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Ah, chocolate, wine and newspapers

I was looking for some different magazines to promote with newspapers for a few days to change things up a bit. When I saw the cover of Food Network Magazine and Wine Companion the decision was easy. Chocolate and wine are favourites with many people … aren’t they?

I think it is important to give lower volume titles time in the spotlight. Besides being good for the titles, it is good for us as it shows products which customers may not know we carry and may not go looking for.

We make moves like this for one reason only – to drive sales.  We try and leverage key traffic drivers, like newspapers, to achieve sales of other products, like these two magazines this week.

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magazines

Sunday marketing tip: 10 free to implement ideas for driving retail sales

Here are ten free to implement ways newsagents can drive sales in their business:

  1. Stop looking at your counter as your customer service hub. By the time people reach your counter they have most of the items they wish to purchase. The shop floor is where you can do the most to drive sales.
  2. Include coupons (ads) on receipts.  These should be designed to drive incremental business and / or bring customers back sooner.
  3. Run a loyalty program, not a competition but a loyalty program.  Track what your customers and buying and reward them.  Also, target marketing based on sales.
  4. Make offers: buy two and get three.  Use the catalogue facilities in your software to make the offers.  This is where you can separate your business from others retailers with the same products – by creating packages.
  5. Consider installing a LCD customer display – run ads between sales and DURING sales.  Make sure that your ad slide show is consistent and focusing on a category.  We have had a lot of success with mobile recharge ads in my own stores.
  6. Run an employee rewards program.  Set sales targets and offer bonuses and rewards for over achievement.  This helps employees understand the role they play in driving your sales.
  7. Use your top selling items to sell other items. Your top selling items are a magnet – what do you have near them? What do you have facing sippers heading board and away from them?
  8. Track everything in the front third of your shop.  Change these items regularly.  Be ruthless – if something is not working, quit it.  For example, I look at the sales from spinners every week.  If they are not giving me a return I look at moving or quitting them.
  9. Include a sales pitch / marketing message on your statements.
  10. Email your customers once a month with news and offers.

This list is by no means complete. Hopefully, reading it will help you one up with your own ideas which are appropriate to your needs.

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marketing tip

Gerry Harvey misses the point on the retail paradigm shift

Gerry Harvey was a guest on Radio National’s Saturday Extra program this morning. You can listen to the interview and read feedback comments here. Harvey was preaching his usual message: that the $1,000 GST free threshold on imports is hurting retail in this country and that overseas retailers facilitate fraud by allowing Australians to purchase expensive items and get a receipt which is under the $1,000 threshold.

Host Geraldine Doogue did not challenge Harvey as she should have.

In London earlier this week, I heard some major retailers openly talk about Australia as being a hot and lucrative market for them. One fashion retailer talked about the $1,000 tax free threshold and the high Australian dollar as providing them with “extraordinary” sales.

While I think the federal government should address the $1,000 threshold on imported consumer purchases, I don’t see this as the cause of Gerry Harvey’s problems. Retail has changed, especially in the area of higher ticket price goods such as those sold in the Harvey Norman stores.  Consumers are better informed today, they have more options.  From a shop floor they can price compare and purchase from a competitor for next day delivery.

We are moving from retail model built on labour intensive distributed warehouses with high overheads to a model of fewer warehouses and lower overheads.  However, this is not a point A to point B shift. It is evolutionary. This is why retailers are talking about omni-channel retail today. This is a transition model because, frankly, they do not know where we will end up. This is not an end game – from the day the first retail business opened the model has been in play.

Gerry Harvey’s challenge is that he has built a business almost completely around a price perception. His route to market was relentless advertising. Advertising is working less today. People have smart mobile devices and other means through which they can discover price options.  Had Gerry built his business around a value proposition which it could genuinely own then they could have taken their loyal shoppers with them. Gerry is now learning that price does not drive loyalty. His millions of dollars in advertising has not been an investment in the future.

So, what does all this mean for newsagents? We will be as challenged as any other retailer. We have the opportunities of other retailers too … opportunities to adjust our business model. Many of us have customers who are loyal because of unique and appreciated customer service or because of a unique range of products. We need to develop business plans to evolve with our customers as their approach to shopping evolves.  The biggest mistake we could make right now would be to stand still.

We are confronted with more opportunities than ever before.  Now is the time for us to embrace these, leveraging our existing good and quite unique traffic from our core products and building our own businesses for the next generation.

I will explore these and related ideas in the Newsagency of the Future workshop which starts in Perth on March 26.

In the meantime, listen to Gerry Harvey because his message today will be a topic of analysis by retail experts in the future.

Footnote: Gerry Harvey sooked about how people react to what he says. He needs to understand that he has done nothing in his business to develop loyalty. Price is not a unique selling proposition.

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Newsagency challenges

Promoting Apple related magazines and funky app toys

One of my team members put together this effective display at one of our sales counters promoting Apple related magazine titles along with the appRacer, appCopter, appWheel and appBlaster – all fun toys which you operate through your iPhone or other Apple device.

The magazines sell the toys and the toys sell the magazines.  The two types of products together like this pitches us beyond a more traditional magazine outlet.

I like it a lot and was thrilled to see it in-store.

Okay so we are selling toys priced at close to $80, some of them at least. I am confident they will sell.  I know that right now we are the only retailer in Knox City with these … and we have the best display of the ASpple related magazines here too.

This display to me is also about embracing the magazine opportunity, seeing beyond the 25% and focussing on banking margin dollars from impulse purchases.

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magazines

Promoting Smith Journal magazine with Frankie

This is the main Frankie / Smith Journal display in one of my newsagencies. It faces shoppers as they walk through the store.  I say ‘main’ because we have more than one. Each title is located in two other places.

The photo does not do display justice as it looks more washed, faded, than in real life.

I like that we are educating shoppers here about the two titles being somehow related.

Elsewhere in the newsagency, Frankie and Smith Journal are not located together … we have them in the more usual locations for each title to catch sales to those who will regularly purchase them.  We’re tracking sales, chasing growth on the previous issue of each.

I know I go on about these magazines but I cannot stress their importance enough. Frankie and Smith Journal are loved by and connect with an age group which is vitally important to our businesses. The more we show these younger shoppers that they can rely on us for magazine entertainment the brighter our future.

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magazines

Collingwood Beanie Kid the most popular so far

I know there is a risk with this post in that it might attract a few natters (on both sides) but here goes… We sold out of the Collingwood Beanie Kid collectors item in a few days – way ahead of any other team. We;’re chasing more stock as we don’t want to turn away the collectors now that we are known for our range of Beanie kids at Knox City.

So, for me this is not so much about AFL allegiances. No, it’s about serving collectors and making sure that we provide them with the products and services they need to satisfy their desire to collect.  The repeat business is excellent – not only from the AFl range but the broader beanie Kid range we carry.

With the AFL collection, while there is the occasional AFL team nutter they’re usually fun … and that’s terrific in retail.

Footnote: seen my earlier post about Beanie Kids.

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Newsagency opportunities

Newsagents, retail and the carbon tax

The Geelong Advertiser had a report about the potential impact of the carbon tax on retail tenancy costs. Landlord have been good at passing on all additional costs for decades. Related: I note that there are reports today that Myer will pull out of centres where it does not get better rent deals.

I have been fortunate in recent years to be able to negotiate rent abatement in under performing centres, 33% in one case.

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Newsagency challenges

Newsagency of the Future workshop venues announced

Venues have been confirmed for the Newsagency of the Future workshops which start in ten days. Anyone is welcome to attend. The event is free. But bookings are essential.  Click here for the booking form.

  • Perth. March 26. Country Comfort Inter City, 249-263 Great Eastern Highway, Perth
  • Sydney. March 27. Bonnie Doon Golf Club, Banks Ave, Pagewood
  • Canberra. March 28. Rydges Capital Hill Canberra, Cnr National Cct. & Canberra Ave, Canberra
  • Adelaide. March 29. Rydges South Park Adelaide, 1 South Terrace, Adelaide
  • Brisbane. March 30. Brisbane Riverview Hotel, Cnr Kingsford Smith Dve & Hunt St, Hamilton
  • Hobart. April 2. Mercure Hotel Hobart, 156 Bathurst St, Hobart
  • Melbourne. April 3. Amora Hotel Riverwalk, 659 Bridge Rd, Richmond
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Newsagency management

Retail Week Conference 2012 enlightening

It has been a thrill to participate in the Retail Week Conference 2012 in London over the last couple of days.  More than 1,000 retailers participated, large and small. This on top of the Retail Business and Technology Expo earlier in the week – a separate event.

Both events are better informing my presentations for the upcoming Newsagency of the Future workshop series.

Most of the retail challenges and opportunities discussed in many of the sessions are not dissimilar to challenges and opportunities we face in Australia. Some of the solutions discussed are fresh.

What was most interesting was the discussion about the future of the High Street.  This has been a hot topic in the UK for years and while there has not been much progress that they are at least discussing the migration from the High Street to the out of town centre puts them ahead of Australia.

The topics covered which are borderless include: challenged retail business turnaround strategies, omni-channel retail, High Street reinvention, being smart with technology, economic challenges, technology led disruption, employee engagement and big versus small retailers.

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Newsagency management

Tapping into the digital photo opportunity

With the growth in sales of digital photography titles we regularly refresh the layout of this section of our magazine department, ensuring that titles we want to promote are presented with the full cover on display.  The range is small enough and the space allocation good enough for us to give all titles fair time in the full cover spotlight.

Each week we review this section to ensure it is fresh and to place titles next to each other in a way which we think will drive the purchase of more than one title in a shopping trip.

The result we are seeing is good sales growth.

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magazines

ACP to close FHM magazine

The May issue of FHM will be the last reports Mumbrella. This not unexpected (due to declining sales) move further thins the men’s shelves.

Maybe we are in an era of more cerebral contact given the challenges for titles with sexy content compared to the success of titles with smart content. I suspect this is the case across all magazines. readers want value in the form of smart content. I think this is a reason for the success of Frankie for example and will probably be the reason for success of Smith Journal as it extends its journey.

Vale FHM, it’s the end of an era.

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magazines

Ryman shows a different approach to stationery

I have been able to visit a number of Ryman the Stationery stores in London. While each is different in size, they are all similar – the typical footprint I have seen in London is small, the aisles narrow and the range of stationery considerable.

They offer known brand stationery and their own brand. Given the Ryman retail footprint their own brand would carry considerable respect from consumers I suspect. Certainly their house branded products look like good quality – not like some of the cheap and nasty house brands back in Australia.

What really strikes me about the Ryman stores is what they fit into a smaller footprint. I was in one store of no more than fifty square metres. I be they had more than twice the stationery than a large newsagency allocating twice the amount of space.

In each of the Ryman businesses you get the feeling that they know stationery. They must, of course, as it is their bread and butter – get this wrong and they fail.

Maybe this is why newsagents are challenged with stationery … it is not our bread and butter. We don’t know the category as we should. We need to fix this if we are to grow stationery sales.

I have some thoughts on this and will share these at the Newsagency of the Future workshops in a couple of weeks.

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newsagency of the future

Newsagencies in London

Over the last few days I have been able to visit more than thirty independent newsagency businesses in and around London.  I saw this sign in only one. No one was browsing the magazine range – this is probably more to do with the time of day than the sign. To be fair, there was limited space and even one person browsing would certainly disrupt customer access.  That said, this barrier to browsing is not a point of difference I’d want.

One of the points of difference we newsagents offer is easy shopper access to magazine range.  Browsing is key to this.  If we push back against browsing there is no doubt it will hurt sales.

Beyond browsing, the diversity between newsagency businesses I have seen is considerable. It’s been three years since I last looked at newsagencies in London and my feeling is that there are better businesses today.

Sure there are convenience store type operations which dabble in a range of categories. However, I have seen more newsagencies focused on one or two core product categories and owning these as their point of difference.

More than half of the newsagencies I visited looked good and presented well on the high street.

Like in Australia however, the overall differences between these businesses with a common shingle is considerable.

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Newsagency management

Multi title magazine packages popular in London

There are plenty of bulk magazine deals – where publishers put 2, 3 and even 4 current issues of weeklies together in a bag and offer these for a lower price – in London.

While I am sure that publishers engaged in the practice will disagree, retailers I have spoken with here say that they don’t notice a sales lift. One retailer said was quite frustrated because he is certain his revenue is down as a result.

Regulars here would know that I am not a fan of the deals as I think they educate shoppers to not pay full price.

I’d prefer people to purchase a title for the content rather than the discount off cover price. Okay, use price rarely to reconnect with shoppers who have stopped buying but not too often and this is what educated people.

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magazines

Magazines in London department stores

Here in London, magazines are at check out counters in department stores. While the photo is from a Marks & Spencer department store, I have seen this in several different stores.

I am not sure if the move is a reflection on the more traditional magazine retail offering here. I would doubt that as there are plenty of newsagency type outlets around from the national brand, WH Smith, to the smaller independent businesses.

What is interesting about what I saw today at Marks & Spencer is the mix of titles … it’s diverse: GQ, Men’s Health, Top Gear, Wired and Vanity Fair. Not a traditional mix I’d expect in a menswear section where I took the photo.  That said, I’d expect that the title selection is based on the shoppers who most commonly present at the counter.

My question for Australian newsagents is: how would you feel if magazines were sold like this at checkout counters in Australian department stores?

A follow up question: what are you doing about this in your newsagency today?

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magazine distribution

Greek Beat magazine opportunity for newsagents

Elias Farogiannis, the publisher of Greek Beat magazine has contacted me offering distribution of the title free to newsagents who would like to sell it – cover price $2.95.

Greek Beat is new.  It’s in English and Greek and targets readers between 18 and 60. Newsagents would know from the newspapers they sell whether they are in the right location to support a Greek magazine.

Here is the pitch from the publisher:

The layout is modern and unique covering different topics that include: Entertainment, Fashion, Travel, Recipes, Lifestyle, Beauty and Sport, which makes it a magazine suited for all ages.

Newsagents can simply order to stock the magazine by sending an email to distribution@greekbeat.com.au including their contact details and delivery address for the magazines.

Greek Beat will be FREE for 2 months for newsagents to trial the magazine.

This looks like a good opportunity for newsagents to find a market for the new title with little risk. It’s a cool way for a publisher to launch a title.

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magazines

Herald Sun paywall move comments

If you have a Twitter account, log on and search for Herald Sun paywall … see what the Twitterverse is saying about the move by News to put Herald Sun content behind a paywall.

Once you dismiss some of the fringe comments, there are enough other comments to suggest the move may have unintended consequences.

If the paywall is like that for The Times in London then it will certainly be frustrating and possible cost the publisher traction for good stories. Whereas with a print product a consumer can drift in and out of engagement by purchasing the odd copy, with the paywall for The Times this is not possible.

At The Times today there is a story I am interested in, but not interested enough to pay a £2 subscription to access. So I purchased the print edition. This is not entirely satisfactory as I’d now like to share the story and can’t do that easily with the print edition. It’s The Times story I’d like to share, not the version I can find from other publications.

News misses out with this scenario as do their advertisers.  Their paywall effectively blocks  recommendations from readers who used to share links. This stops a good story which they have exclusively from taking off virally. While this will not so much be an issue with the Herald Sun, it must be an issue with The Times here in the UK and The Australian back home.

Now, from a retailers perspective this could be good as people who can’t access something may well head to a newsagency to purchase a newspaper.  Time will tell.

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Media disruption

Use Facebook to see how publishers interact with readers

One way newsagents can find out more information about a any product we sell is to follow it on Facebook.  Smith Journal is a terrific case in point.  Their Facebook page has excellent information about the magazine. Cadbury has a page dedicated to one of the Easter treats. Beanie Kids has a terrific Facebook presence.  There are plenty of other examples.

While we don’t have time to keep track of the social media campaigns relating to everything we sell, we could connect with the products of particular interest to us. I’m sure that proactive newsagents will soon seek out more products to get the information edge which could help drive sales … especially once they have used the information they accessed to get a sale.

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magazines

Herald Sun digital offer disappointing

While it is good to see the Herald Sun digital pass offers all include a home delivery component, except one, I am disappointed that they continue to let down their loyal over the counter customers. We newsagents see the same people day in day out purchasing the same newspaper. Publishers ignore these people and instead chase the far more expensive home delivery route.

They are fools for missing these loyal retail customers.

As I noted yesterday, I don’t see any content at the herald Sun website or through the App which I would be prepared to pay for. I don’t want to pay to be told what to think.

I will pay for genuinely independent and professional journalism.

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Newspapers

Some frustrating former newsagents

There are some frustrating former newsagents in our marketplace. People ready to tell others what to do and how to do it, trading off having been newsagents previously.

Some of these former newsagents who are quick with advice do not have relevant experience on some of the situations on which they provide advice. Some failed when they ran their own newsagency and while this should not preclude them providing advice, it would be helpful for them to disclose this.

My advice to newsagents who are offered advice from anyone including former newsagents is to test their qualifications for providing the specific advice. Ask tough questions, make sure that you can trust their expertise in the field in which they are giving advice.

Sometimes, the best advice will come from an expert in the field of need.

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Newsagency management

How to promote new ACP cookbooks

We have the new ACP cookbook, Women’s Weekly Masterclass, located in our permanent ACP cookbook section as well as in with our food titles.

We will maintain and front position full face pocket for Women’s Weekly Masterclass for at least the first two weeks in this second location.

This is our plan for new ACP cookbooks – co0locating with food titles. Occasionally, we will do a placement with newspapers, but mainly we go with a second position in food.  This is in addition to a three pocket waterfall in the ACP cookbook section. We choose the place in food which works best with the title – as is shown by the photo.

I think it is important that newsagents have a consistent approach to new ACP cookbook titles and that everyone on your team knows what the consistent approach is.

Newsagents get these titles some weeks before supermarkets. This is our opportunity to get sales without other outlets competing. We need to leverage these early weeks.

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magazines

How are your hair magazine sales?

Is it just me or are hair magazine sales under performing other magazines? While there are a couple of titles doing okay, I am seeing others where sales are in free fall.

So here’s my question, is it just me or are other newsagents seeing this hair related titles?

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magazines

Promoting Mothering Sunday

We have been promoting a selection of greeting cards of Mothering Sunday, the UK Mother’s Day, in the lead up to the big day –  which is  this Sunday.

We have had the range on show at the counter as we figured that shoppers would ask if they were looking for the range and to provide an opportunity for people to be encouraged to purchase on impulse.

These minor seasons are good as they allow us to promote a point of difference over major retailers.

 

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Greeting Cards

Farewell Herald Sun

I have removed the Herald Sun from my bookmarks following the launch of their paywall today. While I never used the site for creating news, I did use it to get the ‘News’ perspective on a story. No more. I’m not paying for that.

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Newspapers
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