The deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Mother Theresa have focused attention on quick-turnaround videos tied to high-profile events.
Retailers are finding that quick-turnaround videos can generate impressive impulse sales, though they must contend with the questions of taste such products raise.
Matt Feinstein, vice president of Marbles Entertainment, Los Angeles, which operates video sections in 22 supermarkets in southern California, said that content is extremely important to the supermarket channel. He is careful in making purchasing decisions because "a lot of the quick-turnaround videos were in bad taste and our stores are very family-oriented."
Feinstein added that it is important for retailers to negotiate favorable return privileges, to get the product on shelves as quickly as possible and to keep all options open.
"I pre-ordered [a Diana video] with the understanding that I could cancel my pre-order if I thought it was not tasteful," he said. "The key is to pick it up right when it comes out, to have it the day it releases and to push as many pieces as possible" because demand for these titles dries up quickly.
Quick-turnaround suppliers say video retailers often ask for videos on specific current events as they happen. "We talk to our buyers," said Ronni Shuffield, vice president of MVP Home Entertainment, Canoga Park, Calif. "They tell us what they want." After the Heaven's Gate mass suicide, she said, "there was a chain of stores that asked us if we would put something together on that."
"Retailers called us looking for our Mother Theresa program," said Tom Heyman, vice president of new media at A&E Home Video, New York. "That's not unusual. We often get calls from retailers responding to current events who are looking for programming."
MVP, perhaps best known for distributing outtakes from television's "Cops," was first to market with its "Diana: The People's Princess." The tape, currently the fourth-best-selling in the country according to Billboard magazine, was available in some retail outlets Sept. 15, barely two weeks after Diana's death. It became widely available by Sept. 22 and carries a suggested retail of $14.95.
Shuffield said the company was very conscious of both the sensibilities of consumers and of retail outlets when it produced the video. "Diana: The People's Princess" does not explore the events surrounding her death, Shuffield noted, adding that the company was careful not to alienate traditionally conservative outlets like supermarkets.
MPI Home Video, Orland Park, Ill., has been a leading producer of quick-turnaround titles for 12 years. According to Waleed Ali, president, the company has released videos of Oliver North's testimony during the Iran-Contra hearings, General Norman Schwartzkopf's press briefings during the Persian Gulf War and Jesse Jackson's speech at the 1984 Democratic convention.
MPI's "Diana: Legacy of a Princess" arrived in stores a few days after MVP's "People's Princess" but is selling through briskly, according to Ali. A second MPI program, "Diana, Princess of Wales: The Final Farewell," which included coverage of the Princess's funeral, waits in distributors' and retailers' warehouses nationwide as a lawsuit over the rights to the footage is decided.
Some supermarket video buyers say they can't sell special-interest video no matter who has died.
"Even though we buy direct from MVP, I passed on their Diana title," said Randy Weddington, video buyer at Harps Food Stores, Springdale, Ark. "I didn't think there was demand. The few special-interest things that I've tried didn't really pan out."
One supermarket video buyer who asked not to be named said he didn't believe interest in Diana would last long enough for him to make any money on the tapes.
He did buy Elton John's musical tribute to the Princess, however. "That's selling real well," he said.
