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Originally Posted by Andrenekoi
Now, THIS is an answer!^^
Also, Ayu sales these days aren't low (only) because of her recent marketing strategies... We can't forget Ayu peaked in 2001, more than 10 years ago and that her career is entering on the 15th year. There's no pop artist in the world able to go on for this long (considering success in Jpop tend to last between 3 and 5 years) without facing a big drop in sales sometime. New faces come, people grow out of fandom, people turn into adults and their priorities change (teenagers move music markets), and once you reach your top, the only way to go is down.
Even when a pop artist keeps relevant for a long time, Kylie Minogue for example as you are from the UK, they will face a period of low sales sometime during their careers, and there's nothing that can be really done about it...
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I do think that Party Queen in particular was a marketing failure (the drop in sales between PQ and FIVE, or between PQ and Love songs, is FAR more pronounced than previous drops). I think Ayu had one idea for what the album was supposed to be, and the people around her had another.
Ayu put together what is quite possibly her most personal album since A Song for XX, bringing back old composers that the fans would know and like, and the album was very, very dark. This album really had the potential to bring Ayu back from the clutches of repetitive, commercial-friendly mediocrity. This album COULD have been touted as a return to form, a return to the optimistic melancholy and intimacy that really set ayu apart from the competition through "I am...".
But I think this album scared avex's marketing people. I think the album isn't in tune with today's music-buying crowd, and staying "safe" has kept Ayu's sales at a reasonable level since about "Secret." But nothing about this album was "Safe," aside from the few songs they did promote & play on MTV. But even those just barely got any attention.
The album was too risky to promote, and since it was Ayu ("the album will be profitable regardless so what's the point in spending extra money on marketing"), they didn't bother. If they really went out of their way to accurately represent the album, they'd have been out that marketing money, and it may very well have done even worse if they promoted songs that were, in my opinion, more representative of the album's overall tone and message. Songs like "Letter," for example.
I think since Ayu is a pop artist, and this album is more of a piece of art than a piece of merchandise, avex weren't really sure what to do with the album as far as selling it to anyone outside her established fanbase.