We refreshed our ACP cookbook offer at Forest Hill this week.  We took off all the titles and reallocated space with a segment (or interest) owning each column.  From the left, next to the Symply Too Good titles: healthy, salad / summer / veggie, international food, low cost / fast, kids.  This is a regularly shopped part of the magazine department and was in need to a mini relay.  We will track sales and if a sufficient enough kick is not achieved we may consider moving these titles since it is the second best location in this aisle.

The project took half an hour – including the time necessary to analyse sales data and make decisions.

What we had before, while good for the overall ACP cookbook brand, was not logical for the shopper.  Our new layout has some sense and this will help with placing new product and keeping the display tidy.  Pretty basic retail stuff really.

Further to my post Wednesday about our counter promotion of Super Food Ideas.  We have sold twenty copies in two days.  This is almost triple our usual sales in the first two on-sale days.  While the oven timer gift is a key driver, customers would not know unless we promoted this at the counter.  Most titles we promote at the counter enjoy a considerable sales lift – because we select them carefully.

Take 5 this week ought to interest newsagents who are running a Back To School promotion as it comes with a 32-page Back To School cookbook plus an opportunity to enter a Back To School competition.  It makes sense to include magazines like Take 5 in the more traditional Back To School promotion – to promote departments outside of stationery and chase add-on purchases from customers attracted to the Back To School sale. 

With Woman’s Day sales up 30% Monday and Tuesday and a sell-out likely, we replaced our Woman’s Day counter display this morning with one for Super Food Ideas.  Super Food comes with a free kitchen timer, making the $2.90 price exceptional value.  As is often the case, we were given little in the way of marketing collateral – one crushed poster – so we made our own.

With many newsagency regulars visiting two or three times a week, changing the main counter offer display mid-week is worthwhile.

Many in-store magazine displays are visible from the front only, seeking attention from people walking into the newsagency.  We have capped our Cosmopolitan display this week with a small display – three cover run ons stabled to create a three sided presenter – which makes the cover visible to customers walking from another section towards the counter.  This gives Cosmopolitan greater visibility.  Blokes leaving our bloke aisle will (may) see it.  Ladies leaving our women’s aisle will see it – probably for the second time as they will have noticed the major display when walking in.

While we are not visual merchandising experts, creating a display which promotes to traffic in more than one direction must increase the chances of driving the action the display is pursuing.

We have given Woman’s Day prime position at the counter this week because of the free Taste of Summer cookbook.  This is an excellent promotion from Woman’s Day for this time of the year and placing it at the counter will maximise the opportunity for us.  We have not overburdened the display with too much collateral since the product itself is what will drive sales.