In correlation with the April CBA Retailers+Resources feature articles on entertainment today, CBA has created a Top Ten list of Music Best Practices. Focusing on keeping the right business practices in music is crucial right now. It is often easy to divert one’s attention to so many different directions as a retailer, and one way the symptoms of this lack of focus show up is in declining music sales for stores. By keeping focused and implementing even just a few of these changes, stores’ music sections can be revived and transformed. If you have other suggestions or best practices, as always, let us know what you’re doing.
1. Always have best selling music on-hand—use best seller lists based on direct customer sell through like CBA’s Custom Inventory Accelerator, CROSS:SCAN and Above the Treeline provide, or the best seller list in Retailers + Resources Magazine.
2. Always have music some music on sale at a reduced price—create the perception that you do have music product on sale—look for music specials from distributors of remainder products.
3. Use Christian radio to hookup with Christian music lovers—over half of our Christian music buyers (57% from 2007 Sound Decisions research) listen to Christian radio everyday—83% listen every week—89% listen every month.
Continue reading "Music Best Practices " »
Coupons are cool again, according to the latest WSL Strategic Retail: How America Shops Everyday Pulse. Of all the consumers surveyed in this report, a full 52% of them said they are proud of the little ways they can save money, such as clipping and using coupons they have found both online and in circulars. While coupons and other cost-savings techniques like cooking at home and not going out as often seem reminiscent of something a 1960s housewife might do, WSL claims both modern women and men are hunting for small ways to save money this Christmas, regardless of income. As WLS puts it, this is an “equal opportunity recession.”
As most consumers “shift to thrift” this holiday season, CBA Training and Consulting Manager Mike Hockett believes the need for coupons will continue to increase and stores can take advantage of this demand in numerous ways. Here’s Mike’s Top 10 list when it comes to incorporating coupons into retailers’ marketing strategies next month:
Continue reading "The Shift to Thrift " »
Friday marks an interesting day in the world of Christian products. That is the day the film House releases nationwide in theaters. The simple release of a film is not what is worth noting though. House, which is based on the novel of the same name by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker, has been labeled the first ever Christian horror film.
Adding to the buzz surrounding this film is its inked MPAA rating of R. Despite the filmmakers’ multiple appeals to the MPAA, the association remained firm on its rating. So now we have a Christian horror film with an R-rating. One sentence with several contradictory terms.
Or so it seems. When I sat down to talk with Dekker the other week about the film, I didn’t find a man trying to sway the MPAA to change, but rather a man calling the body to action. “Here’s a perfect watershed moment,” Dekker said. “Just because the world gave this film an R-rating, are we going to not sell it in our stores? Are we going to refuse to see it in the theaters just because the world slapped the letter ‘R’ on it despite it being the entire gospel message including salvation?”
Continue reading "The First Christian Horror Film? " »
Late yesterday afternoon Market Watch posted an article on the success to date of the film Fireproof. The article begins by rattling off a number of statistics that, in general, show Fireproof as a hit. Adding to its theatrical accomplishments, The Love Dare, the book featured in the film, has held steady for two weeks in the #1 spot on the New York Times best seller list (paperback – advice).
Having seen the film multiple times in a variety of states prior to its theatrical release, I have yet to actually purchase a ticket and view it in a real theater with a real audience, but through the grapevine, I’ve heard numerous stories of friends and co-workers being tremendously affected by the movie. So much so that some have told me they have gone straight from the theater to the bookstore to purchase multiple copies of The Love Dare. And while I was at Mardel this past weekend, a reporter from the Colorado Springs Gazette called to speak with the manager about the book’s strong sales and how to best position an article about it.
Continue reading "The Phenomenon of Fireproof " »
Mike Hockett is CBA’s Training & Development manager. He has more than 28 years of experience in the CBA industry, and he manages the CBA Consulting Program. For more information about how you can apply the principles Mike mentions below, send him an email.
You know how sometimes you buy a business book, read it and find it to be so boring that you fall a sleep every time you see its cover. Well, that’s the way it was when I first read The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. Chris actually does a great job of explaining the Long Tail and illustrating some facts to back it up. For those of you who are Long Tail addicts and really understand everything that Chris says in his book you may find what I have to say elementary. However, I do think it follows much of Chris’s application in his more recent book, Long Tail, the Revised and Updated Edition: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. For those of you who sell books and especially Christian books, I think you will find what I have to say interesting and beneficial.
Here is my short take away and application of Chris’s book. There are many more products available over the Internet than are available in a retail store setting. This availability of additional product is called the Long Tail. If a retailer can identify this product based on customer demand and have it in-stock when the customer wants it, you have a sale – a sale that you would not have unless you carried the product in-stock. When you do not have this product in stock, guess where your customer goes to buy it? You’re right the Internet. It doesn’t take this old retailer long to figure out that Long Tail product is worth finding and selling. After all it is usually product that you can make full margin on and you don’t have to carry large quantities. I am selling less of more.
Continue reading "A "Tail" That's True " »
Recent Comments