Retailers have learned that they can increase sales by appealing to customers' concern for others while meeting their consumer needs. In the commercial world, it's called "cause marketing," and church bookstores can learn to apply the principle effectively.

You have a great opportunity in your church to motivate people to purchase products from your bookstore so that a portion of the proceeds can be donated to a special in-church ministry or even a community need of some sort.

Think outside the box. Perhaps your bookstore could partner with a publisher on a particular product and motivate your church members to buy products to support a specific cause.

Take a particular month and notify all church attendees that during that month, 25% of all book purchases will go directly to support the youth group's fundraising efforts for their mission trip to Mexico. Or take a percentage of all sales, and give to a fund set up to provide food and clothing to people in Louisiana or Mississippi who are still displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Using cause marketing in your bookstore not only provides for those in need, but it also gives your customers a new excitement and satisfaction in buying your products.

-Jeff Pederson, former Christian retail store owner/manager and publishing executive

Read the complete article at www.thechurchbookstore.com/a.php?ArticleID=12264.