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newsXpress announces may Mini-Conferences

newsXpress has announced details for its May Mini-Conferences. These feature packed one-day conferences will also provide access to excellent supplier deals, exclusive for attending newsXpress members. newsXpress members and key employees are urged to BOOK NOW to attend, to unlock maximum value from the newsXpress relationship.

Attendance is free thanks to generous newsXpress supplier funding.

Brisbane Tuesday 17h May 2011– Brisbane Technology Park, Cnr Logan & Miles Plating Rds Eight Mile Plains, QLD, 4113
Melbourne Thursday 19th May 2011 – Hemisphere Conference Centre, 488 South Rd Moorabbin VIC 3189
Sydney Thursday 26th May 2011 – Bonnie Doon Golf Club, Banks Ave, Pagewood, NSW, 2035
Perth Tuesday 31st May 2011 – Location TBA

Non newsXpress members are welcome to book and attend, to see the newsXpress difference in action.

Non newsXpress members should speak with our General Manager, Ben Kay, on 0419 678 754.

Party Time at newsXpress Knox

The new Party department at newsXpress Knox is delivering good sales. Plenty is as a result of new traffic generated by the new department.

From helium filled balloons through to party supplies like plates and cups, the new party department brings a feeling of celebration to the shop. The good range of products is generating excellent word of mouth and this is helping bring new traffic.

Planogrammed around a column and on a couple of stands, the party department at newsXpress Knox is situated close to a high traffic location in-store and as a result drives good impulse purchases as well as destination purchases.

More and more newsXpress stores are rolling out party departments, enjoying good margin high customer impact business.

Business Development Team Meeting

We flew all of our Business Development Managers and several others from our team into Sydney yesterday for a review of current newsXpress projects, briefing on supplier offers and a discussions around innovation planned for the second quarter of 2011.

newsXpress has the largest team of Business Development Managers, delivering in-store support, assistance and guidance, out of all newsagency marketing groups. The BDM team is a key reason for the above average performance we see in newsXpress businesses compared to other newsagencies.

Yesterday was well spent with clear and agreed focus for the three months ahead.

Royal Wedding innovation at Redcliffe

newsXpress Redcliffe is promoting pre-orders of the 2012 Royal Wedding calendar with this tactical placement at the sales counter. Using the newsXpress provided collateral, the counter unit makes it easy for customers to order the calendar and ensure that their copy is available when socks come in later this year. With no other retailer currently playing in this space, the pre-order is an excellent example of commercially valuable innovation from newsXpress, driving a more efficient shopping basket.

Easter at Ocean Grove

newsXpress Ocean Grove is promoting Easter products across a number of display which face shoppers as they enter the newsagency. From eggs to gifts to cards, the range at Ocean Grove is broad and certain to appeal to Ocean Grove shoppers.

newsXpress pitched its Easter 2011 range to members in mid 2010, enabling newsXpress members to get in earl, ahead of when most newsagents do their Easter buying. we do this with all seasons, giving newsXpress plenty of time to select the optimal range, picking the cream of the seasonal offers ahead of the crowds.

newsXpress Enhances Seasonal Marketing Collateral

newsXpress has expanded the range of marketing collateral it sends to newsXpress members in support of major seasons.

In addition to double sided A1 posters, newsXpress provides packs of A4 and A3 posters, using the same artwork.

This collateral for Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas, Diaries and Calendars provides newsXpress members with professional posters featuring newsXpress exclusive artwork with which to professional promote the season in-store.

The artwork for the collateral this year is presented in landscape mode, looking like it is on the back on an envelope. This is a subtle yet effective connection of the season with card buying … something often overlooked in seasonal marketing in newsagencies.

In addition to the printed posters, newsXpress also provides soft copies on the member website – for local printing and inclusion in local documents.

Seasonal marketing collateral is provided by newsXpress at no additional cost to newsXpress members.

Promoting The Sticker Family at Shoreline in Tasmania

newsXpress Shoreline in Tasmania is promoting The Sticker Family range of stickers with the pull up banner at the front of the store on the lease line.

We know from experience and success across the newsXpress group that this location at the front of the business is the perfect location for promoting The Sticker Family. newsXpress Shoreline is having the same success of other newsXpress stores, good incremental business, driving a more efficient sales basket.

Check out the photo … what a terrific looking shop!

Easter Eggs at Gladstone Park

newsXpress Gladstone Park has Easter on display with this promotion of gifts and Easter Eggs from Ernest Hillier. In a high traffic location on the dance floor, the Easter display is designed to grab impulse business – leveraging good traffic to the business for stationery, magazines and greeting cards. The Ernest Hillier range caters to a broad cross-section of the community from young to old. Their packaging stands out and makes any Easter display look fun and tempting.

newsXpress Seasonal Focus Pays Off

The analysis of year on year same store sales data for seasons in 2010 has been completed. The newsXpress strategy for seasons is delivering excellent rewards to many newsXpress members and our preferred suppliers.

There is nothing like well above average growth to show the financial and business value growth of newsXpress membership. This is what newsXpress and newsXpress members achieved last year.

Assessing the growth by seasons and comparing newsXpress performance with the average achieved by newsagents shows 2010 to have been a very good year. For some seasons, newsXpress year on year performance was more than double that of the average for the newsagency channel.

The latest data will be shared in some detail at our next round of one day mini conferences.

EXCLUSIVE: Another newsXpress Merchandise Opportunity

We can’t name the suppliers yet but watch out for another lucrative newsXpress exclusive which will be backed with a tremendous multi-media campaign. newsXpress members are set to reap the rewards of additional traffic and sales thanks to the work of our national merchandise team.

In a few months, through the exclusive offers, the commercial value of the newsXpress difference will be on show.

newsXpress Helps More Newsagents

newsXpress General Manager Ben Kay is set to announce a series of new member acquisitions as a result of wonderful word of mouth shared by newsXpress members about their experiences with the group. Ben has, in his role as General Manager, met with each of the soon to be announced new members to ensure that they have the outlook, drive and desire to uphold the principles of newsXpress and to add to the overall value of our newsagency marketing group.

Any newsagent interested in building a stronger and more valuable newsagency is welcome to speak with Ben about newsXpress on 0419 678 754.

Ink on offer at newsXpress Jimboomba

newsXpress Jimboomba has introduced the HOT ink! range as part of their further expansion of the product mix in the business. Focused on rspected brands and displayed using newsXpress provided shelf talkers, the HOT ink! range makes for a nice behind the counter presentation in the newsagency. They are supporting the ink range with flyers being sent to homer surrounding the centre.

Great Newsagency Deals for newsXpress Members

Newsagency marketing group newsXpress last week released details for more special offers and product deals for newsXpress members from some of our suite of preferred suppliers. These special deals mean that newsXpress newsagents are able to buy better and therefore improve margin or pass on savings to customers.

newsXpress is committed to helping newsXpress newsagents buy stock at competitive prices. Rather than keeping bonus margin for itself, newsXpress prefers to help members access the financial rewards of good our group wide negotiation.

Suppliers like newsXpress because of its commitment to helping members sell preferred supplier stock. It is one thing to negotiate a good deal for stock and another altogether to sell that stock in a timely manner, to maximise the financial return for the newsagency.

newsXpress supports preferred supplier stock with tactical placement advice, visual merchandising advice, marketing support and other assistance. The result is an increased bankable margin from special offers.

Sure the deal is important. However, a deal which does not sell or does not sell quickly is not as valuable as a deal which sells the way many newsXpress deals sell.

These are newsXpress differences in action.

International Insights from Hallmark

Last week several of us from newsXpress were privileged to participate in a briefing on international trends delivered by Ian Stewart, International CEO for Hallmark Cards. As the only newsagency marketing group represented at the briefing, we have an insight which will help with our planning as we help our members transition their businesses through changes in several traditional newsagency product categories.

We will share some of Ian’s insights at the next round of newsXpress member meetings.

Toys on show at Ascot Vale

newsXpress Ascot Vale has been running a terrific toy display in their front window. Featuring toys from newsXpress preferred suppliers, the feature of this window display is Timbertop range of dolls houses. Shoppers on street stop to look at the display … a key goal of any window display in retail.

Take a look at the photo and compare this window display to what you see in other newsagency windows.

The Timbertop range is not what shoppers may expect from their average high street newsagency … but then newsXpress Ascot is not your average high street newsagency. This innovative business always offers a broad range of products and does the newsXpress brand proud.

Newsagency marketing group value on show at newsXpress

newsXpress newsagents located near Lucky Charm newsagents and Nextra newsagents are enjoying the latest HOT ink! campaign since the newsXpress prices are better than the Lucky Charm and Nextra prices … better than all for nextra and better than all but two for The Lucky Charm. What is even better is that newsXpress newsagents are banking excellent margin dollars while maintaining highly competitive prices.

This head to head competition between the three marketing groups is interesting in that Nextra and the Lucky Charm are claiming everyday low prices and best prices guaranteed respectively. Lucky Charm meets the claim by offering to beat other’s prices by 5%. We consider that to be lazy marketing. newsXpress stays away from such claims in its marketing materials and actually delivers better prices.

At newsXpress, when it come to ink, shoppers win, newsXpress members win and our preferred suppliers win.

There is a considerable difference when it comes to newsagency marketing groups as the current ink promotion being run by all three shows.

Promoting Great Ink Deals at Sunbury

newsXpress Sunbury is promoting the excellent value of the latest newsXpress HOT Ink! catalogue compared to ink prices from nearby competitors. Their new ink wall is laid out by brand and using shelf price tickets provided by newsXpress to coincide with the HOT Ink! catalogue. This self service wall is what newsXpress recommends. Our experience is that it drives sales and this is proving to be the newsXpress Sunbury experience. Well done to Brendan, Rita and the team for embracing change with the new HOT Ink! wall layout.

If you live in Sunbury and buy ink for your printer at work or at home, check out newsXpress Sunbury. They have an excellent range of brand name inks at excellent prices.

This is another newsXpress difference: delivering products to members at excellent prices, backed by proven traffic generating campaigns and supporting this with valuable insights for driving sales in-store.

Congratulations newsXpress Young

newsXpress Young was announced the New Technology Newsagent of the year for NSW/ACT at the NANA Awards Dinner last night. Congratulations to ted, Kate and the team at newsXpress Young. A key factor in their winning of the award was their creation of an Optus store within a store at newsXpress young … offering the full range of Optus services to the people of Young. Talk about innovation!

The opening of the Optus store within a store store was facilitated by newsXpress preferred supplier Jenlist.

Congratulations again to newsXpress Young!

Expensive Price Guarantee for The Lucky Charm newsagents

We have the best prices guaranteed and if you find a cheaper price we will beat it by 5%. This is the claim for the latest ink offer by The Lucky Charm, a newsagency franchise group of 20 or so stores.

Comparing the latest ink catalogue published by The Lucky Charm with that just published by newsXpress, any shopper can see that their prices are not the best. While the beat newsXpress prices around 20% of the time, newsXpress beats them for the rest – and that is comparing only against the limited range on the flyer from the Lucky Charm.

newsXpress members can be confident that the HOT Ink! campaign continues to deliver excellent consumer value. Our consistency is unparalleled in the ink category. Our pricing and ranging leadership is backed by professional marketing collateral, in-store strategies and tactics which drive sales and marketing support materials for presenting a professional look for ink.

As for offering to discount 5% below the best price offered by a competitor – talk about expecting your customers to do the work which good retailers should do for themselves. Officeworks uses this tactic often. Our view is that it is lazy.

Here at newsXpress we believe that we have to put out the best offer possible. Our merchandise, marketing and business development teams work hard to help our national retail network deliver this every day.