Making the pole the hero

Our Frankston newsagency has a pole right near the counter, a big ugly pole.

We have tried several approaches to hide the pole and or work around it. In each case we were making excuses. We found that by embracing the pole, making it the hero, it works for us beautifully.

Last week we made the pole a feature of our new plush display. We kept access either side easy and this helps our customers see the new range. This was important since we are positioning ourselves outside the traditional newsagency range – if we had buried the plush inside the store, we risked losing focus.

This display is seen by everyone. It demonstrates we’re evolving the business, makes the newsagency look more appealing to kids and a place parents can find gifts.

The display is important on another front, in pursuing an excellent rang of plush we are pursuing a better margin, better than average for a newsagency. Plush is not the only new category we are pursuing as part of our margin play, it’s a start.

Once we take the plush display off the pole we will replace it with something else which continues to respct the pole as the hero.