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Business roundtable focuses on newsXpress member business growth

On the day after our national conference in Melbourne last week, one of the optional activities was a half-day business round table discussion in the boardroom of our head office.

Here, twelve newsXpress members got to talk about business, their businesses and retail in general.

This was a practical and confidential business discussion designed to get more newsXpress members sharing with and helping each other. It worked a treat with heartfelt sharing in a confidential environment, providing opportunities for taking on new ideas and opportunities.

That we were able to bring together a diverse group of newsXpress members was appreciated as everyone has a different perspective to contribute to the overall discussion.

This is another newsXpress initiative – helping members more effectively and valuable network with each other without it costing anything and without suppliers pressuring members to spend money. This was pure business … and opportunity warmly embraced and appreciated.

newsXpress members love Melbourne retail tour

The day after the newsXpress national conference in Melbourne last week, a group of newsXpress members and a team from our head office visited a range of retail stores in Melbourne including newsXpress stores – checking out new retail trends and seeing how some are growing their business performance through non-traditional shop floor engagement. In all we had three groups touring.

This newsXpress hosted post-conference tour was another benefit flowing from the national conference … letting newsXpress members from outside Melbourne see businesses we think are making good moves and learning from the work they are doing.

The tour was all about chasing above average business performance – making your newsagency business more valuable as a result. By providing in-store context for some of what was covered at the conference we were able to help participating newsXpress members see new opportunities for their businesses without having to spend big on structural change.

Toy Fair suppliers love newsXpress members!

The newsXpress buying tour of the Toy Fair in Melbourne last week resulted in preferred suppliers writing excellent business. Moving sometimes as a large group and other times in smaller groups, newsXpress members looked at new product and tapped into exclusive deals – providing access to sought after product at excellent prices. Tapping into a price point competitive edge made the buying day valuable for all.

It is this type of trade show co-ordinated buying pioneered by newsXpress at successive toy and gift fairs that has enabled our group to become the group preferred by many suppliers to the newsagency channel. they love our support of their trade show events rather than hauling them around the country to buying days only for our members.

By helping suppliers leverage their existing trade show commitments we get to see a broader range of stock as well as tapping to newsXpress member exclusive opportunities.

This is the newsXpress difference in action – supporting suppliers and newsXpress members into making more money through smarter buying. This is the new way to do business.

newsXpress conference provides relaxation opportunities

The newsXpress conference in Melbourne last week was capped with a very different evening of celebration. rather than the formality of a dinner, we decided to party by the Yarra in a five-star venue offering gourmet food, top self drinks and a stunning view of the Yarra River, a place where we could relax without the need for speeches and the like.

It was great to see team members on the dance floor, belting out a tune on the mic and mingling to newsXpress members. Many kicked on after the formal evening ended at midnight.

We greatly appreciate the support of our strategic partners hallmark cards and Pacific magazines and our preferred supplier community for helping to make this evening a wonderful reality.

What a wonderful few days, full of optimism and 100% in pursuit of helping newsXpress members derive greater value and enjoyment form their businesses.

newsXpress conference a hit with newsXpress members

Two hundred people packed the member’s dining room of the MCG in Melbourne earlier this week for the newsXpress national conference. It was a jam-packed day with on-topic speakers, excellent product opportunities and exclusive newsXpress initiatives.

Feedback from members to the conference in the days since has been excellent, inspiring. Here is a sample of the feedback from members so far:

Many thanks for your hospitality over conference. Thank you for all of the hard work that is put in, in order to provide better buying and opportunity for the group.

There is no doubt that the industry has changed and the business operators need to change with the customers taste and demand and anyone who does not see that and who does not want to participate and support the NewsXpress team should consider whether they should actually be a part of the team.

Whether it is a Franchise or a Marketing Group, it requires consistency and compliance across the group with a vision that they can all see and work towards.

Keep up the good work.

…..

I’m just writing to thank you sincerely for an outstanding National Conference.

It was what I call a “Pattern Interrupt” and “Change of State” message for all Newsagents. The day was chock full of information, data and ideas and I look very forward to receiving the videos …especially the one on Mark’s very thought provoking spread sheet of a new NXP business transitioning through to 2020.

Having had my own international seminar business for 17 years when we would have between 1000 and 8000 attendees at our sales, marketing, business and personal development 1 day events, I know first-hand the time and effort that goes into running any conference.

Congratulations on an excellent event.

…..

WOW! What a great event. Inspirational. Thank you newsXpress!

…..

The leadership you are providing newsXpress members and all newsagents is fantastic. Keep it up, we are changing our business thanks to you and, yes, we are making more money.

…..

It was a struggle to get time to come to Melbourne but I am so glad I did. You have helped me fall in love with my business again. I am so excited by what you showed us and the ideas I know will work in my newsagency.

…..

Great conference!

I appreciated your transparency and the excellent business opportunities I have come away with.

Yes, it was an excellent event, one we could not have pulled off without the support of our two strategic partners – Pacific Magazines and Hallmark Cards and our supportive community of preferred suppliers – who wrote some excellent business on the day … by the way – and our team of wonderful people in newsXpress who work tirelessly for the group.

newsXpress helps newsagents promote St Patrick’s Day

newsXpress has provided members with promotional material with which they can connect with St Patrick’s Day celebrations and product sale opportunities.

For small seasonal opportunities as well as large, newsXpress is helping members make the most of opportunities, tapping into existing traffic as well as attracting new shoppers with fresh collateral in a variety of sizes and formats.

This collateral is provided to all newsXpress members.

newsXpress helps newsagents make their businesses more valuable.

newsXpress facilitates amazing gift fair experiences

newsXpress has hosted an excellent range of gift fair experiences for newsXpress members in Sydney this week.

From the massive gift fair at Darling Harbour to the excellent Home & Giving fair at Homebush and in between, newsXpress has had buying experts available for members – to help them make the most of the opportunity.

newsXpress merchandise experts have also been working with suppliers to negotiate new deals for newsXpress members and to bring new suppliers on board.

Over five days we have been singular in our focus – to strengthen commercial relationships that help newsXpress members make their businesses more financially successful and therefore more valuable.

Member feedback through the events has been excellent. We are all looking forward to banking the result.

newsXpress says no to major shopping centre opportunity

newsXpress is regularly offered opportunities by shopping centre landlords. Each opportunity is assessed and negotiations undertaken. If the opportunity does not meet our minimum requirements, we do not proceed.

This happened recently with an opportunity in a major centre in Queensland where the store, trading under a different newsagency banner group, is in hard times. We engaged with the landlord, talked terms and eventually said thanks but no thanks this time.

We will not take on a tenancy just for the sake of it. It must work on its own, the numbers must be right.

Sometimes, a smaller newsagency outside a major centre will deliver a far more valuable return than the higher profile business. Our focus is on the size of the return on investment.

newsXpress announces confidential business performance workshop

newsXpress has announced details to members of a confidential half-day business performance workshop, to be held the day following our national conference.

This closed-door session will see a group of newsXpress members share with each other business performance and other data for open discussion on performance and exploration of opportunities.

The purpose of the confidential session is to have members challenge each other, to uncover new opportunities and to take newsXpress member networking to a deeper and more engaged level.

Participation is free and only available to newsXpress members. The event is being held in the boardroom of our office. Here is the invitation shares with newsXpress members:

On Wednesday 6th of March, the day after the conference, newsXpress is hosting a three hour workshop to discuss business performance. We have room for up to eight people to meet in the boardroom of our Hawthorn office to share their business performance and discuss these with other newsXpress members. Moderated by Mark Fletcher, this will be a confidential under the hood look at the performance of the participating businesses, to learn what we can from each other, and to challenge ourselves. This session will start at 10am and end by 1pm. Participation is free Confidentiality and openness are important for this session to work.

newsXpress Radio connects newsXpress members across the country

newsXpress is the only newsagency marketing group in the country to offer alive in-store radio service. This is a commercially valuable asset, a connection of all newsXpress stores playing the same music and running the same promotions across the group.

Our live in-store radio network is a newsXpress point of difference others envy. It provides a valuable marketing platform as wells as a community connection platform. The store shout-outs, product promotions and shopper reminders help connect us and drive shopper in-store engagement.

newsXpress Radio is provided free to newsXpress members. This is more than $800 a year in value delivered at no cost to our members.

newsXpress magazine club card drives sales

newsXpress members who engage with the newsagency channel’s longest running group-based loyalty marketing program have reported excellent magazine sales results for the last quarter of 2012. Year on year sales for the quarter in newsXpress stores are better than the newsagency channel average.

This is an excellent result for newsXpress and participating members.

The magazine club card is an easy to operate loyalty program, a program shoppers understand and a program that alters shopper behavior.

Whereas other loyalty programs reward average behavior, the newsXpress program drives shoppers to act above average. This results in additional sales for newsXpress members.

newsXpress provides the collateral for the program for free.

newsXpress celebrates Australia Day with Australian music festival in-store

newsXpress stores are celebrating Australia Day today through newsXpress Radio and their all day celebration of Australian music. This unique in-store experience reinforces our Australian connection and our support of the Australian music industry.

No other marketing group is doing this!

Diversity in newsagency marketing group membership helps all newsXpress members

The survey of newsXpress newsagency marketing group members late in 2012 provided an excellent insight into the types of businesses operated under the newsXpress shingle. The results show a diverse group of members covering a good geographic spread and a nice range of retail situations.

There is strength in diversity with members being able to learn from each other and with the group being able to attract an excellent range of suppliers. The breadth of coverage demonstrates to prospective newsXpress members that size does not matter, what is important is the people joining and that they are committed to growing their business and representing the newsXpress brand professionally in their area.

While there are many common offers, threads and products weaving the newsXpress network together, there is also diversity from which many opportunities in the future will flow.

the up-to-date understanding of the types of businesses in the newsXpress community was a small part of the data harvested through the survey.

Newsagents embrace newsXpress cluster meetings

Newsagency marketing group newsXpress has filled all available places for the regional cluster meetings to be held in the next couple of weeks. This is an excellent response from newsXpress members seeking to network with other newsXpress members and to engage in business development discussion.

The cluster meetings are being held on the Sunshine Coast (Nambour), Townsville and Newcastle over the last week of January and the first week of February.

These are not buying meetings, they are about business development … a unique and competitive positioning from newsXpress as it helps members grow more valuable businesses in 2013.

The sessions are not a traditional member meeting, they will be more free-flowing, less formal.

Participation for newsXpress members is free.

Why newsXpress is working with Coke and the value this brings to newsXpress members

newsXpress is the only newsagency marketing group to have a formal relationship with Coca Cola, the largest and most successful beverage company in Australia and the world.

newsXpress has developed the relationship over the last year and a half and in 2013 is driving even more value for newsXpress shoppers, newsXpress members, Coke and some of our partners.

We have recently had an opportunity to learn more about Coke, its positioning, its values and how this connects with us at a landmark international conference. This reinforced the important of the decision to focus on the relationship with Coke.

When you are working with the best consumer brand anything else is not what it could be.

Here are some key points about the value of the Coke brand and its connection with today’s consumer:

Coke is a brand that inspires optimism and happiness and hope.
Coke’s mission is about refreshing the world. It does this using a message of happiness and optimism.
Millenial consumers very concerned about the environemnt. Coke connects with them. On … water stewardship … recycling … climate protection.
Coke engages consumers with stories with strong and emotional content. The stories share value and create connections. This creates brand love and shared value.
Stories are the new currency for Coke in bulding their brand.
Coke invites all businesses to join in this journey on happiness and shared values.
The biggest shift in retail being driven by techology / mobility.

newsXpress is delivering strategic and valuable partnerships to newsXpress members, partnerships which bring their own shopper traffic and help drive greater engagement from existing shoppers.

help@newsxpress.com.au

The enhanced newsXpress member help service is helping more newsXpress members get quality answers sooner. By emailing help@newsXpress.com.au members are connected with a well-resourced panel which can either immediately answer queries or find answers.

newsXpress members are using the service for traditional newsXpress member queries through to questions of a more general newsagency management nature.

In establishing the centralised service, newsXpress is making use of the expanded head office services and freeing up on the road resources for in-store use.

newsXpress 2013 conference bookings filling

newsXpress members from across Australia are booking to attend and participate in our 2013 conference. With travel subsidised by newsXpress, we are making it easier for members to share in this important event.

The agenda is developing as practical and insightful with excellent business growth opportunities to flow. Equally important is the networking opportunities plus the exclusive buying opportunities at the conference and the newsXpress exclusive buying tour of the Toy Fair the day prior to the conference.

newsXpress 2013 National Conference. Tuesday March 5th, 2013. Melbourne Cricket Ground. 9.00am -5.00pm.

2013 Conference Cocktail Evening. Rivers Edge. 7.30 pm – midnight.

Both events are fully funded by newsXpress.

newsXpress publishers post Christmas sale advice video

Last week, newsXpress published a brief training and motivation video for newsXpress members discussing post Christmas sale opportunities. This video, the second this month from newsXpress, is a resource for members and their employees … something to be usedto help all team members get the most of Christmas and post-Christmas opportunities.

Using video training is another newsXpress leadership initiative – helping newsXpress members and their teams to be better informed and equipped to make the most of the season.

Member feedback has been terrific.

newsXpress members enjoyed the Mayan calendar opportunity

On our newsXpress private Facebook page we shared an opportunity for some fun yesterday. Members who engaged report a terrific sales result and plenty of fun to boot.

Through this promotion, newsXpress demonstrated a wicked sense of humour and an attention to commercial opportunities around world events (or non events).

It’s another newsXpress (fun) difference.