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

How newsagents can act against email SPAM

Newsagents who receive unsolicited emails can complain to ACMA about such SPAM.  Under the Spam Act 2003,

it is illegal to send, or cause to be sent, unsolicited commercial electronic messages. The Act covers email, instant messaging, SMS and MMS (text and image-based mobile phone messaging) of a commercial nature.

Lodging a complaint about SPAM email is the best way to complain about your business email address being obtained and used for unsolicited emails.  Click here to go to the ACMA page for lodging a complaint.

The other thing I’d suggest newsagents do is emailing the spammer and letting them know that you are complaining to ACMA.

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Ethics

Promoting RUSSH magazine

We are promoting the latest issue of RUSSH magazine with this terrific aisle end display created by our team.

This is a cool magazine which attracts a younger demographic so it’s nice to take the opportunity to give it some time in the spotlight.  This is an important segment to newsagents if we want to attract new magazine readers to our stores.

We’ll keep the display up for a week or longer depending on space demands.

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magazines

Magazine relay adds 25% to magazine unit sales

While it is not yet a month old, the complete relay of magazines which I did in one of my newsagencies about which I blogged recently is driving at least 25% in overall unit sales growth.

I have double checked the numbers and allowed for sales trend in the months leading up to the relay.  There is no doubt in my mind that the relay is delivering excellent growth.

The sales of some categories are exploding as a result of the relay.  For example, some categories have achieved 200% in growth.  This is extraordinary in the climate of flat or declining magazine sales.  In Craft & Hobbies, for example, sales are up 245% off a reasonable base.  Crosswords, a category which we have consistently pushed and achieved growth from, are up 80%.

The return I am getting from less than a day’s work, including planning time, is extraordinary.

Beyond magazine sales growth, there is a knock-on effect through the store.  The relay is keeping magazine shoppers in the store longer and any retailer knows that the longer shone browses the more likely they are to shop.

It is particularly gratifying to see well-considered adjacencies deliver excellent sales growth.

The best approach to a magazine relay is to start with a blank canvass, completely empty shelves.  Place your weeklies first and grow out from there.  Create shopping zones: women, men, kids, food, garden, special interest etc.

Build the display to serve your customers.  If you are unsure in your planning, spend time watching your customers browse and shop.  Talk to them as well.  Their insights could be the key to excellent sales growth.

Approach the relay with as few barriers as possible.  I have done relays with some newsagents who have all manner of excuses on why some locations should not change.  They want sales growth but are not prepared to engage in necessary risks to chase this.

It is important to remember that changing magazine locations is easy.  If you discover that you have made a mistake, you can easily change it again.

Seven years ago the MPA (magazine Publishers Australia) published a handbook and video to guide newsagents on undertaking a magazine relay.  While that content is a bit out of date today, it would be a useful guide to newsagents unsure of where to start.

I’d urge every newsagent in Australia to undertake a magazine relay at least once a year.  Be sure to measure the results.  Let me know how you go.

PS. I used my newsagency software to look for opportunities when planning the relay.

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magazines

Express Media drops full copy magazine returns

In a bold and welcome move, Express Media Group (EMG) has announced to newsagents the dropping, permanently, of full copy returns.  This cuts the cost of returns for newsagents.  It also demonstrates that ENG accepts accountability for a commercially viable scale out to newsagents.

This move on top of the 75% margin for the first stow re-launch issues of Truckin Life, the two-month trial of higher margin for all EMG titles and the switch to four weeks on-sale makes for a package of bold and welcome changes for newsagents and their relationship with Express

Here’s a to do list for newsagents to maximise the opportunities:

  1. Contact Express on (02) 8719 3503 or at circulation@emgroup.com.au or by going to http//newsagents.emgroup.com.au to make sure that you have enough stock of their titles especially Trucking Life.
  2. Check out the title range and be sure you are placing titles to make the most of the opportunity.
  3. Train your employees to help you make the most of the opportunity with better placement and good product knowledge.

Newsagents have an excellent opportunity here to demonstrate how much they value a publisher engaging with them.  Other publishers are watching the moves by Express and how newsagents do or don’t react.  Please don’t let the channel down.

I and others and been highly critical of Express.  Their moves in recent weeks show that they are prepared to listen and change.

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magazine distribution

The Steve Jobs legacy for newsagents

While much has been written abut the sad passing of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, for me, the message of his life for newsagents is to face challenges and innovate through them.

Steve made computers cool, music devices fashion items and the mobile hone, well, plenty more than a phone.

He turned an uncool business channel into something relevant and valuable.

For an insight into the man, watch this video of his commencement address at Stanford University in 2001.

Inspirational.

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Newsagency management

Apple releases a greeting card App

Apple this week released a greeting card App for for its devices.  Hallmark is cool with the move.  The share price for American Greetings (John sands) dropped 10%.

The Apple move will have a short term impact on greeting card sales but physical card innovation will protect and drive sales.  As people settle in with sharing emotions through a ‘card’ some are likely to consider doing the same in print … especially with marketing from card companies and retailers indicating that a card on the mantlepiece is of more value than a text message which can be deleted.

I am not surprised by the Apple move.  More will come too, not only in the card space but also more innovation challenging newspapers and magazines.  This is what we must expect in this mobile content platform world.

Our job as retailers is to run card departments which are professional, appealing and comforting.  We need to understand that buying a card is an emotional experience and connect with our shoppers appropriately.

We need to deal with card companies which evolve their products and work with us to evolve the shopper experience.

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Greeting Cards

Coles school sports promotion rip-off

The Coles school sports promotion is a rip-off in my view.  According to a recent report in The Australian (Sept. 5 pg 8), shoppers need to spend $700 to earn enough points for a school to get a $3 (RRP) skipping rope.

I’d have parents from a nearby school spending less than $500 in one of my newsagencies in a year yet I happily give them products worth $50 for free when they ask.  This makes my small newsagency more valuable to the school than Coles.  Plus I don’t demand they shop with me.  I want that to occur naturally as it is more likely to stick if it does.

Indeed in each of my newsagencies we give a significantly higher percentage of revenue to community groups than Coles appears to with this promotion.

Why should I be surprised that small businesses do more for local schools and clubs than one of our giant supermarkets?  I’m not.  I think that the Coles campaign in purely profit driven and 100% cynical.  It sucks that shoppers buy in and think good on your Coles for doing this.

I don’t spend any money advertising the $50 I give the school either.  It frustrates me the tens and maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars is being spent advertising the promotion.  This should be given to the schools and not media outlets.  Coles should rely on word of mouth – if they were serious about helping as much as possible.

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Ethics

Promoting Sesame Street products

We are promoting activity books from Five Mile Press at the front of the newsagency (ideal for school holidays) including Sesame Street titles.  Shoppers who pass this then pass a Sesame Street plush display – the brilliant and highly successful Sesame Street Lamppost from Jasnor.  Locating the two items close together like this helps drive sales of both.

Regulars here would know that I love well-known brands.  Branded products are easier for us to sell.  Sure cheap China product may have a better margin but it’s not as good today as a year ago and will only get worse.  I’d rather have the brand focused traffic than cheap-ass shoppers looking for cheap China product for the long term health of my newsagency.

Sesame Street is one of those brands – easy to sell and it supports a healthy margin.

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Book retailing

Grouping Italian food magazines helps drive sales

By grouping the three Italian food titles as we have done in the photo we are more likely to achieve sales of two or more of the titles.  We regularly go through or magazine department looking carefully ad adjacencies, trying to make them more relevant to our shoppers.  The result is an above average increase in magazine sales, making the time spent worth it.  I do this work myself.  It is not a task newsagents should delegate unless they are not the magazine specialist in their newsagency.

With more than 30 regular food titles, grouping them by region and or cuisine makes sense.  We even adjust when there are magazines which devote an issue to a category which is located away from the usual place for this title.

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magazines

Promoting Marie Claire magazine

We are promoting the latest issue of Marie Claire magazine with excellent positioning in the usual location for this title as well as co-location with this display opposite the women’s weeklies titles – the highest traffic stopping point in our magazine department.   This is a new promotional space we created a few weeks ago and it is working a treat for us.

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magazines

Transitioning magazines from print to digital

“My goal in life is to find a way to transition from [selling subscriptions] to selling access to a branded experience,” Sauerberg said. “Not just changing the price, but redefining the product in a way that creates a branded experience.”

This is Bob Sauerberg, president of Condé Nast speaking at the 2011 American Magazine Conference and as quoted in a report published by ADWEEK.

The US marketplace is far more dependent on subscriptions than Australia.  This is a reason they are approaching tablet computers differently to here, at the moment.

The best short / medium term opportunity Australian magazine publishers have to stem declining sales and even grow in some areas in newsagents.

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magazines

Extraordinary response from newsagents to benchmark study

I have received the best response yet to a request for newsagent sales data – to my request earlier this week of the Q3 newsagency sales benchmark study.  In three days I have received more sales data than I would usually get in ten days.  This suggest considerable interest in the outcome of this particular study.

Please follow the link above for details in participating.  The result will be a health check on sales across various categories in the newsagency channel.

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Newsagency opportunities

Is a capital city newspaper planning to stop home deliveries?

Two sources have suggested to me that a capital city newspaper in Australia will announce the end of newspaper home deliveries before the end of this year.

I am not sure it is as simple as the rumor put to me however.

Both Fairfax and News know that such a move would damage newspaper home delivery across the country.  I suspect that if there is to be an announcement, and remember this is only a rumor, it will be that the current arrangements, maybe of in house publisher managed direct to subscriber home delivery, are replaced with a completely different model.

What gives this rumor credence if moves I have heard being made by the publisher involved, moves which suggest they are about to cut back.

Why publish a rumor?  Sometimes airing a possibility heightens debate which can help turn around a decision.

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newspaper home delivery

ASIC, the reserve bank and the federal government failed Australians on EFTPOS issue

Where is the federal government on the EFTPOS fees issue?  Nowhere.

Where is ASIC on the issue?  Nowhere.  I would have thought that ASIC could pursue ePAL for misleading conduct.  The still could I guess.  Will they?  Probably not.

Where is the Reserve Bank, the organisation which created the situation? Nowhere.

The federal government – especially Nick Sherry Small Business Minister and Wayne Swan Treasurer – has let retailers down.  They have ignored us.  When we wrote, they replied with noise and no substance.

The opposition was a little better but not much.

No, it was up to Aldi, a foreign owned supermarket group to fight the fight which government or its agencies ought to have taken on … representing small business retailers like newsagents.

Thanks to the Aldi action we now have some banks retreating and saying they will not increase fees for now.  We need to keep this pressure on … on the banks, on ePAL and on the politicians.

Who thought that putting the big banks plus Coles and Woolworths in charge of managing EFTPOS and setting fees was a good idea?

If Nick Sherry really cares about small business he would engage on this issue and actually do something.  Instead he spends his time making speeches telling retailers what he thinks they are doing wrong.

The Opposition would garner significant small business support if they came up with  an alternative plan on the issue of EFTPOS fees.  Rather than trying to kill the government, they could show alternative leadership on this issue.  It’s ripe for them to make a move and show that they can create positive plans.

All in all retailers have been let down by everyone except for the work of Aldi.

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EFTPOS fees

Another Groupon magazine subscription offer

It is disappointing to see Time magazine being offered for 73% off for a one year subscription with a Groupon deal.  While only 8 have signed up so far, the deal has quite some time to run.

Discounting a products this much must discount it in the eyes of the consumers.  Do the publishers want to indicate their the content in Time magazine is worth that little per issue?  I thought this was a premium title.

I understand the place that discounted subscriptions play in the magazine sales model … but 73% off?

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magazine distribution

Promoting Dirt Action magazine

We are promoting the latest issue of Dirt Action magazine with best-position placement with trail / motor bike magazines as well as a feature co-location aisle end display.  This is the 150th issue of the magazine and on offer for one lucky customer buying the title is a $15,000 Yamaha Race Replica bike.  These are good reasons to give Dirt Action some time in the spotlight … which is just what we are doing with our placement and display.

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magazines

Promoting school holiday opportunities

We put together a display promoting products just for school holiday shoppers and it worked a treat.  Craft items, toys, kites, games, party supplies, Halloween items … they all work as part of the school holiday opportunity.  This promotion is deliberately not about price … as the marketing collateral indicates.  No, it’s about letting parents know that we have a range of products which can help families through the school holiday period.  The collateral we are using connects beautifully with the opportunity.

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newsagency marketing

Newsagents need to embrace multi channel marketing

Grant Harrod, CEO of Salmat, writing in the Australian Financial Review on Monday called on retailers to use multiple channels when promoting to consumers.

While much has been made of the rise of online retailing and explosion of new media, the reality is that people have diverse media habits and purchasing preference.

I agree with this and most of what Harrod has to say.

Newsagents are competing in a tough retail marketplace in tough economic conditions.  We cannot rely on what we have always done to drive traffic.  Just one or two campaigns a year are not enough.

No, we need a consistently delivered multi-channel approach if we are to have any hope of competing with the major retailers which offer what we sell.

In my own newsagencies I embrace the multifaceted newsXpress marketing: catalogues delivered to homes every six to eight weeks, commercial TV advertising, commercial print media advertising, monthly customer newsletter, a fresh flyer out the front of the businesses every month, in-store radio, a social media campaign, a local online yellow pages like campaign and a word of mouth driven campaign.

I see this mix as the bare minimum for any newsagency group.  I like the diversity as it means that the business is not relying on one activity to drive new shopper traffic.

For individual newsagents there is a challenge as the costs can be prohibitive.  That said, there are some options which could fit into a single store budget, especially in regional and rural areas.

Now more than ever we need to market our businesses and do this via more channels than we used to in the past. Changing times demand we change our approach to so much of what we do, including marketing.

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marketing

A tax break to help businesses to restructure?

The Sunday Age yesterday had a report about a report to be presented at this week’s Tax Summit calling for government assistance in the from of tax breaks for businesses facing restructure as a result of a strong dollar and or other challenges.

If there is even a hint of such support I would expect newsagents to be at the front of the line with their hand out and arguing that any such assistance should be retrospective given what the government took away in 1999 in the name of competition.

Outside of the federal government facilitated restructure of newspaper and magazine distribution in 1999, newsagents are in the middle of an even more comprehensive restructure.  In fact, it is three restructures: an overall retail restructure, the shopping centre restructure and the print media restructure.

Newsagents could use more than a tax break.  They could use help in dealing with landlords on financial and permitted use terms.  They could use help in dealing with magazine distributors on achieving equitable magazine supply terms.  They could use help in dealing with newspaper publishers on achieving fair compensation for newspaper home delivery.

I doubt that the push from Ernst and Young and others for a tax break to help businesses undergoing restructure.  But in case it does, newsagents need to be ready.

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Newsagency challenges

Kicking up the Halloween display

I love team members who take initiative.  I was sent this photo over the weekend of our new Halloween display while I was away from the shop.

While the old Halloween display looked good and was working 9(selling), this new display has the drama and fun of Halloween … live and on show in-store.  Talk about retail theatre.  I love it.  I love Halloween because we get to have fun and the newsagency itself gets to have fun.

While the supermarkets and so-called discount shops sell Halloween products, that is all they do.  We engage and have fun with the season with our customers.  It’s a great season for us to show off our point of difference.

This display will evolve as we get closer to the big day.

PS. we are cheaper that other outlets and we have a terrific margin.

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visual merchandising

Promoting Australian Traveller magazine

Regulars here would know that I like Australian Traveller magazine.  It responds well to good placement, hence our placement of the new issue last week such that the full cover can be seen and in a location more frequented by female shoppers – this makes sense since more women make travel decisions than men.  In addition to placement in an ideal regular location, we will give this issue a run with a co-location for a week or two in a high-traffic location.

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magazines

Q3 newsagency sales benchmark study announced

I invite newsagents to participate in my next newsagency sales benchmark study – covering the third quarter of 2011.  For ease of data analysis and consistency of reporting, participation is open to the more than 1,760 newsagents who use the Tower Systems newsagency software.  I hope to get between 100 and 130 participating again.

  1. Please run your Monthly Sales Comparison report  This is my favourite report in the software).  On the left, select July 1 2011 through September 30, 2011.  On the right select July 1 2010 through September 30, 2010.
  2. Check that the dates are right.
  3. Tick the category box.
  4. Do not tick any box about suppliers.
  5. Once the report is on the screen, save it as a PDF.
  6. Please email the report to mark@towersystems.com.au.

Thanks in advance for participating in what has become an anticipated benchmark study.  The results are useful in comparing your newsagency with others.  They also give us a health check on the channel overall.  I ensure that the dataset includes a good cross section of newsagencies.

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Newsagency benchmark

MasterCard blames retailers for fees

In a submission to the reserve bank, MasterCard says that some retailers are gouging on fees they charge shoppers for using their MasterCard.  The Australian has the story today.

While I am not concerned if the reserve Bank does introduce a cap on what we can charge for the use of a MasterCard or Visa card, it galls me that MasterCard takes a swipe at us without talking about they fees they charge retailers.

Losing margin is this tight retail marketplace is a cost any business would want to avoid.  MasterCard should look at what it charges retailers before pointing the finger at us in complaining to the Reserve Bank.  In addition to the margin cost of their fees, there is the administrative cost associated with accounting for this method of payment.

Maybe retailers could fight back with a sales counter based campaign against the MasterCard submission.

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EFTPOS fees
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