At the recent ACCC Pre-decision Conference, which I attended, which I spoke twice apparently longer than anyone.
In response to a comment made by me that the current MPA magazine category management system was designed for advertising and was out of date, Eugene Varricchio, who is the Director of Operations and Retail Sales in Bauer Media stated the current magazine category management system for magazines was out of date, that little work has been done on it for 10 years and much work had to be done on it.
This I thought was a very interesting comment because how does anyone in light of this comment explain the following points in the application by the Association of Magazine Publishers of Australia Inc. (MPA) where it states that the pilot which was to be started no later than April 2015, in other words, it was supposed to be already going without this tool being available?
Yet the importance of magazine category management is stated many times and yet it is not ready now.
On page 15
Implementation of category management guidelines that demonstrate clearly how magazine layout, retail layout and category adjacencies can deliver better newsagency return on investment (sales and profit).
Demonstrating the potential return on investment obtained by magazine category management and the key significance of magazines as a customer sales driver.
Identify the core skills a newsagent requires to manage the magazine category effectively.
page 16 goes on
Improved magazine category management
Maintainance of successful category performance post-pilot
page 19 states
Stores to have the magazine category relayed to current MPA guidelines
Stores to be provided with existing MPA Category Header cards
I note it here as food for thought.
