The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association held its annual Fall Seminar November 6-10 in Rancho Mirage, Calif. According to Doug Ross, CEO and president of ECPA, the seminar was "the largest we have ever had and certainly the most energetic and enthusiastic." Among the participants were AAP president Pat Schr der and David A. Balto, assistant director for policy and evaluation for the Bureau of Competition at the FTC.
Seminar topics for the attending heads of houses and their senior staff were about equally divided between maximizing advertising dollars (the stated theme of the conference), innovations in the industry and ongoing concerns in a fluid and rapidly changing business. Longtime publishing professional Michael Kazan--now executive v-p and director of business development and client relations at Spier--set the tone by telling attendees that, for religion publishers, "your time is probably right now." Kazan limited his comments to nontrade advertising, emphasizing "out of home" (public space) consumer sites, such as bus placards, and the growing importance of the Net.
Andy Murray, CEO of the brand strategy and identity firm BrandWorks Consulting, focused his remarks on how publishers must build their brand presence in the trade. Such a presence is useless in the consumer market, he noted, where the "brand" is often the author, and buyers' dollars are usually indifferent to the name of the publisher. By contrast, Murray argued, brand identity within the trade is essential for publishers, who he likened to Proctor and Gamble. Their products--such as Tide and Pringles--are discrete entities, like authors, and are advertised to the consumer on a product-by-product basis. However, P&G's own ad dollars, Murray told the group, go to trade magazines, where building and maintaining a strong identity with the middle man or intermediary buyer is of maximum importance to the corporation's overall success.
Under the heading of continuing sagas, Fran Saloman, recently appointed head of Ingram's Spring Arbor distributors, made her first public comments to the industry since taking on her new responsibilities. She spoke candidly of past difficulties and of her company's awareness of what ECPA member houses need and want from their distributors, acknowledging that access to the general trade is one of the more urgent issues.
Noting that, in conjunction with Ingram, Spring Arbor has access to some 15,000 stores and 25,000 libraries, Saloman declared her intention to bring as many of them as possible to the table. Her comments were well received by an audience that for more than two years has been less than happy with the industry's largest distributor.
