newsagency marketing

Click here to see a copy of our February customer newsletter. This is available to customers as they walk past our shop. You’ll see that we are promoting the Valentine’s day collateral we are also using in-store.  We will update this after Valentine’s Day.

newsXpress is being promoted along with other national retail brands in a national TV and radio campaign for the School Zone product.  The recognition of newsXpress in this way by the company behind School Zone is tremendous kudos for newsXpress and for the 160 locations trading under the brand.  It coincides with a TV campaign being run by the group for its Back To School offer.

This latest national media exposure for newXpress, and media exposure for Newspower and Nextra, demonstrates the importance for newsagents to belong to a proactive marketing group.  As these newsagency marketing brands grow and expose themselves more in national media, the generic newsagent shingle will dilute in recognition and value.

While some may say it suits me to publish this view, it is a view being put consistently by shopping centre landlord and by national brands.

Disclosure: I am a Director of newsXpress.

There is good interest in the 5 WAYS TO KICK START YOUR NEWSAGENCY workshop planned for early February.  This is a two hour workshop packed with business building ideas. The workshop will run in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra. It is free to attend. I promise a valuable session packed with good business ideas. The session will concentrate on opportunities available for optomistic and focused newsagents in 2009.  While I will continue to document challenges here, I see a tremendous opportunity to leverage these for a bighter future.  Click here to download the flyer with dates and booking details or book online.

Chinese New Year falls on January 26 this year.  This is the start of fifteen days of celebrations.  Cards and red packets will sell up to January 26 and rarely beyond.  I am reliably informed that besides money, in a red packet, a cow would be a good fun gift. The City of Sydney website says: people born in the Year of the Ox are placid, patient and have great physical stamina. They are born leaders who stubbornly defend their opinions against any argument. 2009, the Year of the Earth Ox, brings additional straightforwardness and solidity to the Ox making them loyal and focused, with honesty and kindness. 

There is good information on Chinese New Year at Chinapage and Wikipedia.

All of this is important to newsagents in support of Chinese New Year cards as well as lottery products as gifts.

I saw a Papermate TV commercial last night and at the end they tag key retail partners.  Newsagents are represented by the N which the ANF replaced in May last year. Not that the N represents a retail channel – it was originally developed to support the home delivery model.  Given that home delivery does not have franchise and marketing groups, it would be more appropriate that the N, the new or the old, was used for that activity and that retail was left to the brands which already promote themselves on TV and elsewhere. 

Maybe I am wrong but I think the N at the end of the Papermate TV commercial achieves nothing for newsagents.  The N is not a retail brand.  It is not used consistently.  The N artwork changed in May but there is no discipline around achieving this.  There is no way to find N newsagents.

The latest issue of Motor magazine (out yesterday) has a full page ad promoting newsagents.  This is the further support from ACP Magazines for the campaign we initiated to promote newsagents – it ties back to the TV commercial we ran late last year.  ACP engaged with this campaign of their own accord.

Click here to see a copy of our January in-store newsletter.  This is provided free from a stand at the front of our newsXpress Forest Hill store. 

You’ll notice that the newsletter also connects with the mobile phone recharge promotion we are running in store and about which I blogged yesterday.  We write items for the newsletter which we feel are appropriate to our customers and about products which we want to promote – it is our marketing after all.

Check out how Peter Williams at Banksia Beach News in Queensland has embraced the newsagency marketing campaign we developed a couple of months ago.  On several window panels of Peter’s shop he has included artwork which connects with the TV and print campaign.  Peter has done this at his own cost to connect his business with the wider newsagent network and to support other newsagents. 

Thanks Peter!

Christine Lovatt was sent this note from a reader who saw our ad promoting newsagencies in Cluewords recently:

On reading the back of the December issue (77) of my favourite crossword magazine, Cluewords, I must agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed about the local newsagents right around Australia. Our newsagent in Springwood, NSW are David, Vicki and Chris and they are extremely helpful. They deliver my four crossword magazines, Mega, BIG, Colossus and Cluewords along with my Sydney Morning Herald. I am amazed that they will do that as it means remembering to roll the magazine with the paper and also remembering in which paper it has been rolled so I get the correct one thrown into my front yard.

This is great kudos for Springwood newsagency (NSW) and for newsagents generally.  That a customer takes time to provide such positive feedback is wonderful.

Thanks to Lovatts for running the ad promoting newsagents for no cost in Cluewords. 

We took up the newsXpress Christmas gift offer and have these personalized pads to give to regular customers.  They promote our contact details and act as a nice Things To Do Today pad for placement next to the phone or elsewhere in the home or office. 

Customers react well when you give them something for nothing like this.  I’ll take any opportunity I can to promote my newsagency and the brand under which I operate because this is my point of difference. 

Gifts such as these pads are common in other national retail chains.

Lovatts Publications is promoting newsagencies with the running of our newsagency ad in two of their current publications.  The back pages of Super Sudoku and Clue Words have the ad.  This coverage is being provided free by Lovatts in support of newsagents.  I didn’t approaach Lovatts for this support.  They heard about the TV ad and wanted to help support our channel. 

The latest issue of Money magazine from ACP Magazines has a the full page ad promoting newsagents on the inside back cover. ACP is providing the space for this newsagent marketing campaign free of charge. This is a terrific support from ACP. They offered the space without request. We have copies of the print ad in A3 and A4 size for newsagents to download from the Tower Systems website for newsagents who want to support this campaign.

Page109 of the latest issue of Good Health magazine from ACP magazines has a full page ad promoting newsagents. This is a variation of the ad being run by ACP in the current issue of FHM.

I am grateful to ACP for their support of this newsagent marketing initiative.