marketing

I launched the newsagency channel’s first ever magazine loyalty card in August 2004 at my then called Forest Hill Newsagency.  That program was nationalised late in 2005 almost a year after I joined newsXpress.  Today, the program runs in more than 160 newsXpress stores.  It was copied (poorly in my view) by Newspower, Connections and a few others.

Today, six and a half years on, the Magazine Club Card loyalty program more important than ever to participating newsagents.  It delivers a tremendous point of difference, something with which the supermarkets, petrol outlets and convenience stores cannot compete.  It continues to drive new traffic, deliver a deeper shopping basket and generate good word of mouth.

This loyalty program delivers to participating newsagents and their customers are loyalty program which is extraordinarily more valuable and powerful than programs like FlyBys and the Woolworths rewards program.  Those programs do not genuinely reward customers.  This Magazine Club Card does reward customers.  BUT, customers have to spend more than they usually would in order to access the reward.

The offer is simple, buy eleven magazines over eight weeks and your twelfth magazine is FREE up to the value of $10.00.  Compare this to needing to spend $15,000 at Coles to get a $50 shopping voucher – as consumer group Choice recently reported and was covered on A Current Affair. at the time.

The card we use today is five versions on from what I started with back in 2004 – in artwork only.  The campaign remains unchanged.

When I launched the program I expected it to run for six months.  Like a drug, I can’t and don’t want to let go.  Customers love it.  I love it.  The excitement you see on a customer’s face when they collect their free magazine.  The connection you make with them at that moment will bring them back and this is what I want.  I want their loyalty and am prepared to pay a price for that.

The execution is the key to the success of the campaign.  This is why those who have copied have not achieved the same success. There are important business rules, an essential management structure, vital front line team training and essential performance tracking. failing in any of these areas can lead to a failure off the program.

For a few years I would show people how the program worked and provide them with artwork and the like.  I don’t do that any more since newsXpress has packaged that up and made the program its own.  Indeed, the success of this program is one reason some newsagents started looking at newsXpress before they joined the group.  They wanted the magazine sales growth delivered by this and the other newsXpress magazine pillars.

But it’s not my intention to turn this into a newsXpress advertisement.

What I wanted to note is that here is a campaign which focuses on a challenged yet important category for newsagencies.  It is just about the only magazine marketing campaign which works on the whole category and not just certain suppliers.  Yes, I think magazine sales will decline due in part to migration to digital.  I continue, however, to work hard to ensure that the decline in my newsagencies is less than the industry average – through programs like the Magazine Club Card.

We have placed the I Love Magazines display unit at the entrance to each of my newsagencies.  With the TV and other media coverage for this ACP Magazines campaign, there is no other place for the unit, to ensure that we leverage maximum potential.  We are taking care over title placement and have trained our teams to ensure that the range is fresh and relevant throughout the consumer promotion.

Newsagents of every size ought to get behind this campaign.  It’s a free kick for us, promoting our channel, offering prizes to our customers and helping us feel relevant in today’s marketplace.

The other reason newsagents need to get behind this campaign is because we should be able to say I Love Magazines ourselves. While this campaign focuses on a range of titles from ACP, the whole department can benefit from new eyeballs looking over the range.

Now would be a good time for newsagents to:

• Relay magazines.But do this seriously to give your magazine department a fresh look.
• Drive a co-location strategy at the counter.
• Re-train employees about your range.
• Use top selling magazines in each category to signpost the category – this is called Beacon Branding.
• Use top selling titles to help lower volume titles – see my earlier post today.
• Promote your magazine range in your newsletter, on customer receipts and in other ways – your magazine range is probably one of your most important points of difference.

I urge every eligible newsagent to get behind I Love Magazines.  make the most of this opportunity.  Leverage the investment in promoting our channel to the fullest.  If we all do this then we amplify the benefits.

We see each sale as the most important opportunity to pitch our value proposition in an effort to bring the customer back to us. Whether we like it or not, today’s shopper expects something more than a warm smile or good customer service. In August 2004 we launched the first magazine loyalty program in Australia. Today, it remains a crucial point of difference for us. It was embraced by newsXpress in mid 2005 and has since been copied by others – I have happily shared details of the program.

The Magazine Club Card gives us structure through which we can make our pitch – from the card itself, the back office mechanics and pitch to our customers.

I’ll give you one of our Magazine Club Cards. We clip this for each magazine bought and your twelfth magazine is free up to $10.00.

This pitch is gratefully received. It is rare we get a knock back. Every day we see examples of how it drives changed shopper behavior.

We use a similar pitch in our Sophie Randall card and gift shops for a greeting card offer:

Here is one of our loyalty cards. Be sure to bring this back. Once you have bought seven greeting cards your eighth card is free.

Whether it is a loyalty card pitch or some other offer, it is vitally important that newsagencies have a structured process through which a unique pitch is made to drive return business. It is equally important that the performance of the process can be measured.

In my newsagencies we stand for value. This is why we obsess about handing out our loyalty card. Executing this with a smile supports our second key focus of friendly customer service.