November, 2009 | newsXpress Blog

newsXpress Forest Hill promotes New Moon

new moon calendars, the new moon board game, magazines and other products are in prime position in this excellent display at newsXpress Forest Hill in Victoria. Drawing attention to the product display is the A0 poster provided by newsXpress.

Interest in the new moon movie is huge, one only has to see the magazine coverage of the stars and the movie launch.

newsXpress has taken a leadership role in bringing to its members new moon products beyond traditional newsagency items and thereby helped our members achieve more efficient new moon focused shopping. This is a great example of the newsXpress difference in action and the value of using a core category such as magazines to drive sales elsewhere in the business.

The display at newsXpress Forest Hill looks stunning in person and captures the feel of Twilight in a high traffic area of the business.

New Moon promotion at newsXpress Sarina

The team at newsXpress Sarina has put together a good display supporting the newsXpress new moon movie marketing initiative. Their front of store display looks stunning – from the A0 poster to the table of new moon merchandise, they are making bold statement.

It would be hard for Twilight fans to go past the products in this display and not stop to shop.

newsXpress has sourced a range of new moon product including calendars, a board game, jewellery and other items. This is wonderfully augmented by new moon related magazines – of which there are plenty at the moment in our stores.

newsXpress Brisbane members meeting

We received a good turnout at our Brisbane members meeting earlier this week and covered plenty of ground in the afternoon session. As is often the case, newsXpress members talking with each other and sharing ideas is the most important part of such gatherings. There were several business development ideas discussed yesterday which would be easy to implement with little or no capital investment.

Consistent small steps of progress across multiple categories combine to make for more successful businesses.

newsXpress will continue to facilitate regular member meetings to maintain conversation between our proactive members.

Crayola planograms rolling out

The new planograms from Crayola are rolling out to newsXpress locations. newsXpress Riverlink installed theirs and are very happy with the result. It looks good and is attracting customer interest.

The newsXpress planogram strategy is all about the professional representation of strong national brands in our stores across Australia and through them achieving better return on investment than the traditional local store look for this type of product.

Planograms like this offer from Crayola places newsXpress in a competitive and more visually appealing position than many other retailers. newsXpress members can bank the results.

newsXpress Gympie makes the news

Congratulations to Warrick Hocking of newsXpress Gypmie for the coverage in the business pages of the Gympie Times, reporting on his award at newsXpresser of the Year for 2009. The report raises the newsXpress profile and recognises Warrick for his tireless work in promoting newsXpress and all we stand for.

We know that we are only as strong as our members. Warrick’s enthusiasm for and support of our brand is terrific motivation for newsXpress to continue to develop and drive greater success for our members

The article in the Gympie Times further demonstrates the newsXpress difference and why our brand is more important than a more traditional newsagency shingle.

Flexible planograms from 3M

Close to 100 newsXpress locations now have 3M planograms.

Ranging in size from 1 metre to three metres, these planograms deliver a professionally displayed range of Post-IT, Command and Scotch products to our stores.

newsXpress developed these and other planograms to bring store level evidence of our brand commitment, to reinforce the newsXpress unique selling proposition and to drive sales. This is happening much to the delight of newsXpress members.

The 3M planograms are a great example of the newsXpress difference in action.

HOT Ink! sale drives traffic

The latest HOT Ink! sale in newsXpress stores has driven excellent sales results based on reports from stores. Driven around brands – HP, Canon, Epson, Brother and Lexmark – the sale was to 1 million homes across Australia. In addition to brand commitment, newsXpress pitched price competitiveness, excellent customer service and range – all key factors to the regular ink and toner consumer.

HOT Ink! is an exclusive to newsXpress initiative. In addition to special buying opportunities, newsXpress members receive exceptional back-office support, marketing collateral, out of store marketing and access to good ink business growth strategies.

Lottery win at newsXpress Mountain Creek

Congratulations to the team at newsXpress Mountain Creek for selling a winning ticket in last night’s lottery draw. One of their customers is now $1,000,000 richer.

Promoting diaries at Crows Nest

newsXpress Crows Nest is promoting diaries in their window using the free marketing collateral provided by newsXpress. The simple pitch of the poster in the window facing a busy street makes the offer clear and certain to pull traffic. newsXpress coollateral helps our members better zone their offers in-store and in display areas – such as the window at newsXpress Crows Nest.

Embracing the Twilight brand

newsXpress members in NSW are cleverly using the posters supplied for the Sunday Telegraph tomorrow to promote newsXpress supplied Twilight themed product. The photo shows a display at the entrance to newsXpress Bondi Eastgate. They are promoting the new moon board game which many newsXpress stores across the country are selling.

newsXpress has positioned itself to make the most of the considerable promotion around the launch of the new moon movie – through the board game, calendar, gifts and magazines. We have done this because we understand and value the importance of strong brands.

newsXpress launches Twilight merchandise display competition

newsXpress and two of our suppliers have announced a newsXpress exclusive visual merchandising award for the promotion of NEW MOON branded items. With our game, calendar, gift items and magazines plus the brilliant A0 poster, newsXpress members have a terrific story to tell.

On offer is 6 Gold Class movie vouchers to use to see the “Twilight” saga continue with the release of ‘NEW MOON’.

This is another example of the newsXpress difference – pulling product covering various product categories and from a range of suppliers around a brand franchise which is well represented in more traditional products such as magazines and newspapers.

$30 million lottery superdraw syndicate opportunity

newsXpress has launched three newsXpress exclusive syndicates for the January 2,2010 $30 million lottery superdraw. These new syndicates continue the success of recent superdraw syndicates which has seen newsXpress members attract new customers and drive deeper lottery shopping baskets.

Connecting members with newsXpress exclusive lottery syndicates is another brand-building opportunity for newsXpress members.

newsXpress releases Conference DVDs

In another first, newsXpress has produced a DVD of highlights from this year’s National Newsagent Conference featuring nine of the key conference sessions. The DVD is available to newsXpress members only and provides a broader reach of valuable content presented at the conference.

newsXpress has been able to produce the DVD thanks to the help of our Diamond Sponsors: Pacific Magazines, Hallmark Cards and Jenlist.

UHU planogram helps newsXpress stores drive sales

newsXpress retailers are benefiting from proactive suppliers investing in the development and deployment of planograms which professionally represent their product. The photo shows the UHU Glue Centre planogram at newsXpress Riverlink. UHU has been terrific to work with in finessing the range and developing a planogram which is efficient in space use and proactive in pitching what sells easily in our type of retail situations.

newsXpress is proud to lead on this planogram initiative and thankful to have a great group of suppliers, like UHU, working with our Merchandise team to bring certain success to our retail network. Planograms are new to newsagencies – they are key to our future success.

newsXpress communication strategy drives sales and margin

newsXpress Wetherill Park is the latest location to implement the newsXpress exclusive communications products strategy. This good margin and traffic generating strategy is based around a professional planogram for phone handsets plus better margin mobile recharge and a range of associated products.

We are seeing excellent sales flow from our communications initiative and the work done by our preferred supplier, Jenlist. The result demonstrates the value of well managed business partnerships. These are nurtured by our newsXpress merchandise team.

newXpress Eli Waters in the news!

Allan and Stella Wickham of newsXpress Eli Waters made the pages of the Fraser Coast Chronicle yesterday with news with their win at the newsXpress Awards dinner two weeks ago when they were announced newsXpress Magazine Retailer of the Year for 2009.

This newspaper coverage is excellent promotion of newsXpress Eli Waters, newsXpress and small business success.

We are thrilled to be part of this and congratulate Allan and Stella for their initiative.

Sponsoring the races

newsXpress Village Mackay was an advertiser at the races yesterday in Mackay. Troy Ross and the team has advertised at the over the last five or six years. This year they had up to fifty people attending the newsXpress marquee. Graham Randall, founding Director of newsXpress was there (left in the photo) to support the promotion and engage in some good newsXpress networking.

newsXpress encourages local brand-building marketing initiatives like this.

A merchandise hit for newsXpress

The newsXpress merchandise team loves the success stories they get from newsXpress members. This just in from Sue Neal at newsXpress Ballarat:

In the first day of selling the Lako Digital Key Rings which are part of the newsXpress Christmas offer, we sold 13 units. These are a product which we did not expect to work in our location. We originally said no but finally agreed when our newsXpress Business Development Manager explained how he expected they would work for us. We sold out of the first shipment and urgently sought more stock. Once the extra stock arrived we quickly sold another ten units. The runaway success of the key rings is that I need to trust more the newsXpress recommendations.

We are thrilled with stories like this as they reinforce the back office processes which focus on sourcing good-margin products for newsXpress members which will be successful in a variety of situations.

Kris Kringle Gifts at newsXpress

newsXpress has provided its members with an excellent range of Kris Kringle gifts for the Christmas season this year. Our merchandise team has carefully selected items for the Krs Kringle gifting opportunity based on thorough market research and assessing what has sold well in previous years.

The Kris Kringle range is in-store now.

The Kris Kringle range and our Christmas gifts are being promoted through newsXpress exclusive catalogues which are being delivered to homes around participating stores over the next week as well as through marketing collateral like this poster.

newsXpress continuously looks for a valuable and rewarding point of difference for our members. Our approach to Kris Kringle this year is evidence of this commitment in action. We are hearing from newsXpress members already about the excellent success they are having with some lines.

Kris Kringle is one element of a broader newsXpress Christmas strategy whicl we will cover here in more detail over the coming weeks.