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

Gulf News promotes being green

dsc04332.JPGThe front page of Gulf News in Dubai on Friday lead with a story about their plan to give two jute bags free to all subscribers in recognition of its 30 year anniversary. The Ministry for Water and Environment endorsed the campaign as did the Editor-in-Chief. The above the fold front page coverage for the carry-bag giveaway is a level of self promotion we thankfully don;t see too much of in Australian dailies.

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Newspapers

Nice pencil cases

nici_cases.JPGThis range of Nici pencil cases makes for a nice statement in-store, a welcome change from the traditional stationery offering. It shows that we are playing beyond the usual tartan pencil cases.  They certainly appeal to a younger demographic – this is why we have them displayed at an aisle end. Smiggle has done a great job showing that stationery can be fun – especially to new consumers in the 8 to 15 age range. Newsagents need to play in the space and offer fun stationery too – before we lose the opportunity altogether.  Australia Post has Smiggle in its corporate stores.

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Stationery

Going early with diaries

frankdiary.JPGWe have had diaries out for just over two weeks and sales have been fantastic – $2,600 at Forest Hill. Considering that we did not put diaries out last year until mid October, we are happy to already be ahead. Watching customer behaviour shows that the diary purchase at this time of the year is on impulse – hence the value in going early. It will be interesting to see the season total and whether going early pulled sales we would have got anyway or whether it achieved incremental sales – our sense is that it will be the latter given the diverse mix shopping centres attract.

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Diaries

Newsagent TV commercial

Here is the TV Commercial which we have created to promote newsagents. The commercail will air 93 times in a pre-run this weekend – on Arena, BIO, Fox Classics, History, Lifestyle, Hallmark, UK TV, W for Women and 10 in Sydney and 9 in Perth. The main campaign with over 300 airings will commence two weeks from this weekend.

The production and airing is being funded by Tower Systems as a contribution to all newsagents. I deeply appreciate a financial donation from one newsagent towards this as well as print space from the Herald Sun and Lovatts for the print version.

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newsagency marketing

Marketing newsagents in print

Here is the print version of the TV commercial we are running to promote newsagents. The ad has been designed by Tower Systems’ Marketing Manager Andrew Halpern and our Graphic Designer Vienna Chen. The folks at the Herald Sun have offered four full page placements of this ad in support of newsagents. A similar version will run in some Lovatts publications.

tv-hwt-ad-tower-ad-blog.jpg

It is a challenge to visually represent the small number of but diverse range of photos we were sent by newsagents. For a first go at anything like this in the channel we are happy with the end result. While the TVC has aired several times since Thursday evening, the actual run will not formally commence until October 12 – we are hopeful the print campaign will coincide with this.

Tower Systems is proud to be supporting newsagents through this campaign.

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newsagency marketing

Promoting Your Mortgage magazine

mortgage_mag.JPGGiven the success we had with Money magazine at the counter over the last week, we have decided to run with Your Mortgage magazine as our next counter-top feature title. Customising the unit to match the masthead makes it look purpose built. This display is geared to weekend sales – another reason for the title selection.

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magazines

Making the paper plane

paperplane.JPGThis paper plane set is one of the boxed calendars we have on offer for 2009. I like it because it loosely connects with newsagents and what we sell. Calendars like these separate us from other calendar retailers. The more we present ourselves as specialists the better.

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Calendars

Nice newspaper stand

newspaperstand_map.JPGCheck out this newspaper stand I saw a couple of days ago.  It is easy to move, holds a good range of products, easily handles bulk product and can be used to promote other products on the site an back easily.  I like the ability to move the stand the best – one reason customers become store blind is the set and forget approach to newspaper merchandising in newsagencies.  By moving the stand around we can easily refresh our offer.

This stand does not have a place for newspaper posters, something which would concern publishers.  There are ways to address this with screen technology and other poster placement strategies.

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Newsagency challenges

Publisher and game maker collaborate

Future, a UK publisher of games titles, and Sony, maker of games hardware and content, have collaborated to create a weekly on-console magazine to be distributes through Sony’s PlayStation network.  Read more at Game Infowire.  Computer game magazine sales are down.  Why buy content which is months out of date when you can get it online for free?  This Future / Sony move will further challenge the category.

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magazines

Promoting Popular Science

popular_science.JPGI have been talking with the Publishing Director of Popular Science, the new locally published men’s magazine. While we will be tempted to promote this new title in the science section, it deserves a more prominent position than this since it has the potential to extend the basket with male shoppers. The publishers recommend next to Men’s Health – Popular Science is the 5th biggest men’s magazine in the US.

I thought that readers here might like an insight into information put together by the publisher about the typical Popular Science reader:

Research has confirmed that there are 1.49M 25-49yr old males in Australia that fit thePopSci guy profile.

He is a high achiever, he is not price sensitive, if he wants something he will seek it out and pay the asking price.

He has diverse interests ranging from camping to computers, surfing to photography, from golf to gadgets.

He is a modern independent man (over 50% live alone) who does his own shopping & cooking – he contributes largely to the growth in the male grocery shopper.

This is the first general interest magazine to come to Australia that is not about business, cars, sport, girls or computers. The PopSci Guy can happily read it in front of his girlfriend or mother!

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magazines

Revising the counter offer

cal_candy.JPGWe have revised our counter offer at Forest Hill – introducing small magnetic day to a page calendars. This display has been in place for a week and is achieving good results. The high price and good margin make each calendar worth more than a candy bar. We have been careful in selecting the calendar titles to promote in this impulse position.

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Calendars

Flower Fairies partwork

flower_fairies.JPGNot to be left behind in partwork season, young girls are the target for Flower Fairies, a partwork collection of porcelain plates. Some of us in our newsagencies are not too sure how this one will go – but, then, we are not the target demographic. We have had it out for four days and sales are okay although the solar system partwork is doing better – the weekend will be the real test as it often is with partworks.

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partworks

Preparing for a quiet day

If tomorrow is like other AFL Grand Final days it will be busy until lunchtime and then dead.   While on most Saturdays trade is constant, on Grand Final Saturday the day is 85% over by lunchtime.  We have tried the day with the game on a big TV in-store.  We have also tried promotions to draw people in.  We have found we are better off using the quiet time to get work done.  With both teams from Melbourne we are sure to feel the impact more this year.

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retail

Pride at Women’s Weekly’s 75th

frank_aww_pride.JPGAustralian newsagents ought to feel tremendous pride at the success of Australian Women’s Weekly.  It was our channel which distributed and sole this title exclusively for decades.  Newsagents were key to the making the Weekly the success it was all those years ago and wile other retailers share tit title today, it was newsagent’s hard-yards which connected the title with consumers.

Remember, this grand of lady of publishing grew in a time without TV and mass electronic media advertising – the retail channel was crucial.  Newsagents actively promoted the title and nurtured loyalty around the masthead.

I bet there are people working in newsagencies today who remember fifty and even more years ago and the work newsagents did to support AWW.  These are real heroes for this title.  The displays we make this week and next in our stores ought to be a salute to the newsagents who made the title a success.

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magazines

The cost of home delivery

Posts here about newspaper distribution always attract plenty of comments from newsagents – usually around the same theme of the cost of the service versus the revenue. The challenge is that newsagents have contracts developed by publishers which control the model from start to end.

While some newsagents have handed back their runs, not enough have taken this step for publishers to be too worried. My feeling is that we are some way off a tipping point which would bring publishers to the negotiating table with fair offer. This is why I suggested a summit earlier this week. By taking the initiative, newsagents could set the agenda. The challenge is that industry associations, over the years, have not had the balls to take control of the relationship. I have heard industry association board members speak of the fear they feel of retribution if they work too hard for their members when talking to publishers.

Publishers are making money from newspapers, from advertising. They can afford to pay more. Newsagents need to find a way to negotiate around this.

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Newsagency challenges

Promoting phonecards in newsagencies

aussie_phonecard.JPGSherrie at our Frankston newsagency has created a fantastic display promoting the Aussie Phonecard. It is unusual for a phonecard to be promoted in store in this way – this is a trial we are conducting around the Aussie product – to find other ways to promote phonecards in newsagencies. The result of the trial will be new retailer kits for in-store displays. With a margin better than magazines and no inventory cost, it’s appropriate to give over the best in-store billboard space to promote this product.

A key component of the display is the DL size brochures which customers can take from the stand.

Disclaimer: I am a shareholder in the company behind the Aussie phonecard.

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phone recharge

Tattersalls flatters Intralot

monwedlotto.JPGThe collateral provided by Tattersalls to promote the new Monday and Wednesday games is a compliment to the cloud artwork used by Intralot to promote their games. Kudos to the two businesses for working together on a common image promoting lottery games – if that is what happened. Somehow, I suspect that they have not worked together on this and that the Tattersalls folk like the Intralot cloud style.

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Lotteries

Never too early for Christmas

sr_christmas.JPGWe have been slowly building the Christmas offer at or Sophie Randall stores over the last few weeks.  Sales tell us that late August is not too late to attract Christmas business in the right location.  I am not sure we could get away with this in a newsagency because of other demands on space and because of the difference in consumer habits in newsagency shopping compared to gift shop shopping.  The economic conditions make lay-by very appealing so we are promoting that for our Christmas range.

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retail

Gift Fair popular with newsagents

giftfair.JPGTower Systems yesterday completed its third Gift Fair trade show this year. What has been extraordinary to us is the number of newsagents now attending these events. Gifts is clearly one of the fastest growing categories in newsagencies – if the number of newsagents spending money at the trade show which ended yesterday in Sydney is anything to go by. This is great to see. Expanding into a new category such as gifts is vitally important for newsagents. There are new skills such as ranging, pricing and displaying to learn which are unique to the category. There is also the responsibility for firm sale ordering – with much of what newsagents sell out of their direct control, those playing in gifts will be well skilled for a good future.

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Gifts

Newsagent TV commercial delay

The TV commercial promoting newsagents which we are funding has been delayed in production. We did not factor in the time it would take to work on the images sent in and the production animation required to handle these according to our plans. We have seen three edits of the commercial so far and have felt that it was not where it needed to be. We are expecting to receive another edit late today.

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newsagency marketing

Government bail outs wrong

I have been thinking about the proposed bail out by the US Government to the tune of US$700 billion for banks and other institutions affected by the “global credit crisis”. It bothers me when I see any government writing big cheques for big business when individuals and small businesses do it tough thanks to circumstances not of their doing. The banks the US Government proposes to bail out actively participated in creating this problem.

I appreciate this may seem off topic. However, some of the challenges newsagents face are as a result of government regulation changes. While we have sought compensation for the government changing its mind, none was forthcoming. We did not ask for the regulation from decades earlier to change, we copped the consequences. We have moved on. If the Australian government joins the US giveaway then we have every right to be angry. Just as we have a right to be angry at the continued help to a bloated and inefficient car industry.

Why is it that governments so readily help the top end of town in these situations?

Jeff Jarvis at Buzz Machine has an excellent blog post on the US bailout.

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Blogging
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