Our tactical placement of the two Pokemon titles next to each other has worked with a sales surge in the days since we made the move.
Small steps can drive sales. There are newsagents who treat magazines like a chore and others who chase sales. We need more of the latter.
We have been promoting the Women’s Health 5th birthday issue with prime placement in the usual location with health titles for the magazine as well as prime placement in among Cleo and Cosmopolitan. We will maintain this co-location through the on-sale, chasing extra purchases.
Five years is a terrific milestone, Women’s Health is an important title for us.
I was pleased to see the publisher promoting the free pack of Fisherman’s Friend bagged with Rugby League Week last week. It’s only this above the masthead promotion that is seen by shoppers in most newsagencies. We gave the title good positioning so the offer was seen by more.
In print edition of The Australian today is a code providing access to a digital copy of John Howard’s autobiography Lazarus Rising. It’s a good given, well targeted. Smart, too, to connect readers with the digital platform.
I was surprised to see that readers at the website need to subscribe to get the code – given that free copies of the newspaper are so widely available.
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News Queensland has written to QLD newsagents encouraging them to promote a Melbourne Cup deal to local pubs, clubs, restaurants, hotels, RSL’s, Surf Clubs, Golf Clubs or Bowls Clubs in their area. While distribution newsagents will benefit from the promoted deal, retail newsagents miss out. Many retail newsagents will run Melbourne Cup related promotions yet they are not offered an incentive to make a Sunday Mail or Courier Mail offer as par of this.
News Limited continues to ignore and disrespect retail only newsagents. these businesses can play an important role for newspapers if only publishers worked harder at developing relationships with us.
here is what News sent to newsagents along with a flyer:
Are you interested in picking up some extra sales for Melbourne Cup?
I have attached a form that you can use to approach any local pubs, clubs, restaurants, hotels, RSL’s, Surf Clubs, Golf Clubs or Bowls Clubs in your area who may be interested in receiving either the Sunday Mail or Courier-Mail from Sunday 4th to Tuesday 6th at 50% off.
How does it work?
a) Approach business and sell in offer (minimum 30 papers per day)
b) Fill in paperwork then fax to QN on 3666 8643
c) QN add these supplies to your stock for you to deliver on the required day
d) You invoice the venue at 50% off RRP
e) QN will credit your account. You will earn sub agent commission on each paper sold. There will be no returns.
I understand why they are promoting through this season to these businesses. It’s their loss that they don’t have a plan for retail newsagents too.
The One Direction story on Sunday Night on the Seven Network last night is an excellent reason to get the Girlfriend One Direction part series into a high traffic location. The interview reinforced the marketing power of the boy band – something we can use to sell magazines.
I love this display created y the team at one of my newsagencies to promote sales of the latest issue of Cosmopolitan Bride magazine.
I like the detail reflected in the display, how they have provided a wonderful backdrop that holds up the magazine as the hero and connects with the prize opportunity available with this issue of the magazine.
Click on the image for a larger version.
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The continued talk of tough time in retail frustrates me just as talk from others saying their newsagency is doing it tough because of the decline in print media. There are enough newsagents enjoying success out there to tell us that it’s possible to be doing well right now, it is possible to be enjoying year on year growth.
I think it’s a choice we can make: to trade above the talk of those who would have you join them in a cloud of negativity.
The thing is, chasing growth is hard work, relentless work. It’s risky too. The keys are to be accountable for your situation, pick yourself up from any setback and ignore those who want you to think you should perform as poorly as them.
I know a bit about this from my work with newsagents in trouble. I’d be happy to talk m with and help any newsagent who reaches out.
I have been thinking about the comments from newsagents on my post on Friday about an alternative billing model for magazines. I know from my work with newsagents for many years that most do not look at their own magazine performance data – data that could have been used by them to address the magazine supply issue. If you want to get an accurate understanding of the performance of magazines i your newsagency run your MPA Magazine Performance Report and or the Magazine Sell Through Rates Report. Both will provide a factual view of the performance of magazines in your newsagents. I’d be happy to discuss reports you produce.
We, like many Victorian newsagent,s have been handling the giveaway with the Kid’s Mini Book Collection with the Herald Sun this weekend. The bag together with the book make for a nice premium gift.
From what I’m told though, most people buying the newspaper did not know about the promotion. Oops. It’s a pity as this is the type of promotion that pitches the newspaper in a good light.
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I mentioned here months ago that same day delivery was the next big thing in online shopping. There was further evidence of this this week with reports that the US Postal service is to trial same day delivery for online retailers.
We have print media disruption and retail disruption challenging the traditional business model.
In 2003, online classified advertising had a 7% market share. A report published earlier this week claims that in 2011 that had jumped to 51% market share.
The decline in the use of print for classified advertising goes to the heart of the viability of the print newspaper model.
Newsweek is to drop its print edition from December 31 according to reports that see the move as somewhat of an endorsement of print to digital transition. Click for a good round-up of comments about the closure.
We decided to promote the latest issue of Dog’s Life magazine from Universal Magazines with newspapers for the weekend. We know we have plenty of dog lovers shop with us – based on calendar sales – and this is a title that rarely is given time in the spotlight. The bonus gift with the issue and the nice looking cover should give is some incremental sales for the few days we have it in this valuable space.
Newsagents need to do more of this – chase sales. We’re retailers after all. Too many of us see magazines as a chore. I understand why. It needs to stop.
We are promoting issue 50 of frankie magazine at one of my stores with this terrific display created by one of our team members. I love how they used the cover as the background and incorporated the calendar and diary in the display.
We’ll give frankie two weeks in this prime, front of shop, location and it will reward us by attracting shoppers we want and delivering sales.
Roy Greenslade has an excellent column about the London Evening News turning a loss to a profit on the back of switching to a free model. It’s taken three years to turn an annualised loss of £30m into a profit of £1m. Loss-making newspapers around the world are looking for ways to replace losses with profits.
The current issue of The Week newsweekly magazine is the last according to The Australian.
I met with a small magazine publisher yesterday to discuss how they could build a stronger and more mutually viable relationship with newsagents. As is often the case in discussions with magazine publishers, the conversation turned to early returns and the lost sales so often shown in the data.
Now before newsagents jump on this saying early returns are the only mechanism of control they have (and which i agree with), the conversation yesterday was specifically about early returns that cost sales – returning to a point where you have significantly less stock on the shelves that your recent average sales or returning to a level where you do not benefit is network-wide sales uplift because of a cover story feature or some other reason.
Early returning of magazines is at a point where some publishers are left wondering whether the newsagency channel is the appropriate channel for the sale of magazines.
Magazine range is our only point of difference. Lose this and the future of the channel will be seriously challenged.
In the meeting yesterday, the publisher asked how newsagents would respond to a model whereby they paid only for product sold … once a title is returned they would be billed for net sales.
I’d appreciate comments here on this issue. If you had a title with an on sale of one, two or three months and did not have to pay for stock sold until you processed your returns, would you keep the title on the shelf for the full on-sale?
Leatherface, Freddy, Jason other life-size cardboard cutouts are selling well for us this Halloween. They are also working well at attracting shoppers to the broader Halloween range. We have them located on the lease line, at the front of the business.
For any newsagents interested, we sourced the cardboard cut outs from: Alternative Distribution Pty Ltd in Victoria – 03 9334 5857. FYI, I don’t have a deal with them.
With Window 8 from Microsoft around the corner we are tapping into consumer ninterest by making sure that we have Essential Guide to Windows 8 with the full cover on display and in the best location within our technology magazines. This is the kind of title likely to be purchased on impulse by browsers.
We have made sure to place the latest Nintendo magazine and The Ultimate Guite to Pokemon next to each other since they are certain to appeal to the same shopper. We can drive sales for a title by placing it away from its usual location – depending on the cover.
I was in Guangzhou at the start of this week and had an opportunity to check out some retail. Competition is as fierce as I have come to expect in China. They also redefine scale. take the shopping mall in the photo. I have captured but part of the mall. Shops are full on every level. And on the lower level – at the bottom of the photo – is a floor of discount items unlike any discount area I have seen in Australia. I’d rather play rugby that get in the way of these shoppers hunting for a bargain.
What surprised me was the number of western businesses, major US and European franchises that have come to China and are operated locally. Take Starbucks … while any milk based coffee sucked because of the milk used, the Starbucks service and retail experience was identical to the US experience. The same was true in 7-Eleven.
Too often in Australia I hear people complaining about Chinese newsagents and that they do not respect the newsagency shingle because it’s not how they are. In China this week and a few weeks ago I have seen excellent examples of Chinese small business people respecting the disciplines of retail brands behind which there are disciplines. This comes back to the point I was making on Tuesday in Why 7-Eleven will beat newsagents, our lack of discipline behind the shingle – Newsagent, Newsagency , N – is our weakness.
I got to see a major book store that had a magazine department the same size as a traditional newsagents. their fixturing was almost the same as what I have seen in larger WH Smith stores in the UK.
Another two take aways from looking at so much retail in China recently are that they are customer service focused and efficient retail business operators. They know that good customer service drives sales ad that business efficiency (including inventory efficiency) drives profits. It all comes back to being good business people. I’m grateful for the opportunity for these and other insights.