Chordant Distribution announces holiday promotion for retail stores

Chordant Distribution Group will urge consumers to “Give the Gift of Music” this holiday season as it partners with retailers for a national promotion to hit retailers in November and December, according to Jim Grundberg, vice president of sales for Chordant.

The aggressive promotion has gift-oriented theme merchandising, features competitive pricing from as low as $9.97 and includes best-selling titles such as Stacie Orrico's self-titled album, Smokie Norful's I Need You Now, ZOEgirl's Different Kind of Free, Switchfoot's The Beautiful Letdown, and Jeremy Camp's Stay. Give the Gift of Music launches in stores in November, the beginning of peak traffic time at retail.

“According to the research, more than 70% of holiday season purchases are for gifts, so it makes sense to focus our marketing and sales efforts on that fact,” says Grundberg. NPD Group, a leading marketing information company, released the results of its survey of consumer holiday buying intent, which predicts 39% plan to buy music as a part of their holiday purchases. “What we want to communicate is that Christian music makes a perfect gift for family and friends,” says Grundberg. “This promotion will give retailers the tools and the price points to make music a big part of their holiday business this year.”

Central to this promotion is a unique in-store marketing kit including valuable shopping information through a resourceful “Music Gift Buying Guide” shelf piece including genre color-coding for shopping ease. “From our time working retail, we understand that consumers are often interested in buying Christian music but don’t know what to buy. This merchandising should be very effective because it supplies shopping guidance right on the end cap, including artist cross-referencing and hit song information. It will be well suited to both front of store positioning for impulse purchases, and to the music section for consumers looking specifically for a music gift,” said Grundberg.

There are 20 diverse titles in the promotion, covering four genres: pop, rock, worship, and urban/hip-hop. The end cap is designed to hold 16 titles, four per genre breakout. Each title is sale priced for this promotion.

Pop/Contemporary Titles:
Stacie Orrico - Stacie Orrico
ZOEgirl - Different Kind of Free
Jump5 - Accelerate
Avalon - Testify to Love
Steven Curtis Chapman - All About Love
Nichole Nordeman - Woven & Spun
Rebecca St. James - Wait For Me

Rock Titles:
Switchfoot - The Beautiful Letdown
Relient K - Two Lefts Don't Make a Right... But Three Do
Jeremy Camp - Stay
Todd Agnew - Grace Like Rain
Various - X2003

Worship Titles:
Newsboys - Adoration: The Worship Album
Passion Band - Sacred Revolution: Songs From OneDay03
Worship Together - I Could Sing of Your Love Forever
David Crowder Band - Illuminate

Urban/Hip-Hop Titles:
Cross Movement - Holy Culture
tobyMac - Momentum
Smokie Norful - I Need You Now
KJ-52 - It's Pronounced Five Two