One of the country's leading marketing strategists challenged Christian retailers to rethink their meaning and methods when he presented a sobering report on consumer attitudes to industry leaders.

“I would become a mainstream retailer,” said researcher Britt Beemer, suggesting Christian stores pursue new and repeat customers by offering more non-Christian products while at the same time developing the widely recognized different atmosphere they have that sets them apart from other retail operations.

“There's a huge opportunity out there-I just think we have to work hard to grow the business,” he told around 150 retailer and supplier leaders attending the Future of the Industry conference at the end of CBA Advance week. “If you have to go mainstream, why not?”

Beemer's comments came during the presentation of his new Christian Retail Consumer Intelligence: A CBA Marketing Strategies Report. The author of an influential 1998 study on Christian retailing, Beemer revisited the industry in December when his America's Research Group surveyed 1,200 people across the country who bought Christian products in the previous year.

Based on his findings, Beemer offered a six-point, “90-Day Action Plan” that included recommending that stores:

• make Christmas a major marketing focus
• stock non-Christian children's products
• focus their advertising on newspaper inserts and Sunday morning religious television.

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