Case In Point

[spottacus]

I called around town before going out to buy two copies of Farewell to give away as Christmas gifts. Three stores confirmed that they had it in stock, but two couldn't find it when I showed up. Another (one that took a flat and a fistfull of coupons from me) had never ordered any copies.

One national chain insisted that it belonged in the Contemporary Pop section instead of Rock. They couldn't find the two copies they claimed to have.

I finally found it at a local store that doesn't report to Soundscan.

If I hadn't been committed to finding this CD, I would never have been able to locate a copy.

This was just another example of what's putting Petra out of business - fan apathy and a lack of retail support.

[Edward]

Stupid dumb donkeys. Who's running the show? A bunch of kids? Oh yeah. The answer is yes.

[BForm]

Spot, I share your frustration with this situation. The Lifeway I checked said they were "sold out" a week before Christmas. They probably sold both copies if you know what I'm saying. I feel awful everytime I think about this. To have the CD released in time for the Christmas season and then not be able to take advantage of it is just mind boggling.

However, I'm not sure we should place the blame primarily on the retail stores. Something happened with Inpop. I don't know if you noticed but Shara hasn't posted a thing since the news broke that Lifeway and Family didn't even have the title in their system. My gut feeling is Inpop made a huge mistake somewhere and there were some very tense moments since then within that company. There has been almost NO visible promotion for this CD. It's been absolutely pathetic. The concerts are probably generating more sales than retail. What a blown opportunity.

Maybe. Just maybe there will be some kind of major joint marketing effort for the CD and DVD when it is released. That still doesn't make up for losing out on Christmas sales.

[Pethead1]

Bill, if you are talking about the Lifeway at Buford they lied. They never had it. My son works there and true to his Pethead Mom every day he told the ordering person that people were asking for it. All they told him was "we'll see about getting it." Part of his job was the CD so he would know.

The only store I found it this side of Gwinnett was Cornerstone at Snelville.

[74CAPethead]

I�m sorry to hear about your experiences however where I live I�ve experienced the complete opposite! In my area I have 5 Christian bookstores that I shop at (not Lifeway) and they are all selling MANY copies of the CD!! 2 of the stores (Sonshine) have BIG displays with the big flats up on the walls in their music sections where everybody can see! One of the other stores accepted a flat to put up on the wall but didn�t know about the coupons; in fact this bookstore has a new owner who just happens to be a BIG Petra fan!!! On the coupon it does say �only at participating Christian retail stores�, so not all stores are participating. The Lighthouse store in Long Beach is accepting the coupons and they took a flat for display too. One of the employees said that they�ve been selling A LOT of the Farewell CDs, they only had 8 left on the shelf but they had them displayed in 2 locations in the store, in the rock section and in the new releases section. The Berean store is selling a lot of them also; in fact the person I talked to on the phone had purchased one and said that he loved it!! So lots of great news in Southern CA!!

Also about Shara, she is still very much involved�on Dec. 13th she sent out the Petra street team update and wanted to know from everybody how our promotions have been going etc. In the update it said �We had a great 1st week of sales and we�re hoping that the trend will continue as we enter the busy Christmas season.� Shara has returned all my emails and gave me another person to handle any of my questions or concerns while she�s out of the office. She was going to be gone from Dec. 21-Jan. 2. She asked me if I needed any more flats or coupons to just let her know and she would send them out. Maybe Shara has been too busy with promotions that she hasn�t had time to post�I don�t know!

If it�s selling so well here, and other places too then maybe that one Lifeway store did really sell out!? I hope that was the case!!

So not all is as dark as it may seem!

[Edward]

Here is how it works.

The label sells to distributors. They have sales people that pimp the product. They buy adds in the CBA and other industry sales catalogs. The label is supposed to spend cash on promotions, via a rep/management, etc.

The stores only buy from the big three distributors. The stores HAVE to see a demand to order product. They go by sales history. If there is good history in your area, then your local stores got a good portion of the units that they expected to sell. They either sold them, sent them back, or on the shelves, IF they got them at all.

The stores give the CDs 30 days to move. If they don't move in 30, then they get theiramounts deducted from their invoices quickly, before they are billed in that cycle. The distributor has 60 day terms with the artists, so in that 30 day period that they have left, they are recycling dead product to markets that demand it.

Lifeway does not really cater to the older Christian. They are non-religious and newly religious driven. That's how they sell crap. I do mean crap. "Most" mature Christians are buying less retail product, and have grown out of the rock and roll rebellion. This is a verifiable, rock solid marketing factoid. Who are they after? The young, hip hotsters and the latest crazt teacher.....uhhh, I mean teaching craze. The newest "revelation from God" (cause scripture is not good enough). BANG! Caught that rabbit!

Ok, Petra is in ALL of the distributors computer systems. Anyone who says that they are not is not educated in pushing the correct buttons. Petra is even on sale at Cokesbury, the Catholic, Methodist, etc book store. The distributors are selling it to people who are allowed to ask for it. In-store music department people have absolutely NO ability to order for a major chain, unless you pre-pay. It is done way up the ladder. The stores do not automatically order it because you went in and asked for it. You have to have 10 people walk in and pre-pay to get their attention.

[InpopShara]

Also about Shara, she is still very much involved�on Dec. 13th she sent out the Petra street team update and wanted to know from everybody how our promotions have been going etc. In the update it said �We had a great 1st week of sales and we�re hoping that the trend will continue as we enter the busy Christmas season.� Shara has returned all my emails and gave me another person to handle any of my questions or concerns while she�s out of the office. She was going to be gone from Dec. 21-Jan. 2. She asked me if I needed any more flats or coupons to just let her know and she would send them out. Maybe Shara has been too busy with promotions that she hasn�t had time to post�I don�t know!

So not all is as dark as it may seem!

You are right. Sorry I haven't been able to post a whole lot on the boards recently. We had two releases on November 22 (Petra and Tree63), so my time has been divided between promoting the two albums, plus pushing our other releases and gearing up for the Christmas season (which is always a strong time for CD sales!). Continuing to promote the Petra album is very much a priority for me and for the entire team here at Inpop. Right now we're working on the Petra DVD and firming up our strategic plan surrounding that release, so you'll continue to see me around here from time to time!

We've been seeing very steady sales, and this album has been charting well on the Billboard Top Christian Albums charts ever since release date. We had really great scans over the past few weeks, and as retail stores see that there is demand for this album, hopefully they will choose to carry the product. As the previous post mentioned, the retailer really is the one who makes the decisions about which product they carry. Actually, that post was a very accurate explanation of the whole system.

Our sales division here at Inpop and our sales rep at EMI Distribution have done an amazing job of pushing this product, and we are not about to start slacking off now. Please continue to ask for the album at those stores that do not have it and keep checking up to see that those stores that are carrying it are well-stocked... Most importantly, continue to tell everyone to get the album so that the stores don't end up with product that is accumulating dust on valuable shelf space!

Happy ohsix,
Shara

[executioner]

I have to admit that it wasn't on the shelves in my area on Nov. 22, but since after the first week. I've seen some in all the stores like WalMart, Target, Best Buy, and the 3 Christian Stores. BTW the coupons that I handed out are all gone at the Mardel in my town. I asked the clerk right before Christmas and she said that people used them to buy the CD, so we know coupon is getting used.