Magazine activity generating sales

Here is how some of our  recent magazine displays and promotions we have run and about which I have blogged have worked:

• Better Homes and Gardens.  We placed a display unit next to the copier.  10 additional copies sold over two days this past weekend compared to average for the same days of the week for the same week of on-sale.
• Melbourne Home Design + Living.  Created a counter display to drive impulse purchases.  Sold out in just over a week.  Chasing more stock.
• New Idea.  Created a power end display promoting to greeting card shoppers.  15% sales uplift compared to average for the first three days of on-sale.
• Children’s Birthday Cake Book.  Various displays driving sales of 30+ copies.  We are planning to take this promotion to new heights as soon as we get more stock.

None of these promotions was requested or driven by publisher engagement.  We decided to promote the titles because we felt we could achieve incremental business by being proactive.  The results are excellent.  They demonstrate that by being engaged with magazines and tactical in promotion we can achieve sales growth.

Yes, magazines overall are challenged.  That does not mean we give up.  The results above and others I have written about here indicate that we can grab business in our newsagencies by leveraging our points of difference compared to supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol outlets.  They do the bare minimum and without thinking about.  We can be personal and genuinely engaged.  This is what drives incremental business.

We look at each magazine as an opportunity to do something more than the average.  The more we engage and measure results the more we learn and this makes our decisions better.

Yes, I think that many newsagents need to reduce their magazine range.  However, the more important need is for genuine engagement with the products pursuing the growth I am seeing for selected titles.