Preparing now to grow your store’s sales of calendars and journals

With 2016 right around the corner, consumers are looking to purchase new journals and calendars for the coming year. Christian retailers know the value of being prepared for this important season, so here is a quick guide to help you make sure your store is appropriately stocked with the right products and right styles at just the right time.

While it’s obvious why someone might need a calendar at the beginning of the year, journal writers use journals for different reasons. In discussions with shoppers on what actually drives journal purchases, consumers say that writing is “therapeutic.” Aside from daily journaling, the second-highest need for journals is to help the writer get through a difficult time in life. We know that she intentionally journals more frequently while going through a hard time or a major life change. She also writes when she finds it hard to talk to anyone else.

This kind of customer information can help Christian retailers be prepared to serve their customer’s needs and questions as they browse the store.

PERSONALITIES AND PREFERENCES

Consumers’ preferences on styles of journals vary widely, but it really comes down to personality. It is important to offer a wide variety of styles to accommodate your store’s patrons. Journal preferences might include leather or faux leather, spiral bound, notebooks or book bound journals.

For the journal consumer, stick to traditional designs with some new trends sprinkled in every year. For 2016, look for the following trends to mix in with the traditional journal designs: watercolor florals, bandanas, felt and faux leather.

Whether a customer is looking to buy a journal as a gift item or self-purchase, most journal uses fit into four categories. She might buy a journal to keep a daily diary, to get through a change in life, to study or to keep organized. The biggest need the journal meets is the keeping of daily records of one’s thoughts, prayers and routines.

A devotional journal is an up-and-coming format in the industry, answering two main needs for the Christian consumer. First, the devotional journal is for the Christian who wants to become more active in journaling, and the second is to coincide with a Bible or devotional study.

For the new journaler, he or she often doesn’t know how or where to begin. A devotional journal provides an answer to that problem by placing leading prompts on each page and guiding the writer to dive into a particular passage of Scripture or topic each time they write a journal entry.

Certain groups of consumers will benefit from the devotional journal as a study aid, including individuals looking for a product to help them journal more consistently, small-group participants who want to go through a study together or a mentor helping a mentee grow in a certain area.

Devotional journals can be a self-purchase or gift item. They make great gifts for a mentor to give a mentee who wants to grow in his or her prayer life or a parent giving her child a gift for a holiday, perhaps birthday, graduation or Christmas.

A devotional journal is also a meaningful gift to give a child. It says, “I love you and want to help you in your walk with Jesus.” Children also may find it meaningful to give a parent a devotional journal.

DaySpring has several journals shipping in February 2016 in time for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and graduation. There will also be another wave of new journals available for shipment in September 2016 in time for the holiday season.

While journaling and the purchase of a new journal can be a seasonal activity, it is recommended that journals and devotionals be available at all times of the year. The majority of customers will purchase in the fourth quarter to prepare for the upcoming year, but journals can be a self-purchase or giftable item any time. A consumer cannot predict all of the life events that will warrant the need for a new journal throughout the year, so while she might stock up at the end of each year, she might also repurchase throughout the year.

LANDSCAPES AND LICENSES

As expected, December is prime season for calendar shoppers. About half of calendar consumers look to buy in the month of December. The rest are pretty evenly split between the months leading up to December and the first few months of the new year. Retailers looking to make the most out of their calendar season should set their stores with new calendars no later than September. This allows early shoppers to mark this purchase off their list and may make later purchasers return to the store in the peak buying season.

While the usual time of purchase for journals and calendars strongly coincides, consumer needs and purchase drivers vary significantly. Imagery, content and functionality are the top attributes shoppers look for when purchasing a calendar to serve them throughout the year.

Selecting imagery-driven calendars for the store can be a bit overwhelming because the selection is so large. Consumer focus research shows that 25 percent of shoppers look for landscape images that bring a breathtaking view across many different environments, and 16 percent enjoy a selection of animals.

Year after year, calendar trends stay consistent. In addition to traditional titles and designs, it is also important to offer fresh trends each year to keep customers interested. For 2016, look for on-trend animals like llamas and designer dogs. The daily and weekly planners tend to be more highly designed and trendy. Bold prints, florals and watercolors are the themes to look for in 2016.

Top licensed calendars, such as the Jesus Calling or Peanuts brands, feature key quotes and content. Key licenses already have a built-in audience familiar with the brand.

With regard to organization, shoppers look for great functionality to keep their lives organized in day and month segments. Retailers also should note that consumers are looking for clean grids that have large-enough date squares to capture life’s important events.

DaySpring’s Family Planners and Large Grid 12-by-12-inch calendars are examples of products specifically designed with functionality in mind. The DaySpring standard 12-by-12 also has been redesigned keeping these details in mind. In recent years, the company has made an effort to ensure these top two attributes are being met in every aspect possible.

Perpetual calendars are a hybrid between devotionals and calendars that can be used year after year. With a perpetual calendar, the consumer is given a new thought or bit of inspiration every day. Each title brings popular licenses, such as Max Lucado or Billy Graham, or non-licensed content based on common Christian lifestyle topics, including prayer and grace. Perpetual calendars are highly giftable because of the content and reusability, and like calendars, this category has a strong selling period during the fourth quarter.

Another key factor in calendar sales is placement in the store. Calendars are much more successful if they are placed in a high-traffic location. They aren’t necessarily a destination item but play a great role as a “disruptor” to the shopper, especially during the holiday season. Shoppers know they need to get a calendar, and once they encounter them in your store, they may be pleasantly surprised to be able to pick one up and remove that from their future shopping list. Keeping calendars in a highly visible area will do wonders in creating great sell-through this calendar-selling season.

PROMOTIONS AND POSTS

As retailers are aware, in-store and online promotions are necessary drivers to purchase. Here are a few tips for social media and in-store uses to help more product fly off the shelf during this coming journal and calendar season:

Feature snippets of content from great products, as opposed to just a picture of an item. Content features help consumers paint a picture of how they will use the product in their everyday lives or on special occasions.

In online posts, both on websites and social media, as well as with in-store signage, aim for emotional appeal. When people feel something, they develop an emotional connection with a brand and a product, making them more likely to purchase it. Concentrate on beautiful lifestyle photography that showcases a product being used in real life. It will help your shopper be able to more easily visualize using it in her life or giving it as a gift.

For highly giftable items, call out and feature usage opportunities. For example, you might suggest journaling during life’s trials or giving a beaches calendar to the friend who loves sand-and-sea vacations.

Be sure to also focus on shareable opportunities for your followers, especially for online and social media posts. For example, create a post for your store’s Facebook wall that expresses a great quote or scripture with a compelling image that anyone can relate to and appreciate. Focusing on shareable opportunities will help maximize the expanded organic reach for your pages and posts.

While retailers know that discount promotions will likely boost sales, they might also consider a giveaway to increase product sales. Promotions that require customers to enter and offer the potential to win something for free create excitement and buzz that likely will lead to greater sales in the shopping season for start-of-2016 products.

Morgan Gibson works in product marketing for DaySpring and has been with the company since 2013. With an MBA in marketing and management from Southern Methodist University, she has worked in marketing in the automotive, restaurant and consumer packaged goods industries.

Devotionals refocus readers after busy Christmas

By Laura Minchew

After the busyness of the Christmas season, believers are ready to get back to the spiritual routine they may have left behind in the holiday rush. Help them start the year right with a solid lineup of great devotionals.

Many readers start in January with a 365-day devotional, which is the perfect way to set and maintain a consistent daily time with the Lord, although daily devotionals sell year round. Some great choices among today’s devotional offerings are Jesus Calling by Sarah Young; Grace for the Moment by Max Lucado; Every Day in His Presence by Charles Stanley; and Hope for Each Day by Billy Graham.

Today’s consumers also search for devotionals based on a felt need or a topic of interest, such as:

• Encouragement: Looking Up Devotional by Beth Moore
• Entertainment, friends, foodies: Savor by Shauna Niequist
• For men: Man Stuff by Josh Turner
• Health and wellness: Devotions for a Healthier You by Katie Farrell.

Here are some ideas to help with devotional sales:

Merchandise. Devote a section of shelving to devotionals.

Notify your customers. Make a list of the types of devotions for each author and category. E-blast your list to your consumer database at the end of December. E-blast it again in mid-January with a coupon.

Sampling. Feature three to seven days of sample readings of devotions on your website or send them out in an e-blast. Many publishers will supply you a PDF of a sampler file.

Create an event. January is an excellent month to showcase devotional titles in store and online.

Offer incentives. A coupon and online link at the end of an email will go a long way toward encouraging a customer to purchase a devotional immediately.

Train. Share with your sales team the differences between the types of devotionals. Your publisher sales rep will be able to help you with the different devotionals that are available. For example, Thomas Nelson has a downloadable How to Choose the Right Devotional guide you may offer online or in print and give out to your customers at no charge.

Don’t forget the kids! Thomas Nelson has several devotionals where the adult devotional daily theme and Scripture readings correspond to the children’s devotional, such as the Grace for the Moment adult and kids’ devotionals. In taking this approach, both children and adults can read their own devotions and then discuss as a family what they have read and learned.

Keep your Bible open. Encourage readers to do their devotional reading with their Bibles open alongside in order to provide the reader with an even richer reading experience. Sarah Young says about Jesus Calling: “The devotions in this book are meant to be read slowly, preferably in a quiet place—with your Bible open.”

Devotionals provide an important opportunity for your customers. They can inject a daily dose of inspiration into their lives and can give readers an even more in-depth study of God’s Word. With the variety of devotionals available, there is truly a devotional for every person and every need.

Laura Minchew is the senior vice president and publisher for gift books, Tommy Nelson and new media at HarperCollins Christian Publishing.

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