We are promoting Harpers Bazaar magazine at our counter this week thanks to the free notebook and pencil gift provided with every copy. The offer looks stunning when opened out flat – as on the display. We will leave this in place for three days and see how it performs. We also have a double facing display in the usual location for Bazaar in our fashion area.
We are promoting the launch issue of Prevention magazine next to our main newspaper stand as well as with women’s weeklies and in the loctaion where Prevention will usually be located.
We plan a bold front of store display for the weekend to attract passers-by.
The floor stand for the launch issue of Prevention sent out by Pacific Magazines is brilliant. It required no assembly. This is a huge time saver for newsagents. The same with the counter unit. It is the attention to detail on things like stands which can save newsagents valuable time and feel better about in-store promotions.
With $2 million being spent promoting the launch of Prevention, every newsagent ought to have this title in a prime location – to trade off the baack of the massive spend.
7-Eleven is promoting a Cosmopolitan and NW magazine bundle this week. What is interesting is that they are using header cards in their magazine rack to promote the bundle. Two 7-Eleven stores I have visited have the headers randomly placed in the magazine rack – covering other magazines. Their merchandising is usually much better than this. that said, I do like the idea of trying bundling without creating a new pack with the two titles bundled.
We are pitching the latest issue of That’s Life at the counter today because of the $20,000 scratchie promotion with the magazine. This display will stay up until Friday. Somone asked my why we run That’s Life so often in this prime location – it’s a top 5 magazines for us. Gaining extra sales is easy. Decisions about what to display where and for how long are about the return we can achieve.
We are promoting Burke’s Backyard to shoppers leaving our busiest maagzine aisle this week. While not the prettiest display from a visual merchandising perspective, the display will work well as it is placed next to the waterfall display of the Burke’s Backyard magazine. We will leave this display up for at least a week – longer if sales and supplies warrant.
One of our team members at newsXpress Forest Hill created this magazine display around coverage of the Twilight film and cleverly brought together several magazine titles. This is on display at the front of our shop – in addition to the display we have for Dolly at the counter. We are seeing customers interested in Twilight picking up additional titles to fuel this interest.
The current magazine coverage of the books and movie is an excellent opportunity for newsagents as other magazine retailers would not make this cross-title connection.
My only frustration is that the display combining titles from two publishers would not be publicly acknowledged and embraced by publishers as good strategy. They tend to like only their own titles in a display. This display in the photo is very healthy for the whole category as well as for newsagents as magazine specialists.
We are promoting the latest issue of Australian Women’s Weekly with Therese rein on the cover at the entrance to our women’s magazine aisle.
While AWW is not scheduled for a major in-store promotion for another week, I chose to go with a display from the on-sale day because of the news coverage for this issue. It was in yesterday’s newspapers as well as on the radio. I’d rather get the impulse sale than Coles or Woolworths.
While I will still do the scheduled in-store promotion for AWW when it falls due, I recognise that it is important to seize opportunities with magazines immediately they present – as happened yesterday with several news stories getting a run as a result of coverage in AWW.
While our display is very simple, the location and a compelling cover are what should make this a successful pitch for us.
We will leave AWW in this location for a week.
Globes are the feature of our Father’s Day window display. We bought these for an excellent price and have them on offer as our hero Father’s Day gift in all of our stores. We have globes available pre-wrapped as a bonus service to make selecting them as a gift even easier. The window display fronts our Father’s Day gift table, cards and Dad’s Bags – it faces Dick Smith.
Warrick Hosking from newsXpress Gympie sent through this photo of a very simple yet stunning display for Better Homes and Gardens. I like it because of the visual impact. It looks like a flower. It reminded be that sometimes the best, mose valuable, displays are the simplest. I’m certain this display will drive sales and that is what matters most.
Columns are a challenge in shopping centre newsagencies. For a while at our Frankston newsagency we embraced the column at the front of the shop with magazine displays. We changed this last week to the column in the middle of the store. We moved gift bags to the front column.
These moves put the magazine displays in the magazine department and bags close to the counter where people can purchase them on impulse with a card and or a gift. None of the changes are permanent.
It will be interesting to see the impact of the move on magazines. Each side of the column features a different title and include a display unit from which the magazine can be purchased. These are not billboard displays, we want an outcome.
A merchandiser handling one of my newsagencies was sent in by her boss, representing a magazine publisher, with an instruction that we need to take down one of the posters we have placed vertically when the it was designed for horizontal placement. I am told that her boss also did not like that the poster was covering stock.
Here are the facts. The display works. The last four displays done in this way have generated good sales for us. As for covering stock – yes, guilty. However, the hidden stock is extra from what is on display in the appropriate location for the titles.
Any supplier taking issue with any display I publish here should contact me. My number is 0418 321 338. My email address is mark@towersystems…. Unless I note otherwise, the displays I publish here are done by me. I am happy to be directly accountable and not have one of my staff cautioned by an intermediary.
I am a good retailer. Leave me to do my job. I want what all suppliers should want – the best sales possible.
This is a photo of the new Newslink newsagency at Cairns airport. I saw it on Tuesday. It’s a good looking shop. Overall traditional Newslink – well segmented, easy to naviagte. My understanding is that they have won an award for this particular shop.
Click on the image to see a larger version.
Shopfits are a challenge for newsagents. Too many continue to be the traditional look and feel. Of all the designers serving newsagents only two or three really get the changes we need to make and help newsagents create businesses which can cope with these changes.
I am often contacted by newsagents and would-be newsagents through this blog asking how to create the displays I write about. The most common question relates to the counter displays and that newsagencies don’t have this space.
The photo to the left shows the display currently on-show at our Frankston newsagency. This is a space we created. Previously we had a gum display here. Now we have a smaller gum display to the side – without any negative impact on sales.
The backing for the display is a small board of MDF resting in front of the register. This could easily be a small piece of slatwall. The MDF board gives us the backing necessary to create a display our customers will see when approaching the counter.
In terms of collateral for this space, we can use material supplied by publishers – posters and cover run-ons – or create our own by copying covers.
The display materials are not as important as title selection. It is crucial that the title promoted works with your customers as an impulse purchase. It took us several months of trial and error at Forest Hill to get the title selection right. We are still fining our way at Frankston.
While I like most about this premium counter space is that it is mine. No supplier paid for it. No supplier can demand access to the space. I can use this to build the performance of my business.
Any newsagent can create this space in their newsagency. This bit of MDF is more useful, with the right title, than a more professional (and expensive) piece of fixturing.
I have been asked by several newsagents to publish a photo showing the situation of displays I have talked about here recently. Click on the photo for a larger version. To the right is the back of the ACP Basket Builder stand which we now use regularly to promote feature titles. Too the left is our fixed aisle end display. Further up on the left, next to our Darrell Lea stand, is a new feature display we have put in place – we use both sides of this.
These displays all change on at least a weekly cycle.
Magazine merchandisers can be frustrating. Too often, they move titles around and take liberties with our retail space. Take the header card a merchandiser put in place to promote Popular Science in one of my newsagencies. This blocks our coproate image header card. I think, but cannot be certain, that they moved Popular Science to above the science magazines. We usually have Scientific American in the top two pockets – to beacon brand the serious science segment.
We have told merchandisers they are not to move anything, change anything or put up displays without permission. When they ignore this they disrespect our business.
Ugh!
I understand that publishers want to drive sales of their products. The best way for them to do this is to partner with newsagents in a business like way rather than by taking over part off the business. In the case of Popular Science, we have beeen told to place this title with men’s interests. This is where we have most stock. a pocket in the science section is part of our ownco-location strategy. Cursiously, the merchandiser did not violate our Men’s interests area display.
Woman’s Day gets our prime counter position this week thanks to the free pack of Allen’s lollies which comes with every issue of Woman’s Day we sell. We know we are the only retailer of Woman’s Day out of five in our shopping centre to have this offer so it makes sense to promote in a prime location. We are using a recycled acrylic unit next to Woman’s Day to show off the free lollies – this is easier than handing them out with each purchase.
Before newsagents say they did not get this promotion – is is exclusive to the top tier of Connections newsagents.
Promoting Zoo magazine is a challenge this week as it is a feature title in the ACP Connections marketing program yet sells at a low volume for us. We have higher volume titles which will deliver a better return from premium magazine display space. Our solution is to pitch Zoo next to the Herald Sun for the week. While not a pretty display it is opportunistic. We expect to sell out of all of our stock – especially given the less than half price offer. This is a good example of where I’d like newsagents to be rewarded for results more so than a pretty display.
Click on the image to see the detail of a new June Brides display created by Alexandra Carey at newsXpress Deception Bay. This beautiful display brightens the shop and enhances the experience. This is another excellent example of using the display to separate the newsagency from more traditional magazine displays.
Click on this image to see how they represent the bridal theme in the shopfront facing into the shopping mall. This is a significant departure from the traditional newsagency shopfront and seeks to make the business more appealing and reflecting a commitment to embracing gift and seasonal opportunities.
Click on this image to see the new June babies display in the same newsagency. Both displays are up at the same time. Baby gifts are the most consistent performing gift category. Creating a stunning visual display will deliver excellent sales results – as well as lift the visual appeal of the shop.
Both displays are an excellent example of making your newsagency your own.