Consuming God at more than Market Value

We have already seen that branding aims at creating a unique product that will satisfy the desires of the consumer. But can this be said of both consumer goods and religious desires? Can we market the church the same way we market consumer goods and services?

In his book “Marketing the Church,” Barna defines church marketing as the performance of both business and ministry activities that impact the church’s target audience with the intention of ministering to and fulfilling their spiritual, social, emotional, and physical needs, thereby satisfying the ministry goals of the church. In this definition Barna has already stated that the goal of the church is to satisfy the needs of the church’s target audience.

Barna’s definition of church marketing does not differ much from the secular understanding of marketing as he defines it in his book “The Frog in the Kettle: What Christians Need to Know about Life in the Year 2000.” He defines Marketing as the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from the producer to the consumer, to satisfy the needs and desires of the consumer and the goals and objectives of the producer.

Can this definition of marketing be applied to religious desires? Is the church a product, or put yet in other words, is the church’s ministry a product that can be geared toward people’s desires? To what extent can the church satisfy the desires of its members and how is this related to the desire for goods and services?

A critical examination of the nature and mission of the church is helpful in this discussion. The nature and mission of the church is found in God’s will for human society. As Ray Anderson writes in “Minding God’s Business,” “God’s will for human society is that it fulfill his covenant purpose and promise here on earth and be prepared to be a people of God destined to share his eternal glory.” The will of God is expressed in a community that lives under God’s rule and so becoming a sign of the kingdom of God. This community is called the church.

The church seeks to bring the gospel of the kingdom to all of human society, liberating the world from its fateful bondage to self-serving strivings, and healing its estrangement from God’s gracious purpose and promise. The church is therefore not here about itself but about God. Its sole purpose for existence is not to serve the desires of its members but to fulfill God’s mandate. Thus, the church is both an apostolic body and a missional being.

The church is the agent through whom the gospel of the kingdom is proclaimed to the whole world. This gospel is the source of the church’s apostolic mandate to proclaim Christ to the world through specific mission activities. the mission of the church becomes, therefore, not the satisfaction of its members’ needs and wants, but the propagation of the will of God on earth. How the church goes about this is more important than what it actually achieves. The end, in God’s way of business, never justifies the means.

But just how is the church supposed to go about its business without offending God? This will be the focus of our next discussion.

Have a great weekend!

Coming Closer to Consumer-driven Christianity

Last week we started off by discussing Church growth specialists. These good friends are emphasizing the importance of a Church's uniqueness in attracting a certain class or type of members. We said that in their minds of business, Churches are religious brands in the market economy of religious goods and services. But if denominations can be treated as brands, how does this branding contribute to the overriding mission of the universal Church of Christ?

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's goods or services as distinct from those of other sellers. The legal term for brand is trademark. A brand may identify one item, a family of items, or all items of that seller. If used for the firm as a whole, the preferred term is trade name. Branding therefore can be defined as the process of creating uniqueness of one seller or product from another. Branding creates brand identity which is a unique set of brand associations. These brand associations represent what the brand stands for and imply a promise to customers from the organization members.

A brand is itself a product in the first place. For example, some people will prefer Nike running shoes to Adidas even if both these two serve the same purpose. A brand becomes a product especially when it possesses attributes, qualities, values, uses, and users that would prefer it to other similar products in the market. Branding can also be in form of an organization’s name. As an organization, a brand will be appreciated on the grounds of innovation, consumer concern, trustworthiness, and scope of operation.

To succeed at creating a brand, an organization needs to position the brand in such a way that it appeals to a target audience, is actively communicated, and provides competitive advantage. A brand’s success is measured by its ability to compete favorably in the market by maintaining a competitive price, outmatching its competitors, being consistent in innovation, meeting the needs of the market segment, and its ability to avoid short term pressures.

As we said last week, Church growth experts are adopting Church marketing concepts not so different from consumer product branding. Church growth experts are emphasizing such elements of Church growth as strategic planning, positioning, demographic segmentation, niche marketing, differentiation, and individual satisfaction. In his book “Church Marketing: Breaking Ground for the Harvest,” Church growth and Church research specialist George Barna devotes an entire chapter to the concept of Church positioning. Barna writes that one of the keys to positioning a Church is to be the first to get to the desired position within people’s perceptual maps. This is because in our information-saturated, overstimulated, laden-with-choices society, people remember and accept the first entity that satisfactorily fills their mental void. In other words Barna is saying that a Church needs to position itself in such a way that it outperforms its competitors; competitors in this case being other Churches or places of worship.

Barna continues to write that in order for a Church to achieve favorable positioning, it has to learn how to engage in target marketing. Target marketing is the process of dividing the aggregate population the Church could serve into discrete, definable portions, and identifying one or a few portions on which the Church will focus its efforts. Barna adds that almost all successful marketers these days engage in target marketing. In Barna’s opinion, a Church needs to select a target audience and offer people a restricted product base (i.e. services people need), one that fits its vision for ministry. The Church should focus upon meeting the needs of a targeted portion of the aggregate area.

By recommending target marketing for a Church, Barna assumes that the Church can be marketed the same way as any other consumer product. Barna assumes a comparative relationship between desires for material goods and services, and desire for religion. But just how similar are these two?

Hang on till next time.

Happy New Year!

Auctioning Silent Night: Why more people would rather buy Junk than Jesus

A man stared at me from a distance. I thought I had met him before. I later found out I hadn’t. He was holding five shopping bags in his two muscular arms. His two boys were sitting on Santa’s lap for a memorable picture of the year. I stopped and asked the man if we had met before. He looked at me in the eyes and said, “Never mind young man; at this time of year I normally lose my mind. My wife has been in Victoria Secrets for more than three hours now. My kids are having their best of Santa; and I don’t know where my daughter has wondered off to. No body seems to care that I will be at work tomorrow morning. Well, I guess this is what holidays are all about.”

I looked at this man and saw a humble, caring, troubled gentleman of a father and husband who wishes Christ was not born on Christmas day. What a burden this Holy night brings on this man! Which reminds me of a commercial I read about a few days ago:

For anyone who has ever dreamed of being a star or becoming a part of the wonderful A Christmas Carol tradition, this could be your ticket! By entering the Silent Night Auction, you could win one of five opportunities to perform on-stage with the company of A Christmas Carol. This could be your chance to visit Charles Dickens’ London and meet Ebenezer Scrooge as well as support Meadow Brook Theatre. It will be a holiday experience you will remember for many years to come. If you are the high bid winner, you and a guest will join the cast of A Christmas Carol and participate in all the street scenes. You will also receive a Meadow Brook Theatre tote bag filled with a coffee mug, a special compact disc of the carols from the show and two tickets to your performance so that your friends and family can see your on-stage debut.

What about this email from a dear pastor to his parishioners:

Dear Church members,

The Christmas Fair is this week. That means that the final time to shop on line for the Silent Auction is 1:00 pm on Friday. Please visit our Church website to start shopping now. The Fair opens at 5 on Friday with good food available for your dinner in the kitchen as well as on the bake table. The auction closes at 2 pm on Saturday, one hour before the Fair closes. Come and bid for your favorite items. Many parishioners have been working hours to offer you their hand crafted items. We also have books, cds, white elephant offerings, electronics, a basket of gourmet treats and other items to be sold by chances on Grandmas table, lots of home baked goods, and a delicious meal to keep you shopping and visiting. It is a wonderful time to share. Join us and bring all of your friends.

In marketing there is something called brand equity and I have always wanted to measure how much equity “Brand Christmas” has. Without being too “busynessy,” brand equity can be defined as: The added value a brand name identity brings to a product or service beyond the functional benefits provided; a positive image established through name recognition; the financial value of a brand to the bottom line profit of a business; The value - both tangible and intangible that a brand adds to a product or service.

I know some of you are wondering where I am going with this, but I think it is important for me to start from Christmas as we develop our subject on Church marketing and “Brand Church.” Some of you expressed your concerns telling me that it is okay to market the Church as long as we stick to the essential product which is Christ. I find this an interesting paradigm and I am willing to explore this line of thought. But at this time I would like to start with Christmas and explore with you how Christmas is bound up or not bound up with Christ. May be later on we will talk about the Church’s sacred space and see how much we can do with it in relation to the mission of Christ. This will take us into Church schools, million dollar Church buildings, state of the art Church sound systems, Church gyms, Church auctions, Church coffee shops, Church boutiques, and a few others.

At this time though, I would like to end with a solicitation for ideas about your Christmas and your Christmas gifts, both received and given. How do these play into the message of Christmas and how central are they to the man of the season? Are you auctioning silent night under your spotted Christmas tree or is this another day just like any other day for families to have fun and fellowship? How do you go about this?

If you can’t post a comment on my blog, just email me at amonikas@yahoo.fr

Merry Christmas and happy shopping!

Marketing the Church: What is Wrong or Right With the Brand?

A few days ago I began collecting my thoughts about church and church marketing. Some people think the church is a business which should be marketed with techniques from Wall Street and God knows where. Others think the church is from a different mother altogether and what works for business works against the church. Just how much business should there be in church practice and how much church should there be in church business?

Numerous books have been written about marketing the church. Several denominations have adopted statements of faith and styles of worship to stand out from the ordinary. Efforts to unify the church have failed over the centuries due to the various cultural differences embraced by Bible believing Christians. Church growth specialists emphasize the importance of a church’s uniqueness in attracting a certain class or type of adherents. Churches are, in other words, religious brands in the market economy of religious goods and services. But if denominations can be treated as brands, how does this branding contribute to the overriding mission of the universal church of Christ?

In the next few days I would like to interact with you on this subject. Together we will examine the selected literature available on church growth and church marketing and to evaluate the extent to which the ideas presented in this literature affect the overall mission of the universal church of Jesus Christ. We will also examine church branding and how it relates to the Trinitarian nature of a communal God. Together we will draw a conclusive analysis of the effect of branding and marketing on the mission of the church. So why don’t you hang on and together take this thing to the end.

A la prochaine (till next time) and Merry Christmas to you!