Newsagent suppliers need to take care in contacting newsagents today for those who sell lottery products will want every resource in their businesses focussed on selling tickets in tonight’s $70 million OzLotto jackpot. Where there are some newsagents who do not sell lottery products many do. They need respect from suppliers so they can make the most of today’s opportunity.
The Girlfriend magazine One Direction Aussie Tour special has been out one day and is already selling well. Clearly One Direction fans knew it would be out as they came to the shop from school with pocket money ready to go. The youngest customer I saw would have been seven or eight. Amazing.
We have One Direction Aussie Tour at the front of the newsagency, on the lease line. This is to attract shoppers to our newsagency. We also have a waterfall next to Girlfriend magazine in its usual location plus a pocket located with our weekly magazines.
We have ordered up big with this title and so stock is not an issue right now. We are making sure that our customers know this, so they tell their friends.
We have filled our ACP basket builder unit with a selection from the current range of ACP cookbooks and placed this with our range of Hallmark Mother’s Day cards.
Even as the display was being put in place we sold a cookbook. “Oh perfect” said the shopper as they grabbed one of the cookbooks to go with the card being purchased. This is exactly what we setup the display to achieve … easy impulse purchases from Mother’s day card shoppers.
I’d urge other newsagents to do this if they have not done it already.
The initiative by the team at one of my newsagencies to decorate one of the Hallmark Blooming Expressions flower pots has worked with sales of the post and crayons. A very nice sale across two product categories.
Giving this Hallmark product a seasonal focus makes it more easily understood. That we can sell the crayons with which to personalise the gift is a bonus.
We have taken care to place the two Country Style titles currently on there shelves together. One is the usual Country Style title and the other is a special issue on gardens and might reasonably be placed in the garden section. We figured that we are more like to sell the garden title by placing it with the parent magazine – hence our placement decision. It’s working for us as we have now ordered more stock.
Thanks to the high profile of this blog, my work with newsagency software company Tower Systems and my work with newsagency marketing group newsXpress, plenty of information is shared with me on a confidential basis both formally and informally. I appreciate the insights I am given and the opportunity to discuss these with those sharing the information.
I don’t publish that which I am asked to keep confidential – even and especially where to publish some confidential information would be commercially advantageous. To do so would be unethical.
I mention this today because I want my position on confidentiality on the record for today and in the future.
I was talking with a newsagent last week about stationery and in the conversation asked about their competitors. They said they had none as they were in a country town and were the only business selling stationery. I suggested they look at the Staples website.
Click on the image to see the home page in some detail. I urge you to go to the site and check it out.
While it is very early days for the Staples brand in Australia, they are already making their presence felt. They are the most serious competitor in the stationery space for newsagents because they are usually ignored by newsagents. Newsagents would ignore them at their own peril.
Gina Rinehart’s image owns the cover opt the latest issue of The Monthly magazine. She’s been in the news plenty over the last year so recognition should be high. I like the look of the cover … it’s a strong image and sits well against other magazine covers which are more colourful. We have been promoting The Monthly in the usual location as well as with a placement next to newspapers. It is title which needs extra promotion as sales can be considerably affected by the cover. hence my question: Can Gina Rinehart sell magazines?
We can’t just put magazines out in their usual locations and expect to achieve growth. Average behaviour delivers average results. If we consider ourselves to be magazine specialists we need to act like magazine specialists. This means we need to be aware of what’s hot and to react to magazine covers with stories about hot topics and hot people.
Take the latest issue of OK! magazine, out last Friday. The cover features a story involving Joel Madden, one of the stars of the runaway hit TV show The Voice. This story alone could be enough to get someone who does not usually purchase OK! to purchase this issue. This is what we have to chase, sales from people who are not our regular customers for a title. This is where growth comes from.
We have this issue of OK! is a couple of high-traffic locations. We’re ahead on sales … we’ve achieve growth from the tactical placement.
If you’re not a TV watcher or all that up with popular culture how can you be aware of opportunities. You have to find a way – either by becoming more aware yourself or replying on employees and even customers to make you aware of opportunities.
The ad for Dick Smith stuck to the front cover of the Sunday Herald Sun yesterday was too heavy, causing covers to tear. The photo shows the tear on one copy of the newspaper, the top of the bundle. the tear starts at where the stuck-on ad is stuck. This ad is different as it is triple the usual thickness of these types of ads.
Outside of the thicker ad, I wonder how the AFL feels about football editorial being covered up by an ad. It demeans the newspaper in my view as regulars here would know.
I hate going into work. As a friend of mine said these words I knew they reflected a long-held feeling, a feeling help with some shame. Here was a retail business owner who hated going into his own business. He had fallen out of love with what he had created. The bitterness he felt towards his business had soured to hatred.
Why do some retailers, including newsagents, hate going to work? It is an interesting question which needs exploration before we look at strategies for countering this.
There is usually a trigger – supplier fatigue (magazine distribution challenges etc), tough economic conditions, personal challenges away from the business, a partner dispute, tiredness… there could be any combination of reasons.
If you have reached the point where you hate going into work each day it is important to take time away from the business for an honest assessment as to why you hate the business. Until you can answer the question – why do you hate going into work? – you cannot begin to work on resolution.
Once you know the reasons, think about a series of small and achievable steps you could take to turn the situation around. No matter how challenging the situation, there are always steps you could take. Focus on these, start work on them and in some instances that alone will be enough to move you through the fog of anger and ill-feeling toward the business.
If finding small steps to take does not work, get together with a trusted friend and tell them how you feel toward the business. Ask them to talk with you about the business. Reminisce about why you started or purchased the newsagency. Remember your dreams and hopes. Use the conversation to explore your emotion at the moment you decided to open or purchase the retail business.
If you have the funds, substitute a psychologist or professionally qualified counsellor to explore your feelings for the business. I am not suggesting a business coach or mentor here because the ill-feeling toward the business is more often personal and is better dealt with by those with skills on working with feelings.
Understanding your hatred for your retail business is the first step. This will usually, of itself, reveal the first steps you can take to turn the hatred around. Be open to that. Take small steps and see where they lead. The change in feeling toward the business may not be immediate so do not expect too much too soon.
Some newsagents I have worked with have felt ashamed of their hatred for their business. The best and toughest analogy I heard was that it was like hating your own child. A retail store, especially one you created on your own, is like a child. There is no shame to be had in this feeling. So many factors can come into play to get one to this point.
By getting help to understand your feelings and using the understanding which flows from this to develop a strategy you can expect to start to feel better – even if the strategy involves you exiting that business.
If you do nothing, the hatred will be more and more reflected in the business and in your own person. Neither benefits from this.
A new One Direction one shot under the Girlfriend masthead is in-store tomorrow. With content from their recently completed Australian tour, this title is set to be a hit like all things 1D at the moment. We are planning a major front of store display along with other 1D titles to make the most of the opportunity.
Besides the core 1D fans, we are selling One Direction products to parents and grand parents for gifts – they know what the kids like.
…very happy.
The most tweets on Twitter about Australian newsagencies for the last month have been by One Direction fans talking about where they are getting One Direction magazines. Just yesterday, 1D Head Quarters AUS tweeted that the new magazine 1D Down Under (from ACP) was out and in good newsagents. This is terrific practical support – driving traffic to our businesses.
I regularly use the discover facility at Twitter to see what people are saying about newsagencies. In my 4+ years on twitter I have never seen so much comment about and support for newsagents as is happening right now around One Direction.
It’s a thrill to see this, such a young fan base talking our channel up as the go to place for 1D products. We need to be aware of this.
Last night, I saw discussion among One Direction fans about the new Girlfriend one shot coming out Monday. I tweeted to one of the fan groups and next thing I know they re-tweeted my message to 36,591 fans. My simple call to action message sent to people who identify as loving anything to do with this group. Talk about targeted marketing … low cost marketing to boot!
But it gets better. Plenty of followers of the 1D fan group re-tweeted my message to their followers. Plenty, too, tagged my tweet as a favourite. This activity extended the reach.
This is the value of social media – a simple marketing message has been sent to 36,591 (and thousands more thanks to re-tweets) with little effort. Very powerful. The more I use it the more I learn.
Melbourne radio this week has been featuring advertising which if I did not know any better would leave me believing that to use Western Union I;d have to go to an Australia Post shop. Of course, this is not true – many newsagents offer Western Union. The service is usually better, the queues shorter and the service more engaged than a government owned Australia Post outlet.
I am disappointed the ads get a run. I hope that Western Union is not funding them.
Talking with a bunch of newsagents in two different states this week … there are many happy newsagents thanks to the OzLotto jackpot.
I have not heard one negative comment. Often in the past I’d hear newsagents complain that a lottery sales boost impacts other sales. Not this time around. Maybe that it because people have more disposable income. We certainly know from banks and economists that people have considerably more savings than a year ago. Maybe the lottery spend is coming from that.
Some have commented how they are leveraging the traffic boost and seeing sales of other items increase. I love to hear these stories
News Corp. has announced changes to the model for The daily, their iPad ‘newspaper’. The changes include an iPhone App and annual pricing of $19.99. PaidContent has more on this.
I am surprised we have not seen more App based news start ups here. There are smaller publishers like APN who could launch a digital only national news App.
With Jack White featuring on two music titles, our team has taken care to place them together and thereby chase the purchase of both by fans. In addition to the feature display I wrote about yesterday for triple j magazine, we have this placement of Rolling Stone and triple j magazines fronting our music section. I’d urge newsagents to check how they are treating these titles. Given them time in the spotlight as Jack White is hot right now.
I am often asked by newsagents for assistance with landlord negotiations. While I am not a lease negotiator, I have negotiated my own leases as well as revised leases to reflect changed market conditions.
I’m happy to share my thoughts with newsagents on why I have done and the goals I pursue so they can consider these in their own situation.
There are some awful leases signed by newsagents out there. Some are leases negotiated by so-called leasing experts. Some are poor leases newsagents paid others a fee to negotiate on their behalf.
The biggest challenge is educating landlords about the value a good newsagency brings to a centre that is often beyond the value of just rent being paid on time. This plus the traditional GP achieved by a newsagency need to be presented to the landlord in a way that they understand and can consider in terms of the total economic benefit to a centre.
A good newsagency is a service in the centre. A bit like a local council office or a government owned Australia Post outlet or the centre management office. Each of these is costed by the landlord on a different basis than traditional retail.
A good newsagency provides some low margin services that are vital to the overall appeal of a centre. On top of that we sell a range of products at margins that are not usual in retail.
A good newsagency also markets the business, and the centre, extensively outside the centre.
These are all factors that need to be presented to the landlord in a commercially appropriate way and with supporting material. Some landlords listen and respond with an improved rent offer.
Sometimes, newsagents do not get the rent offer they want because they have not made their case fully, professionally or both. Usually, these newsagents don’t want to be told this.
Negotiating a lease or revised lease terms is something to take seriously. You need accurate business data and a sound business case presented professionally and without emotion.
Just because you want a better rent deal is not reason enough for a landlord to give it to you.
We are promoting Slow Cooker 2, the sequel to the runaway Slow Cooker ACP cookbook from a couple of years ago. We sold hundreds of copies of the first edition and are hoping for a repeat of this title with all new recipes.
We are promoting Slow Cooker 2 with this display on the column facing shoppers as they enter the newsagency.
We also have a couple of pockets with food title.
The placement we expect to work the best for us is the stack next to our daily newspapers for it is this location that worked best for the first edition of this title. We will leave Slow Cooker 2 next to newspapers for the next two weeks at least … as long as their sales.
ACP has let newsagents down by not providing marketing collateral with which to promote the title. While I understand it is coming in a couple of weeks, we needed this collateral on Wednesday, the day the title went on sale.
With more publishers getting on the One Direction bandwagon identified early by Pacific Magazines, we have squeezed some space from what was to be our Mother’s Display for the three titles we currently have available.
The latest title, 1D Downunder – from ACP, as a feature in our front of store display. The opportunity to win 1D tickets should help this title move well. Thankfully we have been able to get as much stock as we want of this and the other titles.
The latest issue of MasterChef magazine is out and, frankly, it is disappointing. Rather than this latest issue being something special to coincide with the start of the new TV series, it is more of the same – a food title which is struggling in a competitive marketplace. Check out the cover – it’s not what I’d expect for a magazine that represents the hit TV show. You only have to place it next to Feast, Good Food, Gourmet Traveller or Donna Hay to see that it misses the mark.
We are supporting MasterChef with good in-location promotion but nothing else. It’s not special enough.
Some comments on my posts about the ParcelPoint opportunity for newsagents reflect a misconception by some of what can unify newsagents.
The most association-driven unification all newsagents can hope for is support for policy objectives pursued by the ANF on behalf of newsagents. This is the key objective of any good industry association. I know the ANF works hard on policy matters.
Associations don’t have structured, discipline-based, commercial relationships with newsagents. They don’t have the levers necessary for driving discipline. Discipline is the key to unity of any grouping. This is a key reason associations cannot drive commercial unity.
The commercial unity train left the station with few newsagents on board many years ago. It will not return.
If you disagree, visit 100, 50 or even 10 newsagency businesses and compare them. Tote up common product, price and service offerings. You will not see businesses genuinely unified by range, service and price. I know because this is what I see.
It’s not a bad thing for newsagents as there are other forms of commercial unity that are helping newsagents leverage discipline for a collective advantage.
We have five newsagency marketing / management groups, each with the ability to rally unity behind their respective brands and what they stand for. Not all have discipline commitments but some do and they use it.
There is unity around brands with key newsagency channel brand supporters driving consistency around range, merchandising and price where possible among newsagents. Hallmark and John Sands do this from a card perspective. There are plenty of gift suppliers doing this.
Tattersalls drives unity through its various operations ensuring a consistent merchandising, service and price offer. Lotterywest and SA Lotteries do this in their respective states.
The computer companies can drive unity around a consistency of management practices and services offered. This is, in part, what ParcelPoint is about – my Tower Systems company leveraging its footprint or around 1,800 locations. I think you will see even more of this from the IT companies.
Commercial unity is more valuable for newsagents because of the levers of discipline at the heart of commercial operations.
While I understand the frustration of some that unity is attainable under the newsagency shingle, this is a dead opportunity because newsagents made it so many years ago.
I’d urge newsagents to look at their businesses and the various commercial opportunities for unifying with others in their supplier related communities. These opportunities are real today. Unity around a shingle is not.
Check out the blog post at mUmBRELLA about their experiment with their Encore title. It’s a behind the scenes look at how one publisher approached building their iPad app and the results so far. A highly recommended read.
Grand Designs Australia magazine launched yesterday. This title lives up to the expectations of fans of the TV show and packages the projects and stories in a magazine format which, I predict, will see the title a hit.
We are supporting Grand Designs Australia with a display at the entrance to the magazine aisle. We are also featuring it at the counter indicating it as the launch issue – offering customers a reason to take a look at the title.
We have other plans for the title through the on-sale to make sure that we achieve the best sales result possible for the title. In addition to this, we have the title located with home and living titles.
This launch is a wonderful opportunity for newsagents. Get behind this title.
I hope that newsagents have not early returned the title.
We are giving the latest issue of triple J magazine the star treatment with this placement in the free-standing floor unit in our men;s magazine section.
Jack White is a hot music property at the moment so the cover should attract good interest. That said, shoppers who may be interested may not browse the music aisle – hence this placement in with sports and car magazines.
We are four weeks in with this stand. We like it. Customers don’t complain. It is working at offering us a fresh approach for promoting magazine titles outside of their usual location.