We love it when our Partners get creative with their marketing strategies and come up with unique ways to drive their businesses!
Our partner from Sweden, James Keef, started retailing newspapers out of a Piaggio three-wheeler on the streets in Stockholm in May 2009. This outstanding sales strategy definitely boosted (or should I say accelerated!) retail sales and became the ultimate tool for generating awareness for the product. The partner has 2 of these eye-catching vehicles in use at the moment.
Over the next several months we will be posting different success strategies that our Partners have successfully implemented. If you want to share your ideas, please let us know at distribution@newspaperdirect.com.
Cheers,
Sandeep
The best part of this initiative was a special that we ran for a couple of weeks:
‘Buy one newspaper, and get tomorrow’s edition delivered free to your hotel’
We also allowed guests to order directly through the News Stand for delivery to their hotel.
This created a lot more hotel awareness and resulted in approx 60-70 newspapers delivered to a many of Stockholm’s hotels. Those who were not already our clients then better understood the services that we can provide. It also opened up a window of opportunity to call the hotel to discuss, and ‘strike while the iron is hot’.
Unfortunately, we will not pursue the same technique this summer season. We found the wastage to be too high. Also the hourly sales vs hourly cost of staff didn’t make sense.
We would certainly recommend this strategy in countries where the cost of labour is relatively low, and where other products (such as drinks etc) can be sold from the stand. Constant communication between the stand and the printing hub is also essential to allow for 2nd & 3rd newspaper top-ups throughout the day to reduce wastage and maximize sales opportunities.
Cheers,
James
James O’Brien
Business Development & Operations
NewspaperDirect Sweden