Industry Radar

Liturgical show encourages ‘mutual business’

Written by By Christine D. Johnson

Monday, 20 April 2009 09:13 AM America/New_York

Booksellers gather for education, enrichment at RBTE 2009

alt Liturgical retailers will soon embark on what for many is an annual pilgrimage to the Religious Booksellers Trade Exhibit (RBTE), a four-day trade show gathering Catholic, Episcopal and other liturgical retailers and suppliers. As for the last 18 years, the Chicago suburb of St. Charles, Ill., will host the show, held this year May 26-29.

Known as much for camaraderie—often in evidence at the sponsored luncheons built into the admission fees—as for its retail training sessions and order writing, RBTE has been called “one of the last civilized conferences because everyone stops and goes and eats lunch together, and in that experience of interaction, you have an exchange between the store owners and each other and store owners and vendors.”

That’s the view of Chris Weickert, president and director of the Catholic Retailers Association, which changed its name last year from the Association of Christian Booksellers to more closely reflect the product mix in member stores.

Cliff Knighten, installed in February as executive director of the Catholic Book Publishers Association (CBPA), also views the show as key in relationship-building.

“It is a significant opportunity for these members to connect with trade bookstores, renew relationships and introduce new products,” he said.

RBTE President Bob Byrns, whose “day job” is in sales and marketing with Paulist Press, has been involved with the show from its beginning.

“Ultimately this is all about vendors getting together to sell and (to) meet retailers,” Byrns said. “It’s a mutual business, it’s a mutual struggle, and let’s do this as best we can in light of each of our own experiences.”

AN ‘AFFORDABLE’ SHOW

This year the economy will be much on the mind of retailers, but Byrns believes RBTE can still be a money-maker for them. He encouraged stores to pay attention to vendor specials, to “do their homework and pay for their trip.”

A relatively small show but one of only two main events designed for the Catholic market, RBTE entrance is offered at minimal cost.

“We bend over backwards to make their journey to St. Charles, Ill., as cost-effective as possible,” said Byrns, noting that either $75 or $100—the higher price including the Friday banquet—“buys all of their meals from the moment that they get there on Tuesday morning till they leave on Friday afternoon.”

The location is central to a significant number of retailers who drive in from neighboring states. “Part of the rationale in terms of making it affordable is that 60% of Catholic and liturgical stores are probably within a day’s drive of the city of Chicago,” Byrns noted, adding that despite the transportation costs, a “good number of California stores” also attend.

Dealer (retailer) prices have remained the same for many years, and exhibitor rates have not changed in the last few years, he said. Convention hotel costs also are the same as last year.

From year to year, about 150 vendors take up 200 booths. At press time, Byrns expected continued exhibitor registrations, but had processed more than 100. He also noted “no fall-off at all” in attendance from international publishers, who tend to register early.

TAILORED TALKS

This year’s show will likely be less controversial than 2008, which included an appearance by author and bishop of New Hampshire Gene Robinson, a polarizing figure for his views on homosexuality. Though well-received by the booksellers of his denomination, a few Catholic stores opted out of attending RBTE this year in protest of Robinson’s appearance at the 2008 show, though he only spoke at an Episcopal Booksellers Association event.

In light of denominational differences at the RBTE event, choosing speakers can be like walking a tightrope.

“We don’t take a theological stance,” Byrns said. “We try to offer programming that meets the needs of our attendees from the educational perspective, from the inspirational perspective, from a liturgical perspective.”

alt Bert Ghezzi, author and senior acquisitions editor for Our Sunday Visitor’s book division, wrote Everyday Encounters With God with Benedict J. Groeschel (The Word Among Us Press), and is the speaker for Wednesday’s luncheon, sponsored by The Word Among Us Press.

Esther de Waal, a scholar in the Benedictine and Celtic traditions, has written multiple books, including the upcoming Liturgical Press release Seeking Life: The Baptismal Invitation of the Rule of St. Benedict. She will speak at Thursday’s luncheon, sponsored by Liturgical Press and Canterbury Press/SCM Press.

Additionally, Richard J. Foster and Gayle D. Beebe, who together wrote the InterVarsity Press book Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion (Formatio/IVP Books). Foster and Beebe will speak Tuesday morning.

LeAnn Thieman, who has contributed to several “Chicken Soup” books, has co-authored Chicken Soup for the Soul: Living Catholic Faith (Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing) with Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, and will speak Thursday at the Catholic Booksellers Breakfast.

For Thursday’s banquet, Catholic author and award-winning documentary filmmaker Paul Wilkes will speak of his own experience of faith. His memoir, In Due Season: A Catholic Life, was published in March by Jossey-Bass.

GATHERING THE ‘LIKE-MINDED’

Two retail associations—the Catholic Retailers Association and the Episcopal Booksellers Association—have annual meetings at the show.

“Since most Catholic stores are doing half or more of their total business in books, that extensive access to publishers (found at RBTE) is tremendously valuable,” said Weickert, who owns Vineyard Books & Gifts in Rockford, Ill., as well as three e-retailing sites.

Though outnumbered by Catholics at the show, Episcopalian booksellers—with 81 stores spread out across the country serving not only Episcopalians, but also “Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics (and) the family of Eastern Orthodox churches,” according to the group’s executive director, Henrietta Speaks—find it valuable to get together at RBTE.

In addition to the retail training on offer, “just having that many like-minded colleagues in the same space at the same time is very nourishing for our geographically spread-out membership,” Speaks added, citing the benefit of building relationships, which is “strengthening for all of us.”

Additionally, on the publisher side, CBPA’s board of directors meets at the show, and also conducts a professional skills workshop for its members.

Considering the need for cooperation in the industry, Knighten said that CBPA members have a “keen interest in the overall health and success of Christian retailers.” He sees RBTE as “an important opportunity to learn how we might better support them in their mission and ministry.”

Rbte will be on May 26-29, St. Charles, Ill. For the 2009 show schedule, visit www.ChristianRetailing.com.

Industry Forum: It’s time to bury the ‘same old’ thinking

Written by By David Amster, president, Integra Interactive;

Monday, 20 April 2009 08:52 AM America/New_York

From fear to friendship—the need to embrace change and make it work for you

Noted business author and consultant Tom Peters is credited with stating, “If you don’t like change, you’ll dislike irrelevance even more.”

After visiting more than 275 Christian retail channel stores the last two years, I couldn’t agree more. Countless stores I have visited exhibit all the telltale signs of doing the same things and expecting different results. It doesn’t happen. To get different results, you have to deploy a different strategy.

The retail landscape is littered with closed stores that failed to change. The recent liquidations of Linens ‘n Things, Goody’s and Circuit City are just a taste of what 2009 will likely hold.

Many respected retail consultants are saying that up to 14,000 stores will close during the year. The reasons are many: Failure to differentiate from a competitor, poor cash flow, poor merchandise selection or presentation and changing consumer habits top the list. During an economic downturn, execution is even more important because consumers are spending less.

I care deeply about Christian retailing. In 1975, when I created the concept of music demos and listening stations, it began a 34-year history of passionately seeking to help retailers succeed. Now, at the risk of perhaps alienating some of my very own retailer customers, I feel compelled to speak straightforward about Christian stores.

Change is usually not easy. Doing the same things, following the same routines, is what most people prefer. And, let’s be honest, most small businesspeople would prefer not to have to face competition. But doing the same thing over and over again rarely challenges us. Lack of competition leads to complacency and rarely leads to advances.

Meanwhile, innovation and technology have led to a plethora of choices in just about every facet of life, including multiple choices of how and where to purchase many of the products available in Christian retail stores.

Let’s be clear: There’s no point spending one additional minute bemoaning that publishers sell direct, that Wal-Mart carries many of your best-selling books, that Internet retailers undercut your prices and that some people illegally swap music files. None of this is going to change. Debating whether it is right or wrong will not reverse it. The only thing it results in is a negative attitude.

Where is it written that retailers are entitled to have customers shop in their stores? Or that retailers are entitled to sales increases year after year? We are not entitled to anything. We must earn our customers and then continue earning them to keep them coming back. There is no “top of the hill” resting point. We must always be climbing.

Success in anything starts with a positive mental attitude. Years ago I had the privilege of coaching several high school cross country teams to state championships and nation rankings. The key point that I emphasized every day to my athletes was that the real competition wasn’t in the foot race but in the mind. If they didn’t believe they could win, they were already defeated.

So, let me encourage you to begin each day by thinking about how to differentiate yourself to effectively compete in the marketplace. If you’re focusing on your competitor, you’re not focusing on where you should be going. You’ll never be charting your course. You’ll always be reacting to your competitor’s agenda.

How does this play out in the real world of your store? Let’s use the examples of music and technology.

Music sales peaked in 2000 and have declined every year thereafter. The blame has been put upon everything from illegal downloading to a lack of new mega-artists. Certainly piracy has affected sales, but a strong case can be made for the impact of the rise of other entertainment choices, too.

Consider that just nine years ago, video game sales were almost insignificant and movie DVDs were nonexistent. The iPod had not yet been introduced. Broadband Internet service was not widely available and too costly for many consumers.

Fast-forward to today: The video game industry is bigger than the music industry. DVD sales, while having peaked in 2007, are still significant. The iTunes store has sold more than 5 billion songs. Cheap broadband service has allowed e-commerce sites to offer an ever-increasing selection of goods and services.

Technology has certainly made it more challenging for brick-and-mortar retailers of media products to compete. Online retailers of books, music and movies, according to Internet Retailer, now account for more than 15% of all sales of media titles.

Brick-and-mortar retailers can compete, but not if they continue to sell music the same way they’ve always done. This will only result in a continuing sales decline. Forrester Research is forecasting a 9% annual decline in physical music sales and a 14% annual increase of digital music sales through 2013. As a brick-and-mortar retailer, you simply must change your strategy or you will be irrelevant.

One of the benefits of e-commerce is that it can offer a virtual inventory of practically every music CD and movie DVD currently available. No physical store can stock even a fraction of what is available through what is often referred to as “the long tail.” So, how do you, as a brick-and-mortar retailer, compete? By also using technology.

Media-on-demand systems such as Just in Time Digital’s isMOD and my company’s myMEDIA BurnBar kiosk are enabling retailers to “virtually” stock thousands of titles with no associated inventory cost.

Customers using the myMEDIA BurnBar kiosk can choose from more than 18,000 accompaniment track, artist CD, audiobook, video game and software titles. Additionally, they can select more than 60,000 song titles and mix their own custom CDs.

All this can be burned to CD or DVD in just a few minutes. Very soon customers will also be able to purchase songs as MP3s and load them to their portable players.

With these types of kiosks, technology has put physical location retailers back in the game and

given them a competitive advantage. When we analyzed the 2008 sales data of myMEDIA BurnBar, we found that more than 86% of all accompaniment track titles—nearly 9,000—had sold at least once. In January this year, 68% of all the artist CD titles sold only one copy, while an additional 17% sold only two copies.

This tells us that customers want a very wide selection. Retailers using media-on-demand technology are giving customers what they want—and winning their loyalty in return.

Of course, there is much more to fully executing this or any other viable strategy. But it all begins by embracing change and making it an ally. If you don’t, outside forces will change you by hastening the closing of your doors.