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Religious Publishing: An Analysis of Marketing Measures by German Religious Publishers

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Abstract

The German religious book market is a small market segment that is dominated by small publishers. Because the number of companies and overall turnover in the market segment show a negative trend, the German religious book market can be described as a mature saturated market. Also, the classic and professional customer groups are decreasing or at least changing due to changes in the role of religion in society. However, the population still has an interest in religious topics, which is why it is important for religious publishers to target them with specific marketing measures. Content analysis of the bi-annual publishing program brochures reveals which titles religious publishers attribute the greatest sales potential to and which product, price and communication measures are used to support their top titles. The results of the analysis show that German religious publishers choose non-fiction books, but also practical guidebooks and gift books as top titles, which take up current topics and trends from church and society. Books with authentic content by authentic authors are favored. The analysis also indicates (somewhat unsurprisingly) that marketing decisions that are made depend on the financial capabilities of religious publishers. Measures related to the price are therefore hardly offered, and cost-intensive communication measures are only taken at a low level.

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Notes

  1. In this work religious publishers are understood as those who have religious and theological literature in their range and are active on the religious book market. Non-religious public and scientific publishers that produce religious and theological works and small religious publishers that produce some book but mainly newspapers, magazines or art objects are not considered. Because Germany continues to be shaped by Christianity and Christian values, the focus of this work is on Christian-religious publishers, even though Jewish or Islamic publishers can be described as religious publishers too, cf. Peter Meyer-Dohm, ed., Handbuch des Buchhandels. Teil 2. Verlagsbuchhandel (Hamburg: Verlag für Buchmarkt-Forschung, 1975), 96; Thomas Petersen, Heilige Nacht?, ed. Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach, 2017, 6.

  2. The term includes books of various literary genres and small prints, provided that the content of the works deals with a religion or with a religious topic or has a broad religious orientation. Mainly, the religious book is understood to mean the Christian-oriented religious book, which conveys the content of Christianity, deals with Christianity or deals with a wide variety of topics from a Christian perspective.

  3. Cf. Buch und Buchhandel in Zahlen 2018, ed. Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels e.V. (Frankfurt a. M.: MVB Marketing- und Verlagsservice des Buchhandels, 2018), 40, table 16; Buch und Buchhandel in Zahlen 2009, ed. Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels e.V. (Frankfurt a. M.: MVB Marketing- und Verlagsservice des Buchhandels, 2009), 27, table 14.; see "Mitglieder,“Vereinigung Evangelischer Buchhändler und Verleger, last accessed on March 22, 2019, https://www.veb-medien.de/mitglieder.html.

  4. Cf. BuBiZ 2018, 40, table 16; BuBiZ 2009, 27, table 14.

  5. See “Christliche Buchhandlungen,”. St. Benno Verlag, last accessed on May 23, 2019, https://www.kathweb.de/christliche-buchhandlungen-de/karte.php. The map also includes bookstores that only offer a larger range of religious books and monastery shops.

  6. Cf. „Buchreport-Umfrage. Gegen die Marginalisierung des religiösen Buchs antreten,“ in buchreport.spezial Religion & Theologie, no. 4 (April 2014): 6–11, here 6.

  7. Cf. for example Sabine Schmidt, Stefan Hauck, „Für Zielgruppen mit Flip-Flops,“ in Börsenblatt des deutschen Buchhandels, no. 28 (July 10, 2014), 12–15, here 12; Barbara Schmidt, „Großer Bedarf an verständlichen Texten,“ in Börsenblatt des deutschen Buchhandels, no. 34 (August 20, 2015), 20–23, here 22; Schmidt, „Frischekur. Zur aktuellen Situation des religiösen Buchhandels. Jünger werden,“ in Börsenblatt des deutschen Buchhandels, no. 34 (August 24, 2017), 18–21, here 19; „Religiöser Buchmarkt. Nachfrage nach theologischen Themen ist weiter rückläufig,“ in buchreport.de (April 25, 2018), last accessed on March 31, 2019, https://www.buchreport.de/news/geschaeft-mit-religioesen-buechern-ist-weiter-ruecklaeufig/#; „Media-Control-Auswertung. Warengruppen Religion im Minus,“ in Börsenblatt des deutschen Buchhandels, no. 34 (August 23, 2018): 31.

  8. Cf. „Media-Control-Auswertung“, 31.

  9. Cf. BuBiZ 2018, 5, table 1.

  10. Cf. Ulrich Keller, „Abflauende Nachfrage_Der Religionsbuchmarkt. Im Allgemeinsortiment ist jetzt wieder das Basisniveau erreicht,“ in buchreport.spezial Religion & Theologie, no. 11 (November 2009), 6–7.

  11. Cf. Schmidt, Hauck, „Für Zielgruppen mit Flip-Flops“, 13.

  12. Cf. „Religiöser Buchmarkt. Nachfrage nach theologischen Themen ist weiter rückläufig,“ in buchreport.de (April 25, 2018), last accessed on March 21, 2019, https://www.buchreport.de/news/geschaeft-mit-religioesen-buechern-ist-weiter-ruecklaeufig/#.

  13. Cf. Thomas Wilking, Daniela Zielber, Sabine Müchler, „Die 100 größten Buchverlage. Vermessung in Zeiten neuer Geschäftsmodelle,” in buchreport.magazin, no. 4 (April 2019), 18–24, here 19. It should be noted that Vandenhoeck &Ruprecht was established as an protestant publisher but today does generate large parts of its sales with books from the area of humanities and social science.

  14. See “Unsere 35 Buchhandlungen,” Alpha-Buchhandelskette, last accessed on May 23, 2019, https://www.alpha-buch.de/buchhandlungen.

  15. Cf. BuBiZ 2018, 81, table 39 and 83–85, table 40. Since 2004, books have been classified according to the DDC-Sachgruppen der deutschsprachigen Nationalbibliografien. Deutsche Nationalbibliografie, Das Schweizer Buch, Österreichische Bibliografie. Leitfaden zu ihrer Vergabe. Version 1.1 [Stand: 1. Juni 2014], ed. Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (Leipzig, Frankfurt a. M., 2014), last accessed on June 7, 2019, https://d-nb.info/1052700705/34, 18. The subject group “DK 200 Religion” lists all non-fiction and specialist books about religions and religious sub-disciplines as well as the associated source texts. Fiction, children's books, gift books etc. are not considered.

  16. Cf. Studie „Buchkäufer – quo vadis?“ Kernergebnisse, ed. Börsenverein des deutschen Buchhandels (Frankfurt a. M., 2018), last accessed on February 21, 2019, http://www.boersenverein.de/sixcms/media.php/976/Buchk%C3%A4ufer_quo_vadis_Bericht_Juni_2018_Kernergebnisse.pdf, slide 8 and 10.

  17. Cf. Religion in Deutschland und weltweit (Statista, 2017), slide 6; Gezählt 2019. Zahlen und Fakten zum kirchlichen Leben, ed. Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, last accessed on July 23, 2019, https://www.ekd.de/ekd_de/ds_doc/Gezaehlt_zahlen_und_fakten_2019.pdf, 12 and 20; Katholische Kirche in Deutschland. Wiederaufnahmen, Eintritte, Austritte 1950–2018, ed. Sekretariat der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, last accessed on July 23, 2019, https://www.dbk.de/fileadmin/redaktion/Zahlen%20und%20Fakten/Kirchliche%20Statistik/Eintritte%2C%20Wiederaufnahmen%20zur%20katholischen%20Kirche%20sowie%20Austritte%20aus%20der%20katholischen%20Kirche/2018-Wiederaufnahmen-Eintritte-Austritte_1950-2018.pdf.

  18. Cf. Katholische Kirche in Deutschland. Priesterweihen nach Diözesen 1962–2018, ed. Sekretariat der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, last accessed on July 23, 2019, https://www.dbk.de/fileadmin/redaktion/Zahlen%20und%20Fakten/Kirchliche%20Statistik/Priesterweihen_Neupriester/2018-Neupriester-Priesterweihen_1962-2018.pdf; Katholische Kirche in Deutschland. Erstkommunionen, Firmungen, Taufen 1978–2018, ed. Sekretariat der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz, last accessed on July 23, 2019, https://www.dbk.de/fileadmin/redaktion/Zah-len%20und%20Fakten/Kirchliche%20Statistik/Erstkommunionen%2C%20Firmungen%2C%20Taufen/2018-Erstkommunionen-Firmungen-Taufen_1978-2018.pdf; Gezählt 2019, 12.

  19. Cf. Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, Gerhard Schmidtchen, Religiöses Buch und christlicher Buchhandel. Eine Untersuchung des Instituts für Demoskopie Allenbach im Auftrag der Vereinigung Evangelischer Buchhändler und der Vereinigung des katholischen Buchhandels, Schriften zur Buchmarktforschung 18 (Hamburg: Verlag für Buchmarkt-Forschung, 1969), 18.

  20. Cf. Rüdiger Schulz, Steffen de Sombre, Marc Calmbach, MDG-Trendmonitor „Religiöse Kommunikation 2010“. Kommentarband II. Einzeldarstellungen der Mediengattungen. Ergebnisse repräsentativer Befragungen unter Katholiken sowie der Gesamtbevölkerung, ed. MDG Medien-Dienstleistung GmbH, München, conducted by Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach and Sinus Sociovision, Heidelberg (München: MDG Medien-Dienstleistung GmbH, 2010), 67, fig. 22.

  21. Cf. Petersen, Heilige Nacht?, 4, 6, 7, fig. 3 and A4; Welche Bedeutung haben Religion und Glauben für Sie? ARD-DeutschlandTREND (Statista, 2018).

  22. For this work the publishing program brochures of autumn 2018 from 15 randomly selected typical religious publishers or imprints were coded and finally evaluated. A sample of 28 program brochures and 29 top titles was found. The 29 books account for 4.5% of the total new publications of the selected publishers in autumn 2018. The analysis cannot make all marketing measures and decisions of the religious publishers visible. Since the program brochures are intended for bookstores, no measures considering distribution are listed. The publication of one or more program brochures, of course, indicates that the publishers want to continue to consider and reach the bookstores as a point of sale. It turns out that religious publishers, in addition to the "normal" sales structures of the book trade, serve a large number of other specific sales channels or have a large selection of sales channels available, of which the religious bookstores still an important one, but also internet shops become more and more important.

  23. Cf. Schmidt, Hauck, „Für Zielgruppen mit Flip-Flops“, 14.

  24. Cf. Eva Killy, „Verlagsprofile. Nicht das Profil schärfen, sondern den Diskurs anregen,“ in buchreport.spezial Religion & Theologie, no. 2 (Februar 2018), 12–13; Schmidt, Hauck, „Für Zielgruppen mit Flip-Flops“, 14; Christiane Petersen, „Griff zum Kompass – oder zum Kochlöffel,“ in Börsenblatt des deutschen Buchhandels, no. 8 (Februar 25, 2016), 22–25, here 24.

  25. The term is used by Bärbel Renner, Kommunikationspolitik im Kinderbuchmarkt. Eine empirische Untersuchung zu den kommunikationspolitischen Maßnahmen von Kinderbuchverlagen im Kontext des Marketing-Mix, Buchhandel der Zukunft 60 (München: Peniope 2006), 11. For example, Wulf D. v. Lucius, Verlagswirtschaft. Ökonomische, rechtliche und organisatorische Grundlagen, 3rd ed. (Konstanz, München: UVK Verlagsgesellschaft GmbH, 2014), 209 took over the term from Renner.

  26. Cf. Lucius, Verlagswirtschaft, 59–60.

  27. Cf. BuBiZ 2018, 73.

  28. Cf. Schmidt, „Großer Bedarf an verständlichen Texten“, 22.

  29. Cf. Aristid Klumbies, „Die 99-Cent-Illusion,“ in Handelsblatt (March 15, 2016), last accessed on July 4, 2019, https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/handel-konsumgueter/preise-im-handel-die-99-cent-illusion/13317448.html?ticket=ST-3874674-mi1x0qdyr0xIwC64trce-ap2; „Viele Buchhändler drängen auf glatte Buchpreise. Das 99-Cent-Ärgernis,“ in buchreport.de (January 29, 2016), last accessed on July 4, 2019, https://www.buchreport.de/news/das-99-cent-aergernis/.

  30. Cf. Thomas Breyer-Mayländer, Wirtschaftsunternehmen Verlag. Märkte analysieren und bewerten - Herstellungsprozesse verstehen und planen - Medialeistungen bewerben und verkaufen - Medienprodukte vertreiben - Arbeitsprozesse in Redaktion oder Lektorat organisieren, Edition Buchhandel 5, 5th ed. (Frankfurt a. M.: Bramann, 2014), 180–181.

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    Karina Kowatsch

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This article is based on the master’s thesis Der religiöse Buchmarkt im 21. Jahrhundert, which was submitted by the author to the Johannes Gutenberg University in August 2019.

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Kowatsch, K. Religious Publishing: An Analysis of Marketing Measures by German Religious Publishers. Pub Res Q 36, 217–225 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-020-09723-3

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