industry watch

PROMOTIONS

Million Bible Challenge?

—›No Problem BY THE TIME THIS ARTICLE IS PUBlished, Nelson Bibles (Nelson) Senior VP-Publisher Wayne Hastings believes 1 million New King James Bibles will have shipped from the company’s warehouse—a Million Bible Challenge goal Hastings thought wouldn’t be met until later this year. However, demand for the Bibles has exceeded Nelson’s most optimistic expectations—within two weeks of the Christian-retail exclusive promotion’s Easter launch, more than 70% of the

Bibles for the campaign had been ordered.

“It’s incredible,” Hastings said. “We had to think of warehouse space—we divided the Bibles into four shipments to stretch into summer—and in four weeks we sold out of the first two. When the next shipment is scheduled to arrive, it’s already totally gone.

“We went to God with a thimble of water, and He

came back with a bucket!”

To put it into perspective, Hastings said Nelson shipped 8 million Bibles for the

to “Bibles” page 20

“We went to God with a thimble of water, and He came back with a bucket!” —Wayne Hastings

Sonshine Christian Store (Mission Viejo, CA) displays cases of “Challenge” Bibles.

EVENTS

P›arable Celebrates 20 Years IN 1985, THE PARABLE (SAN LUIS Obispo, CA) owner Steve Potratz showed a flier he’d created for his store to a retail friend who asked him to print some for his own store. Interest in Potratz’s fliers and marketing skills led to The Parable Group’s creation, and a year later the new company was producing catalogs and fliers for 50 stores. The Parable Group was more than a catalog company—it operated as a group of independent Christian stores that joined to increase buying and marketing clout.

Twenty years later, the marketing-buy-ing group has grown to 230 independent-store members, which include franchise and member affiliate stores. Parable has produced more than 300 million catalogs and fliers and added services such as Web sites managed through Parable Interactive, national advertising, exclusive products, and sophisticated sales data analysis.

“The professional marketing tools and information The Parable Group has provid-

Steve and Laurie Potratz, second & third from left, cut the ribbon to The Parable Group headquarters (San Luis Obispo, CA) in 1999.

ed for stores has contributed immensely to their growth and success,” said CBA Presi-dent-CEO Bill Anderson.

Last year, the company branched into franchising with Parable Franchise, which offers two franchise models—a conversion

model for existing members and a new-fran-chise model for prospective storeowners.

The Parable Group will celebrate its 20^th anniversary with a banquet at the July International Christian Retail Show in Denver. •

10 CBA marketplace › May 2005

www.cbaonline.org