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

Promoting New Idea Jumbo Puzzler

Check out the counter display we have done for New Idea Jumbo Puzzler for this weekend.  We are planning on using this space in front of our Ticketek counter for a selection of individual magazine titles and categories of titles over the next few weeks.  Given the tremendous success we have have with this new title I figured that it was well worth trying at the counter. We still have copies in their usual location. This counter display will run for the weekend and into the start of next week.

This type of display is all about selling titles easily understood and purchased on impulse to shoppers who are unlikely to move further into the store to browse the magazine range.

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magazines

Strong start to magazine sales in 2012

As a follow up to my post earlier this week about how uneducated and ill-considered early returning of magazines by newsagents could kill magazines for our channel, I thought I would share some data for the newsagency I directly and most consistently influence. It is one of three newsagencies I own or have a half share in.  This data speaks to me practicing what I write here.  It  provides the best measure of how my processes pan out at the sales counter. It shows that growth is possible in magazines.

Crossword sales are up 124 units, 108%. Women’s weeklies are up 151 units, 18%. Craft and hobbies are up 47 units, 168%. Special interest sales are up 51 units, or 124%. Right across the board except for Children’s and Buying & Selling sales are up.

This is our third January so we are well established.  We have another newsagency, two supermarkets and a couple of other outlets selling magazines in the centre.

All of this growth comes from hard work and commitment from the team running the business and my involvement.  We promote the business regularly externally. We have a strong new traffic generation campaign.  We have an equally strong campaign in-store for driving a deeper basket with more magazines. We entice magazine customers back.

While magazine sales are challenged we have a medium opportunity. They continue to offer us today the best point of difference over any other retail business which sells everything else we sell. This is why I am concerned about ill-considered and uneducated early returns.  They send the wrong message to the publisher.

I think that many newsagents have it within their capacity to grow magazine sales. Sure it’s hard work. The reward is what you bank and the increased value of the business.

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magazine distribution

Promoting Valentine’s Day sales

This is the display our team created for behind the counter to promote the two JAG watches we are giving away for Valentine’s Day this year.  We wanted to focus on the key message of the opportunity to win the watches.

Elsewhere in-store we are promoting our Valentine’s Day gifts and greeting cards … which are already selling well I’d note.

I like being able to give away prizes in-store. I think customers appreciate that a local shopper is certain to win the prize we are promoting. This makes winning the prize more attainable. It’s another reason we are so strongly promoting the prize opportunity.

Now before anyone asks, the watches are part of the Hallmark Alliance promotion for Valentine’s Day.

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Greeting Cards

Dolly not looking its best on the shelves

The latest issue of Dolly magazine is not looking its best on the shelves.  The stock and weight of the free quiz magazine glued to the back of Dolly is not holding well and so drags back, making the stock look a bit ratty.  This is a pity because the offer is good – the magazine, the quiz magazine and the free pen for doing the quiz.

The problem is that the quiz magazine is glued up so that it stands above the magazine. The paper stock is not thick enough to hold the weight of the quiz magazine in stock. After a day on the shelves, unless the pockets are jam-packed, you end up with the ratty look in the photo.

I doubt it will affect sales. At least I hope it doesn’t.

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magazines

Remembering Steve Jobs

We are giving Mac Format magazine prime positioning so that the full cover of their tribute issue for Steve Jobs can be easily seen and browsed.

This issue should sell well as there are plenty of Apple fans out there who would purchase it as a collector’s item.  I am surprised that there was no bump in supply for this issue.  Hmm … we get a bump without expectation of justification and then where there is justification – nothing.

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magazines

A free magazine subscription with a newspaper subscription

In Auckland this week I was surprised to see this ad in the New Zealand Herald offering a free magazine subscription with a newspaper subscription.

This is not something I’d like to see reach Australia. Given the mix of titles on offer I’d hate to lose over the counter sales of weekly titles. It is bad enough distribution newsagents losing margin on the migration from direct customer accounts to subscriptions. Losing magazine sales would further huts newsagents.

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magazines

Promoting the Australian Women’s Weekly

We are promoting the latest issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly with this aisle end display as well as a double waterfall in the usual ovation for the title – next to our weekly magazines. we are hoping that the Meryl Streep cover drawn good attention and drives sales.  For there weekend we will be using the ACP impulse stand out the front of the newsagency to attract the weekend shoppers. As the Victorian school holidays draw to a close we will see a return to more traditional shopping patters. In suburban newsagencies this can me an increase in sales of the most popular titles.

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magazines

Happy Australia Day

Newsagencies ought to be top of mind to Australians today as ours are quintessentially Australian businesses. We play a vital role in our communities. We employ local people. We usually reinvest profits locally.  We are good local businesses showing off the Australian work ethic and commitment to a fair go … for the most part at least.

What challenges us and this image of our businesses is unfair treatment around magazine supply, a wage system which penalises us for the now seven day a week retail cycle, the relentless pursuit of our core customers by the two major supermarket groups and Australia Post, the cynical abuse of our channel by some suppliers and poor decisions some of us make about our businesses.

Our job this year is to rise above these challenges and to use the strength of our footprint to push back on some fronts, to make our voice heard for genuine change in our favour.

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Newsagency management

Promoting Girlfriend magazine and Virgin Mobile

We are promoting the latest issue go Girlfriend magazine from Pacific Magazines with the bonus nail foils and the free $2 Virgin Mobile SIM pack with this display facing into the mall. The Virgin Mobile SIM comes with the magazine. Our team is reinforcing the Virgin Mobile connection with Girlfriend by placing a Virgin Mobile Broadband product next to the magazine display. Shoppers who purchase a Broadband product go into the running to win one of two scooters valued at over $2,000.  Now before anyone asks – this is a newsXpress promotion.  I like it because it is pitching free mobile access to a demographic which is wedded to mobile phone communication. I like being the only shop in the shopping centre with the offer and the prize opportunity.  The SIM pack and Girlfriend make a natural fit. Hence our high traffic location promotion.

Connecting promotions from two different product categories is a smart move for newsagents and newsagency marking groups. Especially products which are habit or regular purchase based – like magazines and mobile phone recharge.

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magazines

Early magazine returns of some could hurt the whole newsagency channel

A magazine recently had a sell through of 91% in a study group of newsagencies, a pretty amazing result. Many of the stores in the data group sold out. The problem is that every newsagency in the selected data group early returned the title. In fact, they early returned 37% of the inventory they received.

The sales result for the issue makes the rely return move look dumb. Most of the newsagents involved lost sales as a result.  Maybe they are rich enough and don;t want the additional bottom line profit. Maybe they are not planning to sell their newsagency and therefore don;’t want every extra dollar in valuation they can achieve.

The performance of this particular title in the newsagencies studied shows that every newsagent included, without their knowledge, in the data study was clueless about early returning this title.  The result is not only a failure for the businesses but a failure for the newsagency channel.

The actions of these dumb newsagents is giving one publisher good commercial reasons to look outside our channel.

Dumb early return decisions, decisions not based on good data, could be a factor in publishers more widely seeking out alternative outlets for their magazines.

Publishers talk. They share stories about how their titles are treated by newsagents. It is entirely possible that the ill-considered actions of some newsagents could hurt the whole channel.

While newsagents bleat and moan about things they cannot change, it frustrates me that they do not invest time in resolving things they can change.

I urge newsagents to review their early returns process. If you are not sure about the criteria to use, ask. Plenty of professional help is available.

We must change how we handle early returns for the future of the channel.

Footnote: While I am referring to one issue of one title here, this post could be about hundreds of magazines. I know of at least six Australian publishers with titles which have been treated as I have described.

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magazine distribution

Seriously Gotch? These aren’t magazines!

Newsagents last week received stock of these Hana deka Club roller stamp pens from magazine distributor Gordon and Gotch. Why a magazine distributor would send us these roller stamp pens is beyond me. I can get this product from a range of suppliers and on commercially votable terms.

On the same day Gotch sent newsagents a counter unit of My Little Pony Self Inking Stampers.

This is an abuse of the newsagency channel. It relies on newsagents not having the guts to act. It also relies of us having to fund returning such product – not each given the packaging.

The only place most newsagents could viably put these products is at the counter. Would you do this – with such a generic product which does nothing for your image – for 25% margin?  50% maybe.

I have told my teams to be on the lookout for junk like this and to return it immediately. If it gets damaged through the returns process so be it. It’s not my problem.  No magazine distributor should be sending us this junk.

This product impact how newsagents feel about all products distributed by Gordon and Gotch.

And Australian publishers wonder why newsagents early return stock.

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magazine distribution

Selling to fans of The Smiths

I love the cover of the NME special on The Smiths and so have made sure that it is in the best location in our music section.

I like to tab any opportunity to lift up a cosier with visual cut through and which has special interest appeal. Even shoppers who do not purchase or browse the title are likely to at least remember our specialisation. This is the kind of specialisation which is important to us or at least to newsagents who consider themselves to be magazine specialists.

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magazines

Better Homes and Gardens powers on

Thankfully we have been able to get extra stock of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. This will help us reach our full sales potential. This latest issue is selling very well – we are into double digit growth territory.

We continue to support the magazine with this in-location display. Sales are worth it even up to the last week of the on-sale. This is a title which works for us right through the month.

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magazines

Great fun product for school holidays

We are now on our third order of the Pumpinator product, a water balloon device. It comes with the pump and balloons. We have had this on sale at full price, and excellent margin, since just before Christmas and have found it to be one of the easiest items in the newsagency to sell.

What I like about the Pumpinator and our front of store display is that it attracts shoppers with kids who then browse the shop and often purchase one or two other items. We are using it to pull traffic for driving magazine and greeting card sales.

We always look at products we place at the shop for what they can deliver throughout the business. We choose products which appeal to the demographics we know we can serve well deeper in-store.

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retail

Check your supply of Maxim magazine

The publishers and distributors of Maxim magazine need to look at the sell through rate for the title. In one of my newsagencies we are achieving a sell through of just under 30%, making the title loss making for us. While supply has been reduced, the reduction is not enough to enable us to cover our costs.

The scale out of Maxim for us ought to be trimmed by 50% based on our sales data. This is what a publisher and distributor caring about the health of the retail channel would do. I should not have to ask. It should be automatic and based on the accurate sales data which is provided. Instead, I am oversupplied and carry the cost of this.

Newsagents should check their supply of Maxim and see if they are being oversupplied as I am.

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magazine distribution

Promoting Wheels magazine

We have been promoting the latest Wheels magazine which this display which effectively wraps the main sales counter.

the display makes a bold impression, especially to shoppers walking past the business as well as to shoppers as they approach the sales counter.

On this issue of Wheels, I like the cover. It is a nice departure for the title and stands out of shelf in among other car titles … very nice visual cut through.

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magazines

Promoting car magazine at the counter

We are running a pretty simple placement promoting of a range of car and motorbike magazines at one of our sales counters.  We are tracking the quantity of each title to see what is working from this location. Three magazines in two days so far. I’m happy with that given that some or all of these will be incremental business.

I see plenty of newsagencies where the weeklies are located in these front of shop locations. I am not a fan of that. In this particular newsagency we have our weeklies located at the half way point in the shop and sales continue to grow. So far this month, comparing to January 2011, sales are up 14%.

But back to the car magazines. I chose to place them at the counter as they reflect a category which is usually only browsed y destination browsers or shoppers. I wanted to get this subset of our range in front of more shoppers so that they are aware of what we carry. Hence the placement at the counter for this week.

We are regularly looking at our counter and what we have placed in front of shoppers who are making a purchase. We like to make changes at least weekly, to keep our offer fresh and to drive sales.

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magazines

Very cool Back to School offer

I’m thrilled with the Maped Back to School range. It’s a mix of stationery ideal for the start of the school year but packaged in a more appealing way than traditional Back to School items.

What I especially like is that we are an authorised stockist for the Maped brand. This gives us better pricing as well as advertising support – making us competitive with the other authorised stockists Officeworks and Woolworths.

Regulars here would know that I prefer to stock brands rather than generic unbranded or meaningless brand products. The advertising support for the Maped brand is vital to not only its success but also my success and an authorised stockist.

We have the Maped range at the front of the newsagency, facing into the shopping all. It is selling very well and drawing good traffic.  Our plan is to maintain and even expand the range as an all year round range.

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Stationery

The Moshi monster opportunity in newsagencies

We are promoting the new Moshi Monster cards – which provide access to the online Moshi Monster world – along with two magazines which feature Moshi Monster related content. I’d encourage other newsagents to do this as it is a terrific win win win opportunity. Not only are there two magazines appealing to lovers of the popular Moshi Monsters but there is also the currency for accessing content. Get people knowing you sell this and they will come back for more. This is vital … connecting our customer with repeat, or habit, based business.

So, check out the two titles and where you have your Moshi Monsters cards from Incomm – available through Touch Networks and supported by most newsagency Point of Sale software platforms.

This is what we should be doing – looking at opportunities to connect products and brands arose multiple categories, driving basket depth and improving margin dollars per sale.

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magazines

The optimism connection

Maybe this shows how much we obsess about magazines. On the other hand, maybe it shows we take the magazine opportunity seriously. Check out the cover story on Time magazine and Psychology Today magazine.

Both cover stories relate to optimism.

Thanks to the observation skills of one of our team members it was a thrill to notice that both titles had been placed together. This is a smart move as it is possible they would appeal to the same shopper. If they don’t no harm done as both titles could exist comfortably next to each other regardless of cover story in my view.

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magazines

Great magazine support for Australia Day

I love the support for Australia Day from That’s Life from Pacific Magazines and Take 5 from ACP Magazines. These two titles have a good track record fro supporting a range of seasons through the year. I like that as it can help drive impulse purchases.

We make sure that we put titles with a seasonal promotion or connection, like the current issues of Take 5 and That’s Life, in prime positioning with the full cover on show so that their support can be seen – too often in traditional magazine filtering seasonal connections can be lost.

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magazines

Sunday marketing tip for newsagents: break free from the pack

The product mix in the majority of newsagencies is the same as any other newsagency. To a shopper, the product mix in a newsagency can also be found in a supermarket and variety store.

Newsagents often reinforce this sameness by not breaking free visually.  Looking from the front of the shop in the message is often one of variety with no point of difference or no local branding standing out.

We face a similar challenge to the eateries in New York.  There are hundreds, of diners and eateries on the streets of Manhattan. By diner I mean a walk-in venue where you can get a simple meal to go or have a quick bite sitting in. There is usually not a big difference in fare,l the menu in each is often quite broad but the same.  Each diner needs to find a way to cut through so that they attract some the considerable foot traffic on the streets.

Check out Fluffy’s Cafe Bakery.  Click on the image for a full-size version. How they stand out is through bold branding of their own and making choice easy.  Their pitch is that for any meal you want you can choose one of their sit items or create tour own. From outside the store a passer-by get’s this pitch from four points – each supports the other. If you’re in a hurry, choice is vey easy. If you are fussy, getting exactly what you want is easy.

Inside Fluffy’s the experience matches the pitch. They make it about choice, easy choice.  I have been into plenty of diners in New York over many trips and Fluffy’s is a place to remember because it breaks free from the average.  They do this with a bold street presence backed on a good and consistent message in-store.

This is what each newsagency needs: to stand out, to reflect a point of difference and to live the point of difference. Newsagencies which don’t do this will suffer from the increased competition we are seeing from the supermarkets and others.

So, what do we do? From the front of our businesses in we stand for something, something we own, a point of difference which is ours and ours alone. This is a big challenge for out type of business. It’s a challenge we must meet.

Fluffy’s shows that the customer comes first.  They make we want to come back again.  The challenge for us is whether we reflect a message as strong and simple as that to people who walk past our newsagency and to customers who shop with us.

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marketing tip

Newsagents, what is your labour to hourly sales cost?

I know of a couple of newsagents who are keen to see a discussion in the channel about the ratio of labour costs per hour to sales per hour.  The figure for sales should be product sales plus agency commission.

With labour being usually the second highest business cost, after lease costs, it is appropriate that we share information in an effort to drive efficiency within the newsagency channel.

I was talking with a couple of newsagents yesterday about this and we compared rostered hours for the same one day from a couple of weeks back.  The difference across the three similar-sized newsagencies five and a half hours or around $120.00. The cheapest business had cleverly managed the roster while the most expensive had not touched the roster in ages.

Play the $120 a day difference across the year and the more expensive business, in terms of rostered hours, faces $31,200 in additional costs just for the weekdays. That’s $100,000 in sales at least.

For ease of comparison, calculate it back at wages per $1,000 in sales. Include your time in the calculation too.

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Newsagency management

Promoting the Twins issue of National Geographic

We are promoting the Twins issue of National Geographic with this pretty cool and tactical display with newspapers. The issue has hit at the same time as a couple of documentaries about twins – proving some excellent cross promotion.

Rather than just place the magazine in this high traffic location, we ran off some colour copies of the cover to give the simple display greater visual impact. It works a treat, making the display more noticeable from a distance.

Beyond chasing sales, the display shows us as being relevant to a current surge in interest in twins. It also pitches us differently to other magazine retailers nearby as this display can only be found in our store. I think that newsagents need to do more of this … creating displays unique to their business.

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magazines
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