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

The Broons calendar 2009

broons.JPGIt surprises me sometimes the products which we sell in Australian newsagencies. Take the 2009 calendar for The Broons, a soap-opera comic strip developed around seventy years ago in Scotland. This is a product for a highly specialised market. Given our sales of Scottish magazines we are a good candidate for receiving stock of The Broons calendar – now that I know the back story to the characters. We try and take time to research products we don;t understand so we can answer customer questions.

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Calendars

More on US newspaper woes

Ken Doctor adds his perspective of the latest data reflecting performance of US newspapers at his Content Bridges blog.  While there is a considerable difference between the US and Australian newspaper markets, his analysis is helpful for those newsagents considering the next phase of investment in their business.  Capital city dailies recording double digit sales declines is big news.  I was interested to see that national and community newspapers are doing so well.

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Media disruption

Labour cost ratio

More and more when talking with newsagents I am asked what percentage of revenue labour ought to cost. In a retail only newsagency the figure I consider okay is between 10% and 12% depending on product mix. There are only two ways to achieve a healthier labour cost to sales ratio: increase sales without increasing labour or cut labour costs without decreasing sales.

If you need to cut labour costs, start by analysing sales by time and see whether there are pockets where you can eliminate casual hours as these are the easiest to adjust.  A good sales by time report viewed in association with the roster ought to help uncover opportunities to trim certain shifts.

To drive a healthier labour cost to sales ratio, you could consider sharing the current data and your target with staff.  This sets a shared goal.  Sometimes retail staff will engage more proactively if they know there is a specific outcome which can affect them as well as the business.

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Newsagency management

Dominating the morning

I am grateful to a colleague for sending me this list of good ideas in response to a blog post here a couple of days back. These ideas fit what you might call a dominate the morning strategy – a brilliant idea which could work in many newsagencies.

Newsagencies on high streets open earlier every Morning. There are few outlets open at the time, we can provide a complete solutions for the people (both on-the-go and local) in early Morning to attract maximum sales on our traditional lines, and convenience lines.

1. Support basic lines on bread, milk, paper, cigarettes.

2. Offer coffee and food service lines.

3. Increase basket size and customer purchase frequency by tailoring offers to targeted groups, for example, health products for morning exercisers, breakfast deals for morning workers, coffee deals for morning commuters, milk and bread deal for mums.

4. Build up the volume on basic lines, and specify offers on high value-added products. Be outstanding on food service and convenience service

5. Get advice from retired newsagents and small business owners. Get advice from experts on convenience / food service trade. Get advice from suppliers and distributors. Pay for the advice if needed.

6. Be happy to take risk and loss on trying new products, be happy to make no money on certain new directions, be happy to make some stupid mistakes, be determined to dominate target trade at all cost. While it may not suit every newsagent, the list is bound to generate ideas for most newsagents.

I like this idea of focusing on a certain part of the day. The morning makes sense because we are open early, most of us at least. Given that our location is a key part of the newsagency offer, convenience as a focus makes sense too.

I can see a dominate the morning strategy working well in a high street situation.

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marketing

Reusing retail fixtures

reuse_fixture.JPGOur team at Forest Hill has reused an old display unit for our range of small magnetic day-to-a-page calendars. This small unit fits nicely right at the front corner of the counter next to the ACP magazine display stand. All too often specially built display units are trashed once the purpose for which they were provided has passed. Reuse such as that done by our Forest Hill team is good for the environment. The bonus is that it solved a challenging display problem.

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Calendars

Seeing double Andre Rieu

rdlime_rieu.JPGThe same photo of Andre Rieu has been used for the covers of Limelight and Reader’s Digest. Oops. No matter, both will sell well in our demographic at Forest Hill. We have both titles on display above The Age in our newspaper stand. The hype leading up to his tour next month is considerable.

If only we could snare a store visit.

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magazines

Promoting Delicious at the counter

fhn_delicious.JPGDelicious is one of those excellent magazines which suffers from bumpy sales – in our our newsagencies at least. People either forget to buy or don’t buy because money is tight. Delicious is not a must have magazine. That said, Delicious responds well to promotion and that is why we have it displayed at our premium counter position this past weekend – that and the free cookbook. The result has been good sales uplift.

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magazines

Great National Geographic promotion

fhn_hs_natgeo.JPGThe National Geographic promotion through the Herald Sun which has just ended is one of the best newspaper promotions I can recall. We have been provided with plenty of stock, the promotional product is good value and it has been well promoted and thereby drives excellent traffic to the shop. The outcome is infrequent newspaper customers frequently buying the paper and that is what promotions like this are all about. Kudos to H&WT for getting the back-end processes right.

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Newspapers

Magazines pinch space from a competitor

fhn_gourmet.JPGGourmet Traveller has an advertiser’s catalogue stuck to the back of the magazine so that it sticks up above the masthead.  The catalogue steals space from the next magazine up in the display unit.  The photo illustrates how Delicious suffers from this intrusion into their space.  The same catalogue, for The Garden Lounge, is on this month’s Burke’s Backyard.  In addition to blocking other product, it looks like bonus content rather than the advertisement it is.  Magazine publishers need to show more respect for competitors and newsagents who need to serve all titles.

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magazines

Coles expensive for Halloween

fhn_hal.JPGMy local Coles has some of the Halloween items we have in our newsagencies. Our prices for most items are lower meaning that, given their buying power, they have been too greedy on margin. Halloween is a small but growing season. We’re three years in and doing well. Thanks in part to Coles I maybe.

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marketing

On Q administrator update

The administrators for the On Q Group, parent of Bill Express, issues an update late last week. There is not much news, the main announcement was that the Supreme Court granted an extension of the convening period by two months. This extension was sought to enable the Administrator to finalise their investigations into the company’s affairs and to finalised negotiations for a proposed deed of Company Arrangement. In their Advice to Creditors, the Administrator states:

We anticipate that a Deed of Company Arrangement may provide a more favourable outcome to creditors within a sorter timeframe and with greater certainty than in a liquidation scenario.

On Q is the company which committed to paying rebates to newsagents for the Bill Express / DialTime equipment and services. These rebates were the reason many newsagents signed with Bill Express. While I don’t see any beneficial outcome for newsagents from the On Q mess, it is interesting to watch the process.

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Bill Express

Another UK newsagent closes

Reports like the one you will find here in The Press and Journal appear almost daily somewhere in the UK, reporting the closure of a local newsagent. It concerns me that complacency here in Australia – individually and collectively – could see us see these stories appearing in our newspapers here. Economic challenges, disruption to print product and failure to pursue a better future would be the cause if it happens.

After reading this article, we each have to ask ourselves – what do we stand for? Put another way what is unique about our businesses? If we don’t know then we are lost. This was the topic of a presentation I gave at the ANF conference earlier this year. You can see the slides I used here:

Newsagency of the future

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: itunes digital)

I don’t have the answers. I have some ideas as do others. My key concern is that we are not talking about these concerns. Maybe in small groups, occasionally, but as a national channel of retail and distribution businesses, we are not talking about our future.

The answer to what do we stand for? has to come from us, not an association or a supplier. We have to find our own way to the future. That was the purpose of my ANF conference presentation and others I have given on this topic since. We have to engage in debate, research the challenges and work out what we ant from our businesses in the face of considerable change. This is a time of terrific opportunity!

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Media disruption

Paper or plastic

Here is an interesting story just loaded to cnn.com on the advances made by Plastic Logic with their new e-paper device. While not new to regulars here, that CNN is running the story makes it interesting and even more mainstream.

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Media disruption

Newsagents in the Herald Sun

sun_oct25.JPGTurn to page 36 of today’s Herald Sun and see another full page ad promoting newsagents. While this TV and print advertising campaign will not fix the challenges of the channel, it is a rally call for us to be proud newsagents – of our network and of the service we provide.

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newsagency marketing

Kicking the Sherrin

age_oct25.JPGThe folks at The Age have bravely stuck an ad for Tourism Tasmania over the top of a Sherrin football on the front page of today’s newspaper. On some copies it partly obscures a headline about Adam Gilchrist. It is a pity this otherwise good newspaper sells itself out.

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newspaper masthead desecration

Great ad for Annette Sym

symplymags.JPGMick and Tanya Baker of Rochester Newsagency are a great advertisement for Annette Sym and her Symply Too Good range of cookbooks. They are shadows of their former selves and they owe it to Annette’s books and hard slog on the walking track. Indeed they have a note of their success included in Annette’s new US book.

Well done Mick and Tanya – talk about a living endorsement.

Annette’s cookbooks are sold exclusively in newsagencies and are available through Network Services.

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magazines

Sleigh full of gifts

ilotsleigh.JPGI like the sleigh that Intralot is making available for holding lottery and instant tickets purchased as gifts for Christmas. It makes for a nice gift package. The Intralot marketing material has included advice on how the sleigh could be used to drive Christmas sales.

Intralot is offering delayed billing by invoicing for sleighs at the end of November. This is further evidence of them listening to newsagents.

Now all we need is permission to sell this product where it belongs – in the scratch ticket bays we all paid for and which Tattersalls is refusing permission for us to use.

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Lotteries

Newsagents playing the TVC

I have received phone calls over the last few days from newsagents who received the DVD we sent of the TV commercial promoting the channel. It has been terrific hearing how the commercial is being played in-store and at staff meetings and even at home.

Part of our goal in creating this commercial was to encourage newsagents to feel more excited about their businesses and to be proud. The calls I have received suggest this is happening at least with some newsagents.

The current campaign run ends this Sunday. We are currently talking with the agency about another run in a few weeks. I’ll pass on dates here once I know them.

I am grateful to Queensland Newsagent magazine and Stationery News magazine for supporting this initiative.

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newsagency marketing

Magazine club card update

fhn_magclubc.JPGIt is now four years and two months since we launched the world’s first broadly based magazine loyalty card.  I qualify our Magazine Club Card as broadly based to differentiate it from single title or single publisher cards.  The card we started in our newsagency at Forest Hill in August 2004 is now part of the newsXpress magazine management strategy.  A version of this is also offered through Newspower and ACP Connections program.  Also, many individual newsagents have launched their own versions.

At Forest Hill, the card continues to work well for us.  It has a cost of around 1.5% of sales and provides a practical means through which our customers can save on magazines.  This card changes consumer habits – everyone likes to save money, especially on regular purchases.

The Australian Women’s Weekly continues to be the most popular free title selected by our customers.

This loyalty program requires discipline for it to work, discipline around the offer, how it is promoted and the support in the business from the top down.

Now more than ever, rewarding loyalty in retail is important. 

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magazines

Cheaper than BOPO

scx_canvas.JPGWe have road tested the Visa prepaid products we are selling to check out ease of use and operating costs. We bought a couple for use within our business. From a consumer perspective, the Canvas Visa Prepaid card with BOPO, it is cheaper to use for purchases and cheaper to load than the now defunct BOPO card. From a retailers perspective, the margins on selling and recharge are better than BOPO.

This is another example of newsagents needing to understand the margin of products sold and promoting those which offer better margin.

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Bill Express

Putaways marketing advice

Click here for a copy of the new putaways marketing advice Tower Systems has published as a free service to all newsagents. Putaway customers are among the most valuable to newsagents – their baskets are deeper. Our last basket research showed that putaway customers are 35% more likely to purchase other items than any other customer group in a newsagency.

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magazines

Promoting Famous magazine

frank_fam_oct08.JPGI am pleased to see Pacific Magazines getting behind Famous with another promotional push. It certainly has an audience in some demographics. In our own case, sales are soft in Forest Hill yet strong in Frankston. Frankston is where the display in the photo is located – Sherie has done a brilliant job creating a stunning display for the title this week.

Famous is different to other weeklies in newsagencies – it sells consistently through the week whereas most other women’s weeklies sell between 60% and 70% on the first on-sale day and taper to a trickle by day four.

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magazines

Promoting Take5 and the free cookbook

fhn_t5.JPGTake5 earned the prized counter promotional position this week with the free Spring Sensations cookbook which comes with the magazine. It was a tough call with several magazines offering free books. Take5 won because it and That’s Life respond exceptionally well to counter promotion – especially Wednesday through Friday. We’d expect to replace the display by late friday because we should be just about out of stock by then.

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marketing
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