The West Australian newspaper yesterday covered front page news with a massive wrap-around funded by Chemist Warehouse. While the ad was fantastic, it completely obscured the news of the day and, more important, the sports stories of the day.
I saw several of the wrap arounds discarded on the street.
I am grateful to be at the Lotterywest Retailer Conference in Perth today. The agenda is full with practice sessions to help Western Australian lottery agents grow stronger businesses not only in the lottery category but beyond.
Session 1 / Grow
‘Australian retail innovation trends’ with Bernard Salt
What’s happening at Lotterywest
Keeping you up to date on the Retail Transformation Program
Session 2 / Connect
‘Creating Passionate Customers’ with Keith Abraham
‘Connecting with today’s consumers’ with Tenille Bentley
Session 3 / Make it work
‘Get more from change’ with Warwick Merry
Workshops
‘Your guide to a win-win leasing negotiation’ with Brian Childs
‘Take a step into the online world’ with Tenille Bentley
‘Recruit, train and manage your staff for greater business growth’ with Renae Catalano
Q & A with presenters / Let’s talk
Here is a new video I shot recently to explain the benefits of newsagency marketing group newsXpress. I am sharing here for the message of optimism for newsagents and the newsagency channel.
The more I hear politicians speak the more I realise the extent of their disconnect from small business and everyday people.
While we talk about real issues in our businesses and engage is genuine two-way conversations with our customers, our politicians from the major parties ignore questions from journalists and fail to listen.
Watch or listen to any live interview with a politician and you hear them say what they want rather than answer the question. In such a situation, the journalist is our representative as they have direct access where we do not. We expect journalists to ask the questions we would want asked. Moreover, we expect the politicians to listen to the questions and to answer them.
This is not what happens.
Politicians front the media with a message to put and they put it regardless of the questions they are asked. They play us for fools. Too many journalists and media outlets let them get away with it.
We know in small business that authenticity matters. Your customers soon figure out if you are faking happiness, the value of a deal or something else in business. Faking it is not possible in small business.
Faking it is what politicians do and we elect them and let them get away with it.
Every time politicians dodge a question or fake support for something they do not agree with and only go along with because of party rules they fail us. Whereas in small business such faking costs us business, in politics we let them get away with it.
I want to see politicians say what they think, on any topic. It’s okay if they say things I don’t agree with because I don’t expect to vote in a 100% clone of my views.
I want to see in my politicians the authenticity I see in small businesses, like newsagencies. Australia would be all the better for it.
I was in a train hobbyist shop a few days ago and found a terrific range of model train magazines. It reminded me of the range I had in my Forest Hill business five or six years ago. The difference in the range in the train shop and the newsagency a few doors away left me wondering if others are noticing this – fewer model train magazines in newsagencies and more in specialist hobby train shops.
I am certainly seeing this in garden centres where there are plenty of garden magazines I am not seeing in newsagencies.
While I am not saying this is a trend, it is something to watch out for.
Specialty publishers naturally want to be closer where those interested in their topics shop.
I like to get boxed Christmas cards out early to make the most of the opportunity right through the season. My experience is that between early September and late January a range of different customers purchase boxed Christmas cards. Having a good range of stock out and in the right location is key to leveraging the opportunity.
This post today is about the kick off of boxed Christmas cards. When do you put them out in your newsagency?
For me boxed card season starts now to get the early movers … they are lucrative shoppers. The early sales help you spot trends from the range you have in-store.
Footnote: the display of boxed cards is not important. Flat on a table works fine for us.
Talking with a manager at Gordon and Gotch yesterday about the status of supply of the popular Art Therapy partwork following a query I received on behalf of a newsXpress member. Here is their update:
As expected this will be a sell out as EDI sales to date are higher than anything I have seen in partworks.
As of yesterday the store had sold 6 out of 10 and we have been topping up sell-out stores over the last two days and have exhausted all stock in Qld.
We are moving some additional stock overnight from NSW and are actioning EDI stores first. [REMOVED] should get picked up from this but again the stock is very limited.
We are speaking to the publisher about moving Part 2 on-sale earlier due to the demand and as soon as a decision is made will communicate to all stores.
I hope this response from Gotch, which I share with permission, is helpful to other newsagents.
It is good to see the TV commercial running in high rotation – going newsagents an strong reason to ensure the title is displayed at the front of the shop, next to the broader adult colouring range in-store.
I am pleased to see discussion among law enforcement and government about pay wave / tap and go technology with police calling for it to be optional. Customers need to have the option to disable Paywave / tap and go facilities on their cards.
The banks are awful when it comes to card fraud. I have experienced this myself – with the ANZ bank.
While my own experience related to card fraud through a website, the area of the ANZ Bank that manages it is the same as handles Paywave fraud claims.
In my own case, a customer used a website run by one of my businesses to make a purchase of $3,000. Payment was via credit card. The site itself does not handle payment – instead, it links to ANZ E-Gate, which processes and verifies payment. It is only when ANZ E-Gate returns ANZ approval that the transaction can proceed.
The good were shopped. We were paid.
A couple of weeks later the ANZ took the funds out of our account and advised the card had been stolen. Today, more than a year on, we are in a losing argument with the ANZ Bank. They say it is my responsibility even though they completely handled and managed the payment including verifying the card and advising us it was approved.
The experience fuels my distrust for the banks, the ANZ especially.
I have been with the ANZ for more than thirty years. I am now looking to move all my business elsewhere as a result of their poor handling of this matter.
We are promoting our range of 2016 diaries mid way into the newsagency, in front of the magazine department. This location worked well for us with Financial Year diaries this year – our sales were up 47% this year on the back of a solid base.
The display in the photo is one of two of diaries in-store. The second is close to this display. It is placed so those leaving the magazine aisle heading to the counter pass.
Shopping basket data analysis shows magazines and diaries are often purchased together in the newsagency. I use analysis such as this to guide ranging, product placement and other business decisions.
I urge newsagents to undertake the type of basket analysis I describe for themselves as each business can perform differently. This is simple using newsagency software – it should take a minute or two to create a basket analysis report for the last year. I think a year of analysis is reasonable for the types of decisions I am discussing here.
I am a firm believer that we make our own success in our newsagencies as in any small business. Success starts with good data and is facilitated by thoughtful analysis of your own business data and acting on what the data guides.
We are riding on the back of the promotion by the Seven Network of their Peter Allen mini series that starts Sunday night with this promotion in-store of a special DVD pack of: The BOY from OZ.
The promotion leverages the huge investment by the Seen Network. It also pitches us as being relevant.
We invested in the stock and space on the basis that the mini series will refresh interest in Peter Allen. Early indications are that it will.
On TV, at the movies and on social media we can see many opportunities for us to pitch products not being actively promoted by the majors and from which we can make good margin in our businesses. Some opportunities work as new traffic generators while others work as basket depth drivers.
Media Watch on ABC TV last night detailed the considerable cuts to reporting and editorial services at the Newcastle Herald.
69 full time jobs across the Hunter will go at Fairfax mastheads, 46 of those will be straight from the newsroom. More than half of the cuts will come from the Newcastle Herald, which has already had jobs slashed in recent years.
This story is sure to result in a loss of sales of newspapers in newsagencies in the region. How could it not with fewer resources to produce content readers want to trust.
A US National Institutes of Health study of 222 students shows a possible link between the use of e-cigarettes and the initiation of tobacco use.
Students who have used electronic cigarettes by the time they start ninth grade are more likely than others to start smoking traditional cigarettes and other combustible tobacco products within the next year, according to a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health. E-cigarettes deliver nicotine to the lungs by heating a liquid solution that contains nicotine and other chemicals to produce an aerosol that the user inhales, a process often called “vaping.”
The results of the study have been published widely including in medical journals and The Wall Street Journal, where I first read about it. The Conversation has a report on the study, lending an Australian voice to the discussion and explaining why regulation of e-cigarettes is necessary.
We put unsold greeting cards from seasons on sale for a couple of days after the season . The usual discount is 50%. We pick up extra revenue and bank margin dollars considering the rebate from the card company. We also discount gifts in this sale that very specific to the season that will not rest well in the everyday gift department.
This approach works well for us in a shopping centre where many of our customers are not regulars.
If the business was in a country town or a high street situation with more regular customers, I might not engage in this practice as it could educate shoppers to wait for the discount.
Our Father’s Day experience shows how our approach works for us.
With little stock left, the empty pockets on the card stand played into the discount opportunity. Some customers purchased for late Father’s Day cards while others purchased for next year. Given many of our customers are not local or regular, the impact on next year will be minimal if at all.
Talking with suppliers and retailers here and overseas, it is common customers who purchase cards for future purposes lose them or forget about them.
While revenue from post seasonal sales is small, it is worth reducing the cards we return and attracting bonus traffic for the sale we run for a couple of days.
I would be interested for others to share their experiences.
I love the hot pink cover on Colour Spring, a Better Homes and Gardens branded adult colouring one shot from Pacific Magazines. It sure stands out. We are leveraging this with placement in the middle of the magazine aisle as well as on a display at the front of the shop to draw attention to adult colouring titles. It is not often we have a magazine start stands ut like this from the sea of magazines.
Here is how we are launching the Art Therapy partwork at Knox today. We have located the floor display unit next to the colouring book ‘department’ – with 22 adult colouring titles – that has been moved to the lease line, facing into the busy shopping mall.
We also have stock of Art Therapy located near art titles further into the business. Plus we are promoting the launch online to people mobile nearby.
With adult colouring titles everywhere, range is key – hence our placement of the best range in the centre at the front of the business and a secondary display deeper inside.
Two years ago newsXpress moved away from noisy seasonal posters urging people to buy for a season. The decision was made to table a more artistically stylised yet subtle approach that connects with the emotion of each season, with no specific call to action.
A good example of this approach can be seen in the Father’s Day 2015 poster with the words Love Your Dad. You can see that the newsXpress branding is subtle, at the bottom of the poster.
Choosing this artwork takes several months from start to finish. It starts with the brainstorming of themes. This guides the creative team to consider colours, images and words. This feeds into the creation of several drafts of options, which are considered by as many as ten people as well as a couple of supplier representatives. The draft options are slowly revised until one stands out. This is then shared with all newsXpress members and their feedback considered before final revisions made and a proof prepared. It is a highly consultative process, one that has lead to this approach of focusing on the emotion of the season rather than the usual shrill call to action we see in many retail businesses leading up to major seasons.
What I like about the Love Your Dad collateral is the simplicity of the message. Saturday at the newsagency, I saw a couple of kids drag their dad to in front of the posters and hug him. His smile could have lit up a room. It was heartwarming to see.
Sometimes, the best way to encourage engagement is to not chase it.
It was not until we took an apron we had for Father’s Day off the shelf and placed it on a mannequin that people started to notice and purchase them. The result is a reminder of the retail maxim: tell a story. The mannequin is proving to be a useful tool in the newsagency as it holds a range of products, is easily moved and presents a pitch not expected in a newsagency.
If you stock IF Magazine I urge you to place it where it will be seen by ore people. The cover story on the new Australian movie Holding the Man will be recognised because of the publicity blitz surrounding the launch. This is a good title with which to show off your magazine specialisation.
We have been promoting Better Homes and Gardens Before & After Makeovers with newspapers with placement of the display unit above papers. Since it is a title most will not be looking for it is vital to pitch it for impulse purchase.
I apologise that this blog was offline for most of Sunday. It is hosted in a off-site server farm. The server crashed early in the morning and has only now been brought back online.
Stand outside your newsagency and count how many different messages you are pitching from the shingle to posters to window displays to signs to what you can see from out there into the business.
Write each message on a list. How many messages do you have pitching to people outside your business?
If you have more than four messages, decide which of the messages can be cut.
People walking past your shop most likely do not stop and read all the messages. You have seconds to grab their attention. The more messages the less opportunity for them to notice anything.
This challenge is about you deciding what messages are most important today. Yes, today – because the messages you want to focus on in a week will be different.
My own experience is that less is more. A narrower focus can increase traffic and engagement because people notice a marketing pitch if it is delivered in a less crowded space.
Don’t be a victim of school holidays – you know, a retailer who does nothing special, a retailer who looks at the numbers and says it’s school holidays.
Be a retailer who says it’s school holidays, let’s lean in, let’s embrace the opportunity.
Here are seven marketing ideas to help school holidays be more valuable for your newsagency. They are the tip of ideas you could embrace.
These ideas are designed to help you create a business during any holidays period that is looked at differently to the rest of the year, to help you gain a reputation as the best school holidays place locally.
Each time you agree on a term or condition with a supplier, document this back to them in an email.
For example if a rep says if you take a spinner of product from them they will make sure no one else nearby stocks the spinner. Document this in an email to the rep and the company. In the email say you are doing this for confirmation of what has been agreed, the basis on which you are taking the spinner.
In another example a rep may make sales claims for an item, claims that resulted in you taking on the item. Document this.
This simple single communication step could avoid difficulties in the future if a term or condition that was a factor in your taking on a product is not met.
Read the sign on the camel about sitting on him. I love it. I found it in the massive Hamleys toy shop on Regent Street in London.
The sign is a lesson in how to deliver an important message with humour and in context for the type of business it is in. It is far better than a sign saying Do not sit on the camel.
