A dark cloud hung over Valentine’s Day for some German candy makers, the German Federal Cartel Office raided the offices of seven of them. The International Herald Tribune has the details. This follows similar activity in Canada three months ago. Very interesting.
In the meantime, back here, newsagencies I have spoken with tell me it’s been fantastic Valentine’s Day sales wise.
It has been fascinating watching the different waves of Valentine’s Day card customers over the last month. First it was the older customers, often in a long-term relationship, then it was the hopefuls and this week it’s been more of the oh, no, it’s Valentine’s Day and I don’t have anything. We are supporting the season with gifts as well as chocolate. The gifts include the collectible Momiji doll, a singing frog and this cow. Surprisingly, the cow is a hit! Not sure what message that passes on.
Happy Valentine’s Day. Trade well!
The offer from our local government owned Australia Post store was compelling. Reflex for $4.95 a ream. This is around $1.50 a ream less that newsagents pay their wholesaler today. But, wait, it gets better! Spend over $50 and Reflex is delivered free.
I have a couple of issue with this: Newsagents ought to be able to buy better through their warehouses; Australia Post should not be able to use its government protected monopoly to take business from small businesses, it’s not why they were created. I am hopeful that Kevin Rudd’s new team in Canberra will look at this and Australia Posts pursuit of newsagents.
Given that the brochures offers up to a truck load of Reflex, maybe I should take the opportunity and grab the cheap stock while I can. Checking the fine print, I can’t as I don’t have a fork lift to receive it.
We have changed the fixturing we use to display gifts at our newsXpress Watergardens location, drawing on learnings from our Sophie Randall business. The table in the photo below, buried by part of our plush range, offers multiple level and angles for displaying stock in an easily accessible form.
Beyond efficiently displaying gist related stock, the table offers more efficient use of floorspace and maintains a low profile in the business, thereby supporting retail friendly sight lines.
The ACCC has announced that it will not oppose the acquisition of Borders by A&R Whitcoulls Group. The A&R Whitcoulls group operates the Whitcoulls newsagency/bookshops in New Zealand, Angus & Robertson bookshops in Australia and Supanews newsagencies in Australia.
Bauer Consumer Media, new owner of Emap UK has closed two magazine titles: NW and First. Times Online has the details. First is sold in Australia so it’s handy to know of its demise.
I spent the best part of the morning at the Melbourne hearing of the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Retail Tenancies in Australia. My presentation was one of four scheduled for today. I covered, in part, the follow-up submission provided to the Commission earlier this week. While this has been put on behalf of newsXpress, I’d expect it to reflect what newsagents more broadly would want put.
I’d note that the ANF, NANA, QNF and VANA have all actively participated in the process. Plenty of newsagent voices are being heard.
I was particularly heartened by the questions from the Inquiry. I felt a genuine effort to understand the challenges faced by newsagents with current shopping centre lease arrangements. I look forward to the next draft report from the Commission on this matter.
For a brief moment this morning I got to touch on a topic dear to my heart, Australia Post. This was in response to a question and my departure from the terms of relevant to answering the question. The more we seize opportunities to tell the story of how this government owned retail network is stalking newsagents the better.
It is not too late for newsagents to seek to make in-person submissions. If you have a lease store which is relevant to other newsagents, consider applying to be heard at a public hearing. The details are on the PC website.
Digital photography is the category we are featuring in our counter display this week. We have changed our approach and gone for six titles with two pockets allocated to each. We felt it looked better than what we have been doing. Actually, we are thin on the ground in range so it made sense.
We are really getting into the groove of these displays, thinking a week or two ahead of the category we will push. Others in the business are chiming in with their ideas.
The better the planning the faster we can create a new display an that’s what we are after: small investment and high reward.
Every display we have done this year has been worthwhile in terms of sales. It’s almost like there is no such thing as a dud category if you display it right and have magazine titles which support each other.
What I like most about the display is that we are showing off our depth of range beyond the popular titles. This is our point of difference.
Click here to download a copy of the latest technology news for newsagents newsletter being sent this morning to all newsagents. It’s been a busy month on the IT front since the last newsletter with new standards in a couple of categories imminent and an incredible response to the free online training being delivered by Tower Systems.
Even though it was a challenge to display on regular magazine fixturing, the free Gillette Fusion shaver on the front has driven an excellent sales result for the current issue of FHM magazine. It’s the perfect add-on gift.
We have had more success selling this issue of FHM at the counter than in its usual spot with men’s magazines.
I came across this new product in Australian Convenience Store News. magazine. This cup of cookies is brilliant for newsagents playing in the convenience space, a perfect up-sell for a driver or commuter picking up a newspaper or a magazine. I can see these working in a newsagency in a transit situation or where fuel is sold. I especially like the packaging – ideal for putting in the cup holder in a car.
At the risk of upsetting publishers we have taken the two two pockets of waterfalls from three busy magazine titles permanently to display six other titles. We place the six titles based on colour and appropriateness for the women who mainly shop in this part of our newsagency.
Sales of Australian Women’s Weekly, New Idea and Women’s Day have not been affected. Sales of Money, Your Mortgage, Better Homes, Women’s Health, Burkes Backyard and Good Health are up thanks to more eyeballs seeing them.  We refresh the mix of titles weekly and often make decisions based on title covers – we want covers which draw attention of those looking at the main display.
For years newsagents have been told to full waterfall high volume weekly and monthly titles. By taking back the two two pockets we can lift other titles while not hurting the feature title. This is a win win isn’t it? certainly the basket data we’re looking at suggests our efforts are rewarded.
Newsagents are too regulated by some publishers and distributors and this stifles those of us who want to be entrepreneurial in chasing magazine sales. I appreciate it’s easy to call for freedom and harder to implement. I wish publishers would be more encouraging rather than chasing a common, lower, goal.
Further to my earlier post today about Good Health magazine, here is evidence of the value of promoting early in the sales cycle.
The new issue of Women’s Health came out yesterday, with posters and other material from the publisher. We created an aisle end display and sales kicked as a result.
I want my business to be known for promoting fresh product. The display for Women’s Health does that. People who see the new issue of a magazine first in my newsagency will be more likely to respect my store as the go to place for magazines.
Publishers need to understand the need for newsagency relevance and support us with in-store marketing material accordingly.
The early bird gets the worm, or so the saying goes. Good Health magazine came in a week ago and we duly displayed it in several locations and sold 60% of our allocation in the first five days.
Yesterday, we discovered that Good Health is the feature magazine for the ACP Connections marketing promotion this week. Too late I say. We’re now low on stock and while we could order more, they won’t come until Friday at the earliest by which time the promotion opportunity is lost since we would be a few days away from our next promotion.
Marketing promotions for specific titles need to be scheduled for the on sale day and not a week later. While the publisher will see this as me complaining, the alternative, and more appropriate, view would be that I want to maximise sales and that for most magazines this is early in the sales cycle.
Simon Frost at our Frankston newsagency executed one of the Valentine’s Day marketing suggestions I posted here last week. He created a window of love on our front window. While the photo below looks a bit scrappy, in person it works a treat!
We have the pens behind the counter. Customers ask for one, write their message and return the pen. This is interactive retail and it’s fun. The buzz at the front of the shop as a result is excellent.
the early edition quotes Doug Naikin, Director of the CIA’s Open Source Centre:
What we’re seeing [in] actuality is a decline, a relatively rapid decline, in the impact of the printed press – traditional media. A lot more is digital, and a lot more is online. It’s also a lot more social. Interaction is a much bigger part of media and news than it used to be.
If you’re running a VIP Club or some similar loyalty program in your newsagency you might want to take a careful look at your numbers. A business I have been working with recently was giving away thousands of dollars a year for nothing. Sure, they were growing, but at a rate no better than others around them. They we rewarding average behaviour.Â
A good loyalty program rewards customers for going beyond the average. If you reward just average behaviour you achieve nothing for your business. The alternative is do a Coles and offer little or no reward – that’s what their FlyBys program is, a nothing reward program.
I created the industry’s first magazine category loyalty program in mid 2004. We still run it today because of the growth it drives and for no other reason. We regularly benchmark our performance against our region and state. The moment we’re below a KPI we have set for ourselves we will either stop or change the program. There is no point in being emotional about this. It’s business.Â
Be wary about the claims by newsagents around VIP / loyalty card success. Ask to see the numbers.
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.
