Calendars

Most of the calendars we sell in our newsXpress Forest Hill store we selected by title, carefully based on past year sales data and with attention to our demographic.  Like special interest magazines, our calendars speak to range.  They pull customers in looking for special interest titles – because they have seen them before in our shop or because of word of mouth. 

For most of our pre Christmas customers, calendar price is not an issue.

Several times, customers have told us that we have saved them buying a certain calendar title online – they love that they were able to buy it over the counter.  These are customers who will be back next year.  Some will also be back for the Boxing Day sale for a second and third calendar – we have stocked up for this.

The Ferrets calendar is a good example of demonstrating a point of difference.  Ask a newsagent if they would carry it and most would say no.  However, once you have had some success with calendars and you want to expand on that you will soon find yourself carrying and selling the Ferrets calendar.

Like overseas crossword titles, calendars from magazine companies are, for the most part, a waste of time and space.  You can build the kind of business you want.

Our team at Forest Hill has reused an old display unit for our range of small magnetic day-to-a-page calendars. This small unit fits nicely right at the front corner of the counter next to the ACP magazine display stand. All too often specially built display units are trashed once the purpose for which they were provided has passed. Reuse such as that done by our Forest Hill team is good for the environment. The bonus is that it solved a challenging display problem.

Our calendar sales in September were up 72% at Forest Hill and 37% at Frankston.

At Forest Hill the increase is driven by having a solid range on display early in the calendar season.

At Frankston it is thanks to a new point of difference – previously this store focused on magazine distributor calendars. We are focused on a more unique range of titles. We have given over a column at the front of the store to promote our calendar range as well as to feature a Calendar of the Week.

At each store we are not discounting and do not plan to discount until after Christmas. We leasrnt our lesson three years ago after playing the discounting game for two years and losing. Now, we focus on range and service – two areas in which the discount calendar outlets.

Too often, newsagents think that discounting is the way to win a sale or grow a business is to discount. Discounting is admitting defeat if you have gone to it ahead of other smarter options such as a point of difference in range and or service. While there is a time for discounting with calendars, as I have learnt from my own mistakes it is not now – not even with others discounting nearby. If you have the right range you don not need to discount.

I’d note that the calendar strategy we follow is that developed by newsXpress more than five years ago, long before I joined the group. Indeed, this is one reason I was attracted to newsXpress – to replace magazine distributor calendars with better margin more unique product.

We have revised our counter offer at Forest Hill – introducing small magnetic day to a page calendars. This display has been in place for a week and is achieving good results. The high price and good margin make each calendar worth more than a candy bar. We have been careful in selecting the calendar titles to promote in this impulse position.

Our team at our Frankston newsagency refuses to let the big old column at the front of the shop get in the way of promoting product.

They have just wrapped the column in black as a background for a four-sided calendar display.  This is in addition to product filled calendar stands at the front of the shop.

The side showing in the photo shows mainly TV show themed calendars.  This will change as the calendar season moved toward Christmas.  I especially like that they have created a display which facilitates such easy change at the front of the shop.

Other sides use perspex shelves to display desk and other smaller calendars.