I launched the newsagency channel’s first ever magazine loyalty card in August 2004 at my then called Forest Hill Newsagency. That program was nationalised late in 2005 almost a year after I joined newsXpress. Today, the program runs in more than 160 newsXpress stores. It was copied (poorly in my view) by Newspower, Connections and a few others.
Today, six and a half years on, the Magazine Club Card loyalty program more important than ever to participating newsagents. It delivers a tremendous point of difference, something with which the supermarkets, petrol outlets and convenience stores cannot compete. It continues to drive new traffic, deliver a deeper shopping basket and generate good word of mouth.
This loyalty program delivers to participating newsagents and their customers are loyalty program which is extraordinarily more valuable and powerful than programs like FlyBys and the Woolworths rewards program. Those programs do not genuinely reward customers. This Magazine Club Card does reward customers. BUT, customers have to spend more than they usually would in order to access the reward.
The offer is simple, buy eleven magazines over eight weeks and your twelfth magazine is FREE up to the value of $10.00. Compare this to needing to spend $15,000 at Coles to get a $50 shopping voucher – as consumer group Choice recently reported and was covered on A Current Affair. at the time.
The card we use today is five versions on from what I started with back in 2004 – in artwork only. The campaign remains unchanged.
When I launched the program I expected it to run for six months. Like a drug, I can’t and don’t want to let go. Customers love it. I love it. The excitement you see on a customer’s face when they collect their free magazine. The connection you make with them at that moment will bring them back and this is what I want. I want their loyalty and am prepared to pay a price for that.
The execution is the key to the success of the campaign. This is why those who have copied have not achieved the same success. There are important business rules, an essential management structure, vital front line team training and essential performance tracking. failing in any of these areas can lead to a failure off the program.
For a few years I would show people how the program worked and provide them with artwork and the like. I don’t do that any more since newsXpress has packaged that up and made the program its own. Indeed, the success of this program is one reason some newsagents started looking at newsXpress before they joined the group. They wanted the magazine sales growth delivered by this and the other newsXpress magazine pillars.
But it’s not my intention to turn this into a newsXpress advertisement.
What I wanted to note is that here is a campaign which focuses on a challenged yet important category for newsagencies. It is just about the only magazine marketing campaign which works on the whole category and not just certain suppliers. Yes, I think magazine sales will decline due in part to migration to digital. I continue, however, to work hard to ensure that the decline in my newsagencies is less than the industry average – through programs like the Magazine Club Card.
Both Woman’s Day and New Idea have wonderfully retro images on their covers this week on honour of the death of Elizabeth Taylor. The Woman’s Day cover is particularly retro – with the whole cover given over to a stunning image. It’s a good change of pace for the magazine. Well done to the teams involved in creating the covers and the content inside.
