Shelf Talk

Sight & Sound Surveys DVD Markets For Dealers
SIGHT & SOUND'S SMART PLAN: St. Louis-based distributor Sight & Sound has come up with an inexpensive way for retailers to determine if their markets are ready for DVD.
Under the plan, called Smart Start, the distributor conducts a demographic profile of a dealer's market and cross-references it with the profile of the typical DVD customer.
The study costs $20, which can be credited back to the dealer with its first DVD order. If a retailer decides to begin carrying the format based on the results of the survey, it can get a merchandising kit for $30 from Sight & Sound with a minimum order of 25 DVD units. With an order of 75 units or more, the kit is free.
The kit includes an in-store banner, eight teaser shelf talkers, removable stickers that can be placed on VHS boxes to alert customers that a title is also available on DVD, bag stuffers touting DVD's benefits, and a product guide.
'There's a danger jumping into DVD with both feet if your market isn't ready for it,' says Sight & Sound executive VP of sales and marketing John Jump. 'We're trying to balance profitability and getting the format introduced to more dealers and consumers.'
Jump says the distributor will introduce the program this month via its weekly mailer, Marquee Entertainment.
The distributor has already received inquiries from about 100 of its customers asking how, or if, they should be stocking DVD.
'My guess is that we'll get another 200 self-qualifying retailers once the program is announced,' Jump says.
The demographic study, which isn't required to receive the merchandising kit, looks at income level, education, age, and other basics to give dealers a better idea if their customers are potential DVD consumers.
Sight & Sound also recommends that dealers conduct their own surveys. It also says retailers should ask local consumer electronics stores for names of people who have bought home theater systems or other upscale video equipment and alert them that they carry DVD in their stores.
In other Sight & Sound news, Jump says the company is on the mend following a tough year.
'We're doing much better, and the studios have been very cooperative,' says Jump. 'We've put a lot of systems into place, and we won't be making the same mistakes again.'
Jump says the distributor ran into big financial trouble by overselling sell-through product into the market. 'It was a real battle for us,' he says.
Now, he says, the distributor carefully analyzes sales of each store to determine the right buy. In addition, he says, the distributor won't ship reorders until 10 days after street date to avoid massive returns. 'The idea is to touch product once, just like a rental title,' he says.
IMAGE'S NEW IMAGE: After establishing itself as a leading distributor of laserdiscs and now DVD, Image Entertainment will begin releasing programs on videotape.
The new direction follows a licensing and distribution deal with GRB Entertainment, a reality-based production company that supplies programs to the Discovery Channel and the Learning Channel.
Under terms of the multi-year agreement, Image will distribute GRB programs on tape, DVD, laserdisc, and in some cases DVD-ROM.
'Back when we started, it was easy to carve out a niche by acquiring the laser rights,' says Image director of marketing Garrett Lee. 'Now companies don't want to fragment licensing rights to different companies.'
The first title scheduled for release under the new deal is 'Movie Magic: Disasters At Sea.'
Priced at $14.98, the cassette is a behind-the-scenes look at the special effects created for 'Titanic,' 'Crimson Tide,' and 'Deep Rising.'
Street date is April 21. Yet because of the enormous success of 'Titanic,' Image will most likely release the title in early April. 'The large chains want it yesterday,' says Lee.
Laser and DVD editions, each priced at $19.98, will follow in May.
Image will handle sales and marketing to its existing laser accounts, but Steeplechase Entertainment will handle video specialty, mass merchant, and grocery accounts.
The company, headed by former Orion Home Video executive VP Herb Dorfman and Joe Pershes, is 'taking the video to the street,' says Lee.
Two more 'Movie Magic' releases will follow later this year, including 'The Final Frontier,' which examines the special effects of 'Star Wars,' 'Independence Day,' and 'Starship Troopers.' The title will be in stores by mid-May. There's also a documentary of the making of Columbia Pictures' 'Godzilla' in the pipeline.
Other series in the GRB library are 'Sea Tek,' an underwater adventure series; 'Anatomy Of Disaster,' which looks at the aftereffects of tornados, hurricanes, and earthquakes; and 'What Went Wrong,' about man-made disasters such as explosions and airplane crashes.
The all-rights GRB deal marks the second time Image has distributed a program on video. In 1997 the company released a recording of the Broadway hit musical 'Into The Woods' to retail; it had previously been sold to consumers via a direct-response campaign.

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