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Industry Brief

January 12, 2009

New Hope announces upcoming missional fiction line. New Hope Publishers will produce a missional fiction line beginning winter 2010 by author Kathi Macias. Macias has written more than 17 books, including Beyond Me, the best-selling devotional A Moment a Day, and the popular "Matthews" mystery novels.

"I've known that New Hope would someday extend our mission through fiction that takes readers to where God is at work in our world," says New Hope's publisher, Andrea Mullins. "Kathi Macias shares our desire to challenge readers to live out God's love in the world. Her series, 'Extreme Devotion,' will be our first series that I describe as missional fiction. Her powerful story telling will transform readers' attitudes and actions in a world that needs courageous commitment to Christ."

The God Question slated for blog tour. The God Question (Harvest House Publishers) by philosophy professor J.P. Moreland will be featured in a blog tour with FIRST Wild Card Tours (www.firstwildcardtours.blogspot.com) on January 15. Moreland, a leading evangelical thinker, offers a new way of addressing the foundational questions of life, such as, "Does God exist?" and "Can we know Him?" The God Question is also reasoned response to the increasingly vocal and hostile attacks on the Christian faith in America.

Register onsite for CBA Industry Conference .09. The CBA Industry Conference .09 is just a mere two days away, but you can still register onsite the morning of Wednesday, January 14, beginning at 8 a.m. outside the Augusta Room in the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel in Atlanta, GA.

Every major retailer and marketing group will be represented at this year's conference, as well as a large number of independent retailers. This is one conference you won't want to miss as the New Year begins! For the incomparably low cost of $35, you receive a full day's worth of exclusive retail intelligence that you need to compete in today's tough economy.

Conference presenter Vivian Lin of CrossRock TV will dive into simple yet cutting-edge things you can do to improve your marketing effectiveness and increase your awareness to the younger generation of customers through social networking, in-store retail experience, and other cost-effective forms of media. Veteran retailer Gunnar Simonsen of Christian Supply Stores will be sharing the ways in which he has successfully implemented many of the elements and suggestions covered throughout the day in his store and give you ideas you can apply back home.

Other key information and data will be shared throughout the day by CBA, Bowker, and best-selling author Andy Crouch. Yet, before you experience the CBA Industry Conference, be sure to take advantage of the AmericasMart, too. Held in Atlanta January 9-13, the AmericasMart is open to all conference attendees. For more information on the conference, click here.

CBA Connect puts industry-wide product information and training at frontliners' fingertips. CBA has successfully launched CBA Connect, an industry-wide Web platform that will revolutionize the way retailers train staff, retrieve product information, and educate staff about new products. CBA Connect offers a staff training resource that is comprehensive as well as personalized for each retail entity using the platform, which, as of January 1, includes 650 Parable Christian Stores users, with numerous other independent, chain and franchise retailers such as Family Christian Stores, and Mardel set to become active on the system during the first quarter of 2009.

"We know that retailers want their frontliners to be equipped to be more effective salespeople, and every supplier wants people working in stores to better understand their products," said CBA president Bill Anderson. "CBA Connect is the solution, and it is economical, feasible, and convenient. It is going to completely change the way the Christian Retail industry does business."

While the potential uses and benefits of CBA Connect are numerous and will expand over time as usage grows, key uses and benefits include:

. Staff Training-CBA has loaded all CBA training courses including all nine modules of the Professional Retail Certification course, CBA Frontline Videos, and other specialized Christian-retail training, onto CBA Connect. The platform also provides proprietary areas for marketing groups, chains, franchises, and retailers with multiple stores. Even smaller, independent Christian-store retailers will be able to create links to internal information and documents such as employee manuals or POS instructions, enabling real time interaction with other employees captured on the platform so other staffers can see and learn from it. Stores have the ability to assign and track staff training to see if employees have accessed and completed the training and are proficient in what they've learned.

. New Product Introduction-CBA Connect will help ensure frontliners receive the same product information buyers receive as it creates a platform for suppliers to deliver any kind of rich media presentation associated with a product such as a PowerPoint presentation or video interview with an author or artist.

. Industry-Wide Electronic Catalog-As supplier participation grows, CBA Connect will effectively help suppliers deliver electronic catalogs with fully searchable product information, to make finding the right product to meet a customer's needs quicker and easier than ever before.

"CBA Connect is going to deliver what Christian retail needs to differentiate itself in the marketplace," said Anderson. "It is our well-trained people and their knowledge of the product, passion for the product, as well as knowledge about the authors and artists, that sets Christian Retail apart. Anybody can duplicate our product, but what they cannot duplicate is our people with their product knowledge and enthusiasm."

"Most product information is currently delivered to a buyer via a printed catalog that rarely reaches the frontliner interacting with customers," added CBA Strategic Solutions Executive Curtis Riskey. "CBA Connect provides an inexpensive way for suppliers to not only get their new product information in front of retailers and frontliners, but to measure who has accessed the information."

Retailers using CBA Connect will be asked to pay $9 per license, per month. CBA member retailers will receive a member benefit of $2 off per license. Further discounts are available based on the quantity of licenses purchased per retail entity. "This means that for only $108 or less per year, a frontliner can have complete access to all of the information and training available on CBA Connect, making it very affordable to even the smallest retailer who buys just one license to be connected to the entire industry," said Anderson.

To sign up for CBA Connect, retailers can go to www.cbaonline.org. Suppliers seeking to participate in CBA Connect should contact Curtis at criskey@cbaonline.org for more information. A Q&A with Bill Anderson and Curtis Riskey about CBA Connect is available at www.cbaonline.org/CBAConnectQA.htm

"We are excited to be part of CBA Connect," said Steve Portratz, CEO of Parable Christian Stores. "We have been using on-line training for years and have witnessed its value. Now, together with others in the industry, we can improve the quality and content offered to our frontliners and give them an education goal. In addition, the added services of CBA Connect will provide great opportunities for relationship building. Overall this is a win for everyone in the industry."

Jason Green of Mardel Christian Stores said, "Bringing together CBA resources, vendor training tools and our own company content into one platform will help us to effectively distribute, manage, and assess responses of the training resources across our organization."

CBA has been developing CBA Connect over the past year with the company that provides a similar platform to Cabela's, Sears, Hewlett Packard, Freightliner, Caterpillar, Microsoft, and others. "We have been working with them to customize the system to our industry, to meet the unique needs of both retailers and suppliers, and to keep it affordable," said Anderson. "As our industry faces the future, we simply must find ways to work together that eliminate duplicated costs, capitalizing on the cost-savings of delivering content and communication on the internet. CBA Connect is effectively an industry portal, and the way of doing business in the future. We anticipate it will create not only a more engaged and equipped frontline sales force, but increased sales and a lower cost of doing business."

New CBA Spirit of Excellence Awards debut this year. The beginning of a new year has finally arrived! With this annual renewal, many people resolve to focus on improvements of all kinds. If your resolutions include striving to be the best retailer possible, CBA wants to hear all about your efforts.

On a monthly basis from now until May 2009, CBA will award stores for their innovative and excellent efforts. Unlike previous Store of the Year awards, the new CBA Spirit of Excellence Awards are designed to acknowledge not just one store every year, but as many stores as possible that are conducting exceptional retail practices and obtaining winning, measurable results. We want the entire industry to know the creative, unique, and new things retailers are doing to be successful.

Stores selected for a CBA Spirit of Excellence award will be acknowledged through CBA Retailers+Resources Industry Brief and CBA Retailers+Resources magazine. This new structure will emphasize an ongoing focus on recognizing and awarding excellence in the industry and also helping others see new opportunities for growth and improvement in their stores as well.

This summer at the International Christian Retail Show in Denver, all stores that have won awards throughout the first half of the year will be eligible for the Jim Carlson CBA Spirit of Excellence grand prize award. The winner will be voted on by CBA members, and recognized at the annual Show.

Anyone-retailer, supplier, industry professional, even a customer-may nominate a store by using the online survey CBA has created. Stores may nominate themselves as well. The nomination survey is available by clicking here.

Examples of possible reasons to nominate a store include but are not limited to:

-Innovation - How has this store used out-of-the-box thinking to implement new ideas and further Christian retail? -Community Outreach/Ministry - How is this store engaging the community and/or being true to its mission? -Marketing - How is this store finding ways to incorporate new tools or build relationships with customers using new marketing techniques?

-Merchandising - How has this store implemented new and unique ways of engaging customers through displays? -Customer Experience - How is this store presenting a total store experience to reach new groups or customers?

For more information on the awards, click here. Be on the lookout for additional information on how to make your nominations in CBA Retailers+Resources and CBA's weekly e-news, Industry Brief.

To sign up to receive the full CBA Retailers+Resources Industry Brief on a weekly basis, click here.