Branding and back to school

ctn_bts_09a.jpgThe team and newsXpress Castle Towers has created a terrific outpost for Back To School at Castle Towers Shopping Centre.  They have a full range of product from exercise books to pencil boxes, to highlighters to sketch pads.  The outpost rivals that of any national retailer.  The newsXpress Castle Towers team have every reason to be proud.

Visually, what you cannot miss as you approach the Back To School outpost is the newsXpress branded red bags.  In addition to branding the outpost, these bags contain prepackaged Back To School items by grade – making shopping even easier.

How to choose a newsagency marketing group

newsXpress is pleased to publish How to choose the right marketing group for your newsagency.  Newsagents will find this useful in evaluating newsagency marketing groups and newsagency franchise groups.  It offers straightforward advice which will stand up to rigorous assessment.

We are expecting critics.  These are likely to be those we caution against in the report – the newsagency marketing and franchise groups which seek to lock newsagents into five year agreements, which want first right of refusal if you try and sell your business or stop you from joining another group for a year after you leave.

The key advice we provide to newsagents considering joining a newsagency marketing or franchise group is to understand what you want, take your time to thoroughly evaluate the options and check the claims.  Good marketing groups have nothing to fear from such an approach.  newsXpress would be glad to help you compare its offer with any other you are considering for your newsagency.

Growing the newsagency franchise

s7300075.JPGThe newsXpress newsagency marketing / franchise group is growing.  Jarrad Zanich, our new newsXpress Western Australia based Business Development Manager, has been visiting with newsXpress members as part of his induction into our newsagency marketing group.  In the photo, Jarrad is with Margaret Augustine.  Business Development Managers like Jarrad are a unique point of difference newsXpress offers newsagents – someone who visits the business regularly to work with you on the business, fresh eyes and a kit of knowledge and ideas which are working elsewhere.  Bringing a new Business Development Manager into newsXpress takes months to learn what is unique to newsXpress.  Jarrad will be visiting stores around the country over the next two months, getting to what we do in between geting to know our Western Australian members too.

Dressing the store for the sale

marbigvalueprop.JPGIn addition to our TV campaign and national letterbox drops supporting Back To School at newsXpress, we have provided our members with a range of in-store marketing collateral – preprinted as well as material they can print themselves – to support the Back To School themes of brand and value.  On some items, like the Marbig Lever Arch Binders, we include an additional pitch – summer colours.  While this may be obvious because of the colour of the product, we have found that adding to the communication in this way can further differentiate your offer from that of a competitor.

Crossword offer exclusive to newsXpress

puzzlernxp.JPGExclusive to newsXpress.  The sticker in the top left corner of the crossword pack from Puzzler is an important message in newsXpress members and to consumers shopping in newsXpress stores.  This is one of several exclusive to newsXpress offers from Puzzler planned for this year.

The crossword category is important in newsagencies because of its efficiency.  Crossword customers are more likely to buy multiple titles from the category.  Crossword customers are also loyal – once they have found a store wwith the range and service they like, they are more likely to return.  This ties in with our newsXpress exclusive traffic generating loyalty program.

Campaigns like this one we are running with Puzzler reinforces the value of crosswords in-store and the key supplier relationships we deliver exclusively for newsXpress members.  The sticker is a proud badgs for us.

Back to School success at newsXpress

newsXpress members are reporting excellent results with Back to School even though the season proper does not kick off until next week.  Some of our members have gone out early with the support of the group and have found plenty of shoppers getting and early start on Back to School shopping.  That we had our collateral out to our members early was crucial in enabling those members who did want to start early to do so.

Information for newsXpress members only

newsXpress has loaded more content in the members only section of the new corporate website.  This includes product specific marketing collateral in support of Valentine’s Day. 

Our new website is generating excellent consumer traffic – driven in part through Google searches – to the public areas and excellent member traffic to the member-only areas.

Pentel Pop n Pop for newsXpress

popinpop.jpgPentel is proud to bring ‘Pop n Pop’ correction tape to newsXpress as the first retailers to sell this product outside of Officeworks.  Pentel’s ‘Pop n Pop’ correction tape has sold over 100,000 units since release late last year.  Having this product reinforces our relevance and appeals to a demographic important to our businesses.  ‘Pop n Pop’ correction tape is a good point of difference for newsXpress.

newsXpress Bargara in the news

Bargara’s NewsXpress owner Debbie Chapman said her store experienced expected sales despite the economic squeeze.

“People are price conscious for their back to school shopping, but I haven’t noticed a difference from this time last year,” she said.

“It’s one of our peak periods in the year … last week was really strong.”

Debbie was quoted in a report published by the News Mail about businesses and the reported economic climate.  It is good to see the one report cover Officeworks and newsXpress.

Many newsXpress businesses are reporting good trading thanks to the balancing the group has brought to traditional newsagency businesses.  With categories like calendars, gifts and books delivering better-than-before margins, the newsXpress offer is proving to be financially rewarding.

First newsagent member meeting for 2009

newsXpress today announces its first member meeting for 2009 – an online meeting on January 27 at 3pm.  The 3pm start will enable this to be a national meeting, covering all time zones.  The meeting will review Back To School 2009, preview Q1 marketing and facilitate a general business discussion.

Access to the meeting is open to newsXpress members only.  To participate, you will need a computer with broadband and access to a phone for a toll free call for the audio part of the meeting.

Our online member meetings are in addition to our face to face capital city and regional member meetings and in-store visits made with members on a regular basis.  newsXpress places high importance in getting like-minded newsagents together to talk about business and collectively develop streategies for member businesses and the group as a whole.

Help when a newsagency is for sale

When a newsXpress newsagency is for sale, membership of our newsagency marketing group helps in a variety of valuable ways.

The existing newsXpress member has access to our advice in relation to preparing the business for sale – making sure the records are up to date and that the business itself is presented well.  This can help a newcomer to the newsagency channel to better understand the value of offer.

The prospective purchaser has access to the newsXpress team to get a feel for how we help newcomers to the newsagency channel settle into the business should they proceed with a purchase.  We outline our training and support services which provide access to knowledge which would otherwise take years to develop.

These services and others we provide to newsagency sellers and buyers are unique to newsXpress.  They are provided without additional cost.  They make a newsXpress newsagency more valuable through the sales process and a more appealing business to people who have never owned a newsagency before.

The newsagency channel can be a great channel to join.  Good partnerships are vital to finding that enjoyment.

Newsagency marketing group news

newsXpress is a full service marketing group for newsagency businesses.  It is the only group delivering regular in-store business management support – a key reason newsXpress members outperform other newsagencies, regardless of brand, in key departments of magazines, cards, calendars and other areas. 

To drive traffic to their newsagencies, newsXpress members have access to national TV advertising, regular catalogues and a comprehensive online marketing campaign.

To leverage the best value from each customer visit, newsXpress members have access to excellent product deals, the best in-store marketing colateral in the channel, tactics to help achieve strong impulse sales and a loyalty program which is applauded internationally as ground breaking.

To drive business efficiency, newsXpress provides regular training to members around newsXpress exclusive intellectual property.  This is delivered face to face and online. 

newsXpress members are offered these benefits – marketing, products and in-store support.  We respect their independece and their right to decide whether to engage.  The group does not force members to take every deal or engage in every promotion.  This is why some members do better than others.  Those who truly engage do very well.

What makes newsXpress unique among newsagency marketing (franchise) groups is that members are NOT locked into long term agreements.  This is a consideranble risk for a newsagent who may want to sell their business in the future as it could cause a sale to fall through.  Our view is that if we do our job members will support the group.  This is better than tying people into an onerous contract.

If you want to achieve the best from your newsagency in 2009, talk to newsXpress and see whether your business and ours are a good fit.

Nintendo Wii giveaway at newsXpress

nwii.jpgCustomers buying items promoted in our Back To School catalogue can go online to our website to enter to win one of twenty Nintendo Wii we are giving away.  Entries are building as the Back To School season really kicks in. 

We selected the Wii as the prize because it’s something for the whole family.  From games to educational software, the Wii serves many uses in a busy household.  What a perfect gift for the back To School season!

newsXpress is the first newsagency marketing group to run in-store competitions in the newsagency channel where entry is through the website.  It’s our way of introducing our new website to consumers and making entry faster and easier. 

newsXpress is embracing technology and choosing cool prizes to show that you can have fun at this time of the year and that there are great rewards for shopping at newsXpress.

Customers like feedback option

nx_feedback.jpgThe feedback facilities at our new newsXpress website are being enjoyed by customers and visitors.  Plenty are clicking on Contact Us and completing a simple to form to provide feedback on our offers and store-level experiences.  We respond to enery contact and involve specific newsXpress store members if appropriate. 

The contact us facilities on our new website are another way newsXpress is leading the newsagency channel on customer service and pursuing its for customers to experience the difference. 

Our website will continue to evolve with new facilities currently under development.

Early start to Valentine’s Day

newsXpress members are taking up our Valentine’s Day offers in good numbers.  We have selected a range of gift lines to compliment an excellent range of greeting cards and related items already provided by core suppliers.  In selecting our product offers we have carefully balanced margin with potential volume as both are crucial factors in product selection.

While newsXpress sources offers around seasons and throughout the year, members are free to make their own decision as to whether to participate.  It is gratifying sharing the results after a season and hearing how well offers pitched through the group have gone.

Preparing the TV campaign

newsXpress is putting the finishing touches to a Back to School TV campaign due to hit the airwaves in ten days time.  This newsXpress exclusive campaign will promote several hero products and a commitment to service to drive traffic to our network of newsagencies.  This will be our third TV campaign in a year, not bad for a small group of 160 stores. 

Our TV support for Back To School is in addition to brochures which are being delivered to homes around participating newsXpress locations.

Three new gift suppliers announced

newsXpress has announced three new gift supplier relationships to members.  With gift department sales growing well in 2008, our merchandise team has been working hard to extent the ranges available on favourable terms to our members for 2009. 

Exclusive product offers and pricing key elements of these exclusive supplier arrangements negotiated by newsXpress.  The differences between newsagents will increase this year as the value of deals such as these is felt by more newsagents. 

newsXpress is pleased to have national network of 160 locations on behalf of which to negotiate these arrangements.

Lucky newsXpress

newsXpress Parap in the Northern Territory, newsXpress Kellicar Lane in New South Wales and newsXpress Collie in Western Australia are the latest in a string of newsXpress outlets to sell a first division lottery prize.  Both sold First division Saturday.  While we don’t control who wins, we do make sure that through excellent customer service every lottery customer at newsXpress is a winner.

newsXpress stores in Queensland in 2008 sold close to twenty major lottery prizes of close to $100,000.

Post updated January 11, 2009.