We launched the first ever Magazine loyalty program in August 2004. We planned for our Magazine Club Card to run for six months. It’s now run for two years and five months without a break. While some individual newsagents have embraced our loyalty program with success, the most sustained success has been achieved by newsXpress newsagents.
There is more science to the Magazine Club Card program than printing a card and pitching the offer to customers across the counter or on a poster. There are rules, disciplines, magazine layout implications and day to day management changes which integrate to deliver what one magazine publisher calls the most significant sales growth achieved by any magazine banner group.
I mention this by way of background to what I really want to blog about – the new Magazine Madness promotion by Newspower. Like any parent I am proud to see how far my initial single store promotion has traveled. The Newspower execution is not as good as it could be. The purchase rules will not drive sales as much as I see in my shop. The lower redemption value dilutes the reward.
Customers are smart. A good loyalty program needs to offer a genuine reward for an achievable yet above average commitment from the customer. The Magazine Madness campaign from Newspower does not do this.
I’d welcome an opportunity to help any newsagent with any aspect of their business. If I knew Newspower were launching into the magazine loyalty space I’d have suggested they play elsewhere – not because of the competition but to ‘own’ a point of difference. Newspower has one key and exclusive asset, membership numbers. They are the largest marketing group of newsagents in the country. Their size and geographic spread could have been leveraged in a more powerful and unique campaign than any single store of a small group of stores.
Every day at my newsagency we pitch the Magazine Club Card to customers we’re seeing for the first time. We still get a buzz from their joy at the opportunity to same money on magazines. I know we continue to pull sales from the supermarkets because of the program. Locally, it is one of our key points of difference.