Author: Mark

With Greek cooking so popular at the moment – on TV and in restaurants – The Australian Women’s Weekly Greek Cooking cookbook launched by ACP yesterday could well be a terrific success for us.  We are going to promote this exactly the same way we successfully promoted the Slow Cooker cookbook – tactically. We will place stock on the flat with weeklies, every second week or so at the counter and every so often co-locate with newspapers.

Shoppers are unlikely to visit a newsagency looking for a Greek cookbook.  This is why our engagement needs to leverage impulse opportunities.  We sold close to 300 copies of Slow Cooker in one of my stores with the simple tactical campaign outlined above.  I hope we have similar success with this Greek title.

We have two high priced AFL season 2011 products on sale from yesterday which should generate some nice impulse business.  Given the size, price and nature of the products we have placed them next to newspapers.  Since we are in Melbourne, we are more likely to get good business from newspaper customers than we would by placing the AFL Record Season Guide and AFL Prospectus with sports title – if they did fit.  Both titles will be an interesting test for the outlook of shoppers.  If AFL fans cut back on spending n these then I’d say that is an indicator of a very tough retail year ahead – kind of a groundhog indicator.

Take 5 and the free make-up attached to the cover is a challenge to display.  We can only fit one copy per pocket.  To compensate we have stock at the counter and on the floor in front of the waterfall.  Given that we will sell between 60% and 70% of our stock today, like many newsagents, we had to find a way to save us from having to fill the pockets every hour.

Take 5 and That’s Life continue to be the most successful magazine pairing in newsagencies. The percentage of times they are in the basket together is extraordinary.  This is why it surprises me when I see newsagents who do not promote the two titles next to each other.They are missing sales.

We are promoting the $1.95 offer for Zoo this week in each of my stores.  We are preferring this in-location display as it has been working well for Zoo and these price-based deals. I like the collateral provided – it serves its purpose well.

I know that the publisher is following the UK model of structured discounting and that they have what they think is a sound plan. Some customers, however, see it differently. One wag had a laugh saying he’d buy it this week for $1.95 and then wait a few months for the next $1.95 issue and just browse it in between times.

As the retailer I am glad that more titles do not follow this pricing model as I suspect it educates customers on what to expect.

The terrific sports bag which is packaged with the latest issue of GQ magazine does not fit into traditional newsagency magazine fixturing.  Only in a store with extra deep pockets will this fit.  We have placed the over-sized item next to our newspapers – it is the only reasonable space available to us.  While the publisher will like this location, it is frustrating as we have had to bump other product.

Size and display challenges aside, the sports bag is a good gift.  It fits with GQ.  While I may regret saying this, I would have preferred a significantly higher allocation and a purpose built cardboard unit for properly displaying the offer.

We have placed the large A1 size poster promoting the latest issue of Good Food magazine on the floor in the middle of the aisle.  It has been placed in front of the column of Good Food magazine stock. There is no missing this poster – hopefully is delivers a good kick in sales in this first week.

FYI we do not stick any magazine posters on windows in any of my newsagencies – I doubt their impact in that situation.  I’d prefer passers by to be able to look into the store.

When we moved to our temporary location a few months ago, we had no choice but to shoe-horn magazines into fixtures which were designed for greeting cards.

One side of the new magazine aisle was made up of sections, such as the one shown in the photo.  This made us look differently at title adjacencies and while we were left with some challenges due to space, the result was tighter sections targeting common interests.

While I like the idea of the segmented areas, I know that tenancy and other costs make this less efficient allocation of space unrealistic for newsagencies of the future.

That said, the smaller sections have made it easier to watch shopper interaction and title performance with a narrower focus.

The segmented experience, the tighter space and going from 1,250 titles to 750 titles has reinforced for me the importance of ensuring that newsagency shop fits are flexible so that configurations can change with need and that floor space allocation can change to reflect margin dollars return.

Installing a purpose built magazine fixture which cannot be easily changed without construction of any sort is nuts.

The other reminder is that of change in the magazine department.  Even over the last five months, we have moved sections in pursuit of better sales.  This must be an on-going process in any newsagency.  It is certainly a way of demonstrating a point of difference over our planogram-centric competitors,.

We are promoting the latest issue of Girlfriend magazine with this simple aisle end display facing shoppers as they leave our women’s / girl’s magazine area.  In addition to acting as a billboard for the title, shoppers can browse and purchase off the display – important for any display.  We change these displays weekly – essential given the frequency of shopper visits to a newsagency.