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.
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.
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.
newsXpres Seymour got into the Halloween spirit yesterday with staff wearing masks at their lottery counter. These costumes and the Halloween display elsewhere in the store created a terrific atmosphere for the business. This is part of what Halloween is about, having fun. At newsXpress Seymour they certainly did that … and they may have scared a couple of customers along the way.
newsXpress Salamander Bay put on an excellent Halloween show right up to the last minute with an excellent range of costumes, party goods and other items for shoppers wanting to embrace the fun of Halloween this year.
Beyond the good margin Halloween sales opportunity, the display at newsXpress Salamander Bay brought that extra bit of fun into the newsagency and this flows onto sales in other departments. Retail is theatre after-all.
newsXpress has shown that Scary can be fun with its fresh approach to Halloween this year. newsXpress stores across Australia have been places of fun and good business over the last few weeks and this past week especially as we drew closer to the big night – TONIGHT! We have made newsXpress stores destination stores for Halloween. Customers love this, newsXpress retail employees love this and newsXpress retailers love this!
Our Halloween strategy has proved again this year to draw new traffic and extend the shopping basket – with good margin product. This is a great commercial story for newsXpress stores.
Tonight, if you hit the streets for some trick or treat fun or if you head off to a Halloween party, have fun (because Scary can be fun), stay safe and think about newsXpress – we’re your Halloween destination. Boo!
newsXpress is hosting a members meeting and drinks on Tuesday November 10 starting at 3pm and followed by Christmas drinks. This will be held at the Virginia Golf Club,
This will be our final members meeting in Brisbane for 2009. It is a packed agenda with a couple of newsXpress exclusive announcements which members will not want to miss.
The team at newsXpress Wetherill Park created a stunning display for their first ever engagement with the Halloween season. The display went up in September and they have sold out of everything, in advance of the big day.
This is an excellent example of using a newsXpress initiative to drive traffic and sales around a good margin story thanks to newsXpress preferred supplier relationships. newsXpress brings all the elements of a successful campaign together for local action at the store level.
The execution by the team at newsXpress Wetherill Park has been excellent and the results rewarding.
Not really witches, not at all! Amanda kindly agreed to model the purple witches’ hat – part of the Halloween range at newsXpress Laidley. Amanda is all smiles standing next to a great display of Halloween product which has been selling well as we approach the big day this Saturday.
newsXpress Laidley has embraced Halloween and represented newsXpress well with thes popular and profitable season. The know how enjoyable the season can be and the word of mouth value for the business by embracing it.
The newsXpress and Tattersalls Halloween marketing collateral work well together in-store – promoting dreams and fun for Halloween this Saturday, October 31. By connecting newsXpress and Tattersalls in this way, newsXpress locations with Tattersalls are able to gain additional valuable leverage for their Halloween related sales. Halloween 2009 is a great example of the newsXpress difference at work for our members.
Shelley Petersen and the team at newsXpress Sarina created a wonderful display of pink giftware in support of Pink Ribbon Day. 50% of sales from all pink (coloured) products will be donated to the Australian Breast Cancer Foundation. The display will be up for a week.
This is a wonderful local initiative at newsXpress Sarina. It shows the business as being socially concerned and demonstrating this in a creative way. They make newsXpress proud.
The initiative is further evidence of why newsXpress Sarina deserves their award of 2009 Queensland Newsagent of the Year.
Nicole at our newsXpress Watergardens store has been names salesperson of the month for September out of all salespeople working at the large shopping centre in Taylors Takes Melbourne. Nicole won this award for excellent customer service and product knowledge.
Well done Nicole!
newsXpress members are about to receive A1 size collateral for promoting 2010 diaries in-store.
The collateral is being sent without cost to newsXpress members as part of our continuing commitment to helping newsXpress locations professionally merchandise key categories in their businesses.
The diary collateral follows the corporate image theme which is running through all newsXpress seasonal marketing. This drives a visual consistency across visual merchandising in newsXpress locations and in our consumer marketing – a consistency which demonstrates the strength of disciplines within the group.
newsXpress Young is having fun with a good range of scary products for Halloween this year. Supported by the newsXpress Halloween collateral, this is a new opportunity for the business.
Situated on the Olympic Highway in the South West Slopes of NSW, Young is a great place to visit and offers something for everyone. It attracts many tourists. The Halloween offer will appeal to families travelling through as well as locals looking to have a bit of fun this Saturday night.
newsXpress is disappointed that News To Business is paying to come up in Google searches for newsXpress. This morning, if you type in newsXpress to a Google search, a sponsored link for News To Business comes up.
News To Business competes with newsXpress. Our view is that they would be better off winning customers on their own merits rather than trying to ride off our coattails.
Halloween is big business at newsXpress Castle Towers, showing that this party season can be a lot of fun and good for business in a large shopping centre based newsagency. The newsXpress Castle Towers team has a broad range of Halloween products from the small to large. They have an excellent range for a Halloween party together and for those planning to walk the streets on a trick or treat mission.
The placement of Halloween near cards at Castle Towers is ideal in that it helps drive add-on greeeting card sales to the Halloween shopper.
newsXpress Eumundi is bringing Halloween fun newsXpress style to beautiful Eumundi with a good range of Halloween party products and other items.
Even though we are in the last week of the Halloween season, the team at Eumundi has been able to display plenty of fun products and show that Scary can be fun.
Sometimes the most obvious opportunities to find new customers are right in front of us. This is what some newsXpress members are finding with the newsXpress EXCLUSIVE Stationery Now promotion. The almost 1 million flyers delivered to letterbox and the in-store collateral are combining to draw new traffic in-store and one there convert this to sales.
Stationery Now is a brand based campaign, supported by key suppliers and newsXpress, designed to pitch newsXpress locations as offering. It is deliberately running at a time of the year when few other stationery players, newsagents included, are promoting the category.
The newsXpress strategy has delivered excellent stationery product at highly competitive prices to our network and backed this with an integrated marketing and merchandising campaign which demonstrates the newsXpress difference. So, this is a good traffic and good margin story – making old money new money.
We are proud to be innovating in this area – it certainly beats complaining or sitting on your hands.
Newsagents can use a professionally structured offer to drive good margin stationery sales. newsXpress can show you how.
Nia and Aaron Kugel from newsXpress Fernvale won the Golden Casket newsXpress Agent of the Year Award for 2009. Announced by David Robinson, Head of Retail Golden Casket Lottery Corporation Limited, at our National Conference in Melbourne a week ago, the award recognises sales growth and engagement with Golden Casket products. The award includes a cash price and movie passes to be shared with employees who helped the business win the award. Congratulations of newsXpress Fernvale.
newsXpress is sincerely grateful to the suppliers which supported our national conference a week ago in Melbourne. These sponsors, detailed below, helped make the conference a huge success.
With over 250 attendees, the conference has now established its place on the annual calendar.