[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by ayumisrael

Namie has a chance of selling better but that's because she has a constant great promo and marketing, getting 2 songs from the single in fashion CMs (and of popular brands AKA gucchi) reminding the public she still exists, she also enjoys the leftovers of her 2nd peak, so yeah she still might do better. On the other hand she's still declining. But her management does good damn job to make it really slow, especially if she will release a best this year or the next, namie still gets great, really great promo. Let alone the first a-side being a ballad which the public love. Namie's management is awesome. ayu and kuu don't seem really interested on being kept in such a way in the spotlight, or else they would try to promote themselves like in the past, like namie, which will be in their present position in some time. Her management helped her make the public love her (kinda like hikki, maybe even more) and she got really lucky with that. So yeah, namie's single might sell better than ayu's, but it really doesn't say anything. Non got the slowest decline ever, which ayu had. ayu's decline was like a really safe, fun and enjoyable getting off the mountain.

A lot of what you said is true. However, I actually think that the lack of promotion from Avex for Ayu is because over the years, they have seen dwindling returns for their investment. They are not putting a ton of money into promo for Ayu anymore because from their perspective its not worth it since it doesn't seem to make much difference. A lot of this comes down to general public opinion. I hope that anyone that lives in Japan would agree with me that general public opinion of Ayu is not good and hasn't been for a number of years. Kuu falls into the same boat, though not as bad. No amount of promo is going to significantly help their sales until they have a better public image to start with. Namie however is generally highly favored by the public so she is a much better/less risky property for investment so companies are willing to throw their money after her. How did Namie manage this? I'm not even sure. Though I suspect a big part of it has been keeping her private life private, still managing to maintain an air of mystery about herself, and letting the quality of her releases speak for themselves.