I also singled out one title each week as our primary mover. As we all know, oftentimes, we see two or three big titles come out the same week. I found that the life rental of the 12-copy movie remained strong and while I oftentimes exceeded the 5 week formula, bringing in 120 percent instead of 80 percent, this continued strongly through the 20 week cycle. The title that I had purchased 40 copies of would follow the 5 week pattern of bringing in 80 percent, and would show a slower growth in the 20 week spread. But, buying deep on one title gave customers the impression that our store was increasing its video selections.
Perception is reality.
Regardless of the quality of a title. Because most customers will watch not only the blockbuster A Title, they will also watch the lesser-known and not quite as good A Titles too. I also changed the store's advertising policies. Previously, we used to do one mailing each month targeting the homes around our store. We did that on the belief that we had to fight to keep our customers, battling competing stores whose service areas overlapped ours.