An ICv2 release. ICv2 is proud to announce the winners of our First Annual Shojo Display Contest. First of all we would like to thank all the retailers who participated in this exercise in retailing to female consumers. Every single entry we received included great merchandising ideas, and every retailer reported strong results from their outreach efforts. Times indeed are changing and shojo products do offer many retailers the opportunity to broaden their customer base by appealing to female customers.
As part of the contest each store had to write 100 words about their store, 100 words about the display they created, and 100 words about the results of their efforts. We have included these entry submissions along with pictures from each of the stores in the accompanying articles that feature each of the three winners.
We were especially pleased to note that the three winners represent stores from three different regions of the country -- and from three different sized cities ranging from a major urban area (All About Comics), a medium-size city (Planet Comics), and a smaller town (Collectible Dreams).
First Place Winner -- Planet Comics of Norman, Oklahoma
Planet Comics went the extra mile to win this contest. The management team consolidated merchandise from various parts of the store into a female-friendly shojo section, and they brought in the Sanrio line of Hello Kitty merchandise, which, although it is not directly based on an anime or manga property, does appeal strongly to female customers and worked perfectly to draw female customers to the area of the store where shojo anime and manga titles were displayed. Planet also created the most impressive window display, a Sailor Moon figure that dominates the front of the store.
Second Place Winner -- All About Books and Comics of Phoenix, Arizona
The staff at All About Books and Comics pulled together a large amount of shojo and female-friendly anime and manga product and displayed it expertly on the walls of their store along with lots of related merchandise. By playing key shojo titles on in-store televisions, the folks at All About managed to move a number of anime items as well as the related manga collections. In the U.S. it is the anime titles that tend to drive sales of the comics, something that the staff at All About realized and used to their advantage.
Third Place Winner -- Collectible Dreams of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania
It's great that a store that has only been open for a little more than a year can more than hold its own in a contest like this. By focusing on Sailor Moon, which is the top shojo anime and manga (See 'Sailor Moon Graphic Novels Top Bookstore Sales') title here in the States, Collectible Dreams created a very effective display, which they augmented with lots of character goods and related anime and manga titles. Once again retailers in college towns should note the success that Collectible Dreams and Planet Comics have reported in selling shojo titles to college-age women.
Click here for the First Prize listing, worth over $3000.
Click here for the Second Prize lists, worth over $2000.
And click here for the Third Prize lists, worth over $1000.
Once again the staff here at ICv2 would like to thank all the retailers who participated in this contest and our sponsors -- Pioneer, Dark Horse, Viz, and Tokyopop.
For an analysis of the shojo phenomenon in Japan, see 'Shojo Manga and Anime -- Big Business in Japan.'
For an overview of the 'Grow with Shojo' promotion, including info on how to get free p.o.p. materials, see 'Retailers--Grow with Shojo!'
For info on the Grow with Shojo display contest, see 'Grow with Shojo Display Contest.'
For an enlightening interview with California retailer Joe Fields on how to effectively sell shojo, see 'How To Sell Shojo.'