newsagency marketing | newsXpress Blog

We announce ‘newsXpress Echuca’ …OPEN!

newsXpress Echuca is the latest Victorian regional member to rebrand and open. The Dye Family certainly engaged the community with a month of activity commencing with the sponsorship of a regional conference and culminating with the Gala Opening last Friday.

An alreadt great store has been further improved with the pro-active owners seeing strong growth in Hallmark cards and related product ranges, magazines and Canson Art. Their fun opening day was obvious to all as highlighted by the enthusiastic team. An ever popular sausage sizzle, promotional give-aways and the nromal newsXpress activities provided a great start.

Congratualtions to Steve, Liz, Andrea, Jo-anne and all the team at newsXpress Echuca!

newsXpress Bairnsdale opens its doors

newsXpress Bairnsdale opened under the newsXpress brand on Saturday and everyone came to town.

Promotions giving away free petrol, Accomodation, Show Bags, Lucky Dips etc were supported by Hallmark Forever Friends Bear, Coco the Clown (How do they make motorbikes out of Balloons?) and a lovely chamber ensemble of local musicians filled in a great day that could not even be marred by the cold, wind and rain!

Many people entered the store for the first time and were eager to come back again. This positive feeling was only strengthened thanks tothe local Lions club and the 300 + delicious sausages they gave away out the front of the store.

newsXpress Bairnsdale proprietors Gina and Taz epitomise the newsXpress mantra. As new members, their particiaption is strong and they are subsequently reaping the rewards for their efforts!

Congratualtions on a great day!

newsXpress Kin Kora promote ‘Dad’s Nuts’

newsXpress Kin Kora are always at the forefront of innovative and visually stunning merchandising. Early indications are that Father’s Day will be no different as seen in the following pictures.

Sarah and the team have fully embraced the exciting and delicious range of Morish Nuts, and in particular the newsXpress exclusive ‘Dad’s Nuts’ pack. Also seen is the Hallmark Alliance marketing material with the fantastic Jag watch on offer as a prize in each store.

The Branding evolution of newsXpress Woden

newsXpress Woden joined newsXpress last November and in that time have gone through some massive changes in their business.

Proprietors Anthony and Nik McCormack firstly established uniform and customer service changes while embracing newsXpress supplier arrangements and promotions. Then last week the transformation was complete with an impressive newsXpress influenced shop fit.

The proud entrepreneurs are pictured below with their adorable kids.

INCREASING MARKET SHARE THROUGH ‘NEW MONEY’

Newsagents relying on “old money revenue” streams may be experiencing a sharp decline in sales as consumer confidence dips.

newsXpress continues to lead the market with innovative new money drivers. None better than our HOT ink! program. It’s a complete marketing and merchandise strategy which continues to evolve.

Proprietors within the group continue to come forward with amazing stories.

“I can’t believe how much our traditional stationery sales have grown since introducing HOT ink!”

“I am about to break out our Ink and technology sales from Stationery as it is growing so fast”

“Ink & Technology will be my number 1 dept soon exceeding greeting card sales”

“Technology products which are mostly ink now represent 40% of my stationery sales”

“The advertising is what is bringing new people through my door”

“Customers can’t believe we are more competitive than the bigger stores”

“With everything done for me, all I have to do is order the stock put it on the shelf and concentrate on serving my customers, how easy is that?”

“HOT ink! Has helped restore my faith in my newsagency”

Innovation, marketing and ramping up advertising is the key to building market share. The retailers that do this come out the other end bigger and better than ever! With HOT ink! 8 about to hit the streets nationally, HOT ink! 9 & 10 are not far behind. Watch this space for more innovation from newsXpress in the technology area.

Come and experience the difference

In a bold move to help newsagents find a brighter future, newsXpress has made places available for non newsXpress members at its inaugural conference on the Gold Coast in September. The agenda packed with presentations which will provide practical advice for newsagents. Peter Sheehan, author of the book excellent Flip will present the conference Keynote speech. Flip is about what newsagents need to know – how to turn a business on its ear for a brighter future.

Included in the very practical agenda is a series of Show & Tell sessions where newsagents speak from practical experience on innovation in their businesses, workshops on visual merchandising, a session of understanding Gen Y and a session on how to run a successful staff incentive program. All practical ideas you will be abl to take and use right away.

If you are looking to re-energise yourself and your newsagency and are considering joining the newsXpress marketing group this conference would be a good way to experience the newsXpress difference. A limited number of positions are available for non-newsXpress members. For further information please email paulw@newsxpress.com.au. Non members will have access to all conference sessions except for one which is for members only.

Adapting to suit changing needs of consumers

Brett and Alexandra Carey of newsXpress Deception Bay have done a magnificent job combining two very different promotions and also introducing a new ‘kid’s corner’ initiative.

The Care & Friendship Promotion exclusive to newsXpress through the Hallmark Alliance relationship builds sales by encouraging customers to purchase multiple products in the Forever Friends and Welloington Bear range – the prize a giant 36″ cuddly Forever Friends Bear!

The ABW Mid-Year Book promotion as seen in the photos has proved a great success throughout our network of stores.

And finally the introduction of a ‘kiddies corner’ which encourages greater duration of time shopping the store, while also providing a conscientious and creative local community service.

A new (stationery) baby for Wagga Wagga

With the entire team of newsXpress Wagga Wagga eagerly awaiting the arrival of Troy’s (Troy Sutherland, proprietor of newsXpress Wagga Wagga) new baby, the newsXpress store support team of Karen and Jeff got stuck into re-planning the stationery department.

It was a very big job but sales are going to increase from the resultant refit and consumer friendly layout.

Meanwhile Troy thought all of his Christmas’ had come at once!

Creating some noise with ‘Create ART’

newsXpress Chancellor Park took advantage of the first newsXpress and Canson Create ART flyer promotion by dedicating a specific area of the store for the range.

With the event designed to coincide with school holidays and a high quality marketing flyer distributed to homes in their local market, this newsXpress store was certain to see some very positive results for this ‘new money’ category.

Care & Friendship inspires newsXpress Chancellor Park

newsXpress Chancellor Park witnessed all the great store displays for the Care & Friendship promotion and didn’t want to miss out on the fun! Manager Emma took the camera out today and sent through these fantastic shots of the in-store merchandising.

Understanding the Sales opportunity of Promotions

newsXpress Goulburn have enthusiastically merchandised their store with the supplied marketing materials for the Care & Friendship Promotion encompassing posters; wobblers; decals and the prize itself – a Giant 36″ Forever Friends Bear!

However they understand that in retail substance goes hand in hand with style. In close proximity and surrounding the impressive marketing they have located the vast range of Forever Friends and Wellington Bear product.

The mechanics of the competition require the purchase of any two of the afore-mentioned ranges and making the connection easier for the consumer is simply increasing your chances of achieving the sales to make the hard work worthwhile.

Refresh your store and add value to your business

newsXpress Goulburn has just finished installing their new Canson Creative Centre and completed a full stationery re-alignment with thanks to newsXpress Category Manager, Jeff Walsh.

The relay not only created enough space to accommodate the entire Creative Centre but also provided the room to introduce a new promotional area near the front entrance for seasonal gifts.

John & Sally Stein are getting new glass shelving and slat-wall fitted immediately and hope to sell much more high margin items as a result of this refit.

Much to celebrate at newsXpress Woden

newsXpress Woden had double reason to celebrate this week with the Hallmark Alliance exclusive Care & Friendship Promotion and the 40th Birthday of proprietor Anthony McCormack.

The team went to great lengths to put the display together and customers enjoyed the event as well as the personal touch.

newsXpress Castle Towers supports Care & Friendship

newsXpress Castle Towers have transformed their iconic front window into a stunning Care & Friendship Display ulilising marketing materials and actual product.

The front of store display uses the giant 36″ Forever Friends bear as the centrepiece of their merchandising. This is complimented by more Forever Friends and Wellington product to encourage add on purchases.

newsXpress Bathurst share their plush secret

newsXpress Bathurst (Chip’n’Dales) does Plush very well, who could resist buying from these displays.

As a new member it is fantastic to see that they are bringing skills to the groups mix thus perpetuating the amazing network tool we have at our disposal.

INNOVATION AT THE NEW newsXpress CROWS NEST

The new newsXpress store at Crows Nest in Sydney is full of new innovation.
It’s worth traveling to, so you can check it out with plenty of new money revenue products on hand. In its first week of trading sales are very strong with new products introduced doing particularly.

Features include: HOT ink!, gifts built into magazine tierage, full face card area, large gift assortments, and an excellent use of space.

With some more refinement, everything should be completed by the end of the month.

newsXpress UNVEILS THE 3M INNOVATION CENTER

In an exclusive partnership with 3M, the internationally renowned world-wide brand, newsXpress will be rolling out nationally the 3M Innovation Center. In working with 3M, the newsXpress merchandise team has negotiated an exclusive package for the newsXpress national network of stores. Having trialled the planogram at seven stores it was given a huge tick of approval by the participating proprietors, because of the awesome sales.

The partnership involves:

newsXpress-3M planogram
Exclusive marketing and promotions
Exclusive supply chain access
much much more…

Another stellar example of newsXpress providing its network with the very best, and working with national brands.

HOT ink! is GETTING HOTTER!

HOT ink! is the best offer in the Newsagency channel. Some competitors in our channel believe we are too cheap. The fact is we have the best offer in the channel by far!

Excellent prices
Complete marketing strategy
Impressive Returns

Its only going to get better. With over 1 million brochures now being distributed Australia wide our suppliers Hewlett Packard, Cannon, Brother, Lexmark & Epson are thrilled to be associated with the most rapidly growing ink business in the channel.

CARE & FRIENDSHIP MONTH – EXCLUSIVE TO newsXpress

A few years ago Terry Augustine at newsXpress Browns Plains came up with an in between seasons campaign to bolster greeting card sales. It has since evolved into a major campaign for newsXpress so much so that it is an exclusive Hallmark – newsXpress Alliance promotion.

THE MOST RETAIL SAVVY TEAM SUPPORTING “THE BEST NEWSAGENTS IN TOWN”

Do you recognise any of these names. newsXpress has the most retail savvy support team in the channel. With a team like this serving you, your business will move forward in leaps and bounds.

Mark Nagy: Director & CEO
Karen Sutton: National Business Manager
Ian Urquhart: Business Development Manager
Roger Bortfield: Business Development Manager
Lesley Bortfield: Business Development Manager
Sonia Ruhland: Administration Coordinator
Jeff Walsh: Category Manager
Michelle Caia: Category Manager
Chris Hicks: National Property Manager
Ron Thorpe: Director of Greeting Card Strategy
Paul Waite: Events Manager
Trent Shields: National Marketing Manager
Ben Kay: National Merchandise Manager
Mark Fletcher: Director
Graham Randall: Director

To contact us: enquires@newsxpress.com.au