FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, January 29, 2002

Contact: Jana Muntsinger, 615.376.9442

jana@mmpublicrelations.com

New Tool Increases Parable Stores’ DM Capabilities

National “Predictive Model” is Unprecedented for Independent Retailers

SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA–-Independent Christian retailers will have a powerful new tool in their direct marketing arsenal this year. The Parable Group has created an unprecedented direct marketing tool, an extensive Predictive Model, which early users claim state has already significantly increased their catalog mailing profitability. The Predictive Model enables retailers to create highly targeted mailing lists from existing customer databases—pinpointing customers who buy the most product and shop the most often. All Parable member stores have access to the Predictive Model, which is a first for independent retailers of any type.

“No one else is offering a service like this for independent retailers of any typeParable is thrilled with the results of this sophisticated model,” says Tim Blair, COO of The Parable Group. “No one in this or any industry, to my knowledge, has everhas ever created a national predictor model which can be applied to an independent store’s data.”

Steve Potratz, Founder and President of The Parable Group, explains the bottom-line benefit of the model. “A store that applies the model to its database will create a more profitable mailing list. That store will make enough extra profit on each mailing to completely pay for the catalog, the postage, the mailing costs and any freight—and still have some left over.”  [Jana: I don’t know what this part of his quote means: “This is profit above the best results achieved to date and better then any store could do using RFM to pull their list.” Can we leave it off?]

The Predictive Model, a statistical program applied to a store’s transaction data, has been in development at Parable for four years. Shortly after joiningAfter participating in several the Direct Market Association (DMA) seminars, Parable staffers realized that a national model would help CBA stores improve their database efficiency. The Parable team then began work on the model—collecting transaction information from a broad base of stores and applying a set of 150 predictors to create a model of predicted consumer behavior. The criteria were later boiled down to 18, and customers were scored to determine which customers were the “crème de la crème” of the database. Retailers who take advantage of Parable’s Predictive Model will transform their transaction information into a highly targeted list—perfect for maximizing catalog mailings.

“Once again, Parable member stores can access the most advanced tools in the industry,” says Melissa Lundie, IMS Manager at The Parable Group. “This one tool alone, which is available to all member stores, makes it worth becoming a Parable catalog user even more worthwhile.”

-more-

Parable Predictive Model release, page two

Since late 2001, several stores have participated in an initial test of the Predictive Model. The average store experienced a 3% increase in return-on-investment for that catalog mailing. There is no extra cost for member stores; the model application is a by-product of submitting transaction data to Parable’s home office. The Predictive Model can be applied by any store with a 6-month transaction history and a capture rate of at least 75%.

Parable is a California-based marketing and retail services company that provides marketing materials for more than 1000 Christian retail outlets located in the U.S. and Canada representing over $400,000,000 in annual sales of Christian products to consumers. Parable Interactive provides the infrastructure and technology to more than 250 retailing and ministry websites. The Parable Group serves a select group of 275 member stores.

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January 29, 2002