A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Great to meet with proactive engaged newsagents

IMG_1029 (1)Close to 150 newsagents packed the Rydges Surry Hills hotel in Sydney from Sunday until this afternoon for the second newsXpress national conference of 2015. Yesterday was business sessions including insights from leading suppliers while today was a four hour open round-table discussion on business growth strategies. The rooms were packed and newsagents fully engaged talking about the future in traditional and non traditional product areas.

All through the two days I found myself thinking about the bad press driven by campaigns that say newsagencies will close if this or that happens. The negativity at the heart of those campaigns is unfortunate.

The business owners I’ve been with for the last two days are focused on businesses that embrace change, businesses that can deal with challenges of change beyond their control. They are each pursuing a future tailored to their specific circumstances and communities. This is especially good to see as it is locally run businesses evolving to serve local community and economic needs – in a way that serves the personal goals of the locally based business owners.

Sitting here at the airport heading home, my biggest takeaway from the two days is refreshed optimism that we have proactive newsagents building stronger and even more healthy and more valuable businesses.

For those interested, here’s a brief video about part of what newsXpress does:

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Newsagency management

Specials drive sales in retail

Going through photos from my trip to the US I am reminded of terrific retail gems I saw along the way, photographed and then forgot about. here’s one – how to be consistent with offers targeted at your retail niche:

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retail

Advice for small business newsagents if you are unable to pay your creditors on time

The most common complaint among suppliers to small businesses including small business newsagents is late payment of accounts and poor communication relating to late payment.

Trading terms are set by suppliers and agreed by their customers as the basis of a commercial relationship. The anticipated time to pay is factored into the price. Every day an account is late is an additional cost to the supplier. Every additional step a supplier has to take is at an additional cost to the supplier. 

I am talking here about suppliers of products where newsagents have full control over what they purchase and when. I am hearing too many stories of suppliers suffering because they are being paid late and attempts to contact their customers to discuss payment are ignored.

There are some suppliers who factor the cost of collecting payment from some recalcitrant newsagents into their pricing for all. Yes, some among us are causing all of us to pay more. This is appalling.

I know of a situation where a supplier agreed to give a business owner additional time, an extra 60 days, to pay for an opening order. When the payment was due, the supplier called, emailed and wrote and never received a response. The account was eventually settled a further sixty days late when the business owner wanted to order more stock. The supplier stood their ground and declined to accept the new order saying the cost of doing business with the retailer was too great. The retailer kicked up a fuss making all sorts of claims they would denigrate the supplier.

I support the supplier’s move. They negotiated better than usual trading terms for the retailer. The retailer disrespected those and then  expected it to be business as usual. Had the retailer, prior to the end of the additional time they were given, said to the supplier they could not pay on time and asked for a further extension, the situation would have been different.

If you are not able to pay a supplier on time, talk to them before the account is due to be settled. Have a conversation with them. Most suppliers I know will welcome your proactive approach. They will appreciate it and show their appreciation by agreeing to additional time.

It is when you do not respond or leave your communication too late that things get off track and you find that the relationship is damaged.

Refusing to talk to a supplier you owe money to is not a plan. It does not alter your level of indebtedness. Indeed, silence can increase the cost to you.

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Ethics

Sunday newsagency challenge: the one page business plan

Imagine you need to borrow $10,000 to help you develop your business and to apply you need to include business plan including a page executive summary making the case for the loan, explaining what you would use it for and what it would achieve for your business.

Write that one page. Write it as if the application is real.

Then, switch hats and be the banker. Would you loan the funds?

This exercise seeks to get us looking at our businesses differently. The more we do this the more we will change and change is goal #1 right now.

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Newsagency challenges

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: use your floor

IMG_1004Promoting on the floor of the shop can work a treat in the newsagency as you connect with those who walk along looking at the ground and not up. The photo shows the floor striker supplied by the herald & Weekly Times for the new DVD promotion with the Herald Sun. We have two of these on the floor on the way to papers and then more collateral with papers. The floor sticker placements help drive awareness by the time people are at the paper stand.  The shop floor is ‘free’ space and ideal for marketing certain types of lines.

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marketing

Sunday newsagency management tip: eliminate paper

Wherever possible in the business eliminate paper – forms, notes and other written information. Keep it digital, clean and simple.

For example, if you offer Lay-By, use your computer system rather than a manual process. This will save time, bring structure it your records and facilitate consistency.

The more manual record keeping you eliminate the better for your business and the better for your customers.

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Management tip

AFR Weekend a must read for newsagents

IMG_1013Newsagents ought to read the page one new story in AFR Weekend this weekend as it is about stationery, Smiggle actually. Smiggle has an excellent track record of success from its first store opening in 2003. It showed how to make stationery cool and grow sales beyond what was traditional for the category at the time – leaving newsagents in its wake.

Any newsagent who thinks they can make money from the Smiggle shopper ought to read the article.

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Stationery

Unrest among WH Smith franchisees?

There are reports of Supanews and Wild franchisees being upset with the management of their respective groups by WH Smith. The UK public company purchased the Wild and Supanews businesses.

I’ve heard the reports from suppliers to the businesses and, indirectly, from several franchisees.

I am told that WH Smith is currently undertaking planning for the future of each group, reportedly leaving franchisees in a holding pattern as to key business strategy decisions.

Franchisees unhappy with their situation could explore their options with the ACCC or their legal people as the change of ownership and any resulting change of direction could provide an opening for exploring other options.

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Newsagency management

The Joker is good for the newsagency business

IMG_0928This Joker figurine, in the front window of the newsagency, attracted a shopper who said they had not been in a newsagency for years.

The shopper noticed The Joker in the window when walking past. They asked to see it up close. In the ensuring conversation discovered they were in a newsagency.

What we place in our newsagency windows can be far more powerful than the shingle under which we trade.

I don’t mind that the shopper did not know the type of business they were in. What mattered is that they were shopping with us because of a deliberate decision we made as to what we pitched in the window.

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newsagency marketing

News Corp. late advising newsagents on DVD promotion

News Corp has been late in providing newsagents information about a DVD promotion to kick off a week from now.

In an ideal world, News Corp. would advise software companies two or three weeks out so they could write advice for proper implementation of the offer using gar various software packages.

What happened this week is that News Corp. in Queensland advised newsagents and newsagents advised the software companies. Then, other News Corp. offices sent out their advice.

Newspaper publishers need to pay more attention to helping newsagents run their businesses more efficiently. Late notice about promotions and not engaging with all stakeholders, such as newsagency software companies, costs newsagents time they don’t have.

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Newspapers

Special orders for customers drive ROI for newsagents

IMG_0934 (1)Magazine putaways are a point of difference for newsagents. While some have stopped the service, I still do as the value is clear. Likewise with customer special orders – where customers order from a catalogue and we keep these aside for them to collect.

The management process of customer special orders is almost the same as putaways.

The service can help you drive greater value from a supplier relationship and achieve a better return on inventory investment in that for most special orders you are paid in full or at least part in advance of the order being shipped to your business.

In any given week we have anything from 20 to 50 special orders coming in. Digging into the data for these we see that special order customers are loyalty to the business beyond what they have ordered. Indeed, like putaways customers, they more valuable than the average customer in the category.

I encourage newsagents to pitch the special order service, to use it as something through which you can grow sales without increasing floor space allocation or taking on further risk.

Special orders are another way newsagents can grow their businesses.

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Newsagency management

Crosswords above women’s fashion titles

IMG_0982This photo shows how they are pitching pocket crossword titles above women’s fashion titles at the Newslink store of Gold Coast Airport. This is a smart move designed to attract impulse purchases. I suspect it is working well for them. It’s certainly something newsagents could try to depend magazine margin dollars from a purchase.

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crosswords

Terrific Cosmos cover an opportunity for newsagents

IMG_0976I love the cover of the latest issue of Cosmos magazine. It cuts through the colour in the magazine department and it appeals beyond those who might usually pick up the title for a browse.

I urge newsagents to call this issue of Cosmos out with thoughtful placement: with newspapers, at the counter or even with high-traffic women’s weekly titles.

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magazines

An amazing retail customer service story from Fossil

IMG_0803I made a purchase at the Fossil watch store on 5th Avenue in New York last Friday. As it was raining heavily outside they offered a plastic bag cover. TI had never heard of such a thing. hey had a box of these covers behind the counter, for weather like that day.

The cover easily slipped over the Fossil shopping bag, protecting it as if it itself was valuable.

I have never been offered a shopping bag protector before. I was amazed.

The experience was a lesson in excellent customer service – the business and the employee going beyond my expectations and delivering a level of service I am happy to talk about.

In the bag covered by the bag cover were two tins and in the tins were the items purchased. So, there was little chance of the actual items getting damaged by rain. Their concern was for their bag and since their bag is all about their brand, it makes sense.

Delivering unexpected good customer service is a differentiator for any business, especially a retail business in a competitive situation. We have opportunities in our businesses every day for doing this. Key to success with unexpected good customer service is to have the processes in place to make it commonplace for the business to go above and beyond.

In the Fossil example, they had the bag covers at the counter and had trained employees on knowing when to offer them.

Newsagents selling gifts, especially with gifts worth more than $20, have excellent opportunities to go above and beyond because of the margin dollars available for investing in this level of customer service.

This type of service is disruptive. It challenges how shoppers view the business and what they expect from you. It’s why it is good for business and especially good for newsagencies where shopper expectations about our businesses are so rooted in history.

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Customer Service

Leveraging the magazine gift with purchase

IMG_0933We have the latest issue of Women’s Health magazine in two locations to make the most of the free Carmans gourmet breakfast bar that comes with the magazine. Gifts like this are used by publishers to drive sales. If we leave the magazine in the usual location we are not leveraging the gift opportunity. This is why I suggest you place the magazine in a second high-traffic location – to make the most of the opportunity the publisher is providing you.

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magazines

Leveraging the card purchase in the newsagency

IMG_0909I have written here several times encouraging newsagents to promote selected small plush items in the card department, outlining how this low-cost up-sell pitch is easy to implement.

This is something we have been doing for more than two years. We keep doing it because it is successful. I am surprised more newsagents do not do this. As I noted, it is easy and low-cost.

The placement also works at attracting shoppers to the card department when they notice the small plush items. So, it drives plush sales as well as card sales.

Our most recent engagement with the tactic is by promoting new Beanie Kids from Korimco with new parent and new baby cards in the card department. It is working a treat.

It s vitally important we make the most of every opportunity in our newsagencies. Deeper baskets, increased margin dollars per purchase, are key factors to success. We achieve this by working every opportunity possible.

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Gifts

Promoting all the Better Homes titles

IMG_0908I encourage newsagents to check their placement of these four Better Homes and Gardens titles.

The placement of the four together you can see in the photo is the second location we have allocated for each.

I think putting them together is important as it leverages to Better Homes and Gardens brand.

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magazines

Jonathan Thurston shows how newsagents should market lotteries

On 7.30 last night on ABC TV, in an interview with Leigh Sales, NRL star Jonathan Thurston mentioned buying a lottery ticket from the newsagents. It was a throwaway line in a terrific interview on the ABC current affairs program. Thurston’s comment demonstrates the natural connection between lotteries and newsagencies in the minds of Australians.

Here’s a Vine from the interview:

Thurston’s comment stuck with me all night. Why don’t newsagents talk up their businesses as lottery outlets to reinforce the already deep connection in the minds of Australians? While plenty do individually, why not collectively? Why not build on what many Australians already think?

Why don’t newsagents fund their own advertising promoting the newsagency channel for lottery products? It is the type of proactive marketing that, if done right, could get the attention of Tatts at a time they could be considering alternatives. It is the type of campaign that could make the channel more appealing.

The campaign could even evolve and question why you’d buy a ticket anywhere else, maybe even mocking big businesses compared to the community connected small business newsagency channel. However, any mocking or questioning would need to be careful as negative ads run the risk of looking political and turning people off.

Sure such campaigns would cost money. But surely an investment in a positive shopper traffic focused campaign would be more valuable than the vast sum spend on the negative campaign run by NANA and the ANF getting signatures for a petition to NSW politicians.

And while not all newsagents sell lottery products, enough do for the type of campaign I suggest to work.

The Thurston interview reminded me that when it comes to buying a lottery ticket people think of newsagents. That is a solid basis on which to build a campaign. If the campaign was successful at strengthening the connection and sales it could do more to infuse Tatts Group next moves than all the negative campaign of the industry associations.

Look at the Mining Tax. The miners took their campaign to TV. Sure they have more money. But money does not necessarily control the success of the campaign.

I urge those who claim to be leaders in the channel to think through this idea inspired by the Jonathan Thurston interview. Give some thought to creating TV and radio ads to pitch the local newsagency for your next lottery ticket purchase. Show the channel as a network of small business retailers working proactively together commercially rather than complaining for protection.

If you are skeptical about this, look at the numbers. Two thousand newsagents who sell lottery products each investing $200 would provide a $400,000 of funding. This would be plenty for the type of campaign I propose – for the production of multiple TVCs and their airing across the day.

The right creative could be very effective in the competitive positioning of newsagencies.

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Lotteries