of change ahead for all old newsagents. I make the distinction as some are already playing in the new world.
The photo shows Darrell Lea chocolates in a Sweet As discount confectionery outlet on the weekend. I am not sure if this will be a regular offer at Sweet As.
It could be that these are chocolates discontinued by the new owners of Darrell Lea.
If I was a Darrell Lea outlet nearby I’d be unhappy.
This may seem like a minor, almost obsessive point, but lifting plush, like the black and white beanie Boos in the phone, so they look like they are lifting themselves out of out unit.
This placement looks more active and fun than if they were flat on the shelf, their feet inside the unit. Such placement would also hide the green feet – a colourful feature.
We obsess about things like this, specific product placement to make products more appealing to shoppers. There is no doubt that placing these beanie Boos like they are reaching out helps us sell more.
We’re doing more that $1,000 a week in plush.
If People’s Friend magazine is big in your newsagency check where the two issues currently on the shelves are placed. They should be next to each other. This way you can parlay the $3.00 weekly issue purchase into a bonus purchase of the Christmas special issue.
I have found over the years that full cover display of the two issues next to each other works well at driving sales efficiency.
Discussion at the newsagents yahoo email group last week indicate the extent to which newsagents delay payment for stock. I know of newsagency suppliers with average collection days for 30 day accounts of 55 days and more. This is a problem for the chanel as it pushes up prices for all of us.
Newsagents can better manage their trade debtors by following some simple steps:
I’ll gladly help any newsagent wanting advice on which reports to produce and how to read them for genuine business value.
With school back this week how about a Mum’s Recovery or Holiday Recovery promotion or sale? I know mother’s who have been looking forward to their kids going back, so they can have some time to themselves.
I am thinking about a special offer along the lines of double clips on our magazine club card Monday through Wednesday or a buy three guilty pleasure magazines and get a discount or buy a special offer on, say, fitness or fashion or travel titles she may not usually buy.
I think any such promotion needs to be around guilty pleasures.
For this type of promotion to work it needs to be about the mum who has just been freed from a busy Christmas and holiday period. The offers need to be about her and not connected to work or chores in any way.
We are promoting the Hallmark Justin Bieber Valentine’s Day card – which plays Boyfriend – in a second location outside the Valentine’s Day card location.
In traditional card fixturing this card can get lost – hence our placement outside. We have placed it with One Direction product as both appeal to a similar demographic – even though they may not admit it.
We are also promoting the availability of the card on social media, to drive traffic. This is a terrific opportunity for us to promote relevance to the younger Valentine’s Day card shopper.
Newsagents not sure about this card need to know that the YouTube video of the song (which I have linked to above) has been viewed more than 200 million times. That’s a market to tap into.
Hallmark leads on licenced product and this is vital to helping newsagents attract a broader demographic.
The cover shot on the current issue of Better Homes and Gardens is ideal for promoting with newspapares this Australia Day long weekend. The pavlova look on the cover is perfect Australian fare. We have BHG here, in its usual location and a pocket with our weeklies.
Our live in-store newsagency specific radio station is 100% committed to Australia Day today with a smorgasbord of Australian music. Today’s programming is perfect for the day, providing an excellent soundscape for us, showing we’re connected with the day by supporting Aussie talent.
From Ad News Australia comes this terrific report and video about a trial using heads of key brands in Europe, testing their newspaper interaction. Watch the video.
Makes me feel good. Also helps me look at newspapers in a different light for a moment.
It’s easy to be lulled into a sense of saturation when you consider the number of mobile phones per capita in Australia and other first world countries – thinking that more retail space selling the devices is not needed.
The reality is that telcos and others are expanding the retail footprint selling mobile phones. This is helped by churn – people switching telcos, new devices – the continued rise of the Android and additional purpose need – the desire to separate work and personal use and therefor have additional devices.
I’ve been looking at the UK market this morning and see that Phone 4U is rolling out 100 new retail locations this year. I understand that a couple of Australian telcos are also targeting retail footprint growth this year.
I mention this for consideration by newsagents looking for changes in-store this year and for additional traffic drivers. becoming a telco specialist will work well in some situations, especially high street and regional and rural situations. I know several newsagency businesses that are local telco destinations and they appreciate the new traffic this brings.
I helped a customer Thursday who could not seem to find what they wanted. The cake decorating magazine, the supermarket doesn’t have it. I showed her our range – the last three issues and explained that newsagents are the best businesses for magazines. We had a chat about this, she agreed but explained that sometimes it was easier to add a magazine to the weekly shop than make a special trip to the newsagency. Why come to you when it’s only for a magazine? Gee that stung.
As we parted, the shopper said you need more magazines like this, holding the latest copy of Cake Decorating above her head. Yes we do. We need more special interest titles that people will go out of their way to find and purchase, regularly.
It is fringe and special interest titles that provide the channel with its best point of difference.
We’re pitching the 2013 AFL Prospectus at the counter as this is where it worked a treat for us last year.
For some reason, Network cut our supplies back. We only checked when they sent out their email a couple of days ago – too late to get stock for this weekend when the issue launched. Frustrating.
It’s terrific seeing someone add a $39.95 purchase to the basket on impulse even if the margin is only 25%.
I’d urge newsagents to get this title on the counter right away. It works in each of my newsagencies more so than with sports titles. AFL fans are not necessarily watching for the release.
If only Office spent as much money delivering lowest prices as they do in claiming that they offer lowest prices. Check out a price comparison published in the Adelaide Advertiser yesterday. The difference between Officeworks and Newspower is extraordinary.
I am surprised that with evidence like this that someone does not challenge the Officeworks claim. of course, they will say they are lower through their price guarantee. the ACCC should reject this as it’s a con as consumers only get Officeworks to be lower by shopping around themselves – most will not do this, they will believe the Officeworks advertising spin.
The message here for Australian and small businesses families is simple – for back to school, back to uni, back to work – shop at your local newsagent. besides competitive prices, you are leaving more money in the local community.
Check your sales for new food title good chef bad chef. We have sold four of our five copies in a few days and ordered more. I have heard from another newsagent who sold all five copies in two days. They have ordered more stock.
At $17.95 a copy, a sale of good chef bad chef is good business.
This is an excellent Australian cookbook connected with the popular Australian TV show of the same name. It’s an easy sell for us.
Our own experience is that placing it with weeklies works best. Yes, shoppers are prepared to spend $17.95 on impulse!
Food titles continue to do very well.
I like the look of the My Animal Farm partwork series coming from DeAgostini through Gordon and Gotch launching February 11. It’s appealing to an important demographic for us. Newsagents will be tagged in the TV commercial which commences February 13.
We promote partworks aggressively and they are currently tracking at 9.22% of our overall magazine sales. We promote them because they are a valuable point of difference for us occasional supply issues notwithstanding.
These biker bears sold very well for us last Valentine’s Day and we wondered if they had run their course – but we took them on anyway. It turns out they have not run their course.
Shoppers love these bears. They’re a fun break from the more traditional Valentine’s Day plush. They also open Valentine’s Day gift buying up to other shoppers and this is important. One of our goals with each season this year is to get more people buying for the season, people who would not usually buy for it.
We have the biker bears displayed together as this looks more impressive than scattering them through the Valentine’s Day plush table.
Valentine’s Day is working a treat already!
We have been promoting the latest issue of Donna Hay magazine with this in-location display in our food section.
I love the photo on the cover and in the poster – perfect for a food title. We have the full cover on show next to our daily newspapers.
These in-location displays work well for us. We usually only have one per aisle – so that shoppers more easily notice the title being featured.
It’s been a tough couple of weeks in various parts of Australia weather-wise. No, I’m not talking about Sydney last Friday – at least regular services kept functioning. I am thinking about newsagents in more remote locations where the weather can almost bring regular business to a stop. Here’s an email to a newsagents discussion group just now from Carol at Cooktown newsagency:
No mags, no papers no BTS tops ups . Next delivery probably next week. A bit hard to balance the books this time of year.
Some newsagents are doing it tough outside of retail and channel-specific issues.
Several newsagent suppliers have expressed serious concerns about the move by For Arts Sake to syphon off all sales data for use by the company outside the participating newsagency.
My understanding is that FAS is saying it will provide business analysis. I think that is a ruse since good newsagency software provides this to newsagents today and has done for many years.
The real value for FAS from what I can see is that they themselves could monetise this commercially sensitive business data. Newsagents considering engaging need to be very careful.
The question remains about the contractual obligations of newsagents to not share data relating to some suppliers. The terms and conditions invite such questions.
FAS is working hard to grab a bigger share of the greeting card space in newsagencies. My view is it should work on its brand. The most valuable shoppers are those committed to a brand. Ask customers which card brand they recognise the most.
I’ve heard from Pacific magazines that the latest issue of Women’s Health magazine is selling very well. The Michelle Bridges cover story – 12 week body transformation – is working a treat and driving an excellent lift in sales.
Michelle Bridges last night was promoting Women’s Health in her live web chat and encouraging people to go out buy a copy of the magazine. In addition to the aisle end display in the photo, today we have stock placed at the main sales counter and several copies with our weekly magazines.
The success of the cover story is also driving an increase in social media engagement for the Women’s Health title with excellent growth in Facebook likes and comments. This tells us that this latest issue is ideal for newsagents to promote using social media.
The excellent, early in the on-sale, sales growth is a perfect reason for newsagents to act now and get part of the excellent additional interest in Women’s Health.
We’re promoting the latest issue of Zoo magazine with this aisle end display facing into our men’s reading area.
I like the simplicity of the collateral and the pitch for the value proposition – it makes for an attention-grabbing display.
We also have the title in the usual location.
I like this tongue-in-cheek TV commercial produced to promote Disk Smith Foods. According to Crikey, the Advertising Board won’t allow TV networks won’t play it.
I like how he’s having a go and wearing his support for Australia on his sleeve.
I am disappointed that the Victorian Government is promoting 7-Eleven in their latest Myki TV commercials. 7-Eleven is the retail brand they name yet the vision is of the side wall of an old newsagency. This TVC was an excellent opportunity for the state government to show that it is serious about supporting small business.