newsXpress is hosting a greeting card workshop in
newsXpress is a full service marketing group and this workshop is an excellent example of the company reinvesting in the newsagency channel to drive better business outcomes for newsagents.
Author: mark
I am a Director of newsXpress, a marketing group for newsagents keen for a bright future. You can reach me on +61 418 321 338 or mark[at]towersystems.com.au
Back to school popular
The Back To School offer put together by the newsXpress merchandise department has surpassed all sales expectations. Our members have embraced the offer because of the quality brand name product, excellent prices and other aspects of our strategy which we are not about to share in this public place.
What is most pleasing is the uptake from newsXpress members who would not usually make a big Back To School commitment for local reasons. They have embraced our offer because we have pitched a range of product which is relevant to their circumstances.
The newsXpress Back To School range and the supporting national marketing and advertising campaigns will drive new customers to our shops and improve sales efficiency from existing customers. This is a key part of the newsXpress mission for its members.
Greeting card workshop adds value
Some of our Queensland newsXpress members participated in the Ron Thorpe led greeting card workshop yesterday – some traveling from as far north as Cairns for the half day workshop.
Training opportunities such as this are an important part of the newsXpress experience. Helping newsagents work on their businesses, developing a better shop layout, improving processes and driving better business decisions are key objectives we pitch when newsagents consider joining with us.
Newsagents can influence the success of the card department much more than they think possible and through this workshop and thanks to the experience of Ron Thorpe we are able to help our members achieve this.
newsXpress provides a host of training opportunities for newsagents and staff members. This commitment to continuous improvement is essential is a competitive retail environment.
Exclusive Christmas offers
newsXpress has sourced a range of exclusive gift related offers for Christmas as part of our strategy of growing sales which fit nicely with traditional newsagent shopping. In addition to excellent trading terms, newsXpress members are being provided high quality professional marketing collateral to enable promotion of the gift items in-store.
This strategy follows the tremendous success of our Father’s Day gift strategy, the first such season focused multi-product gift offer.
Gifts are considered too difficult by many newsagents. At newsXpress we have experts in our merchandise team who guide our buying to make it easier for our members to play in this space. These same in-house merchandise resources are being used by members who go beyond our offers and expand aggressively into gifts. Our specialist supplier relationships unlock some excellent products which would otherwise be difficult to source.
Core to our gift strategy is our focus on leveraging excellent existing newsagent traffic into these new product categories.
Developing the import strategy
Ben Kay, our National Merchandise Manager has been attending a major trade show in Hong Kong this week searching out new possible products for newsXpress members. Our interest in products from China and other Asian countries is not in cheap items others pursue but rather in product which we would be proud to bring to newsXpress shelves and which compliments our existing focus.
Having seen product from 4,000 suppliers across seven massive exhibition halls, Ben has developed a shortlist of suppliers which could fit with our plans for 2009 and supplement important existing supplier relationships. A due diligence process will follow to ensure that the products under consideration meet criteria established by our merchandise team.
We have seen individual newsagents and other groups head down the importing road and not deliver a point of difference or enhance the brand experience. Our mission is to carefully respect these two points in developing our importing strategy.
Ben hopes to be in a position to outline the buying opportunity in one new product category to newsXpress members in several weeks.
Making Money from Greeting Cards
In another first for the newsagency channel, newsXpress hosted the first of a series of Greeting Card training workshops yesterday in Melbourne. The Making Money from Greeting Cards workshop was run by Ron Thorpe, one of the most experienced greeting card professionals in Australia. This workshop now moves to Brisbane later this week.
Packed with practical advice, this session provided attendees with a clear action-plan for greeting cards in their newsagencies. Part of this action-plan was developed through two interactive sessions with newsagents sharing ideas with others.
Too often, newsagents leave greeting cards to be managed by their card company. Over the course of half a day, Ron shared practical strategies which newsXpress members can use to work this category to greater commercial advantage. His advice was drawn from decades of experience with Hallmark and a thorough knowledge of worldwide best practice in greeting card retail.
newsXpress has developed this workshop as another way the group helps members achieve a better return from their businesses and thereby improve the sale value when it comes time to exit from the business.
newsXpress newsagents can expect to achieve more from the Greeting Card category than an average newsagency. This is, in part, thanks to having Ron Thorpe on our team and delivering training like the workshop yesterday.
The challenge of selling the newsagency
newsXpress backs itself with a membership structure which enables members to leave the group at thirty days notice. There is no time this is more important than if your newsagency is for sale. Prospective purchasers look at a business from the perspective of what they can achieve with it. Sometimes this will include re-branding to mark a departure from previous ownership.
A prospective purchaser cannot re-brand if the franchise agreement a vendor has signed with a marketing group does not permit a fair and reasonable exit strategy.
Another risk with franchise agreements can be the requirement to give the franchisor first right of refusal. This means that a newsagent may have a signed buyer but cannot proceed until the franchisor decides if they are going to purchase the business. Buyers will be wary of making an offer in this situation.
At newsXpress we believe in a simple structure which sees members stay in our group because they want to and not because of an onerous contract. We believe in a structure which does not get in the way of the sale of the newsagency.
The business development difference
One of the differentiating services newsXpress provides its members is on the ground visits from our Business Development team. Our experts are armed with years of practical newsagency experience and an exclusive to newsXpress toolkit of marketing and management strategies which offer our members help in many areas of their businesses.
On the phone and face to face our Business Development Managers play a key role in helping newsXpress members achieve greater year on year success than other newsagents. This success was recently reported by magazine publishers and greeting card companies at our National Conference – data showing that in a same store basis, year on year, newsXpress members achieved growth ahead of any other group in the channel.
Our Business Development Managers guide, drive and encourage our members and it is through this regular contact that together we are able to achieve more. They are unique in the newsagency channel and exclusive to newsXpress.
Connecting with the Spring Racing Carnival
Seasons like the Spring Racing Carnival present an excellent opportunity for newsagents to engage in retail theatre. newsXpress supports these seasons through visual merchandising packs which supplement local creativity around the opportunity.
Too often others neglect opportunities like the Spring Racing Carnival and then complain later about the leakage of consumers from their business to other retail channels. In today’s market, more than ever before, we need to be on top of every opportunity. Certainly as the premier marketing group for newsagents that is the case for newsXpress. Our members can choose whether to engage or not – our job is to put the opportunity on the table and to back this with appropriate collateral.
Newsagents are a good fit for promoting the Spring Racing Carnival because newspaper sales are up, racing magazine sales are up, party supplies are up and, most important of all, it’s fun!
Statement about the role of CEO
Following the resignation of Mark Nagy, the two Directors of newsXpress, Graham Randall and Mark Fletcher, have taken a more active role in the business in a team oversight capacity. This is providing newsXpress with time to consider the skills which will best suit the needs of newsXpress and its members in the next phase of its expansion. It is part of the plan Mark Nagy put to the Board when he approached them about his future plans.
We have an experienced and mature team at newsXpress from the back office to our on the road team to our marketing and merchandise teams. As professional mature business people working to a common mission and with a structure which has been well established over the last three years, we are continuing to enjoy good membership growth and good growth within existing member businesses.
We blog about this today because one group, with a vested interest, is spreading a different story.
The best way to see how newsXpress is operating is to come to one of our member meetings. Our next round will be in the second week of November. Non members will be most welcome to experience the newsXpress culture and deliverables first-hand. We will post details here next week.
newsXpress is confident of the quality of its offer to newsagents. This is why the group does not lock newsagents into five year contracts which can also make selling the business a challenge.
Next round of member meetings planned
newsXpress has set its final round of member meetings for 2008. Following today’s Victoria member meeting, Graham Randall, Mark Fletcher, Ben Kay and local newsXpress team members will host member meetings in Brisbane (Nov. 11), Sydney (Nov. 13) and Perth (Nov. 18). These member meetings will recap some content from our National Conference, preview Christmas 2008 and Back To School, discuss several new supplier offers and provide training is some exclusive newsXpress intellectual property which we know will drive good business outcomes.
Our member meetings are open to newsXpress members as well as to newsagents seriously considering joining the growing newsXpress community. They are a great way to assess the value of newsXpress to a business and to experience the transparency of the group first-hand.
newsXpress on Facebook
newsXpress has established a page on Facebook, the social networking site being used by close to 100 million people worldwide. The newsXpress page will be used as a meeting place for newsXpress members and others connected with the group – suppliers, employees of members and former employees of members.
newsXpress will use the Facebook page in a way which is in keeping with the social context of Facebook – to connect people through the common link of an interest in newsXpress.
As the first newsagency marketing group in Australia to use Facebook, newsXpress is demonstrating an understanding of the importance of social media and the value of this medium for facilitating new conversations.
Anyone is welcome to become a fan of newsXpress on Facebook – search for newsXpress, once you are at the page click on become a fan. fans are kept up to date with newsXpress news through Facebook.
Playing golf for newsagents
newsXpress is a proud sponsor of the Gippsland Newsagents Golf Day at Lakes Entrance today.
Supporting this Golf Day is one of several ways newsXpress puts something back into the newsagency channel – beyond our day to day work with our member businesses. A day away from the business, enjoying the outdoors, can be excellent personalls and for the business.
Days like this are more about socialising with colleagues than the scorecard at the end of the round – that’s what some of the golfers say at least.
Good luck to everyone playing in Gippsland today!
Smart business at Bathurst
Geoff and Virginia Dale at newsXpress Bathurst wholeheartedly embrace the opportunity of the Bathurst race at Mount Panorama each year. They transform their newsagency into a Bathurst race souvenir and memorabilia shop. This year was no exception. They replaced greeting card and other fixturing with Bathurst product including a huge range of clothing. For several weeks, newsXpress Bathurst was THE go to place in town for all things Bathurst.
It is terrific seeing newsagents embrace opportunities such as this. We are proud to count Geoff and Virginia as newsXpress members. We will learn considerably from their input to our group, especially around special event marketing.
Branding the businessa
As newsXpress expands and more members complete shop fits, the brand itself is strengthened. There is nothing like a well-designed, professionally executed, new shop fit to best represent a retail brand.
newsXpress Gateway City in Western Australia is a good example of excellent representation of all that the newsXpress brand stands for. Owen and Robyn have created an strong design with appropriate flexibility to enable the business to evolve along with the needs of the marketplace. This is backed by a good mix of products and exceptional service.
newsXpress offers a range of assistance and advice to members as they approach shopfits. This ranges from feedback based on our experience in the newsagency channel through to access to specialist designed who understand the newsXpress mission and how to best represent this in a new shopfit design.
More fun with Halloween
Even though October 31 is still a few weeks away, newsXpress members and their team are happy to get into the spirit of the season with some dressing for Halloween. It is this team based approach which makes work fun and when work in retail is fun customers notice.
Happy customers are good for the business. This is another reason newsXpress puts considerable effort into Halloween – it is a season of fun before the busy Christmas season.
Enjoying Halloween
Wayne and the team at the newsXpress Upper Coomera Coles store are getting into Halloween. This photo shows part of their display.
This shop is right near Warner’s Brothers Movie World where they celebrate Halloween over three spooky nights. The newsXpress products and marketing collateral help the store be part of the area’s Halloween celebration.
Like any good promotion, there is an important balance to strike between pure fun and commercail success. With newsXpress having done Halloween for so long now, the group has a good mix and this is why our members enjoy the season so.
Having fun with Halloween
Visit a newsXpress Newsagency this week and you are likely to see cobwebs, spiders, snakes and witches paraphernalia. Halloween season is in full swing and newsXpress newsagents are immersing themselves in the fun of all things scary. Some staff will be dressed up and even some customers. While sales benefit from the effort so does customer enjoyment from the shopping experience as well as team member morale.
Above all else, retail needs to be fun. Halloween embraces that.
newsXpress is the only Newsagency marketing group to wholeheartedly embrace Halloween. This is another point of difference for our network of 150 newsagencies. A happy shop brings customers back again and again.
Exclusive Home Beautiful promotion
newsXpress members have benefited from an exclusive promotion in support of Home Beautiful. In addition to exclusive collateral material, one lucky newsXpress customer will win a generous cash prize. This event introduced a new element from traditional magazine promotions, with details of the competiton being directly marketed to consumers using the Home Beautiful database.
newsXpress is grateful to Pacific Magazines for supporting this promotion and helping newsXpress members offer a point of difference.
newsXpress Robina
newsXpress Beechworth
newsXpress Cairns
Trusting what we offer newsagents
newsXpress does not lock newsagents into a long contract. Our members can resign from our newsagent marketing group on thirty days notice. This is how it has always been and we do not plan on changing.
That we do not lock newsagents into a five year contract is a measure of our confidence to help newsXpress newsagents drive tremendous success from their relationship with us.
Newsagents considering joining a marketing group ought to question the length of any contract and be suspicious of anything longer than thirty days.