PUBLISHERS ARE ADVISED TO TARGET MAGAZINE, BOOK CHOICES AT RETAIL

JOHN KAROLEFSKI

NEW ORLEANS -- The idea is to place the right product in the right supermarket for the right shopper. Getting that done today calls for category management and efficient assortment techniques. That's how a Food Marketing Institute executive described the challenge facing the magazine and book publishing industry. "The key is not having all the items and all the choices, but having the 'right' items," said Michael Sansolo, vice president of industry relations for the Washington-based trade association. "What efficient assortment and category management calls for is being precise. If we're going to put items in, why are they there? What role do they play? Why is the item in the store? What message does it send to the consumer?"

Sansolo spoke here at Marketplace '95, a national conference and trade show sponsored by several independent distributor associations. Attendees were largely distributors, as well as magazine and book executives and others in the field.

In response to a question, Sansolo explained that despite the fact that space for periodicals in supermarkets is limited, more titles are being produced today. So a strategy for setting up and maintaining the proper assortment in each store is key. "You talk about an explosion of titles. Now you're talking about an explosion in the forms of media that are delivering these titles. The space in stores for magazines and all forms of reading is not going to expand exponentially.

"So the space is going to be fixed and you are going to be defending the space that you have. It's going to be very critical that it be the right assortment."

According to Sansolo, building relationships with the trade is another big part of the new way of doing business called Efficient Consumer Response. "You have to examine the relationships you have with the retailers and wholesalers you work with," he said. "If it doesn't become win-win, it's not working. And the best companies -- the ones that are winning aggressively -- are getting there.

"There are going to be people more willing than ever before to share numbers with you. But they're going to want something back from you. They're going to want you to help them make their reading center or magazine section hot. They're going to want it to sell." Sansolo said that although many stores around the country already have reading centers, the challenge is to find out what kinds of magazines and books their shoppers want. That kind of analysis and determination, he said, results from a working relationship. "[Retailers] are going to want to sit down with you and have that discussion," Sansolo said. "You have to be ready to be on the other side of that table."

Sansolo explained how competitive food retailing is today. Companies can increase profits by cutting costs and by increasing revenues.

The latter, he added, calls for creativity. "We have to look at how to make supermarket shopping exciting. "We don't want to drive people to sitting at home on couches ordering through television. You've got to have a good experience in the store. "You want to build relationships? Talk to your retailer and wholesaler accounts about merchandising programs, and about tie-ins," Sansolo said. "How can we make it more exciting? How can we get people to come to the store and think about buying that magazine that maybe they hadn't been thinking about buying when they went in?" he asked.

Understanding the consumer in the store's trading area also figures into the planning, he said, because there's no average shopper. This places a burden on the magazine distributor. "A retailer may say, 'Talk to me about these titles. What are the demographic attributes that make people want to buy them?' " said Sansolo.