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Your Brand/Your Story: Advanced Display & Marketing 

Registration opens Monday, May 5th at 1 pm ET / 12 pm CT / 10 am PT. 

A live link will be available when registration opens

The Advanced Display & Marketing Course explores the intersection of storytelling, display design, and marketing to create an unforgettable bookstore experience. Participants will learn how to:
  • differentiate their space from merely transactional book-buying 
  • develop engaging displays that spark emotional curiosity
  • align store layout, events, and marketing for maximum impact

Throughout this course, you will explore how storytelling can elevate your bookstore into an immersive, emotionally engaging space. By aligning marketing, displays, events, and curation, you will craft unforgettable experiences that delight customers and friends. Let’s create something extraordinary together!

Course Instructors

Lisa Uhrik is cofounder of Plenty Bookshop and co-owner of Franklin Fixtures — organizations that share a dedication to elevating reading.  An SPHR (senior professional in HR) and organizational development facilitator, her career has been about helping businesses thrive with innovative structures and systems.  As a bookstore advocate, she has devoted the last decade to understanding sustainable models and best practices, leveraging her unique access through Franklin to a broad array of successful bookstores.

You bring stories to your community: one of them is your bookstore itself.  When we think about bookstores like a publisher thinks about a book, we get clearer about our big idea and the experience we hope to give our customers.  

Steve Wax is chief narratologist and board chair for Heydey Publishing and draws from a long career in film and commercial production. As cofounder of Campfire Media, he and his colleague used viral marketing with the Blair Witch Diary project long before that was an understood method of influence.  For the past two years, he and Lisa Uhrik have been working on a project called Beyond Bookstores, aimed at empowering bookstores with fresh, innovative, timeless ideas.  

Membership

Being an active member of the bookselling industry is a critical step in growing a bookstore and shows commitment to your chosen profession. Stores with students in all Professional Booksellers School courses are required to be current members of their regional trade association and/or the American Booksellers Association. Students must also be enrolled in PBS, which is free.

Course Schedule & Cost

Live Classes are on Wednesdays @ 12:30 pm ET / 11:30 am CT / 9:30 am PT on June 4, June 18, July 2, July 9 and July 16. Each class is 90 minutes.

The course is limited to 30 students at the cost of $425 with discounts available for members of NAIBA, SIBA, GLIBA, MIBA, MPIBA, PNBA, and CALIBA.  Find out what support your Regional Trade Association offers on our website.

Course Structure
The Advanced Display & Marketing Course explores the intersection of storytelling, display, and marketing to create an unforgettable bookstore experience. 

The course is a read/practice/reflect learning model. It contains 5 workshops, each with a chapter to be read and field work assignments to complete in your store before coming to a live class to discuss, share, and learn together.  Your experimentation and measurement is key.  Show and tell: what did you do and what did you see when you tried it?  

Course Objectives
Upon completing this course, participants will be able to:
  • Design a book haven space that connects with customers through storytelling
  • Move from transactional book-selling in favor of engagement through experience 
  • Articulate a clear market position and story
  • Align store layout, displays, and media with a compelling Big Idea
  • Apply persona-driven strategies to marketing, curation, and customer engagement
  • Integrate store atmosphere, sensory elements, and display techniques to drive browsing and purchasing.
  • Develop a holistic approach where marketing, events, displays, and book curation work in alignment
  • Experiment with radical, out-of-the-box marketing strategies that strengthen engagement and community connections.
Course Schedule

The course consists of five workshops, each focusing on a different aspect of display and marketing strategy. Readings for thought/response are assigned in advance, so live classes can be discussions and learnings.

June 4, 2025  Session I: Crafting Experiences & Setting the Scene

All design is storytelling. Create a book haven that invites exploration.

  • Write your store’s Big Idea and purpose.
  • Define personas (Skimmers, Dippers, and Divers) and their browsing behaviors.
  • Develop a compelling first line for your store.
  • Explore how Pattern Languages influence store atmosphere.
  • Assess and enhance store sensory elements (sound, smell, lighting).
  • Conduct a shelf trial and refine display strategies based on customer interaction.
  • Observe customer behavior: What do they touch, linger on, or overlook?

June 18, 2025  Session II:  Marketing & Display as Emotional Curiosity

Engage customers through the psychology of curiosity and storytelling.

  • Define Act I: How does your store spark curiosity and invite exploration?
  • Define Act II: How does the in-store experience emotionally engage different personas?
  • Map the desired customer journey through the store (planogram).
  • Evaluate engagement metrics: How many customers interact with books and displays?
  • Create a story-driven display targeting a key persona.
  • Develop strategies to act as a mentor/friend/guide for customers at each stage of their journey.

July 2, 2025  Session III: Connections of Shared Experience, Strength, Hope

Deepen engagement through intentional customer interactions.

  • Identify ways to create emotional touchpoints in the store experience.
  • Use displays to tell personal stories and build familiarity.
  • Explore how lighting, accessibility, product arrangement, and aesthetics shape customer experience.
  • Develop interactive elements to foster community participation.
  • Maintain and refresh displays to ensure ongoing engagement.

July 9, 2025  Session IV: Aligning Marketing, Display, Events & Curation

Create a seamless strategy where all aspects of your store work in harmony.

  • Understand how events, book orders, marketing, and display intersect.
  • Implement consistent branding across physical space and media.
  • Break down silos between store functions to create a cohesive experience.
  • Apply radical marketing rules for maximum customer connection.
  • Incorporate storytelling principles beyond the store, into social media and promotions.

July 16, 2025 Session V:  Storytelling in Display at Macro & Micro Levels

Bring all elements together for a lasting impact.

  • Develop a marketing plan that supports the Big Idea of your store.
  • Experiment with non-traditional, bold marketing techniques.
  • Apply the principles of transmedia storytelling to bookstore branding.
  • Balance repetition and novelty to build brand familiarity and excitement.
  • Refine your tipping point strategy—leveraging passionate customers (Divers) to fuel broader engagement.
  • Final project: Implement and document a transformative store display or marketing campaign.
Final Project Deliverables
  1. Big Idea Statement – Clearly articulate your store’s unique identity.
  2. Persona Analysis & Engagement Strategy – Define customer personas and how displays, marketing, and events cater to them.
  3. Customer Journey Planogram – Map the customer experience through the store.
  4. Storytelling Display Prototype – Implement and analyze a persona-driven display.
  5. Integrated Marketing & Display Plan – Create a final project that connects storytelling, marketing, and customer experience into a seamless, engaging strategy.