Christian Retailing (@ChristianRetail) reports that Christian publishers are getting better at targeting the covers of their books to the audiences for whom the content is intended.
“We have seen improvements from previous years” said Rick Hamm, announcing the above 3 winners of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association’s (@ecpa) Book Cover Awards, sponsored by Dickinson Press. Director of consumer research group Marshall Marketing and judging manager for the program, Hamm said this year's entries—the best in the competition’s 5-year history—had a clearer focus and better descriptions.
The ECPA | dp Book Cover Award is meant “to recognize the industry’s most effective book covers; i.e. those that best connect design components to their intended consumer.”
The judging criteria are based on research results drawn by Marshall Marketing to help Christian publishers “develop and design more on-target products” aiming at 4 book buyer “quadrants”:
· Loyalists – favor community, and status quo. They value rules, authority figures, routine, and stability. They prefer subdued images, simple designs with natural colors, and a straight forward message.
· Inclusives – favor community, but also change and progress. They are interested in diversity, health and well-being, ecology, cultural experiences and style. Inclusives favor bright colors, bold fonts, optimistic images, and prefer a sense of order.
· Pioneers – favor individualism, achievement and progress. They are the early adopters of just virtually everything. They love to test, experiment, and to take risks. Pioneers prefer intense images, highly stylized designs, innuendo, the exotic, the unique and symbolism.
· Individualists – are motivated by self-expression, fun, rewards, status and the status quo. They prefer easily digestible entertainment, mockery, and non-conformity. Individualists enjoy images of people having fun, images that are free-form or unique and images of materialism and/or consumption.
Do you agree the above covers are the most effective covers of 2011?