partworks

The Classic John Wayne Collection is the newest partworks and smart newsagents are promoting this as a Father’s Day offer. It is the perfect gift for the man of the house. The John Wayne series brings all the drama and action that only John Wayne can portray. There are not many partworks for men so having this one at this time of the year is ideal. The series follows John Wayne’s career, from silent roles to his most famous Westerns.

This week we have John Wayne placed next to Father’s day product. Sales are good. Next week it will be pitched with other new partworks at the front of the store.

The bar-code label (circled in yellow) on the cover of this issue of Inspector Morse partwork is central to our management of putaways. When the customer collects the title we scan the barcode and record that this specific copy has been collected by the customer. If it’s billed to their account we track that. If they are to pay we track that.

What is important is that at any point in time we know exactly what titles are in stock and waiting to be collected – without having to go through our putaway drawers.

This customer level control by title helps us improve customer service – more certain putaways when titles arrive, better allocation in the event we are short supplied and less chance of being left with uncollected stock.

Customers like the fact that their putaways are professionally labeled and barcoded in this way. Given that putaway customers spend more than almost any other category, the extra effort is well worth it.

The impact of TV advertising is amazing and immediate. We have had The Secrets of the Stones partwork on display for three days and already customers are buying the title.

While not as popular as other partworks, that people visit our newsagency specifically looking for the title demonstrates the power of TV and the benefits of exclusivity for partworks.

For me, it is a reason to overlook the promotion of subscriptions in the partworks – my goal is to make the most out of this extra traffic generated by TV commercials for partworks such as The Secrets of the Stones. This is why we go hard at the front of the shop – to connect with the TVC and draw people in. It also provides an opportunity to show we are not a set and forget business.

My posts here about The Art of Knitting partwork have generated plenty of queries – all from people wanting to purchase the publication and saying that their local newsagent cannot get stock. The queries demonstrate the challenges of partwork distribution. Gordon and Gotch, the distributor, has confirmed today that additional stock is available for newsagents. If the call centre says no, ask for a supervisor – remember, the noisy wheel…

I spoke today at the QNF newsagent’s conference in Townsville. While far removed from some of the challenges of their capital city colleagues, newsagents in Townsville face other challenges. One is coping with an inflexible magazine distribution system when it comes to seasonal peaks and troughs. I heard stories of insufficient magazines in summer and too many in winter. It was the same in Cairns two days ago. It is a frustrating situation which is denying newsagents and publishers vital sales of magazines.

The other issue in focus today was partworks subscriptions and newsagent frustration at how we are used to drive subscriptions by promoting gifts not available in our shops. It’s a perennial issue but one which could be resolved with some will.

FOOTNOTE: I took the photo outside the conference venue this afternoon. It has been a while since we had a blue sky like this in Melbourne.

This is the pitch on the back of The Art of Knitting. While there is also a pitch with the partwork for direct subscription, it is good to see the promotion of newsagents bold on the backing card for the partwork.

A customer was down deep in our shop yesterday and grabbed me as I walked out from the back room – don’t you have the new knitting magazine they have on TV? I was shocked because we have an amazing display at the front of the shop. What we had missed was the most logical place to display the title – in with the knitting magazines. I felt like a dill! We corrected this and between yesterday and this morning have sold eight copies from this location as well as plenty from the front of the shop.

Customers can teach us plenty.

We are using the launch of the Knitting Made Easy partwork to promote our other knitting, quilting and craft magazines. Around this display we are promoting many other titles and hopefully building add-on sales and some good return business.

While there continue to be supply problems with partworks, I see the TV promotion of special interest titles as an opportunity to introduce the new traffic to other parts of the newsagency where we satisfy that special interest.

Many newsagents across Australia are angry this week on discovering that supplies of the Harry Potter chess set partworks have been cut and they cannot get enough stock to satisfy customer demand.

Customers are angry when their firm order is not available – what is the point of such a firm order some ask. Kids are upset.

That the Harry Potter Chess Set has been a runaway success should not surprise anyone – yet it apparently has.

I love partworks like this Harry Potter series yet constant supply problems and an inability by the importer, distributor and UK publisher to solve the problem suggest it might be time to give up on them.

Newsagents are justified in their anger on what appears to be another partworks supply botch up and the damage it will cause in customer relationships. Newsagents deserve better.

Pacific magazines has a good promotion running this week supporting Famous and New Idea with the free Bueno chocolate. The chocolate promotion provides an opportunity to push New Idea sales and pull Famous along too.

We’re promoting the titles at the front of the newsagency (see photo) as well as in the body of the shop.

What really excites me about New Idea this week is the start of a six part series on Diana. We are taking to opportunity to promote putaways – so our customers are not disappointed.

The weekly magazine space is noisy and anything to lock customers in for more than a weekly fix has to be good.

A NSW newsagent was recently ordered by the NSW Department of Fair Trading to refund a customer $1,000 for partworks purchased where the customer was not able to complete the series because of failings in the supply model through to newsagents. While the distributor involved, Gordon and Gotch, have agreed, after much pressure from the newsagent, to compensate the newsagent, the problem of partworks supply remains serious.

On the one hand newsagents are thrilled that they are the only retail channel in Australia offering partworks. That magazine distributors ignore data (see earlier post today) and deliberately short supply harms newsagents and gets their customers off side.

The partworks model can work if the importer, distributors and newsagents actively work together. Sadly, for many years now the words have been the same and follow-up action not forthcoming.

Maybe more customers need to pursue Consumer Affairs or Fair Trading. Alternatively the suppliers could work with newsagents on a fair and commercial basis – that way everyone wins.

Magazine distributors have criticised newsagents for years about lack of compliance. Now, the ball is on the other foot. Part of the compliance regime is that newsagents supply distributors with pre-sold data – listing the number of each title for which the newsagent has a firm order. The idea was that the distributors would use this to ensure that at least minimum orders are fulfilled – essential for partworks.

The distributors are letting newsagents down. They are not using the data and newsagents are often, with partworks, supplied fewer copies than firm orders from customers of long standing.

Newsagents are rightly questioning the value of the much vaunted IT standards.

Newsagents using software from my company account for at least 75% of the compliant newsagents providing data – one distributor says we have an 85% share of compliant newsagents. I know from talks with some of these compliant newsagents that their clear and trusted data is being ignored by distributors. They are being supplied fewer copies of some titles than their firm orders. The magazine distributor involved knows that they are failing the system they helped create – they are making the newsagent look stupid.

Newsagents who were bereted into complying and promised better business outcomes are rightly asking whether the investment was worth it.

To the magazine distributor executives reading this – fix the problem, act commercially with newsagents, work with us and help us sell more magazines. You have the data.

We are using the FiFi and Dora partworks released this week to headline a pitch for school holiday attention – this is the first wee of a two week break for schools around us. We have the stock front of the shop in a high traffic area – near our other partworks which continue to sell well.

I am not sure if the TV spend has increased or I am watching more TV but I am seeing more partworks ads on TV than I can recall in years. That these are tagged exclusively to newsagents is fantastic – I smile every time when I see an ad.

The efforts of Gotch and Bissett Magazines to ensure we have enough stock to promote these well is appreciated.

Here’s the launch schedule to which I alluded earlier this week for new partworks in coming weeks;

May 23: FELICITY WISHES – girls 2 to 6.
May 23: YU GI OH GX – boys 8 to 11.
June 6: CHARMED DVD – females 18 to 45.
June 6: HARRY POTTER CHESS – children 7 to 11.
June 20: FIFI AND THE FLOWER TOTS – girls 3 to 6.

It’s a solid roster of new titles. Knowing the release schedule helps us allocate high proivide space through the launch season and have our putaway paperwork ready.