Retails: How to get involved

Magazine Week 2008, running from 29 September – 5 October, is a magazine industry initiative to encourage people to buy more magazines and to excite them about the vast range of titles available.

The Magazine Week strap line is "Indulge your passion... try another magazine today"

Retailers are at the centre of Magazine Week. If Magazine Week is all about raising the profile of the whole magazine category with the consumer, then retailers are the shop window where the full range is on display and ready to be bought.

What is Magazine Week?

The project is a week of concentrated PR and promotional activity from 29 September – 5 October which will raise the profile of the whole medium with consumers around the country. The activities will underline the powerful emotional link that exists between magazines and their readers and will drive consumers to experiment with new magazines outside their normal repertoire. This consumer activity forms the backdrop to more creative in-store work where retailers can really grab the shopper's attention.

How to get involved

The following is a shopping list of ideas of how to get involved in and support Magazine Week:

• In-store theatre with point of sale branding
• Window dressing
• Shopping messages, each day a different message e.g. "Indulge your passion...try a magazine, and one for your mum!"; "If you like gardening, why not look at our great range of gardening magazines"; "It's the weekend – buy a magazine and indulge your passion!"
• Meet and greet with staff at the front of the store
• Rotation of mags on a gondola daily
• Till receipts to hold Magazine Week logo
• Voucher incentives (included in regional press, local flyer campaigns etc.)
• Make use of every communication vehicle (both staff and customer facing)
• Targeted leaflets to consumers – using Magazine Week to fulfil individual store objectives (e.g. promoting shop save; highlighting expanded magazine range etc)
• Out of category PoS / out of category positioning of magazines
• Using clubcard/loyalty card promotion (or equivalent)
• Promote The Great Cover Debate poll to consumers and ask them to visit www.magazineweek.net to vote for their favourite ever UK magazine cover via websites, in-store branding, leaflets and email lists
• Any other ideas you might have!

Examples of support from Magazine Week 2007:

Strong Branding at WHSmith mainline train stations

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Display of branded PoS in both multiple and independent retail outlets

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Special offers on different days of the Week in independent retail
Prominent window display at Borders
Prize draw for free shopping at Sainsbury's

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The consumer perspective

Consumer research emphasises just how important magazines are in building traffic and making the shopping trip more enjoyable.....

• Magazines drive 8% of the shopping trips as the main reason for visiting the shop.
• Magazines also have a very significant element of secondary 'add on' purchasing (accounting for an additional 9% of shop visits)
• Consumers are clear that they expect to see magazines in their local shop as they are a fundamental element of the shops' consumer offer.

The magazine purchasing process
There is a significant element of impulse purchasing of magazines. Sixty six per cent are for 'treat' occasions and 30% of magazine sales are not planned. The key is to make the shelves attractive, tidy and easy to find your way around with clear category signs. The space and the freedom to browse are also important.

Magazine range
A significant number of consumers are looking for a wider range of magazines from their local shop. An ideal way to offer the widest range to consumer is by promoting shop saves such as Just Ask. An approach like this will help your shop to be recognised as the specialist outlet for magazines.

Home delivery
Fourteen per cent of consumers have a magazine home delivered. Yet there is surprisingly low overlap (only 20%) between consumers who have a newspaper and a magazine delivered, suggesting the potential for cross promotion to develop this service.

Promoting magazines in-store

• The till point is the most visible and powerful sales point in the shop.
• Category signs help shoppers to find their way round the racks.
• Shelf-edgers do attract shoppers' attention, but too many can make the racks look confusing and over-busy.

"Recommended reads" can direct new and infrequent shop visitors to try a magazine.

Why support Magazine Week?

• More magazine sales and increased footfall in your store
• Make your shop the best place to buy magazines in the area to encourage customers to come back
• If you offer a Shop Save scheme or Home News Delivery, use Magazine Week to promote this to customers
• More sales means less returns

How you can benefit from Magazine Week

While independent retailers face numerous challenges, they have an abiding place in consumer buying habits. Magazines are very much part of these buying habits and are central to what consumers expect to see in these outlets. Take magazines out and the whole consumer offer crumbles.

Yet there is evidence that independents can develop magazine sales further. To do so means not just investing in an important category, but also building up the core values of your shop in the consumer's mind, where range, personal service, a community feel and a real understanding of the products you are selling should set you apart from your competitors.

How you can get involved

• In-store theatre with Point of Sale branding
• Window dressing
• Shopping messages, each day a different message e.g. "Indulge your passion...try a magazine, and one for your mum!"; "If you like gardening, why not look at our great range of gardening magazines"; "It's the weekend – buy a magazine and indulge your passion!"
• Meet and greet consumers with information about the range of titles available both in-store and through shop save
• Make use of every communication vehicle (both staff and customer facing)
• Promote The Great Cover Debate poll to consumers and ask them to visit www.magazineweek.net to vote for their favourite ever UK magazine cover
• Any other ideas you might have!

Magazine Week is the real opportunity to develop your magazine sales. So put the date in your diary, look out for your Magazine Week PoS pack in September and get ready to dress your magazine display to create some in-store theatre and maximise your sales!

Magazine Week ... go on, take part and help grow your magazine sales!

For further information, please contact Kate McElroy at PPA on 020 7400 7529 or kate.mcelroy@ppa.co.uk