PREMIUM PLACEMENTS

There's no doubt that having your magazine in premium positions leads to increased awareness and, hopefully, more sales.

In some cases newsagents and bookshops will charge for these prime placements. In Bangkok I know of one bookshop that will ask around 5,000 baht per store for a package that includes window and counter merchandising and prime placements such as the one in this photograph.

The issue for publishers comes when you do that maths. Let's say your magazine retails for 100 baht and the commission payable to the distributor and seller comes to 50 per cent. You would need to sell an extra 100 copies in that store to recoup the costs of the marketing exercise alone.

This particular image was taken in Borders in Singapore. One of my magazines, Property Report South East Asia, occupies a premium end-of-shelf position and it didn't cost anything. Often a retailer will rotate magazines on a daily or weekly basis, or choose which magazines get this prime placement based on previous good sales or an outstanding cover and/or cover story. For a publisher its very welcome exposure.