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

Free hats for Australia Day

herald_sun_aussie_day.JPGWe’re ready with the free Australia Day hat giveaway with the Herald Sun this morning.  We have been given good stock in one of our stores, just enough in another store and not enough in another.    I expect the hat to be a hit with customers.  Where it gets tricky is people who purchased the newspaper elsewhere coming to us wanting the hat.  This is where we rely on the publisher and the supplying newsagent.  As our quantities show, sometimes this works and sometimes it does not.  We are keeping accurate data on supply and collection quantities and will provide feedback to the publisher so that they can work with their channel on the next promotion – the promotion needs to work for everyone after all.

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Newsagency challenges

Medi Buddy – good counter offer

medi_buddy.JPGThe manager of one of my stores bought the Medi Buddy as a counter offer.  I was surprised, saying that the $12.95 price point and the product itself made it a questionable counter offer.  The five units sold in barely three weeks.  I was wrong.  It is amazing what can work at a counter.  Adding $12.95 to any sale is good for business, especially when the impulse item has a better margin than most products it is purchased with.

The keys to success appear to be: a good holiday offer, good packaging and uncluttered placement at the counter.

Our plan, once we sell out, is to replace this at the counter with something else.

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Counter offers

The Source supply jump

the_source.JPGNewsagents may want to check their supply quantities for The Source this week.  In one of my stores our supply increased more than 100% on the back of sales data which suggested that no such increase was warranted.  Maybe it’s the Snoop cover but I doubt it.  While there will be an excuse, those making it will not have the financial stake I an other affected newsagents have.

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magazines

Newsagents embrace Tyro broadband eftpos

More than 350 newsagents are now using the broadband eftpos solution from Tyro.  Both POS Solutions and Tower Systems (my software company) offer this fast and secure eftpos link.

Reaching 350 locations is significant because this involved retailers in deciding to go for new technology and quitting their traditional back relationship for eftpos services.

My own experience is that once newsagents see the speed and realise the accuracy benefits they love it.  The benefits, beyond the good fee structure, make it a financially rewarding move for the business.

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Newsagency opportunities

Promoting Delicious with newspapers

fhn_delicious_feb2010.JPGWe are promoting the latest issue of Delicious magazine with our main newspaper stand from this morning.  We created this display using colour copies of the front cover – we didn’t have any other collateral available.

This location next to the newspaper stand works well for us with the right titles. Delicious is a good title because it’s a brand people like yet something shoppers tend to not visit us to purchase.

I’d expect our display to drive more business for us than the publisher funded posters put up elsewhere in the store because of the better location.

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magazines

The Year of the Tiger and the $20 million superdraw

year_of_tiger_2010.JPGThe Year of the Tiger is the theme for the syndicate board created to promote the lottery superdraw for Saturday February 13. Since 2010 is the Year of the Tiger  in Chinese New Year tradition and given that Chinese New Year begins on February 14, a promotion of the superdraw around this made sense.

Researched and developed by our manager at Forest Hill (Jason), collateral was sourced online and printed in-store. Other team members setup the display. It looks fantastic – especially given that all of the collateral, except the A4 sign in the middle, was sourced and created in-house.

A choice had to be made between promoting a Valentine’s Day connection to the February 13 superdraw or a Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year was selected because it is a more natural fit with lottery purchases and because it ties with other promotions. Also, it goes beyond the February 14 so there are further opportunities.

There is more to the display than the photo I took.  It really grabs attention.  It’s located at the front of the shop and is easily noticed by passers-by.

Don’t be thrown off by the small range of syndicates.  These are the price points.  Once a syndicate fills, a new one replaces it with the same price point.

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Lotteries

Making counter units work

fhn_counter_units.JPGThe That’s Life and Eco Bag counter units work well together for us.  Each product attracts their own browser and since they are together, the other product is also noticed.  We have had That’s Life and Eco Bag at the counter since last week.  We will probably given them another week in this configuration before using them elsewhere – even three weeks in the same location at the counter is a bit long.

We put considerable though into how we use our counter and carefully monitor the results.  Our counter tactics are all about adding to the sale at the last minute.

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magazines

US Woman’s Day chases online opportunities

Woman’s Day in the US is launching a digital “book” (a vook they are calling it) that blends text and videos.

The Woman’s Day Cookvook: Healthy Food for Everyday Living is based on the newly released hardcover book Woman’s Day Cookbook for Healthy Living. Along with recipes, it contains 45 updatable video cooking demos from editors and readers. A social-network feature lets users share recipe comments via Facebook.

Woman’s Day parent Hachette Filipacchi Media worked with Vook to develop the “cookvook.” It sells for $9.99 and be accessible online or on Apple iPhones or iPod Touches. Woman’s Day has a revenue share with Vook and Apple, which it wouldn’t specify.

The product is ad-free for now, but Woman’s Day senior vp, chief brand officer Carlos Lamadrid is talking to food, pharma and other advertisers about product placement and preroll ad opportunities.

It’s all about getting the maximum value from content and hunting for potential revenue online.

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magazines

The lucky shopper

lucky_shopper.jpgWe have taken advice done some research and decided to post this  in our stores.  The wider the coverage the better we figured.  The poster is near the entrance – in an obvious location. We know of several businesses who would be happy to identify this shopper.  Click on the image or here for a large version.

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theft

Magazines decline in grocery

The Retail World Annual Report has published magazine sales data for the year to December 2009 in grocery. It reports a decline of 3% in unit sales of magazines and revenue growth of .2%. Total magazine revenue was $232 million. Check out category level growth/declines:

  • Womens weeklies: -5.0%
  • Womens Interest: -4.3%
  • Food and Wine: -5.1%
  • Home Lifestyle: -0.1%
  • Youth: -5.8%
  • Motoring: +25.5%

These are interesting numbers for newsagents to compare their own performance against.

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magazines

New York Times to charge for access

Starting in 2011, the New York Times is to charge for frequent access to its website accounting to an announcement overnight.  If publishers can improve the revenue model outside of print – for website access or access via protable devices – it will focus their attention more on these print alternatives.

Personally, I don’t see myself paying for online access.  I tried this a while back with a couple of newspapers but stopped when I found alternatives for the content I was after.

As anyone in business knows, it is hard to charge for something which was previously free.

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Media disruption

How do you justify a 600% increase in magazine supply?

gameinformer.JPGWe received four copies of the last issue of Gameinformer magazine.  Yesterday, we received twenty-four copies of the latest issue.  A 600% increase in supply is extraordinary even though we did sell out of the last issue.  It is easy for magazine distributors to be bullish about a title for it’s not their money, time or space at risk.  I would have like a request for permission to increase supply beyond a reasonable 100% in the case of a sell out.  Had I been asked, for it is my money after all, I would have agreed to a 100% kick and an agreement to more if sales warrant during the on-sale. While distributors don’t want excess stock in their warehouses in the event of a need, the current approach of making us the warehouse (and bank) is unreasonable as the 600% increase in supply of Gameinformer shows.

Maybe I am missing something here.  Maybe there is a reason for the increase.  I am sure that the publisher will say it is because they are pushing the title.  That’s fine – but a 600% increase?  I am carrying the risk for them along wit, maybe, thousands of other newsagents.

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magazines

Pitching Dolly and the free beach towel

dsc00847.JPGWe are promoting Dolly magazine and the free beach towel in a display at the entrance to our main women’s magazine aisle and at the end of our dance floor (premium display space). I expect this location and display to work very well for us as most customers shopping with us will see the display and due to it being such a good offer.

What is not shown in the photo is the rear of the stand – it is also promoting Dolly. It’s the first time we have embraced both sides of the display stand to promote the one title.  We were able to do this thanks to the good range of collateral from ACP.

We plan to leave this display up for a week at this stage.

While displays like this are less likely to win best display awards, they are usually very successful because of location and ease of purchase.  Sales, after all, are what matter.

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magazines

Promoting Take 5 at the counter

take5_promotion.JPGWe are promoting Take 5 at the counter from today.  The free board game with each issue is a compelling offer and should drive good impulse business.  The Take 5 display replaced a Cleo display which worked well for us over the last two days.  Given the sales decay rate for Take 5 we will leave this display up until Friday.  We are not forgetting That’s Life since both magazines are most often purchased together – 65% of the time according to the basket data in our business.  We have a That’s Life counter unit near the Take 5 display.

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magazines

How many pen suppliers do you need?

pens.JPGI was in a newsagency yesterday which had everyday pens from four suppliers. Their sales data and the ranges available suggest that stock from two suppliers could achieve the same, and possibly better, result.

The newsagent is reluctant to cut a supplier because of long term relationships and that the companies service the stock. I explained that this is the problem because while servicing keeps the pens looking good, it ensures his stock holding costs are higher than they should be.

We talked about the challenge of pulling out stock from a long term supplier and thought it would be a good topic to raise here.

Is supply from two pen companies ideal or does it limit selection too much?

Do you reorder based on sales or do you let the pen companies order based on what they think?

With pens accounting for around 30% of stationery (excluding ink and toner) sales, it is important we get the maximum efficiency from this key category.

In my view, the best way to achieve this is to order based on facts and not relationships.  This means newsagents taking control and stopping relying on representatives of suppliers to generate orders.

What do you think?

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Newsagency opportunities

13 more iPhone magazine apps

Fictory Media has launched iPhone apps for thirteen magazines: Moto, Onboard, Dirt, Boards, Cooler, Dig BMX, Kingpin, Ride UK BMX, Sidewalk, Surf Europe, The Surfers Path, The Bicycle Buyer and Whitelines. This will bring immediate access to the latest issues of these titles to anyone with an iPhone.  So much for air freight issues.

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magazines

Newspower promotes the Education Tax Refund

ets.jpgKudos to Newspower for this brilliant poster which they sent to their stores as part of their Back to School collateral.  Their promotion of the Education Tax Refund program is smart.  It shows participating Newspower outlets as adding value by reminding parents that a tax break is available for approved expenses to qualifying taxpayers.

Their Newspower pitch is a terrific point of difference given that the majors are not pushing this – from what I can tell.

If you are a Newspower newsagent you ought to have this poster in a high-profile location.

The only issue I have is with the government website.  It reads as if the refund was for last year.  The ATO website provides more clarity on this however.

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newsagency marketing

Promoting Men’s Health magazine

fhn_menshealth_jan1810.JPGWe are promoting Men’s Health at the entrance to our men’s magazine aisle this week.

Our real promotion for the title will come later in the week when we pitch it with newspapers – it works very well there as I have noted here before. That space is committed for a few more days promoting The Phantom.

Juggling space is a challenge sometimes – hence our preparedness to move a display from one location to another when it becomes available – as weill do with Men’s Health.

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magazines

Back to promoting the weeklies

fhn_weeklies_jan1810.JPGOur display of health titles last week, while driving excellent browsing, did not generate the sales to justify the premium space. So, this week we have given the space at the front of the store back to weeklies and a couple of other titles. I expect we will see a good result from this move because it’s school holidays and more shoppers new to us are passing by than usual.  Weeklies always perform well in this space, especially early in the on-sale.  We will refresh the display on Wednesday to connect with That’s Life and Take 5.

This stand is passed by around 60% of our lottery customers.  It is also passed by everyone leaving the centre through the exit next to our shop.  hence the premium nature of the space.

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magazines

Convenience stores continue to grow in Sydney

In May 2008 I wrote that I was surprised at the proliferation of convenience stores in Sydney.  Walking around Sydney this afternoon I can see that they continue to multiply – more so that in other Australian cities from what I can tell.  And with the migration from CBD based newsagencies to the c-store model is the decline in range choice for the core newsagency category of magazines.

Sydney is full of tourists this time of year and they miss the traditional Australian newsagency retail experience.  For many tourists this would be a truly unique experience.

It’s a sign of the times (high rent, high labour costs) I guess which drives retailers to focus on better margin models.

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Convenience retail

Classic Rock 3D cover looks stunning

classic_rick_jan1810.JPGClassic Rock magazine looks truly stunning this month. The cover features Pink Floyd in 3D! It features much of the band’s iconic imagery, including the hammers, pyramid and flying pig – all moving when you move the cover.  The cover leaps out from the shelves – truly amazing.

The issue is of special interets to Pink Floyd fans beyond the cover as it documents the making of The Wall including previously unseen behind-the-scenes photos from production of The Wall movie. This makes it a collectible item and therefore worthy of special promotion rather than regular placement with music titles.  Our plan is placement with newspapers.

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magazines
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