newsagency marketing | newsXpress Blog

Gifts to the nth degree

Phil & Wendy Banks from newsXpress Glendale in Newcastle completed a shop fit 18 months ago. They introduced a number of innovations at this time, one such was by building a gift wall. This has worked so well that they recently made some more changes to the shop to extend the gift wall.

With margins of over 50% and a great lay buy strategy which allows them to sell gifts in excess of $300 they have created a great new money stream for the store.

Photos above depict the majestic ‘Gift Wall’ and the team behind the innovation.

Good Health magazine display at newsXpress Indooroopilly.

Note the clever use of point of sale giving the background a 3D effect.
Use of Forever friends Bears to spell the message ” Happy Birthday”, and carefully constructed cake with candles.

Who could resist buying this magazine with such a stunning display? Well done to the team at newsXpress Indooroopilly.

WORK YOUR STORE HARD TO REAP REWARDS

At first glance you’ll notice that newsXpress Reservoir is not the flashiest of shops, however, with a new shop fit coming up in the not too distant future Chris, Helen and their team work the shop hard.

They have recently introduced books and a prodigious amount of gifts, and also scented candles to the store, which are working well and bringing new money streams to their business.

newsXpress members don’t rest on their laurels, they work the store hard every day driving sales. Its about day to day operational profit not just waiting for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. New money strategies as well as our soon to be launched Project XLR program, are just the tip of the iceberg at newsXpress.

INNOVATION, INNOVATION, INNOVATION

At the newsXpress laboratory at the Watergardens Town Centre in Taylors Lakes, Ben and the team continue to experiment and innovate with new product, fixtures and fittings. Not only are the learning’s from the Sophie Randall card and gift business being translated into the store with new style gift tables and displays. The Moorish range of product suggested by Bradley Dean from newsXpress GPO in Brisbane has been introduced with great effect. We take learning’s from our interstate members, cross pollinate with one another and implement new money strategies into our network of stores.
Its only through sharing ideas and expressing our views that the group grows. By only having quality members, regular state and cluster meetings combined with the newly introduced One on One Business Development sessions, we get to share. That’s what makes our group strong.

newsXpress Albany Creek Gift category

Giftware sales at newsXpress Albany Creek is a “new money” category, generated by existing customers (traffic flow) purchasing the beautifully presented giftware in the window area.
To further grow sales, Michael and Wendy had new fixtures made, pushed the existing card fixtures back to create a bigger dance floor, and sales have accelerated. Customers appreciate the extra “space” in which to browse the new gift ranges.

Light at the end of the tunnel – newsXpress The Pines

newsXpress The Pines has just under gone extensive refurbishments and a shop-fit in the last fortnight, things are still progressing and moving forward nicely… A job well done to the team at newsXpress The Pines for all their hard work and efforts through this hectic time of transition…
Lyndall and her newsXpress team will continue to work on the transformation of this store to cater for all the newsXpress key strategies to drive new business…

The photos show the new front of the store layout with a strong Easter presence, the Beacon Branding of the weekly magazines and the Diddl display.

Modern Easter at newsXpress Deception Bay

The team at newsXpress Deception Bay went left field this year – and have gone searching for Easter Brides!

They sold two magazines while setting up the display and customer reaction has been extremely high. They have also capitalised on this interest by including complimentary products such as photo albums, horse-shoes, white tape for the limo and assorted gifts.

The window has been decorated in a more traditional manner with a strong focus on kids and bunnies.

Basket of Easter Goodies at newsXpress Kin Kora

newsXpress Kin Kora started their Easter promotion early – you won’t see any pictures of their plush here (they sold out!).

Never too late – VALENTINE’S DAY – newsXpress Riverlink

Jayson and Belinda from newsXpress Riverlink sourced 14 dozen single red roses for their Valentine Outpost, which came sleeved, and had a red bow. These completely sold out in 2 days, complementing the plush and other gift ware.

Both Wednesday and Thursday were equally strong in retail sales. As this was the first year for their outpost they will be using their data when purchasing for next year.

newsXpress Riverlink – special signage was commissioned advertising the rose offer to tie in with the newsXpress creative. While team members proudly show their selling skills in the spirit of Valentine’s Day.

Easter Displays at newsXpress

As Australians prepare to eat record quantities of chocolate this Easter, these beautiful displays of Easter related product are already selling to astute customers. By displaying your stock early, and with style, you will achieve maximum sell through.

The Displays are from newsXpress Caboolture, and newsXpress Deception Bay.

PARTWORKS Magazine Display

To make a display look aesthetically pleasing is a matter of organising merchandise into a cohesive shape. The triangle is used more than any other shape. Merchandise arranged in this way gives the display more weight at the base, giving a stable appearance. It is easy for the eye to take in the whole thing.

Alex from newsXpress Deception Bay has used the best hot spot in her store to present this 4 sided display capturing customers coming from all directions. She has combined 2 different partwork magazine launches to make a display which has sold through very quickly.

JUST IN – newsXpress Deception Bay

newsXpress Deception Bay owner Brett places ‘Just In‘ Bookmarks on new monthly magazines, and also specialty niche titles when he knows customers are waiting anxiously for the issue to arrive. This ensures an easy shopping experience for his customers!

HOT ink! TV Commercial

Attached is our TV commercial which starts on air tomorrow. This is a proud moment for the newsXpress family. We’re going to be on TV promoting our brand in a way no other newsagent marketing group has ever done nationally.

Using promotional ends to make money not just look good

newsXpress Castle Towers are retailers not just newsagents. By devoting ends to product that sells not just promote, they are making more money. Whilst magazine promotions look good, we are in business to use every square inch of the shop for profit not promotion. Magazines can be promoted in other ways and newsXpress is forging forward by selling magazines and promoting them well, yet using real estate in more profitable ways. We love magazines but we are also promoting other parts of the retail offer to add more dimension to our stores.

This approach is certainly embraced by our customers as the results prove.

newsXpress Castle Towers promoting (and selling) diaries and plush gifts where magazines have traditionally been the sole occupant.

Canson Creative Centre unveiled in newsXpress

The Canson Creative Centre exclusive to newsXpress has been launched amid much fanfare in Victorian locations this week. As you can see from the photos the display is stunning and certainly sets newsXpress apart from it’s competitors and even other retailers in the challenge of bringing art to the mass market.

The roll out continues over the next fortnight in Queensland.

newsXpress Ascot Vale – exclusive Canson Creative Centre

newsXpress Gladstone Park – the custom built stand fits perfectly into the store layout.

newsXpress Reservoir – where the Canson Creative Centre is set up adjacent to the Canson Paper stand for a complete Art & craft offer.

Publishers A-OK! with level of newsXpress support

The newsXpress exclusive promotion with OK! magazine this week has been exceptionally well supported by members as these photos clearly show.

The promotion rewarded each purchase of OK! magazine with a gift of the haute couture Hollywood Fashion Tape to co-incide with this week’s Oscars ceremony.

newsXpress Ascot Vale – situated on a High St have plastered their front window with OK! materials. It has certainly generated publicity with the high traffic flow.

newsXpress Cairns Central have utilised a structural pillar to decorate with the OK! marketing materials. This is clearly visible while looking through the weekly magazine stand, which has been Beacon Branded to highlight the on sale OK! title.

newsXpress Caboolture have expertly cross promoted the OK! magazine exclusive with a global Women’s Day ‘Everyday Food’ offer.

newsXpress Frankston have shown great creativity with their iconic display. Notice the large bow in the top left hand corner…

newsXpress/OK! promotion adds value to customer

One of the strengths of a marketing group is their ability to co-ordinate and execute exclusive promotions to add value to their customers. A great newsXpress example is the current OK! magazine promotion which rewards the purchaser with a packet of Hollywood Fashion tape – an essential item for any fashion conscious woman in 2008!

newsXpress Capalaba: Using front and centre stage, with large posters in their light boxes, this display cannot be missed!

newsXpress Camp Hill: A strong display with a lot of response for the free gift!

Hollywood’s Big Night gets the OK! from newsXpress

OK! Magazine are running an exclusive promotion with newsXpress stores to celebrate their Academy Awards issue of their weekly magazine.

With each purchase of the magazine, customers will receive a 3 pack of Hollywood tape, the very type used on the red carpet to ‘conceal’ the modesty of the starlets.

Each newsXpress store received additional marketing materials as well as DL flyers directing customers to pick up their free prize from the counter. As you can see from the photos below newsXpressers have had a ball dressing up their stores.

newsXpress Ballarat used this effective full face display with the DL flyers to support their massive front window merchandising.

newsXpress Beers, Port Lincoln used creativity and dressed up some shop mannequins using the Hollywood tape in this glamorous display.

newsXpress Eastland utilised a powerful marketing display at their New Release Magazine racking as well as a strong waterfall merchandising to increase exposure.

newsXpress Eumundi dedicated prime real estate next to the news-stand for their promotional display.

newsXpress Forest Hill built this bold end directly facing customers as they walk into the store.

newsXpress Kingaroy Mall made sure customers knew their was a big event on with this exciting arrangement bordering the daily news publications.

HOT ink! #5 – ON SALE NOW

The promotion behind HOT ink! #5 has been live for almost a week and stores are already reporting great sales. The largest participation of stores in a newsXpress promotion have distributed hundreds of thousands of flyers all across Australia. As well as the flyer strategy stores have begun introducing HOT ink! destination signage and posters to their stores to really grow brand recognition of this fast growing sub-brand.

All stores participating and their details can be found at www.hotink.com.au

Some other stores have gone a step further and had local area print marketing commissioned to support their HOT ink! #5 promotion. Featured below are newspaper advertisements from newsXpress Westpoint and newsXpress Glendale.