Woolworths and Coles are doing well with Back to School because they do it well. Just check out your local Woolworths to see the consistency in all their floor display units.
Their consistent corporate branding takes precedence with the product brand secondary. There is an excellent visual connection between the units and this strengthens the shop floor presence. It says – we own this space.
Compare this to a local newsagency with six to eight posters and no visual consistency between displays and it makes sense that the supermarkets are doing well.
I wish this was not the case. The best way for us as a channel to compete with the big supermarket chains is to do it better and this means a consistency shop floor pitch across the channel.
Hang on, we are 3,500 businesses with 3,500 companies each owned separately and each not wanting to be told what to do. The independence we love is our weakness.
In a main street Newsagency there isn’t much I can sell if the customers don’t come in the door. They seem to think they have to go 280k to nearest major centre to pay about the same price for same item as I sell or a few cents less. I don’t understand the reasoning.
The market for back to school has been trashed by the supers like everything else they touch. I can only buy pilots in a box of 12 for $15.60. if this was happening in the classroom the teacher should quickly move their desks apart and inform the headmaster immediately.
I think the BTS market is very much there for those that want to put the effort in. As newsagents too many of us worry about what others – ie majors – are doing rather than what we can offer and what point of difference we can exploit. As long as our prices are reasonable and in line with those on booklists from the major school suppliers we are in with a shot.
Sure, we have some obstacles such as our buy prices relative to the majors, but we also have advantages our opposition cannot hope to touch us on, and that is a genuinely caring and personalised service. Our product knowledge as retailers and willingness to go the extra distance will win over more customers than the offer of BTS stationery stacked high in supermarket shelves at cheaper prices where you are left to find what you need yourself.
If we exploit our “USP” BTS can be a roaring success for newsagents, and already is for many. We just need to look at what we can do rather than what others are doing.
While agreeing with you Glenn it is also true that depending on the newsagency, it’s location and other strengths, BTS may be a case of putting a lot of effort into a season than detracts from more profitable opportunities such as Australia Day, Valentines Day and Jigsaw Month. We do BTS but are debating it’s value in our particular business. Thats not to say it’s not worthwhile for others.
Brendan I guess my point is more about newsagents going out and pursuing a season or event and not looking at what our competitors are doing and being discouraged by it.
For us the BTS season has taught us this lesson, but it could be any one of a myriad of other opportunities as you say. There are way too many newsagents that lack the conviction to chase these events because they are too busy being put off by what others around them are doing.
We just sell what the majors don’t (maths grid books, music books, and this year 4b pencils and little Collins dictionaries) at a PREMIUM price.
By the time mums get to our shop they just want it finished so price is not an issue.
I bought some more school diaries yesterday and had priced at $2.20 but staff member who marked them last night mistakenly put $2.99 on them, was easier to update price as customers were buying and not questioning that price.
We pick up a few dollars selling motorbike/horse lunch boxes, pencil cases and book covers that appeal to our area.
Once school goes back Big W will clear out back to school and put Easter up so we pick up more sales then.
The old days of us being open till 9pm on a Thursday night with queues out the door are history and its not worth spending a lot of energy on any more.
Made more with puzzles this week than Id probably make all month with school stationery.
Mark your post is interesting. I happen to agree we could learn from what the supers dud this year. Their consistency was excellent.
I wrote this and other recent BTS posts as a call to action to those in BTS to understand the whole of business approach. This coupled with personal service and other points of local business difference is how to compete. OR, to not do BTS at all. I personally don’t do it and make more GP off other ‘seasons’ I embrace through BTS. I write about BTS here as a service to the channel.
I think I can do BTS better, these discussions are valuable, I will start planning and marketing earlier next year to get our message out there.
Rick this is where a paid geo targeted Facebook campaign can work a treat.
I think the OfficeWork television advertising campaign has been interesting. Last week the focus was on price. This week it’s been about one-stop shopping – and I think that this close to the beginning of the school year, the convenience for parents of being able to go to one store, confident that they will be able to buy everything on the child’s requirements list, is compelling. Perhaps they aren’t as confident that their local newsagent would have absolutely everything?
Megan, the OW ad of “one-stop shopping” is flawed…..OW don`t carry text books…..why? No margin in it for them.
After discussions on here re Facebook advertising I tried it for BTS. Cost me $200 with an $8/day spending limit and focused it on a 20km radius of our centre. Our sales are up 18% on last year, and last year was an all time record for us for BTS, so I am happy with the results. Not sure if all of it can be attributed to FB, but it certainly did no harm and have had several people mention the advert when BTS shopping. Would definitely try it again for other events and seasons.
On OW, we have several customers coming to our BTS mall post saying OW now won’t fill booklists before school goes back – another week and a half – and trying to substitute items on the booklist for what they have on the shelf. One customer in yesterday spent 2 hours getting 4 glue sticks and 2 scrapbooks in OW. There is a huge dissatisfaction with OW service and offering at our local store. They seem to be big on their marketing and promises and short on delivering what they say.
Good to see the blog helping you get into Facebook advertising. There are some very cool controls and targeting options available.
GNS NSW don’t even have BTS ads on TV this year. Nothing to promote newsagents at all.
Are there tv ads in any other states???