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Can You Meet the 4% Challenge?
Torchlight | Spring 2008
The NACS Foundation and the NACS General Book Committee are challenging college stores to boost sales of general books. Over the next year, the NACS General Book Committee will encourage stores to use and share tips that have been successful to generate more sales.
The overall goal is to raise general book sales in participating stores by 4% from May 1, 2008, through May 1, 2009. These efforts are designed to give students, faculty and staff more reasons to visit college stores and their web sites. Throughout the campaign, emphasis will be given to customer service, marketing, events, and promotions to raise the profile of the store and its contribution to the campus.
"Our committee wanted to challenge stores to increase their overall sales of general books and thought this challenge would be a creative and fun way to get the industry involved," explained Christy Hart, manager, St. Louis Community College/Highlander Bookshop, and General Book Committee chair. "This program is very easy to participate in. If you have an idea that has raised your general book sales, simply submit that idea to the 4% Challenge committee online and you are automatically entered to win a $500 credit memo from NACSCORP."
The declining overall general book sales trend in our industry has been a concern of Bryan Pearce, chief executive officer of University Book Store, Inc. at the University of Washington in Seattle, for quite some time. The 4% Challenge began with his determination to encourage stores not to give up on this category and brainstorm ways to reverse this trend.
"Like many of us, I am very concerned about the declining general book sales and profit trends," stated Pearce. "I believe that a vibrant general book resource is a critical element of our mission of service to our colleges and universities. With the knowledge, creativity, and capacity for productive networking in our industry, I know we can establish a new foundation in this area and set a sustainable course for growth. I am thrilled that the General Book Committee has turned this challenge into an industry-wide event. You will receive valuable ideas and marketing assistance from many of your peers and colleagues who have embraced the challenge and achieved outstanding results."
Any NACS member can participate in the 4% Challenge. Stores can submit ideas for promotions, events, strong-selling categories, cost-saving or inventory management strategies, and more, for the NACS membership to access and apply to their individual stores. We encourage stores who test these to track their 4% Challenge successes, and submit their achievements online as well. For every idea a store submits, the store is automatically entered to win a $500 credit memo from NACSCORP.
Need help getting started? Visit the online web site.
Members can download online marketing toolkits which include in-store bag stuffers, posters, advertisements for campus newspapers, press release templates, and much more. Members will also have access to tips-of-the-week, quick snippets to apply to your store to help increase general book sales, so be sure to check the web site often.
The 4% Challenge is underwritten by a grant provided by the NACS Foundation Jaipaul Singh Endowment Fund. The endowment was created to support general books within the collegiate retailing industry. For more information about the 4% Challenge visit www.nacs.org/members/secure/4percentchallenge/default.aspx, e-mail 4percentchallenge@nacs.org, or call Cindy Thompson at (800) 622-7498, ext. 2226.
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