The stand I remember most from the GNS Market Fair in Melbourne two weekends ago is the stand by Vodafone – not because it was opposite out stand but because it’s branding was the strongest. They are in control of the visual in a bold and memorable way.
While we can make excuses as to why newsagencies are not as well branded, the reality is that many newsagents do not look at and work on the branding of their businesses. Too often, we follow the rules laid down by suppliers and create billboards for them rather than our own businesses. We do this out of laziness, ignorance or fear. I have found suppliers willing to embrace new ideas around in-store promotion which respect store brand ahead of a supplier brand.
While we cannot brand our businesses around a single offer such as Vodafone, the strength of their visual must give us reason to pause and look at our own businesses.
I absolutely agree that the strength of branding is important. Aside from the newsagency groups (i.e. Nextra, Newspower, Supanews, etc), there appears to only be one other familiar brand for newsagencies (from a customer’s perspective) – the ‘N’ symbol, which can only be used by members of ANF or QNF (not sure which has the rights).
Our store is branded with our suppliers’ brands and, while these brands are familiar to our customers, they do not represent us. We remain agents to them. I would like to remedy this problem in our store, but being a standalone, independent, where do we start?
Any suggestions or ideas very welcome.
Wen,
You forgot about newsXpress – have a look at this marketing group for newsagents.
Manni
Wen, we’re an independant newsagency and doing quite well, we don’t have any real obligation to anyone.
We have a lot of freedom in many things being like this. There is a “franchised” store down the road from us and we really don’t look very different them our customers don’t discriminate between us.
Basically I can’t see it helping to attract customers by having
“Newsomethingorother” out the front of our shop.
This is just my situation at the moment, it works for me and might work for you. I hope it helps.