Folio Magazine has published an update on US magazines which are testing the use of mobile phone readable barcodes on advertisements. While the is more about advertiser connection with consumers, it will also provide publishers with interesting data on use of technology.
When I asked the customer yesterday if they would like to renew their about to expire Tatts player card yesterday they said no and looked away. Noticing a tear I asked if everything way okay even though I could see it wasn’t. (Why I asked such an obvious question is beyond me.) My customer had earlier in the week found out she did not have long to live so renewing the card was not an option and the question reminded her of what she is facing.
It was a sad moment made all the more difficult because of a line of customers behind her. It was a busy Saturday. She picked herself up, smiled and said she was off to treat herself to a new hairstyle.
I’m not the only newsagent with a story like this from yesterday or any day for that matter. Our businesses are very personal – in part because we are local and in part because we are small. That we (the owners) spend time behind the counter also makes them personal. It is a privilege some days listening to and talking with customers. The confidence they show is moving.
While running a financially profitable business is important, being emotionally profitable – if I can put it that way – is more so. I find that it is this emotional connection with our customers, those we know and those we do not know, where newsagents make a real difference in the community.
Thinking back to yesterday, call me soppy, but I should have renewed the Tatts card and paid for it myself. Ah, hindsight…Â
I’m not a big TV watcher and rarely commit to a series as I find the formula approach boring. That said, I have to confess to recently stumbling across Coronation Street on UK TV and, well, I’m now a regular of six week standing. Hey, it’s only 30 minutes a night. What I find interesting is that The Kabin is a focal point on the show. It’s the local newsagency. Every couple of episodes there is a reference to newsagency specific issues. Friday it was scratch tickets and magazine returns. I’d much rather see stories around goings on in a newsagency than a mass merchant focus in a TV soap.
I was interested to see some overseas companies shed up to 25% of their share value last week. Idearc in the US and Yell in the UK are among those affected. I see this as a reminder to ensure balance in business. Newsagents risk pain by depending on one supplier, one product or one category too much. This is why we need balance. It’s why smart newsagents are moving into new product categories which compliment their existing offering.
Peter Zollman has the story at Poynter about The Capital Times, an afternoon daily in Madison Wisconsin moving back to two days a week and moving most activity to online. This is a trend in the US for regional dailies as the article points out.
We are experimenting with category based aisle displays at our Frankston store.
While this does not serve individual titles well and will frustrate some publishers, it allows us to showcase a category of titles and thereby, hopefully, introduce customers to dept of range they may not have seen before.
This type of display, covering several titles in a category, demonstrated our point of difference. While I want the top selling titles to do well, I need the lower volume titles, the titles other retailers shun, to do well too. Lower volume titles are out point of difference.
Yen is benefiting from this work. People drawn to the display with Marie Claire and Vogue as centrepieces see Yen and are buying it. Vogue sell too, but it would anyway.
What is happening with Yen is interesting to me because two or three years ago, newsagents were paid a pittance by a company called InSite to promote Yen. InSite arrange for considerably more stock. The cost of carrying this and the space required was not covered by the small marketing fee paid. The InSite approach was a failure, not worth the additional cost. Now, through what we’re doing at Frankston, where we have the space available for such displays, we are achieving better results for Yen.
I wish publishers and distributors would reward newsagents for growth. Rewarding success and treating us as business people would see more newsagents make better business decisions. InSite was based around a micro fee for compliance. Our approach at Frankston has nothing to do with compliance – it’s about what’s good for the business.
Here are some free Valentine’s Day marketing tips for newsagents included in the Tower Systems weekly email bulletin sent yesterday:
Kissing booth: raise money for a local charity, $2.00 a kiss;Â Make sure it looks like an old style booth.
Red lips: paint some big red lips on the side of your face for the day and ask for a donation to a local charity;
Sweethearts candy: put a tray of the old style sweethearts candy at the counter and offer one to each customer;
Graffiti wall: It could be paper, a window or a white board, encourage customers to write messages of love. For this idea to work, it has to be bold. We’ve already had positive feedback on this idea.
Each of these Valentine’s Day marketing tips is about engaging with customers and that’s what retail is all about. These regular marketing tips are a free service for Tower Newsagents and others to use as they feel appropriate. We are happy for the ideas to be passed on. It’s our way of adding value to our newsagency relationship.
We tend to focus on ideas which can be implemented locally and without cost. We especially like ideas which add to the fun and theatre of business.
Several of us celebrated the New year last night with a dinner at Bok Choy in Brighton. It was wonderful to experience the misci and dragon in the restaurant and the fireworks on the street in front. The photo below does not do the fireworks justice, just after I took this, we were engulfed by noise, flashes and smoke.
Chinese New year is an important season for newsagents. It is not ‘minor’ as we have seen it in the past. While we have ‘played’ in my newsagencies, last night told me we’ve not done enough. Next year we will go bigger, brighter and have way more fun.
I see a Chinese New Year season as embracing multiple categories and including some serious retail theatre in-store to celebrate the season and what the year will bring.
While over dinner last night I learnt about how the Chinese celebrate, last week, I was at a Chinese New Year dinner at a Malaysian restaurant. It was different again. Both experiences underscore for me the opportunity to embrace the various asian cultures and how they celebrate Chinese New Year.
This is about more than selling cards, scratch tickets or red packets. It’s about understanding the culture and how we can better connect.
First there was the rumour overseas that Corporate Express and Staples, the largest US office supply retailer were in merger discussions. these were later denied. Then, as Forbes reports, the story won’t go away.
If, and, yes, it is a big if, the talks lead to a merger, the implications here in Australia could be considerable. Staples has an excellent retail network in the US. Their entry in Australia would give Officeworks a run for its money in the mass retailer model of office and related products.
Zac Echola has written an excellent blog post about access to news in today’s world. The post tracks how he kept up to date with Barack Obama’s win in the South Carolina primary over a week ago. Pointedly, he notes
News that I care about comes to me, despite the source.
Zac mentions Facebook and Twitter as sources for news about the Obama win. I’d venture to say that most Australian newsagents don;t know what Facebook and even fewer would know what Twitter is.
This is further evidence of why we need to reinvent ourselves. Not completely and not overnight but step by step so that when our customers access and consume news the way Zac does we have alternative traffic generators inn our business.
To hear our first radio commercial for Sophie Randall, please click here. The commercial will air 89 times over the next six days on Melbourne radio stations GOLD104 and MIX101. We chose these two stations for their demographic reach. The commercial is as much about airing to suppliers and possible landlords as it is to promote the business to consumers.
Given the high rotation TV commercials running at the moment for the Treasures of the Earth partwork series, we decided to give it prime space at the corner of our counter at Forest Hill. As always happens when working in the shop, we sold two as we were setting up the display. One customer ssaid to her daughter – there it is, I told you they’d have it. You can’t get a better response to a TV commercial than that.
We will leave this display in place for two weeks and then decide whether to re-locate.
I was surprised to see this new magazine in one of our newsagencies. Let’s Get Engaged! looks good – right on target for the demographic.
What is odd to me is that we received it at Frankston but not at Forest Hill where wedding magazine sales are stronger. Some days the magazine supply model makes no sense at all.
We have the title next to the wedding secti0n but are wondering if we should have some fun and put it with the sports or car magazines.
This little bear with his leg in a cast and a crutch under one arm is a popular gift purchased with a get well card. Â We have him and other card giving occasion bears located near our card display.
The message is simple, while flowers are nice, the don’t last that long. Appropriately themed bears work for get well, graduation, bon voyage and even new home. By ranging them near the card aisle, we’re getting gift related sales which would otherwise go to the local florist.
What is interesting to me is lack os resistance on price. At Frankston, for example, this range of plush is selling well at traditional gift shop prices.
I spent time yesterday with a newsagent who has been in the business two years. He is considering selling up, cutting his losses he says. He is tired of the daily grind, not the hard work, but the battles with out of date business practices. His core beef is with magazine distributors – over supply of low selling titles and under supply of top selling titles.
There is nothing new in this. Newsagents of many years standing will say, yeah, so what? This chap is it the crossroads all newsagents face – to accept out of date and anti competitive business practices and make the best of it and chase growth in other product categories or get out. I expect he will get out.
While magazine distributors will say they supply what is best for newsagents, the view in each newsagency is different. Regulars here will have seen some of my evidence of magazine supply decisions which don;t make sense.
Newsagents have their money on the line. Few others in the magazine supply chain have an equivalent risk without associated control. Distributors are paid to move stock. Publishers rely more on ad revenue than retail sales. Newsagents only make money if a title is sold.
Newsagents carry the theft risk, they pay for stock prior to it selling. Plus they do not control supplies. Again, distributors will disagree and say they are giving newsagents more control than ever. It’s not enough. Too often we have to react to a supply problem. The internal systems should not pass the buck of oversupply to newsagents, it should not expect us to pay for stock to sit on the shelves for three months. It should not increase supply when sales are flat.
Too often a magazine distributor, one in particular, will chase money and cut you off even if you’re a few days late and have a good explanation. They want your cash for stock you didn’t order and may not even sell because it’s theirs and bugger you. Their thug like treatment of small businesses in some instances is shameful and breaks the will of some.
None of this is new, especially here. I’ve invested too many keystrokes in writing about the challenges of magazines. I love the category and desperately want it to grow. The problem is the system all to often works against that and us.
So, back to my friend from yesterday afternoon. We need people like him to stay in our channel. His fresh-blood approach and energy are important to broadening our view. Yet our preparedness to accept mediocre magazine distribution practices may well see him leave. I hope not.
The 2nd quarter results announcement by News Corp yesterday shows how different the newspaper story is playing out in Australia compared to elsewhere, especially the US:
The Australian newspaper group reported second quarter operating income growth versus a year ago in local currency terms on the strength of display and classified advertising revenues. Display advertising was led by the retail and real estate sectors while classified advertising experienced gains in the employment sector.
While some of the ad revenue growth will have come from mX and their local newspaper operation, I’d expect the capital city dailies to be strong – if their size is anything to go by.
The numbers demonstrate that we can’t relate the doom and gloom around ad revenue achieved by US newspapers to our Australian situation at the moment.
On the way to the airport this morning I heard Todd Woodbridge, yes, the now-retired doubles tennis champion, talking with Neil Mitchell on 3AW about trashy magazines. Woodbridge was billed by Mitchell as a new social commentator on his show.
Over the course of the eight to ten minutes I heard Woodbridge did not engage in much commentary about magazines. He made fun of the medium and queries why anyone would buy them. Mitchell agreed with him.
What was billed as social commentary was lightweight fluff, not unlike the some of the magazines they criticised. Maybe Mitchell would say it has to be light to keep it moving. If that’s the case, don’t bill it as social commentary.
Magazine are important to Australia and Australians. Sales per capita are strong and browser interest even stronger. Women’s weekly magazines – the category in the cross-hairs of today’s discussion, are an important component of entertainment for many people.
Woodbridge seemed to not like the print medium because at one stage he asked why women who buy these things don’t go online and look at the pictures and read articles.
What could have been a worthwhile discussion was wasted.
In the 24 hours since I posted video footage of the singing ear-flapping bunny, it has been viewed 578 times. It says something about the viral nature of the Internet.
Printer ink consistently accounts for 30% of “stationery†sales at our Forest Hill store. I put stationery in parentheses because we actually track ink as its own department – it’s certainly not part of stationery one usually finds in a newsagency.
What makes the 30% interesting is that this has been maintained while stationery has grown 29% since June 2007.
This is our third crack at ink. The first, just over three years ago, was okay. Our second, an online business – Inkfast – continues to work a treat. Our third, re-entry in the retail ink category around a year and half ago, has been very successful.
What is especially good about ink is its efficiency. Ink customers rarely purchase ink and nothing else. We are using this category to drive sales elsewhere in the business. Also, we have a high stock turn (we order two or three times a week) and a minimal real-estate investment. In a high-rent shopping centre this is most welcome.
The key to making ink work is consistent aggressive marketing outside the business. This is the only way to attract new customers. With the right in-store offer, they come back again and again.
Newsagents playing in the convenience space ought to read the Neilsen Convenience Report 2007. It’s made available by Neilsen and Australian Convenience Store News – an excellent resource for anyone in the convenience space.
Page 22 has some interesting data on magazines – men’s magazines account for 47% of sales, Zoo Weekly is the top selling title. I suspect that Newsagents will find the rest of the magazine results fascinating – they underscore a point of difference non-convenience newsagents can embrace. They also highlight opportunities for convenience focused newsagents.
I was interested to read the reports last week of a ‘major’ magazine recycling initiative in New York. While the pitch is more about getting publishers to use recycled paper, the drive is for consumer engagement by using recycle bins.
In one report I found this:
A big recycling issue is newsstands, where only one of every four magazines is sold.
And I thought a sell through of 40% was bad. At 25% I’d close up shop.
Recycling is a big issue. Most Australian newsagents I know partner with local recycling agencies and ensure that there is little waste from magazines which have not sold.
We’re running a get fit campaign at our busiest counter with this display of men’s fitness and muscle magazines. We also have packs of the Fit Deck – a fitness exercise program which benefited from some coverage in the herald Sun a few weeks back – on the side of the stand.
We figured that with life almost back to normal – school holidays over, work under way etc – it was a good time to visit men’s fitness. We were curious, however, to find more titles in the fitness category for women than men. We are currently looking at other titles with which to expand the segment.
By counting stock and controlling replenishment we track its effectiveness over the regular location.
The partworks year kicked off yesterday with a couple of launches. The one we are most interested in is BBC Classic Drama as we feel it best connects with our demographic.
To promote Classic Drama we have created a display in the entrance which sees 80% of traffic into and out of our store. It stands alone with good space on either side.
There is no point in promoting this in the usual partworks area – new issue partworks are high impulse purchases, hence the location.
Partworks customers are efficient in newsagencies. A couple of years ago I collated data from more than 100 stores and found partworks customers to be twice as likely to purcahse other items in a newsagency compared to those purchasing a regular magazine. This is a key reason we are happy to heavily promote new partworks.
Some reading this will want to comment about supply issues as causing too much grief for partworks. I agree it is a problem. However, I am confident that more effort is being brought to the table to resolve this than at any time in the past.
We’re planning for an interactive Easter. This is one of several characters we are bringing to have some fun. Watch him in action: click here or click the play button on the screen below. We spent the night rolling around the floor of the office in stitches of laughter.