Making paper planes
This 2008 paper plane making calendar is a great gift idea for boys and boys at heart. It’s ideal for newsagencies – we have it in our Frankston store along with a range of desk activity calendars which connect with magazines categories: beading, crochet, knitting, sudoku and crafts. We have the market already with our magazine range so why not leverage that for the calendar upsell.
I like the paper plane making calendar especially because of the connection with newspapers – newsprint has made been used for some of the best paper planes ever.
We are getting a good reaction to the bah humbug t-shirts – as modelled by Simon Frost, manager of our Frankston store.. People get the humor of a retailer saying bah humbug when, in fact, we want people to wholly embrace Christmas. The other t-shirt design says HO HO HO. For the most part it;’s getting an equally good reaction but then some people follow the guidance of media reports and say it’s rude. Innocence is bliss sometimes. I especially like the Bah humbug t-shirt because it is different. With every retailer going for tradition at Christmas, playing outside the square is a good place to be.
I hate spinners in retail but this sticker stand and another from the same supplier (Fun Products) works a treat.
Everyone does it so this photo will not be that special for some readers. The stand for our Christmas hats and reindeer is a recycled battery stand.
One of our youngest team members at Forest Hill, Mel, came up with a great use for the old stand we had for numbered birthday badges. She dressed it with these Christmas badges which light up and, now, our old stand which was gathering dust is front and centre at the counter and working for us.
I go on a bit about the need for the store to up sell rather than people behind the counter. This photo shops one unit we are experimenting with. Newspaper customers are presented with two magazine offers.
We have created the first of several Christmas displays in our recently opened Christmas window – this was a boxed in Window and now we have removed the slat-wall backing it has brought the shop into the window.
Here is a photo of our Halloween display – it is right at the front of the shop.
As part of the ACP magazines Connections program we commit to weekly displays. Last week we received three display packs. Newsagents give over this display space for free – while supermarkets and others are paid for their real-estate commitment. We were able to do only one of the ACP displays since it was Grand Final week and we wanted to give the AFL Record prime position. This decision was right for our business yet it marks us down in the ACP Connections program. Anything which promotes newsagencies as the destination for magazines ought to be considered good and not just the efforts for one publisher.
It has been a challenge building a promotion around the Rugby World Cup in Melbourne. While we have embraced the promotional materials from newsXpress, we don’t have sufficient core product to make it really work for us. In an ideal world, I would have liked: a special edition of Alpha; a related scratch ticket game; some more feature magazines or one-shot publications; RWC tie-in in Zoo Weekly; and, an activity pack for kids to get behind the Wallabies. This collection of products would have helped make the promotion stronger in a state like Victoria where the connection with rugby is not as strong as elsewhere.
I like this magazine published by the people at Jamaica Blue and distributed through their outlets. It represents their brand well. Newslink have a smaller sized free magazine on the counter of their newsagencies. For several years newsagents had N-mag – a good over the counter giveaway title published by the ANF and subsidised by suppliers – this was the size of the Newslink magazine.
Today I witnessed the commercial value of being obsessive about magazines.
For around six weeks we have had partworks displayed on our dance floor in an area we use for promotional displays. Yesterday, we compacted the display and moved three titles into the location in the photo in front of one of our lottery counters. While minor in effort, it is moves like this which are important to newsagencies.