During our recent visit to the Tokyopop offices in Los Angeles, we spoke to Vice President of Sales and Marketing Steve Kleckner, who told us of some of the ways Tokyopop plans to further expand its sales in 2003.  Most of these initiatives build on successes from last year. 

Display will continue to be a focus, with a follow-up display to the nine-pocket floor dumps released in 2002 (see 'Tokyopop Plans 'Authentic' Floor Dumps in April').  Although plans have not yet been finalized, some kind of combined DVD/manga display will be made available to pop culture stores in 2003, allowing them to display related manga and anime titles together. 

Products will also be cross-merchandised using packaging.  Following up its successful combo packages in 2002  (see 'Tokyopop Sells Out Gift Sets'), other packages that combine related products in multiple formats will be released this year.  Kleckner noted the Vampire Princess Miyu Gift Set, which combined a DVD set, a soundtrack CD, and a charm, as particularly successful, with sales roughly 50/50 between pop culture stores and mass channels. 

Tokyopop will also produce at least one sampler (a trade paperback with manga stories from multiple titles) during 2003 for both pop culture stores and bookstores.  They're still considering what to do for Free Comic Book Day.  That may be one use of the 2003 sampler.

The company sees its manga future in the trade paperback format; as of the end of 2002, it's officially out of the periodical business.

In anime, it will be selling collector boxes for consumers to bookcase sets of its titles.  Unlike other anime producers, it will probably sell the boxes with later DVD volumes, rather than with the first.

Tokyopop also plans to expand its distribution 'dramatically' in 2003.  It's currently planning a 50-pocket manga trade paperback spinner to hold both its and other publishers' titles for a major retail chain.