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Ugh!

Westfield mistakes ruin marketing promotion and blocks foot traffic – and offers no assistance

I loved the idea of Super Saturday pitched by Westfield to tenants at Westfield Knox City. We completed the form indicating we would offer 25% off all gifts except plush and Christmas. We did this to be an active participant in a whole of centre sale that they would promote through a catalogue and other mediums.

Whereas AMP, the former landlord, would share with us the marketing material well in advance, Westfield kept it to themselves until the morning of.

westfieldfail1Saturday morning we discovered Westfield didn’t follow our request, they were promoting us offering 25% off everything in-store – not just gifts as we indicated. The poster, catalogue and other materials were all wrong. Someone from centre management visited after we contacted them but he offered no solution or compensation for the mistake by Westfield.

westfieldfail2Also on Saturday, Westfield setup a series of outposts and signs out the front of my shop in such a way that they blocked the usual and natural flow of foot traffic from the car park across to the newsagency. The photo does not show how bad the Westfield layout was. Not only did it block traffic, the door outpost was dangerous with people (myself included) tripping on the base of one of the stands. Again, the person from centre management offered no solution.

One outpost was a kids activity area. The centre management guy said it’s bringing people to centre. I doubt that. It was blocking access to my shop. I need access to make sales and pay the rent. That argument appeared to be lost on this guy.

I asked for the centre manager to contact me, they have not yet done this.

I was angry Saturday when I saw the marketing screw up and the traffic diversion because this was to be Super Saturday, the landlord had let us down and upon showing them this they offered no assistance. This same landlord takes a zero tolerance approach to stepping over the lease line and other matters yet they do not hold themselves to the same standard.

What I would have liked is a free spruiker at the shop to attract people walking past because of their barriers and someone pitching the actual offer we had and not the mistake on their posters and in their catalogue.

If they read this blog post they will most likely complain to me and step up ‘compliance’ visits to the store. It’s happened with landlords before. You screw up and they attack, you complain about their screw up and they attack. This is life in a shopping centre.

I decided to not blog about this Saturday or Sunday as I was too angry. The post I wrote in my head was full of venom. While am still angry this morning, the passing of time has dulled the anger somewhat.

Saturday was okay for us, not what we expected, but okay. It would have been much better had Westfield not screwed up.

Westfield needs to look carefully at what it does in its centres at busy times like Christmas.  While they run feel good promotions, they often don’t result in shoppers visiting shops. They fill mall areas with outposts from short term tenants often not represented in the centre and who pull focus from their long term tenants who pay the bulk of the rent. They make mistakes on promotions and don’t fix them. They rarely work with you on programs that will work for your business.

12 likes
retail leases

Bauer cookbook collateral does not work in traditional magazine fixtures

bauer-buy2The photo shows the placement of the latest small-format cookbook offer from Bauer. If newsagents do what Bauer ask they cover-up most of the titles in the waterfall display. Whoever is responsible for this promotion and the associated collateral ought to spend more time in newsagencies. Besides the product size not being magazine fixture friendly, supplying full-size backing sheets clearly does not work.

4 likes
magazines

Good Weekend missing?

optus-coverupI had a customer complain that they did not get Good Weekend magazine in The Saturday Age yesterday. I had convince them that what they thought was an Optus catalogue and threw out after leaving the shop was in fact Good Weekend magazine with the front covered by an Optus ad.

4 likes
magazines

Fat Enduro magazine!

fatendureThe latest issue of Enduro magazine is taking considerably more space than usual thanks to the free calendar packages wit it. While I like the idea of the gift, we have to increase space with either a second pocket next to the mag or by not using the pocket behind the mag. The publisher needs to realise that their decision has doubled the retail real estate investment that has to be made by newsagents to support this issue.

Okay, this is one title, let it slide is what some would say reading this.  Newsagents carry between 700 and 1,500 titles. Multiply this type of challenge out by, say, 33% of all titles. No wonder we get frustrated. We’re taken for granted too often.

7 likes
magazine distribution

Oversupplied with Puzzler crossword titles

We were grossly oversupplied with a bunch of new small-format Puzzler branded titles last week. Not only did we get a bunch of new titles we did not need to satisfy shopper interest in puzzles but we got way too many. Ten copies of a new title is too many.

Crossword and puzzle magazine publishers using Network Services should be asking why Network did this. from where I sit this action can only dilute attention for existing puzzle and crossword titles. For example, what do Lovatts think about this – a bunch of new titles competing directly with their mini books and distributed by the same company.

We’re short on room so on the weekend I decided to early return the new Puzzler titles. A better approach would have been for Network to give newsagents control over whether they took on these titles and if they did, the volume they desired.

This is a good example of the broken magazine distribution model in Australia that magazine publishers and distributors enable.

Footnote: occasionally when I write a post about the magazine distribution model I think why bother? Nothing changes right? The thing that keeps me chronicling just some of what newsagents have to put up with is that one day someone who can drive genuine change will realise the harm done by a few to what should be the most important route to market for Australian magazine publishers.

13 likes
magazine distribution

Loss of Ticketek affected our magazine sales

As I wrote here in June, we had Ticketek taken off us when Westfield took over our centre – Westfield did a deal years back to take over Ticketek in their centres. Anyway, this past week we have seen a cost of losing Ticketek. Our sales of the AFL Grand Final Record are down by 75% – sicne we’re not selling AFL tickets. The GP loss is in excess of $300.

I’m sure there are other losses from add-on sales, not just the AFL Grand Final Record.

0 likes
magazines

Speedimpex devalues magazine covers with its stickers

International magazine publishers using airfreight magazine distributor Speedimpex ought to check where they are placing their promotional stickler on magazine covers.  Six different magazines I checked in a newsagency yesterday each had the stickers placed such that it was hard to tell the cover subject – devaluating the cover as a sales tool.  Nuts!

10 likes
magazines

Fairfax misses an opportunity

The Saturday Age today is promoting a deal offering the 2014 Good Food Guide for a discount with the newspaper. Because of a disconnect between Fairfax and retail newsagents we did not have the Good Food Guide. We lost sales. News Corp. in Victoria is building its connection with retail newsagents. fairfax should do the sale.

3 likes
Newspapers

Another bagged magazine bundle from Bauer

The bagged bundle of Cosmopolitan and OK! is frustrating. With OK! at the front the expectation is that we have it with weeklies. There’s no spare room there though. There is no point putting this with Cosmopolitan as it would look out of place. My understanding is supermarkets are paid for extra pockets. That we’re sent this additional ‘title’ imposes a cost burden on us that makes us less competitive.  As a recent comment here showed, these bundles also impose frustrating management challenges.

For a recent thread of comments on bagged magazines click here. Also, to help keep track of this issue I have created a new category: Bagged magazines. I’ve retagged some past posts to build the history.

 

0 likes
Bagged magazines

Bauer Divorce magazine has newsagents laughing this morning

The Ultimate Guide to Divorce is a new magazine title from Bauer out today. Beyond the surprise that it would be published, newsagents are laughing that the barcode used is the barcode for the 2011 royal wedding magazine. While this is probably not intended commentary by Bauer about the wedding of William and Kate it’s giving newsagents a good laugh if the calls and emails I have received already are anything to go by.

Another laugh newsagents are having relates to the feature promoted on the cover of the magazine: Family getaways you can afford. Of course it depends on how the divorce goes as to whether you can afford a holiday.

As for the title itself. the scale our is another example of oversupply from Bauer. When will they start using their much vaunted sales based replenishment?!

17 likes
magazine distribution

Bad news for James Bond DB5 partwork customers as publisher runs out of magazine

Check out the letter provided by the publisher for part 65 of the loved James Bond DB5 partwork collection. The publisher says they have run out of magazines! Seriously! The publisher has run out of magazines.

When I heard this I thought it was a joke, a good joke to play on a dedicated partwork collector. What a hilarious joke on the fans obsessed with this car!

But then I realised it wasn’t a joke. The publisher really has run out of magazines. Instead of the magazine they provide a letter pointing customers to a page on their website. Does Australia not have printers? Does this buisness not engage in planning? Surely they would have known some weeks in advance in which time they could have printed something? They had enough time to print a letter, in colour.

Some avid collectors will not want to continue with the series. I expect some will ask for their money back – and there is a precedent for this. I understand that the distributor has already been asked the question abut this.

There will be newsagents who will say this is another reason to NOT offer partworks. It will be hard to disagree with them. This mess over issue 65 of the James Bond DB5 will generate considerable challenges for newsagents.  Someone somewhere is responsible. It’s disappointing that the Australian importer did not have the courage to print a name and phone number on their letter. This shows they do not accept responsibility.

13 likes
magazine distribution

21st Century Australia party uses newsagents to distribute election propaganda in the form of a ‘magazine’

Yesterday some newsagents received 21st Century Australia from magazine distributor Gordon & Gotch. Retail price is $9.95 and the on sale period is around three months.

21st Century Australia is not a magazine. It’s election propaganda from a political party: 21st Century Australia. Go to their website and see for yourself.

Indeed, go to their website and download the whole magazine for free. Seriously.

The leader of the 21st Century Australia Party is Jamie McIntyre. He calls himself an educator, author and mentor.  Reading through the website he comes across to me as someone peddling a familiar rags to riches story. There is little in the way of substance. From what I can see, his businesses don’t appear to create real value or engagement for those connected with them.  Maybe my suspicions are on alert because he has Max Markson as his publicist.

If he uses people the way newsagents are being used for this ‘magazine’ no wonder he’s done okay for himself.

Check out the report by Mark Hawthorne in The Age about an allegation that Jamie McIntyre is faking Twitter follower numbers. Also check out The Sydney Morning Herald report from 2011 and issues with ASIC. While you’re researching him you might want to check out this.

This ‘magazine’, 21st Century Australia, should never have been sent to newsagents. It’s not a magazine. Someone in Gotch should have stopped it getting on the trucks. If not for the election propaganda nature of the content then for the design. It’s dreadful.

Our glorious magazine distribution model is such that we have to pay to send this junk back. Gotch has declared it a full copy return. So even if newsagents early return this title they have to pay freight as well as the labour handling costs.

This is another example of what’s wrong with the newsagent magazine distribution model. We get sent this junk and have to pay ourselves to handle it. None of our magazine competitors get this junk. It makes us less competitive. It’s this stuff that is driving more newsagents to shrink engagement with magazines and some to exit the category altogether.

The magazine distributors say the sale or return model protects newsagents. This is nonsense. Labour, freight and storage costs for junk like this ‘magazine’ are a cost of business newsagents face that our major competitor magazine retailers do not face.

Gordon & Gotch has ethical social responsibilities to newsagents, responsibilities they have failed to fulfil with the distribution of 21st Century Australia.

15 likes
Ethics

Tax pack questions already!

Like other newsagents I am sure questions are coming thick and fast about tax pack availability. The decision by the ATO to not use newsagents as pick up points will frustrate many taxpayers and newsagents. Some customers won;t wait for answers – they jump the queue and ask while you’re serving a real customer.

13 likes
Ugh!

Magazine distributor hinders sales of World of Knowledge magazine

The science of magazine allocations continues to amaze me. We did not sell any copies of the launch issue of World of Knowledge. Believing in the title, we promoted issue 2 as I documented here. We sold out our allocation, ordered more and sold some of the extra copies – ten copies of issue 2 all up. Network Services, demonstrating its allocation prowess, sent us 3 copies of issue three. This is despite them knowing that sales of issue 2 were strong for us by the time they did (or should have done) their allocation. Three was never going to be enough. We’ve ordered more and are awaiting approval for that. We’ve sold one copy and should sell the other two in the next day or two.

This is a story for magazine publishers. Take control of your allocations and use current sales data from newsagents when setting the allocation. Better still, give newsagents control – we want what you want … more sales of magazines. I am sure if I had control for my newsagencies magazine sales would increase.

5 likes
magazine distribution

Optus PPS continues to fail to connect with newsagents

Following my post last week, other newsagents have let me know that they, too, have been contacted by Optus.  Here’s the text of the email received by me and plenty of newsagents last week – newsagents who had not signed up with Optus despite what the email says.

Welcome to Prepaid Services (PPS), we are delighted to announce that you can now order stock directly from us.

Thank you for your decision to continue as an Optus Prepaid Mobile retailer, we are committed to working with you and our team is looking forward to bringing you a high standard of service, along with great value Optus Prepaid offers. At PPS we believe that customer experience is paramount and we are looking forward to working with you closely.

As a thank you for signing up you will receive 2 x$29.95 SIMs and 5 x $2 SIMs from us in the next 30 days.

We would also like to confirm some great changes to our stock policy and payment options including:

  • Removal of the restocking fee when returning any Optus Prepaid products
  • Free shipping on any orders until 30th September 2013
  • Additional payment options including credit card online or over the phone Bpay® coming soon

Getting Started
You can order stock from us over the phone on 1300 307 979 or via the website:www.prepaidservices.com.au

To order online please login using:
Email address:  XXX@XXX.COM
Password: &^%$#&^

To order over the phone please quote your PPS Account Number:

Place a web order before 30 September and receive a $30 credit on your account

  • No minimum order value
  • New customers only
  • Limit 1 credit per customer
  • Credit is non-refundable
  • Credit will be applied to your account within 30 days of your first web order

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact a friendly member of our team.

Click here to download the PPS How to booklet.

Kind Regards

The Team at PPS

This failed communication is another misstep by the company since terminating the relationship with Jenlist. These missteps challenge our confidence.

7 likes
phone recharge

Check your direct debits

We recently stopped doing business with a supplier who regularly swept our bank account based on sales using a direct debit facility. Several weeks after closing the account they swept our account twice for money owed by another business in our centre.

This is a cautionary reminder to newsagents to shut down direct debits if you cease doing business with a supplier.

4 likes
Ugh!

Disappointed Collective magazine advertises subscriptions in our shopping centre

I’ve supported the launch of Australian mag renegade Collective in my newsagency as shown here, here and most recently here and so I was disappointed to see subscriptions being promoted at 45% off on the ad screens in the public areas in my shopping mall.

There was no call to action to get the title at retail,  no mention of my newsagency in this centre where the advertising was running.

I get that the ads are part of a national campaign to run, probably, in multiple locations on the digital ad network. I also get that subscriptions are part of any magazine supply mix. But don’t use traffic generated in part by the many thousands of dollars I pay centre management to bring traffic to my centre to sell products I sell direct to my customers.

I and many newsagents are helping launch this title with display space without cost. Some shoppers could recognise the title in these digital ads because of the free help we have provided.

Yeah, I’m not happy about this campaign.

13 likes
magazine distribution

Newsagents, where are you?

I have taken to searching for stationery, magazines, ink and cards using Google on my iPhone when I am away from home. It’s disappointing that local newsagency businesses are not coming up in Google searches.

To be listed is free yet newsagents seem to ignore this vital marketing opportunity. There are no excuses for missing this opportunity.

2 likes
marketing

Rocks Gems & Minerals partworks reissue?

Like many newsagents I suspect I was surprised to see the Rocks, Gems & Minerals partwork reissued yesterday – even though it did not look like a reissue thanks to new packaging and National Geographic branding. I don’t remember it looking like this last time around.  The stock code in the EDI file points to the previous issue so this is connected to the previous rocks title we received.

72 copies, that’s what we received in one of our stores.

What do other newsagents think?

If we had control of our ordering, we’d have asked for 30.  here’s what galls me and, I am sure, most newsagents. We have to pay to return the unsold stock. We are penalised for a poor scale out decision, we have to pay for someone else’s mistake. It’s a disgusting impost on any business let alone small business newsagents at the end of the magazine food chain.

And magazine publishers wonder why some newsagents are actively and openly discussing exiting the category altogether.

Supply is the problem. It is drowning the newsagency channel and no one in authority appears prepared to do anything about it.  The result will be even more magazine sales lost from the newsagency channel to supermarkets.

17 likes
magazine distribution

Network Services lets newsagents down on James Bond DB5 partwork series

Changes by Network Services around the handling of supply of and backorders for the James Bond DB5 partwork are causing newsagents and their customers considerable frustration, lost time and, in some cases lost money. And the company appears to care less about it.

For some time now we have had issues on backorder to address undersupply issues.  Around two weeks ago, network advised that they had cancelled all backorders. We called customer service and they advised that we would have to reorder issues and that they would be firm sale. We were also told that as our orders had been cancelled by Network and reorder would place us at the bottom of the queue.

Regulars here would know that I am a big fan of partworks. These flip flops and poor customer service from Network challenge that commitment. Their ineptitude in relation to the James Bond DB5 make us look bad. For a meagre margin it’s not worth it with this title.

 

10 likes
magazine distribution

Fat magazines are expensive for newsagents

The latest issue of Modern Wedding has three extra titles bagged with it. In fact, the package is so fat that we can only fit one copy in a pocket in one of my newsagencies.

It sucks that our space is used like this.  In supermarkets, a publisher wanting extra space has to pay for it. In our stores, we are expected to accommodate a fat issue ourselves.

The space an issue occupies is another consideration for newsagents when assessing whether to early return a title.

13 likes
magazines

Selling magazines that should have been returned or trashed

Here is photo showing how another newsagent is trying to make money from magazines bagged with titles that have been returned.

This ‘display’ looks dreadful and does the newsagency no favours. The sign does nothing to promote the offer. Product is jammed in.  A couple of minutes effort could make the display more appealing and shopper friendly if you really wanted to sell this type of trash.

While bundled magazines frustrate me because of the expensive cost to newsagents of freighting returns, it is unethical to remove old issues and put those on the shop floor for $2 as is being done here. We should behave better than this.

3 likes
magazines

DeAgostini need to stop using the N logo

I caught the TV ad for the My Animal Farm partwork last night and next to the text saying it’s available at newsagents is the latest version of the N logo.

Someone should tell DeAgostini that the N logo is being used by 10% or less of Australia’s newsagency businesses. It’s not a relevant marketing banner. It is also not used consistently with three (or more?) different versions in the marketplace.

So, DeAgostini – please stop using the N logo to promote partwork titles. Either list all the newsagency groups or just promote newsagents. What’s you;re doing now is a missed opportunity.

3 likes
newsagency marketing
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