Author: Mark Fletcher

Better Basics from Pacific magazines under the Better Homes and Gardens brand gets prime position at our counter this weekend because it is will be seen as a new title and is likely to get coverage on TV or radio on the BHG programs this weekend.  We received an excellent pack of collateral – making the display easy to create.

Better Homes and Gardens itself sells very well for us over the weekend and we are hopeful that Better Basics repeats this success.

I like brand extensions like this as they are easier to pitch than completely new titles which are unable to leverage an existing brand.

We are promoting Wheels magazine on the back of the ACP stand to guys leaving our men’s magazine aisle.  Our experience is that Wheels responds well to promotion here – even from a very simple display like this.  The key to impulse purchases is that people can easily buy off the display.

While interest in Michael Jackson stories in weekly magazines has quickly passed, there remains strong interest in tribute publications – such as Remember the time which we have on display near our newspapers.  We will sell out.  Hopefully, publishers do not overload us with tribute product as this market will have its limit.

AdNews has announced new magazine awards.  This follows the end of the Magazine Publishers of Australia awards.  I’d like to see some retail focused categories – voted for by retailers.  Awards along the lines of: Best Magazine, Best Retail Support, Best for the Category Publisher, and, Best Over the Counter Word of Mouth Title.

We have the latest issue of Australian Women’s Weekly on display right at the front of the shop to attract passers-by.  There is tremendous interest in Magda Subanski’s weight loss journey and the opportunity for excellent sales from this the latest issue of AWW is, in our view, in the first few days.  The coverage in this issue of the MasterChef winner will also drive excellent sales.   We will maintain AWW in this premium location for at least a full week.

I am often asked by newsagents about displays I feature here and the thinking we put into them.  Our decision on this issue of AWW is a good example of our process.  We looked at everything which came in today and judged that we would achieve the best sales return from AWW in this location.  The other title vying for this space was Better Homes and Gardens.   We have this on a separate, BH&G branded, stand – next to our busiest lottery counter.  It is well positioned.

The key about deciding what titles to feature and where is to do something – every Monday, Wednesday and Friday – and to learn from the results.  Too often, newsagents puy up the posters and that’s it.  Sales drive our display decisions, not posters.  Our approach takes more time but we win and publishers win.

We are promoting Dolly magazine, and the free beret and scarf which come with this issue, at the exit of our busiest magazine aisle.  This means that mums and teenage girls will see the display – and hopefully purchase the magazine.  We also have Dolly on display in the usual location  – with teen magazines.  While the display is not the usual billboard display publishers like to see, we are certain that it will work and result in excellent sales for the title – because of the magazine traffic in this aisle.

With limited display space available, we are pitching the new issues of Men’s Health and Women’s Health together this week – on an aisle end between our two busiest magazine aisles.  Women’s Health is the stronger of the two titles for us.

What we are chasing with this display is customers buying Men’s Health and Women’s Health together.

We have expanded the space available to sports magazines and achieved this by reducing the space allocated to car magazines.  Both moves were based on sales data.  We are achieving good growth in running, soccer and bike riding titles and needed more space to display these  professionally.  We are constantly looking for opportunities to finesse our magazine layout, to keep our offer fresh.

Newsagencies with the same layout today as they had three years or more ago should consider relaying magazines.  Customers become as store-blind as retail employees.  Change fights that and often results in sales growth as ‘new’ magazines are discovered by browsers.

Like many newsagents I suspect, we are promoting the latest issue of Healthy Food at the counter and showing off the bag of goodies which comes with the new issue our today.  The bag is a brilliant offer.  This issue will sell out – as happens every time they offer this size promotion.  I am disappointed that there was no marketing collateral to promote the offer.

On the broader issue of promotions like this, our own sales data for Healthy Food shows that there is no measurable flow-on benefit to such a brilliant promotion.  Others would need to have a diffeerent experience for this promotion to be repeated annually.

Titles like Dolly and Girlfriend regularly, successfully, use gifts (tip-ons) to drive sales.  While tip-ons can be frustrating for newsagents, they can be crucial to driving sales.  From what I can see, the key is regularity.  With Healthy Food it is once a year.