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Putting Ministry Marketing in its “Place”
By chris | November 28, 2006
We have considered two of the four elements of the marketing mix already, product and price. Hang tight, we still have two more to go before we try to unpack an example of where and how Social Marketing could inform ministry marketing planning. We have place and promotion to still discuss. Already we are talking about how to view the traditional Social Marketing Mix in the church setting, but there is more I intend with this discussion, I need to set the stage first.
The Marketing Mix Making Ministry Marketing History
In the early days of ministry marketing, (we have always been doing marketing, it has only been in the last 30 years or so that ministry leaders have embraced it as a discipline to study) marketing focused more on innovating new ministry products and considered ways to understand price. The emphasis has been subconsciously placed, not intentionally.
Each element of the Market Mix has been the darling child of church leaders at one time or another. Too often, over emphasis has pushed the Marketing Mix out of balance in ministry marketing. The result tends to be declining results after a brief incline in effectiveness.
First came product emphasis. In this period, resources, many of them targeted at evangelism, were developed that created a boon of new ministry programs. Out of this period of the marketing movement we saw the great evangelism training resources developed. These evangelism innovations were marketing adaptations to ministry. I don’t recall ever reading anyone talking about this, but I believe it is true. In many ways, the typical evangelism training program has a parallel in the sales presentation training used by secular companies. Other products and programs were developed that helped the church reach their communities better.
The heritage from this period of emphasis today is we now have much more savvy in the development of products in the church world than anything else. If we over-focus on product development and become product-centered, we won’t have a balance in Marketing Mix and our results will fade. This can be seen in the waxing effectiveness of programs evident today. Jim Engle wrote of this in the 70’s in his book “What’s Gone Wrong with the Harvest?”
In the next period, we saw an emphisis on “price“. As the church growth movement reached a high point, ministry leaders like Bill Hybels and Rick Warren, et al focused more on understanding their target audience and helped make ministry more sensitive to seekers. They helped churches understand the need to learn about the barriers people cross to explore faith through church involvement—in marketing terms “price”.
Churches have benefited from the impact of the emphasis on understanding price; many have adopted new strategies toward making church more relevant to the people who are unchurched. Two great books that helped in this area greatly were Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary by Lee Strobel and The Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren. But, understanding seekers, even when married to great product development, still falls short of effectiveness over time.
Now we have two new emphases in church marketing, promotion, which we will discuss later, and place. Place and promotion get their shot at being the favored children of the church marketer. History is repeating itself, only this time different elements are moving to the foreground.
As in the periods before, we see an increase in effectiveness among churches with the new emphasis. We see churches innovating again and returning to an understanding of their community. I hope we can learn to balance these important elements with the other elements (product and price) using a ministry version of Social Marketing for improved results. But the effectiveness could wane if we are not balanced.
Putting Place in Place
In Social Marketing, place is where a new behavior is available to the target audience. (Incidentally, you should pick up a copy of Hands-On Social Marketing by Nedra Kline Weinreich) In ministry marketing place can be where the church meets or how the church gets the Gospel to the unchurched.
We see churches redesigning their facilities, meeting in locations that traditionally have not been used as church, such as movie theatres and shopping malls. Churches are using multiple venues. Making church services dedicated explicitly for the internet. Podcasting has replaced TV broadcasting in some quarters. (Read The Multi-site Church Revolution for great ideas for expanding the impact of your church)
Like before, if ministry marketing does not learn to strike a balance of all the elements of the marketing mix, we will have decreased effectiveness over time. Eventually, churches turned coffee shop, will become old hat. In the end, the infatuation with things “emerging” will start to look more embarrassingly like the Jesus Freaks of the 70’s in my opinion.
Like all the elements of the Marketing Mix, place is very important. I am not opposed to churches making changes in these areas. In fact, in many cases, it is the only thing keeping churches relevant, since they are forced to understand a little more about what unchurched people’s perceptions are. It makes them more Missional-like. I hope to demonstrate an understanding of how to develop a more comprehensive understanding of Ministry Marketing, that will help all kinds of churched become more effective at reaching people.
What About Place?
I have already alluded to what place means in ministry marketing. Place is where people consider the ideas about Christianity (awareness); where they adopt new beliefs (attitude) and where they make commitments and adopt new habits (action). Many churches have updated their facilities to attract unchurched people. You can see about any kind of change you can imagine. From churches as coffee shops, churches that meet in cell groups at home, to Disney quality children’s ministry centers. Some churches have franchised themselves in various places in their community and are even expanding to other cities and states.
The church can become infatuated with new toys very quickly. Many churches jump on the band wagon of what the larger, admired churches are doing. Sadly, in many cases the churches that do are smaller (most churches are under 100 members after all). They become discouraged when they see lack of effectiveness they perceive others having. As a coach, you may have to help a church understand why that the coffee shop they spent $40k to develop in their gymnasium doesn’t work. You may have to explain that; effective children’s ministry is not just a matter of a new logo and murals painted down the hall of the children’s area of the church. We need balance in all the marketing.
Remove the 40 Jumbo Boxes of Tissue from the Center Aisle and You Die!
As a coach, one of your helpful services is to serve as a “Secret Seeker” to the churches you coach. That is, you attend church services unannounced and take notes from the perspective of a visitor to the church. Other times, you will walk through the church facilities and take notes on what you see from the same perspective. It is a great way to help ministry leaders understand how “place” fits into their marketing strategy.
In one case, I took a tour of a church with a pastor I was coaching who wanted to use marketing promotion to get the word out about his church as a strategy to turn around their dwindling numbers. He wanted me to tell him if anything jumped out at me when I toured his church. (I want to paint a picture of what church marketing coaching really is like at times. It’s not all leading fun seminars and sending out cool blog vibes!)
Situation Analysis
• The church previously had a pastor who had a moral failing and a church split where they lost half of their members.
• The church was located across the street from a blighted trailer park and an abandoned shopping area.
• There were new housing developments about 5 miles from the church. Some really nice suburbs great houses—but driving through the area you see well manicured lawns and gardens—not really many children.
• Another neighborhood near the church had a blue collar start-up families with very small kids (and older people)
• The median age of the members of the church I was coaching was 70 years old
In just a few minutes, I saw the following “land mines” set for new pastor. There were a bunch of crazy things that, if the pastor moved to change them—he would experience the wrath of some of the leading members.
• Commemorative plaques throughout the church dedicating every upgrade to the church to the memory of someone who is dead (i.e.: parking lot paving, welcome center, foyer decorations, etc)
• Large boxes–really big jumbo ones–of tissue under each pew. The boxes (about 40 of them) were all located on the floor just inside the aisle. As you walked in the sanctuary they really stood out.
• Autographs done by a half dozen children (done with sharpies) on the wall of a children’s room all dated 1999? In 2006?
• A wall of photos in the baby room of people dating back to the 1930’s. The faces of the people were circled with a number next to their face. No explanation about the circles and numbering system.
• A fellowship hall that smelled like the inside of a spinster’s moldy hope chest
• The kitchen remodel was done in 1962. I knew because of the huge plaque on the cabinet over the sink –making changes would mean desecrating the “grave” of someone who attended the church 40 years ago. The kitchen was in very bad shape.
• A large framed artists rendering of what the new buildings would look like after a major church building program. The picture was dated 2001. The campaign was abandoned, yet the artist rendering of the scrubbed project was still on the wall in the entry way.
• Every door of the church was locked. Every single door had to be opened (and relocked) by the pastor with a key. Doors that didn’t have a key lock had a hook lock at the very top of the door.
• A really old-fashioned church attendance reporting sign by the “Welcome center” boasting 55 members in attendance, 33 in Sunday School and an offering of $500
• Pictures of people at an outdoor church gathering dated 1992 framed and hung on the hall near the welcome center. Nothing of recent vintage.
• Plagues, campaign materials with logos and other materials that were no longer offered by the church
• The lawn was very weedy
• The church sign was in need of being replaced
• The building was made with cinder blocks painted white with a brown roof.(No color except the small garden with a tombstone-like plaque dated 1998 dedicating the church paving project to the memory of someone long since dead.
This is an extreme example of “place” gone bad. Many churches don’t have near the problems as this example. But I have seen churches that “had it all together” still lacking in keeping their place up-to-date and user friendly to new people. Many churches have grown over the years and their facilities are a labyrinth of corridors and rooms that only make sense if you have skills in archeology.
The church above wanted to improve their outreach by deploying a promotion strategy. What they needed was to improve their meeting place. What they need would be to clean up their act. They may not need to add a contemporary service. They may not need to change the brand of coffee they serve. They need to clean up their building, mow the grass, put some junk in the attic and start to think about people other than themselves for a change.
Advertising would only speed up the rate at which people found out what a mixed up place the church had become. Sometimes the fastest way to close a dysfunctional church is to promote it through advertising.
Topics: Define the Mission |
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