It isn't enough that the Sooners won the National Championship last year, Planet Comics also managed to win our Grow with Shojo Display Contest.  What do they have in the water there in Norman?  Bart Bush, the manager, and Assistant Managers Rob Vollmar and Heather Tinkler went the extra mile in rearranging their store to create a special shojo area as well as painting the image of a Sailor Scout on their front window to draw walk-in traffic.

The Store

Planet Comics is a full-service comic store in Norman, Oklahoma, college town with a seasonal peak population of around 100,000 people.  Founded in the mid 1980s as the direct market had its first explosion, Planet has long been the name that consumers in this area associate with good service and a diverse selection.  In addition to weekly new comics traffic, bolstered by a thriving subscription service, we stock a wide array of other pop culture products including an extensive selection of graphic novels, manga collections, role-playing, card and other types of games, anime on DVD and VHS for sale and rent, action figures, t-shirts, posters, lunchboxes, and a host of other items.

The Display

Pieces of the display existed in smaller fragments before, so we decided as a team it was time to make a blatant play for the female audience, which had been showing increasing interest in manga and anime products in our store for several months.  For the display we consolidated several of those lines visually with our Sanrio line to create a section of the store that is specifically for our growing female audience.  In addition to moving the related product closer together, we also painted a large Sailor Moon character on the front glass, drawing attention to our new product lines with great success and we added a pink wall on which to showcase the Sanrio product.

The Results

The Sanrio wall, in particular, has been a raging success already with lots of repeat business among high school students who come over at lunch time in addition to students from the local college eager to decorate their new dorm rooms.  Our female traffic, specifically in the 10-17 and 18-24 age brackets has improved dramatically, drawn in part by the large and easily recognizable Sailor Moon on the window and in part by word of mouth form other customers.  Manga and anime sales continue to improve as well as spill over traffic and impulse buying and have shown no signs yet of slowing, particularly in the manga collections and merchandise.