Parable Creates New Selling Promotional Calendar

Designed to Save Parable Members Time and Money

Monday, July 9^th—Atlanta, Georgia, CBA 2001—In a significant realignment of its retail marketing strategy, The Parable Group is introducing a new annual promotional calendar designed to streamline the planning process for Parable member stores while lowering costs and improving results. The new calendar divides the year into five seasons—called “campaigns”—allowing each Parable Christian Store to tailor their marketing promotions—from direct mail catalogs, newspaper flyers, Private Label eStores, and point-of-purchase marketing pieces—to fit the five major seasons.

“The seasons are straight-forward,” says Wayne Hastings, Vice President of Retail Development. “They encompass the five major retail seasons—Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall and Christmas. What is unique about this program is its seamless integration of all the marketing services available at Parable. We believe this new program will save the retailer time and money.”

Debuting at CBA 2001, the new promotional seasons have been met with strong initial enthusiasm. Parable Advisory Board member Steve Adams, owner of the Evangel Bookstore in Bellevue, Washington, agrees: “Parable’s Promotional Campaign calendar puts all the possible promotions for the year into easy-to-grasp packages, scaled to my market and budget. It helps me (almost forces me!) to plan a balanced, affordable advertising program for the full year. I like that!”

The benefits to the retailer are multifold. Retailers will see a dramatic reduction in paperwork. Under the old system, a retailer was required to submit a written confirmation for each promotion or event. The average store does eight promotions a year and some do as many as 20. The new structure requires only one confirmation for each of the five campaign seasons. Merchandising kits are being designed to carry a single theme throughout the entire campaign, providing a more cohesive appearance to the store and its local marketing campaign. Local store decoration should be much easier under the new system.

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Promotional Calendar Announcement, page two

Hastings says the typical Parable store already changes its in-store merchandising seasonally, but it needed more strategic guidance to determine the best plan for each season. “We believe that Parable’s new promotional calendar will ensure not only an increase in the number of promotions taken but also an increase on individual store compliance.”

One of the unique components of the new promotional calendar is a computerized Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet provided by The Parable Group. This computer program takes all the variables of a store’s promotion—size of mailing list, postage, catalog cost, percentage of sales, freight, insertion fees, budget—and creates a comprehensive cost analysis. Hastings adds, “This spreadsheet can help member stores determine what current promotions are cost-effective and what potential promotions to add. Every store who uses it raves about its positive benefits to its response rates and the bottom line.”

Parable Christian Stores consists of more than 300 independently owned Christian retail outlets located in the U.S. The Parable Group provides diverse marketing tools for its member stores such as e-commerce sites, in-store merchandising kits, exclusive products, weekly bestseller lists and catalogs. In 2000, Parable shipped more than 29.7 million catalogs, newspaper inserts, and other promotional mailings in 25 marketing campaigns.

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July 9, 2001