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

Frustrated with All Day Distribution

I can’t get the foreign language newspapers I want in one of my newsagencies. The distribution newsagent refuses to supply me saying it will hurt his retail shop. Who cares? I don’t care that’s for sure. If the newsagent wants to be a distributor he should distribute and not hoard. Some shoppers don’t like going to the shop run by the distributor.  Every day we are asked for Chinese newspapers and every day we have to say sorry.

All Day Distribution is a problem here as they continue to reject our request for a direct account.

I don’t like turning away customers.

It’s got to a point where I think we will have to take the matter further about a newspaper distribution system that hinders consumer access to products.

19 likes
Newspapers

Stuck-on ad covers front page newspaper headline on The Daily Telegraph

Check out the placement of a newspaper subscription ad stuck over part of the headline on page one of The Daily Telegraph today.

I feel for the editorial team. This is shabby treatment of their work.

I feel for the newsagents selling the cookbook series (with two weeks to go) and share their frustration at now competing for a free offer from News Limited.

I wonder how much thinking goes into these things … competing with newsagent retailers, sending mixed messages on a product (cookbooks), sticking an ad on the front page which will be ripped off by frustrated shoppers.

All very disappointing.

7 likes
newspaper masthead desecration

Promoting to EFTPOS shoppers

We have copied an idea from a colleague and are promoting a product at each EFTPOS terminal on the counter. With EFTPOS users looking at the terminal, products we promote here are likely to be noticed.  The key will be to choose items easily purchased on impulse.

I like this new promotional space and can think of plenty of impulse purchase items I’d like to promote here – for customers to notice when they are processing their credit card.

Promoting products at key customer touch points can drive basket depth.

Right now we are promoting The Blob, a clever iPhone, sat. nav. and iPad stand being sold exclusively through newsXpress.

12 likes
newsagency marketing

SA Gardens taps into local interest

SA Gardens is selling well from what I am told.  It’s a garden magazine for and about South Australian gardens and gardeners.

SA Gardens taps into the interest in local stories. We know from independent local newspapers that people like to read stories about people and happenings closer to home.

I’m told newsagents give it prime positioning because of the local interest and the feeling of supporting the state. Makes sense.

SA Gardens is distributed by IPS.

4 likes
magazines

Newsagent stops selling newspapers

I discovered through a Twitter conversation yesterday that a Melbourne newsagent has stopped selling newspapers. The shopper calls the business a newsagent. I am yet to confirm for myself whether this is the case for certain. regardless, if it looks and feels to a customer like a newsagent and it stops selling newspapers because it’s not worth it we need to take note.

7 likes
Newspapers

Hmm, electronic cigarettes

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas early this year I saw four or five companies offering electronic cigarettes. They were promoting them as the ‘safe’ alternative to tobacco.

I doubt the ‘safe’ claim.

While they remain a banned product here in Australia, electronic cigarettes are selling in the UK. I purchased a pack of Intellicig from a newsagency in London a few months ago.

In the pack is a cigarette, some nicotine dispensers and a charger to plug into a USB port on your laptop.  Odd.

I’d dismissed what I saw in Las Vegas until I saw it on the newsagent counter in London a couple of months later.  In the last week, on the back of the High Court decision on plain paper packaging, electronic cigarettes have been in the news again.

While electronic cigarettes have been around for decades, interest in them has grown as government controls over tobacco cigarettes has increased.

It will be interesting to see if regulations here change and the product reached the market.

4 likes
Tobacco sales

Cool mini cookbook stand

I liked the look of this mini cookbook stand I saw at Changi Airport on Wednesday night.

I like the small footprint, ease of browsing and that the edges are not sharp.

I am looking for something like this to try mini cookbooks elsewhere in-store to get them to a point where they are profitable.  I don’t think it’s smart to leave them in the magazine department.

Clicking on the image will show more detail.

0 likes
magazines

Featuring Women’s Health magazine

We have replaced the Men’s Health display of a couple of weeks ago with this Women’s Health display – at the entrance to our magazine department.

Note the placement of the current issue of Men’s Health in a floor display unit next to the main display. We also have Women’s Health placed in the women’s aisle as the feature health title.

Women’s Health is a popular title for us.

2 likes
magazines

Three partworks launches set to drive traffic to newsagencies

Network Services has announced to newsagents details of three partworks launches with each being exclusively distributed in the newsagency channel. Click here for the flyer.

The big launch is Cake Decorating with a large marketing budget for in-store and TV promotion. I was concerned that Cake decorating may be distributed to supermarkets. Thankfully, this is not the case.

I like partworks – for the traffic and the easy upsell. I love that these titles are exclusive to our channel.

5 likes
partworks

Giving plush a permanent home

While newsagencies have a permanent place for magazines, newspapers, stationery and other products, all too often there is not a permanent home for plush or gifts.  This can give the business a feel of not being serious about the department, it can cost sales.

Once you give a department a permanent home you anchor it and provide a place where you can build and show off your point of difference.

Retail today demands that we get serious about all categories in with we trade.  There was a time where newsagents could focus on the core – magazines, papers, lottery, stationery and cards – and let the rest fit in where they can.

Today, with gifts accounting for 20% (and more sometimes) in revenue for newsagencies and plush often pushing above 10%, these departments need a home if they are on offer all the time – i.e. not just out for seasons.

The photo shows the plush department in one of my newsagencies.  Yes, space is tight, very tight. I bet you think it’s hard to shop based on what you see in the photo.

The numbers tell us that this space is the most profitable floor space we have in the business right now.  It is delivering a net profit return, after allowing for cost of goods, floor space and labour, well in excess of other departments.  It’s a wonderful success.

One reason for the success is the creation of a space that gives off the feeling that shoppers will be satisfied.  This is what allocating space to a department is all about – giving shoppers faith that they will find something to satisfy their need.

If you sell gifts and or plush and do not have a department, consider creating one, a permanent place where you can build your point of difference in these vitally important categories.

14 likes
Gifts

Pacific Magazines helps newsagents with Father’s Day

Pacific Magazines has released a Father’s Day marketing email template for newsagents who are part of the nexus marketing program.  The template has several elements, all connected to the Father’s Day opportunity.

Newsagents can create and send an email in a couple of minutes.

The email platform available through nexus is brilliant. That it is free for newsagents is terrific. I urge newsagents to use this free marketing tool.

Click here to see the email sent form one of my stores yesterday.

3 likes
newsagency marketing

I support Nick Xenophon’s proposed penalty rate change

Kudos to Senator Nick Xenophon for the private member’s bill he is introducing to reduce the burden of penalty rates on small businesses like newsagents. The Sydney Morning Herald has a good report on this.

Check out Nick Xenophon’s media release on this. The release includes this:

Under Senator Xenophon’s Fair Work Amendment (Small Business – Penalty Rates Exemption) Bill 2012, penalty rates would still be payable, but only where an employee has worked more than 38 hours in a seven day period or worked more than 10 hours each day. This exemption would only apply to businesses which employ fewer than 20 full time equivalent employees.

Inside Retailing published a report about this yesterday with the convenience store association supports the move.

You can email Nick Xenophon at: senator.xenophon@aph.gov.au.  If you agree with what he’s doing show your support. I have.

Next, ask if your local politician will support the move. As Michelle Grattan writes in the SMH, this will be a challenge for the coalition parties.

28 likes
Newsagency challenges

Insights into tweens

Mediaweek this week published some invaluable insights into tweens released by Pacific Magazines, publisher of K-Zone and Total Girl.  This information better informs us about this important marketplace:

Pacific Magazines has announced findings from its third Tween Tracker – a biennial research study which to date has surveyed over 1700 tweens (aged between 6 – 12 years), delving into their lives and lifestyles.

Miriam Condon, Research and Strategy Director, Pacific Magazines, comments: “Australia has over 1.9 million tweens, who control a $1.4 billion annual spend in the economy. Children are often at the heart of family decisions, with activities and purchases centred on their likes and interests.

“This latest research reflects Pacific Magazines’ commitment in the future generation of consumers. As one of the most innovative research studies of its kind in the country, Tween Tracker presents a unique overview into the needs, likes, fears and ambitions of Australian tweens today.”

Key findings include:

* Overall tween happiness levels are higher today than in 2010

* 3 in 5 tweens have a say in choosing the grocery products bought each week

* The i-generation: 65% own or have access to a smart phone; 49% own or have access to an electronic tablet, e.g. iPad; 88% of those who have access to a smartphone/tablet have used an app

* 1 in 3 tweens say their parents do not check what they are doing online

* 52% of parents say they are strict / very strict – but only 16% of kids say the same thing

* Social connections are more important than ever, with the top 5 sources of happiness in 2012: Family, Friends, Pets, Magazines, and TV/Movies

* Concerns are moving closer to home – with global concerns on the decline, and personal concerns such as pressure to do well at school on the increase

* Pressure to excel is linked to a 25% jump since 2010 in the time spent on homework, with tweens spending an average 2.8 hours per week on homework

* 81% of tweens say they have a busy schedule – one in three want to be less busy, whilst the majority (57%) wouldn’t have it any other way

Mychelle Vanderburg, Youth Publisher, Pacific Magazines, says, “The results provide a barometer into the hearts and minds of Australian youth – but also clear-cut guidelines to marketers on how to communicate, engage and interact in a meaningful way with tweens today.”

The new research demonstrates a growing and unrivalled understanding of the tween market, as Pacific Magazines continues to expand and deepen the touch-points for K-Zone and Total Girl readers, be it magazines, websites and television

Pacific Magazines’ youth titles K-Zone and Total Girl continue to lead the tween market. In the past six months, K-Zone and Total Girl’s circulation has increased by 3.0% to 42,042 copies and 3.4% to 48,145 copies respectively, indicating the continued strength of this medium with kids.

5 likes
Newsagency management

Our men’s health and fitness section

We take care to separate men’s health and fitness related titles into their own section as shown in the photo.  By not letting these titles get caught up in with other sports related titles is helping us achieve sales growth. Keeping them in their own section is working a treat with terrific year on year growth.

Click on the image to see all the titles.

0 likes
magazines

Promoting Burke’s Backyard and free seeds

We are promoting the latest issue of Burke’s Backyard and the free pack of seeds with the magazine with an aisle end display facing the front of the shop. Once we take this display down we will give the tile a run with a pocket placed with our weeklies – to chase impulse business in the second week.

0 likes
magazines

Moving pens

With pens accounting for a third of our stationery sales we have decided to move them closer to the counter, placing them in the best location in our stationery department. The goal of the move is to drive sales growth even further.

We have been able to make this move now that we have placed ink behind the counter.

The pen move is part of a series of moves with stationery to make more efficient use of the space- chasing growth and freeing space for a broader offer.

7 likes
Stationery

Magazine relay drives 15% year on year magazine sales increase

A newsagent who completed a magazine relay following the advice I published here – How to do a magazine relay in your newsagency business – has let me know that the relay they completed a couple of months has resulted in a 15% increase in unit sales across almost all categories comparing this year to last.

15% year on year growth is a nice return for less than a day of labour.

Some newsagents would prefer to jump at shadows and argue about what suppliers should do for them than make their own success.

13 likes
magazines

If serving the local community is a point of difference for you…

Ryman – The Stationer in London offers 90 minute delivery of ink and toner.

Newsagents who pitch being local and offering local services as a point of difference should take a look at this and consider copying the idea to the extent of their local delivery capabilities.

Fast delivery of online purchases is the next big move in online retail. Amazon is leading the push in the US with same day delivery planned for several large US cities.

Newsagents can offer this now – in a structured way around a unique selling proposition.

This is one of the examples I offered in the Newsagency of the Future series. It’s a tip I’d encourage regional and rural newsagents to consider.

1 likes
Newsagency management

Smart notification of newspaper price changes

I was in one of my newsagencies on the weekend for the first time in over a week and was thrilled to see how they are advising shoppers about newspaper price changes.

The notice shares appropriate information in a professional way, in keeping with our corporate image.

Given that our key competitors in this centre are major supermarkets and other national retailers, we need try and match their professionalism when it comes to signs and other shopper communications.

16 likes
Newsagency management

Newsagents have the key to better sex

I like the collateral promoting the latest issue of Women’s Health even if it may upset some of our older customers.

Your key to better sex is as attention-grabbing as they come. The keyhole image is smart.

We have the title on show on a pillar facing into the shopping mall – yeah, we want to get the attention of shoppers outside the newsagents and get them thinking about sex and our shop. And why not? It changes things up from the usual view of a visit to the newsagency.

Yeah, I like this campaign for Women’s Health.

7 likes
magazines

Exclusive magazine promotion leverages point of difference

As more newsagency suppliers run promotions for different groupings of newsagents, the channel will see the focus on brand-based groupings increase.

While this will frustrate some newsagents who do not trade under a national banner, it will work for the participating newsagents and the supporting suppliers.

We need to find more commercial ways to separate core offers in our businesses. Yes, including separating newsagency from newsagency. This is what a competitive marketplace is about.

I have been doing this over the last three weeks in my newsagencies with the ACP Magazines / newsXpress exclusive promotion.  On offer has been four home entertainment systems. The total prize pool is worth in excess of $17,000.  Being able to promote this in a centre where I compete with two supermarkets, another newsagency and two other major magazine outlets is important.  It’s why I have promoted the exclusive competition at the front of the store facing into the mall.

Suppliers like these promotions as it gives their products more attention … with the goal of driving sales.

With magazine available in so many outlets. Promotions like these with strong discipline are important for publishers and each participating group.

4 likes
magazines
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