visual merchandising

We are promoting the latest issue of Good Food magazine on the back of an ACP magazines basket builder stand.  This display faces customers as they leave our stationery aisles.  We also have the magazine in a pocket in the food coulmn with our women’s magazines and in our regular food title area.  Good Food has done well for us – hence the co-location approach.  We want to get our sales early in the on-sale period.

Buoyed by the success we have had with Men’s Health and Women’s Health in this small ‘created’ display space next to our main newspaper stand, we decided to try the latest issue of Top Gear Australia there.  We will track sales from this locations compared to sales from the main location for the title.

My sense is that Top Gear Australia will work in this location because it is not a planned purchase for many customers. While I have no evidence with which to back this claim, it is an opinion developed watching how shoppers interact with the title.  They don’t seek out the title but happily pick it up if it interrupts their destination purchase.

I know the display is not overly attractive.  It has certainly worked for other titles recently.  The posters while not completely readable, do promote the brand.

We will leave Top Gear here for a week before deciding our next move.

We are promoting New Idea at our counter – between our two busiest sales points – this week.  We felt the Schapelle Corby cover story would resonate and rive sales.  It’s working well – sales are strong.  New Idea has had an excellent few months in our newsagencies – this display leverages off that growth. Our plan is to take the display down on Wednesday.

We are promoting Diabetic Living from Pacific Magazines between our two busiest register points at the counter this week.  We like to promote titles with freebies at this location – the free booklet with Diabetic Living makes it a compelling offer for this space.  That and the fact that this title responds very well to in store promotion.  Every time we bring it out from its usual location we see incremental business.  It’s as if the title is not as much a destination purchase as other titles.  We know promoting works for us, hence the prime space commitment.  `We hope to leave this display up for a week – space is a challenge this time of year.

With Men’s Health selling well when displayed with newspapers, we are trying Women’s Health in this location.  Click on the image to see a larger version of the photo.  We also have Women’s Health located in its usual position as well as with women’s fashion magazines.  We plan to leave the display next to the newspaper stand in place for at least a week.  We count stock in the pocket so we know what sells from this location compared to the usual home for the title.  This is crucial in guiding whether we repeat the promotion here.

Dolly did not perform as well for us last week as expected so we turned the display around 180 degrees and now have the back of the ACP basket builder stand, with the Dolly display, facing into the dance floor area of the shop (in front of the countre) and the other titles on the stand facing customers leaving our two busiest magazine aisles.  The change took a us few seconds to make – hence the lazy title – yet made a good visual change at the counter.

While it would have been easy to take the display down – we could certainly use the space – we felt there was an opportunity to sell more Dolly on impulse by making this change.

We are promoting New Idea at our price front counter position this week.  While the free Christmas Made Easy lift out wins access to this position, it is the Tiger Woods cover story which will drive sales.

The Tiger story has not reached saturation yet from what I can tell.  The New Idea cover taps into that interest.  We will leave New Idea in this prime location until Wednesday.

We are giving Madison double the usual space to better display the free summer beach hat which comes with the current issue.  we will hold this space for the first week.  Hopefully the double exposure works as well for Madison as it has for Australian Women’s Weekly, Dolly and other titles we have take the same approach with recently.

With so many magazines with free gifts on the shelves at the moment, it is important to show off those with premium gifts – they are included to drive sales after all.  This is why it is important for us to go the extra mile and find the space as shown in the photo.

We are promoting the latest issue of Prevention magazine next to our newspaper stand.  This location has worked well for the for the new title so far and I don’t see a reason to change approach just year.

We also have Prevention in the women’s health area.  We plan to move this feature display a couple of times during the on-sale period.  It will remain here with newspapers for the first week.

Who looks stunning this week.  The yellow marketing collateral looks fantastic.  Our team at Forest Hill liked the look so much that they gave the magazine prime position at the counter yesterday. That and that they are up to date with Tiger Woods on the cover.  Sales kicked as a result.  Yesterday afternoon I saw first-hand this display work.  A customer with a newspaper and a greeting card added a copy of Who to the sale.  The yellow at the counter has excellent visual cut-through.

This display will most likely come down on Monday.

The photo shows our use of the back of the ACP Magazines basket builder stand to promote Australian Women’s Weekly to shoppers as they leave the women’s magazine aisle.  This is the third location promoting AWW – the others are at the front of the shop and the with our weekly magazines. In many newsagencies, the back of the basket builder stand is dead space.  We have found it to be a most useful merchandising position even when we move the stand around.

All of this effort around AWW is paying off with good sales which, of course, is why we put in the effort and give up prime space.  The first week is when most sales are made.  Next week, we will pull back but still keep the title in the spotlight.

The Christmas issue of the Australian Women’s Weekly went on sale this morning.  We are promoting the title in three locations including the front of store display shown in the photo.  The tote bag, while a gift done to death this year on other titles, has been well packaged with the title to make it look special.

Kudos to ACP for sending spare bags for use in displays.  This kind of detail in the VM pack is helpful.

I expect this issue of AWW to sell well.  The cover looks stunning.  By promoting in three locations we are chasing sales from passers-by, regulars and shoppers of other titles.

We refreshed our Twilight new moon themed display yesterday by adding TV Week into the mix this week.  The free unauthorised calendar free with the latest issue makes it eligible.  We should sell out of Dolly, also in the display, by the end this week (we will have achieved excellent growth on our usual sales) meaning it will be time to move on from new moon for the moment.  Twilight is proving to be an amazing franchise for retailers – I am glad we have had an opportunity to participate not only through magazines but also with calendars, the board game and other merchandise.

We are proud of the deatil in our Better Homes and Gardens main counter display at newsXpress Forest Hill.  We are featuring the free wrapping paper which comes with this issue.  The display was helped by using some of the spare wrapping paper to show it in use.  Click on the photo to see a larger version.  We plan at this stage to leave this display up until Wednesday of next week.

To make way for Family Circle at the counter, we moved our Dolly display to the entrance to our main women’s magazine aisle.  This stand from ACP makes it easy for displaying titles with free gifts – especially titles which appeal to women given the location.

It also puts the Twilight themed Dolly in front of shoppers who may not have vivited for a magazine purchase.

This second photo shows the back of the stand.  You can see that we are also pitching Dolly to shoppers as they leave the magazine aisle.  Too often these merchandise display stands from ACP are only used on one side.  Use of both sides drives better sales.

While there is a bit of work involved in moving a display from one location to another, we find it worthwhile.  It freshens the offer and helps us balance titles we are promoting.  We make these decisions based on what we know about our customers and not because of demands from publishers.

We are promoting the Christmas special edition of Family Circle magazine at the busiest point on our counter this weekend.  I expect this to work well for us as an impulse purchase – it did last year from this same location.  We will leave Family Circle in this location until at least Monday with a view to bringing it back later in the on sale.

We are promoting the Family Circle Christmas issue (out today) next to our main newspaper stand as well as in a full waterfall display in our women’s weeklies magazine section.  We will move this title two or three times over the next few weeks.  We took the same approach last year and sold out.

With Family Circle only publishing for special seasons it is important to get it in front of customers elsewhere as they are less likely to  look for it.  Our goal is to sell out before the end of the month.  We have ordered extra stock.

We have relocated our ACP Magazines basket builder unit to next to our newspaper stand.  As the photo shows we are using this location to try and drive sales for the Australian Women’s Weekly.  We are now into the second week of the on-sale for this issue and have not been provided any significant collateral with which to promote the issue – hence our local initiatives.  We still have AWW featured at the entrance to the women’s magazines aisle – the newspaper stand appeals to a different mix of customers.

We are promoting the latest issue of Dolly magazine (out today) at the counter because of the premium gifts accompanying the title. Historically, Dolly has not been an impulse purchase for us.  Their recent gift strategy has seen this change.  The gifts set a benchmark and an expectation which will be a challenge to maintain.  I expect this latest issue of Dolly to move quickly because of the relevance of the gifts to the target reader.

We are promoting the latest issue of Australian Women’s Weekly with Sarah Murdoch on the cover sans make-up.  The display is at the entrance to our busiest magazine aisle.

The cover looks is brilliant – the best for Australian Women’s Weekly this year in my view.  The visual impact on the shelf is stunning and the reader connection very strong thanks to the natural look.

I am surprised that AWW a feature magazine for the ACP Connections marketing program this week – meaning we did not receive any additional collateral with which to promote the title.

The first on-sale week is vitally important to the sales of AWW.  Good collateral is essential to successful in-store promotion in enwsagencies.  lack of collateral means no special attention in most newsagencies.

It makes no sense to me that AWW is not the feature title in every newsagency in Australia this week.

Lack of collateral notwithstanding, we are promoting the Sarah Murdoch issue of AWW  as shown in the photo and at two other locations in-store.  I want us to get early sales as opposed to the supermarkets and other major retailers in my centre with this title.