Tapping into children's tunes

Discount Store News, May 5, 1997

"We do a lot of the merchandising tie-ins. If the store is running a Winnie the Pooh theme, we'll bring out the Winnie the Pooh audio," said one Target executive. "Audio does lend itself well to being merchandised with other store-themed events."

Also this spring some Targets used Disney opportunity carts loaded with a variety of licensed merchandise--ranging from apparel to bicycle helmets--that featured audio products in prime space at eye level. Early indications showed that the sales of all products on the cart increased, including audio products.

Other retailers are creating new exclusive promotions linked to audio products.

Toy's "R" Us, for example, recently purchased a special limited production run of "silly straws" that will be used to help promote Barney Music's "Barney's Big Surprise."

Not all retailers take a diversified approach to merchandising children's audio.

Regional Southern California retailer Fedco dedicates between 4 ft. and 8 ft. to children's audio depending on the stores, but the selection is limited to one supplier, Disney, buyer Glenn Waki said.

Disney's brand recognition can be counted on for consistent sales, Waki said.

And some retailers are underplaying the category's potential.

"There's not a lot of attention paid to children's audio sometimes." Lyrick Studio's Rees said. "Because children's (music) is such a small percentage of sales in the mass market, they perhaps don't give it the attention it should receive."

Some executives in the children's audio business are working on creating better a awareness for the genre among both retailers and consumers.

Unlike most other forms of music, there is little or no radio airplay for most music aimed at kids. Few children's music acts--short of Barney--can support a national tour of live performances.

Members of the National Association of Recording Merchandisers are discussing setting up a committee made up of suppliers, distributors and retailers to help promote children's audio, said Torrie Dorrell, Kid Rhino's vice president.

"What I envision is a `got milk?' campaign for children's audio. We're out there competing for kid's attention with videos, the Internet and video games," Dorrell said.

Another route to creating greater awareness for children's music and stimulating more sales is through increased in-store previewing of new and classic catalog titles.

Disney Records is about to embark on a massive campaign to bring listening stations to audio departments and stores and hopes to have 500 installed by the end of 1997--and 8,000 within the next two to three years, said Walt Disney Records' Hafft.

The kiosks will allow consumers to sample 30 records of three songs from any of 30 Disney Records releases.

"We look for sales increases of 40% to 60% in stores where these are installed," Hafft said. "Previewing works."

Dorrell agreed that previewing is the wave of the future at retail and said that Kid Rhino is also pursuing in-store previewing technologies.

Wal-Mart recently installed a new STAR audio CD preview system designed by Advanced Communications Design, a Minneapolis-based firm, in the music department of a new prototype store in Boise, Idaho. The STAR system allows consumers to preview cuts from any CD in a store by reading the bar code on the outside of the disk and bringing up a menu of selections that can be played back on the listening station's headphones.