MARCH 29, 2004

MARKETING
The triumphs and tensions of faith-based marketing

Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ soars to blockbuster status. The final book of the Left Behind series, being released March 30, sets records for pre-publication sales. Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life becomes a best seller boosted by savvy promotions to pastors and churches. What film critic Michael Medved last year called "the flourishing subculture of Christian media" has flowed into the cultural mainstream.

Mixing sophisticated advertising with sacred purposes has generated impressive sales, along with debate about what's appropriate. Chevrolet was criticized for promoting a tour of Christian music. Some squawked when environmental activists asked, "What would Jesus drive?" The United Methodist Church was questioned for committing $20 million to a five-year advertising campaign that it says has boosted attendance. Roman Catholic nuns and priests have turned to advertising to bolster their numbers.

Religious speech is in the marketplace. Many welcome it. Some say it's necessary to compete. Others worry that it's too exlusive in a market of many faiths or that it diverts resources from more important ventures. But as Mel Gibson plans another movie and public relations firms scramble to connect with consumers of faith, more is coming.

Why it matters
In religious circles, marketing can inspire criticism and suspicion, but it's also a formidable skill for hire that can bring success. Is there a tension between getting out a religious message and worshipping mammon? Can a particular religious message be perceived as more exclusive than inviting and backfire on a group?

Questions for reporters
Religion and commerce can make uncomfortable bedfellows. What do local religious leaders think about the need for marketing a message? Do they have moral or economic reservations about commercialization, or do they believe that it is an effective way of reaching those who need to hear their message? Has marketing worked for them?

Reaching congregations taps a receptive and organized network. Many churches booked theaters for group showings of Gibson's movie. Study groups' use of a book produces sales of the title. Have your local houses of worship purchased such best-selling titles as Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (Zondervan, 2002), which has sold more than 13.5 million, or booked a theater showing? Ask congregational decision-makers how they decide on group events or book purchases. What influences those decisions? What sources do they trust?

Call local business schools and ask marketing professors what they think about faith-based marketing as a type of "affinity marketing" that seeks to sell something to like-minded people. Do they think that religious marketing can backfire?

Traditional evangelical Christian retailers have some concerns that mainstream retailers will pick off their business through selling select highly popular items. What is the experience of local Christian retailers? What is the experience of other local book and music sellers?

Are mainstream merchants seeing more customers asking for evangelical Christian products? What about the experience in other religious retail stores? What do religious-goods merchants say about what influences customers to buy, and who are their customers? Do they think that marketing has become more aggressive, as some have said?

Many congregations work with consultants, from those who craft their image in advertising in the community to those who help "sell" the congregations on high-dollar stewardship or building campaigns. How have such campaigns helped churches?

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National sources

• Larry Ross is president of A. Larry Ross Communications, the Dallas-based public relations firm that handled media PR for The Passion of the Christ. Ross' firm was one of a network of agencies that handled PR and outreach. Billy Graham is also a client. Contact 972-267-1111.
• Jana Ford Muntsinger is president of McClure/Muntsinger Public Relations, which handles public relations for projects by major evangelical Christian figures, including Pat Robertson, PhilipYancey and Max Lucado. The firm is currently promoting a joint venture between Lucado and the band MercyMe that features the musical group and the pastor-author in a film that will show April 20 in select theaters and on pay-per-view TV. Contact 804-754-2118, jana@mmpublicrelations.com.
• Paul Lauer is president of Motive Entertainment in Westlake Village, Calif., and was the head of marketing for The Passion of the Christ. He employed a team of 15 companies for the grass-roots campaign. Contact 805-778-1930, paul.lauer@adelphia.net.
• Bill Anderson is president and CEO of the CBA in Colorado Springs, Colo., the trade association for evangelical Christian retailers and suppliers. Contact 719-265-9895.
• Kelly Gallagher is vice president of marketing and technology of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, a publishing trade association in Tempe, Ariz. ECPA tracks Christian retail trends through a proprietary sales reporting system. Contact 480-966-3998.
• Rick Warren is author of The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (Zondervan, 2002), which has sold 13.5 million copies. He is the pastor of Saddleback Church, a Southern Baptist megachurch in Southern California. Contact through Forrest Reinhardt, 949-609-8010. A good source on marketing questions at Warren's Michigan-based publisher Zondervan is director of communications Mark Rice, 616-698-3205, mark.rice@zondervan.com.
• Charles Futrell is a professor of marketing at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, with an interest in faith-based marketing. Contact 979-845-5889, c-futrell@tamu.edu.
• The United Methodists are conducting a four-year, $20 million campaign that is using TV, the Internet and other media - including a billboard in Times Square - to boost attendance. Read an Oct. 30, 2003, story posted on TheJournalNews.com about the billboard. A study says first-time and overall worship attendance has increased. Contact the Rev. Steve Horswill-Johnston, director of the Igniting Ministry campaign, 877-281-6535, stevehj@umcom.org.
• The United Church of Christ is spending $1.3 million to advertise in six U.S. television markets until Easter in a test of its first national advertising campaign. Contact Ron Buford of the UCC's Proclamation, Identity and Communication Ministry, based in Cleveland, Ohio, 216-736-2180. Gotham Inc. in New York produced the ads. Bob Adler is media director there. Contact 212-414-7012.

Background
• The evangelical Christian trade group CBA says the Christian market is $4.2 billion, with $2.4 billion sold through Christian retail, $1.1 billion through general retail, and $725 million sold direct-to-consumer and through ministry sales channels.
• A Feb. 24, 2004, USA Today story summarizes a variety of strategies and goods that went into marketing The Passion of the Christ. Check The Passion's current box office gross, which stood at $267 million in mid-March.
• A spring 2001 article in Religion in the News, the magazine of The Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life, discusses a grass-roots marketing campaign for the Left Behind movie that flopped.
• An Aug. 25, 2003, New York Times article describes the proliferation of monk characters in advertising.
• In 2002, Chevrolet received criticism from some Jewish groups for sponsoring a tour that featured Christian personalities, as described in a Religion News Service story in the Nov. 9, 2002, Holland Sentinel.
• Christian-oriented music sales in 2003 increased by 6.7 percent in mainstream retail outlets, according to the Gospel Music Association, and the year included mainstream hits by performers Randy Travis, Stacie Orrico and MercyMe.