The windows of an increasing number of retailers across the UK will be adorned with a bright red and yellow logo encouraging consumers to ‘Just Ask!’ from next week.
The point-of-sale material is being sent to 5,000 leading home news delivery (HND) outlets in a joint mailing with the National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN) ‘Homelink’ scheme as part of the initial phase of a national roll-out of Just Ask, the PPA’s relaunched shop save and HND scheme.
The expansion of Just Ask points to the scheme’s growing momentum. Launched by COMAG and taken over by PPA in 2005 as a cross-industry initiative, Just Ask was devised to encourage magazine readers to order titles through their local newsagent via Shop Save or HND. The initiative aims to increase awareness among consumers that any magazine can be ordered from any local newsagent, even if it is not stocked on their shelves.
PPA’s Retail Marketing Group (RMG) felt that Shop Save and HND offered huge potential sales growth for magazines, utilising the existing infrastructure in place for HND of newspapers. It established a common brand for the promotion of magazine ordering services, providing a recognisable point of reference for retailers and consumers alike, which is promoted to readers through retailers’ stores and within magazine pages.
In 2009, the RMG decided that the Just Ask brand needed to be refreshed. Although it was established among retailers, feedback from the industry showed that the Just Ask message on its own was not clear to shoppers: what are they ‘Just Ask’-ing for? The time? Directions? As a result, the Just Ask branding was redesigned to make it more effective. It now provides a clear message: Over 3,000 magazines available in-store, Just Ask.
In conjunction with the re-branding, the RMG decided to embark on a number of geographical trials for developing Shop Save and HND to enable the group to test the most effective promotions. The first geographical trial took place in Nottingham in autumn 2009 and focused on in-store promotion of the brand to shoppers. A second trial took place in the Birmingham area in spring 2010 supported by an above-the-line advertising campaign in local press and the results were recently presented to the PPA’s Newstrade Committee.
The trials found that in-store point-of-sale material was well received by retailers and was effective in alerting customers to their Shop Save and HND offering – particularly where retailers proactively sold the service to customers. In addition, a survey carried out as part of the trials showed that the majority of retailers taking part felt the scheme should be rolled out nationally.
The first fruits of this roll-out are the point-of-sale mailings conducted in association with NFRN Homelink - the first time that newspapers and magazines have joined forces in this way to sell the concept of HND and Shop Save to consumers via independent newsagents. Going forward into 2011, the RMG aims to further build on the campaign by establishing a list of specialist retailers who have signed up to promote Just Ask.
To build on the positive momentum of the scheme, PPA is urging publishers to display the Just Ask logo and in-mag advert to promote the initiative to readers. The artwork can be downloaded from the PPA website.
Fact file:
• 1 in every £7 spent at retail is delivered to consumers’ doors
• 1.8m households have a newspaper or magazine delivered
• 26 per cent of national newspaper sales are home delivered
• 5 per cent of magazine sales are home delivered
• There are 18,000 HND retailers
(Source: The Fore Partnership)
