Part of the problem with the retailing of newspapers in Australia is the predictability of the display. A stack of papers and a poster. Occasionally a special poster. The most vibrant displays centre around competitions (and readers here know what I think about them).
With newspaper sales flat (at best) surely it is time to reinvent how we merchandise. Further to my post yesterday I’d suggest that there are sales to be achieved if we take a new approach.
Changing magazine locations around in a newsagency where there has not been significant change for a couple of years or more always boosts sales by between 5% and 10%. The same is true with greeting cards.
While many newsagencies make such changes, many display newspapers today as they did ten and twenty years ago. We’re too predictable!
While publishers are responding to changing consumer habits by pursuing non newsagent retail outlets, they have let their eye slip off the ball in retailing newspapers in newsagencies. This is the channel which was built for newspapers, surely newsagents and publishers have a vested interest to be cooperatively smart in retailing newspapers.
Off the top of my head, here’s what I’d propose as a starting point:
Publishers should provide more posters each day and different posters. This one headline poster per store approach is nuts. Create different size posters as well – maybe even A4 teasers which can work at the counter and landscape mode strip posters. Retail is theatre. Publishers need to provide newsagents with other tools which fit with this. Marketing people from publishers ought to spend a couple of weeks working in a newsagency. This practical experience should unlock some further opportunities. Pay a bonus for above average sales growth. Like any sales incentive, a bonus will lead to a sales kick. Create a loyalty campaign which offers genuine rewards for a certain number of repeat purchases in a week. Why just reward home delivery customers (which a higher landed cost) – reward loyal retail customers. Publishers should use the various promotional tools in newsagencies – in store radio, in store television, on receipt promo spots etc. to display content specific promotions to show the value, today, of purchasing the newspaper. Develop a co-location strategy in store so that newspapers are in a couple of good locations. Analyse newsagent traffic generators and work with the two other major categories (magazines and lotteries) of a cohesive strategy driving bigger basket sales. Feed off each other. Run a competition among newsagents for the best regular day display – i.e. a display for the newspaper – no competition, no special inserts, just the newspaper. List the top ten newsagents in each state in terms of year on year growth where growth has been achieved by newsagent effort and report to newsagents about what was done to achieve the growth. Let’s learn!
I am sure there are plenty of other ideas.
What I want is a publisher relationship which helps be change the way I manage, promote and display newspapers. I want to reinvent what has not changed for decades. I want to find a way to make newspapers fresh for me and for my customers.
Let’s not be ashamed of newspapers. They are newsagents’ raison d’etre.