partworks

Pacific Magazines is supporting newsagents with a putaway coupon included in That’s Life promoting the putaway sales for the Real Food Fast part series.  It is not often we see a publisher directly promoting our specialist services in this way.  We are promoting the putaway opportunity because, as I say here too often, putaway customers are more valuable than regular magazine customers – basket data indicates they are 33% more likely to purchase other items in addition to the magazine(s) they are collecting.

We are promoting the first issue of the Amazing Dinosaur Discovery partwork at the counter this week in pursuit of quick impulse purchases.

With the split delivery and unusual size of issue 1 we only have limited stock so we have not gone for our usual front of store display.

We are promoting the Ultimate Wildlife partwork on the dance floor in a high traffic location toward the front of our Forest Hill store.  We also have it in our wildlife section.  At our Frankston store, it has been located on the counter between the two busiest sales positions. This price space focus is all about driving impulse purchases.  It’s a good looking product.  I hope sales are strong.

I spoke too soon when I said yesterday that 2010 has been quiet for partworks.  The Art of Crochet will launch very soon and if The Art of Knitting is anything to go by sales will be excellent.

We are promoting the new World War II Eyewitness Experience partwork at the front of the store as well as with partworks and with our combat magazines.  I expect this title to do well given our customer mix – hence the space commitment we have given. As with most partworks, half our sales will be on impulse and the other half planned as a result of advertising.

2010 has been a lean year for partworks.

We were surprised to receive the Build Your Own Lancaster Bomber partwork series yesterday morning. All we received was stock – unannounced.  No marketing collateral, no support at all. We are used to being given an opportunity to set our own quantities for partworks. This enables us to help them achieve maximum sell-through. The lack of support for this partwork is odd. Maybe they do really only want us to sell the first couple of issues to get subscriptions rolling. I hope not.

Our sales of the new Doctor Who partwork have been considerably slower than expected. Indeed, we have sold only 20% of what we expected to have sold by this point in the on-sale.

I am not sure why this is. We have the title displayed in-store in a prime location as well as at the front of the newsagency in a good display to attract passers-by. I’d be interested to know if TV support for Doctor Who is less than we usually see for part series.

A DR WHO partwork series launched on Spetember 9. It will be distributed by Network services. Part 1 will retail at $4.99, Part 2 – $9.99 and Part 3 and beyond – $19.99.

Every issue comes with a DVD featuring two episodes of DR WHO. The pull apart and file magazine contains detailed profiles of all the favourite monsters and heroes, in-depth files on the technology and brand new artwork, a look at the Doctor’s first adventures, plus exclusive behind the scenes interviews. Part 2 comes with a free binder and divider cards come with Part 3.

I mention the new DR WHO this here because I often receive correspondence from newsagents saying they did not know a new partwork was coming.
This new partwork should be a great success.

We are excited by the launch of  the Little House on the Prairie partwork series which launched yesterday in newsagencies.  This is a perfect fit for the traditional newsagency customer.  The TV series will be remembered by many.  We will promote Little House with a strong display in a good location, to leverage the TV campaign.

The only challenge was confusion over pricing – the product was priced at $4.95 while the distributor (Gotch) website told us the price was $7.95.

With display space at a premium this week we are launching the new partwork series The Saint, the vintage TV series, alongside the Clint Eastwood movie partwork.  We have both partworks co-located at our counter and in a display near our Father’s Day gifts.

I wish there was more thought put into the partwork launch calendar.  The rush of releases over recent weeks makes it challenging for newsagents who want to embrace the opportunity.  Partwork sales would be stronger if pre release consultation was better.

Partwork sales would  also be stronger if supply was more consistent and based on presale commitments from customers.  Some things never change in this model.