Further to my post yesterday about a free copy of the current issue of MasterChef magazine with The Australian being given away at Qantas gates at Brisbane airport on Wednesday, I saw the same at Melbourne airport when I flew to Sydney yesterday (Thursday) morning. This is some mighty giveaway promotion from the folks at News Magazines.
Sure enough, inside the copy of the magazine was a subscription flyer offering a saving of 27% for a one year subscription. Gee I wish they would engage with newsagents and offer a locked in deal to drive traffic to our stores for collection.
Sales of the latest issue of MasterChef magazine in our store improved greatly with the bonus issue we were supplied. If supported regulary like this we would maintain our strong sales record and promotions such as the one with the Australian would not be neccessary. C’mon publishers, support the industry that is there for your product and help us support you.
Brendan the only problem i see with the bonus issue is (A) i think it means that they printed way to many to start off with which ment some agents were over supplied which hurts us . (B) we quite often winge and complain (my self included ) about bagged magazines so how do we put it across that sometimes we like bagged magazines ?
This wasn’t the common “Get a free magazine for $X.oo extra, it was a true bonus product with the mag. It definitely increased our sales substantially and if this effect reignites interes in the magazine and creates more sales for a while then it has been a good exercise. We’ll have to wait a month or two to gauge this however.
The point is, if given the choice of bagged magazines and increased sales or losing sales to free ones that encourage subscriptions, give be the bagged magazine any day. The bagged magazines are a problem when they are simply a way to dispose of old unsold issues but the bonus we received was the Kids Cookbook valued at $19.95, an altoghether different offer for the customer and hopefully one that will keep them coming to us.