Attention all worshippers!

0 Comments | Insight on the News, March 31, 1997 | by Cynthia Long

Ministers are reaching out to marketers to help them increase their flocks. PR seems to work.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints produces free television and radio programming as well as advertising spots and has a sophisticated Web site. The Presbyterian Church has developed a cooperative media campaign to encourage 25- to 40-year-olds to "stop in and find out" about the religion.

In what may be another indicator of the corporatization of America, a growing number of religious organizations are launching advertising, public-relations and marketing campaigns. The trend is apparent from Muncie, Ind., where "Pastor Dan" broadcasts 60 second religious messages from a local radio station, to Houston, where the Second Baptist Church (which includes a health club and a 7,000-member singles group) consulted with Walt Disney World on entertainment matters.

Positioning and strategizing on the part of religious organizations has not gone unnoticed. In entrepreneurial style, marketing and consulting firms have embraced religion like disciples. Church Marketing Services of Atlanta, for example, specializes in visitor hospitality -- training pastors, ushers and greeters in the art of friendliness through its $50 audiocassette program. In addition to the training materials, the company provides visitor evaluations, a visitor-service training seminar, a visitor-perception analysis and long-term consultation.

"The uniqueness of our services is that we help churches increase attendance by utilizing proven customer-service techniques that produce successful companies," Kim Wilson, founder of Church Marketing Services, tells Insight. According to Wilson, who has worked with a variety of denominations in the Atlanta region, visitors decide within the first 12 minutes whether they will revisit a church. Because they'll tell an average of seven to 11 others about their experience, good impressions are imperative.

Equally important, Wilson emphasizes, are follow-up procedures. She recommends church officials collect visitor-information cards and send small gifts and notes to newcomers pastors should make follow-up phone calls.

The program apparently works. The Rev. Chuck Allen, associate pastor at the Fellowship of Joy in Snellville, Gal, and initially a reluctant client of Church Marketing Services, is a repeat customer. Wilson "is incredibly gifted in leadership training and has a keen eye for how churches must `market' the message of the Gospel and `package' their facilities and leadership in such a manner as to prove to a lost world that our doors are open to them," Allen writes in a letter of recommendation.

Another firm, Percept Group in Costa Mesa, Calif., integrates congregational survey data with community demographics to help religious organizations increase and retain members. For example, Percept's research may find that a community has a large percentage of baby boomers with young children and are afraid of crime in their community. A church could use this information to target this group with programs for young children and outreach efforts to fight crime.

"We want those who use our information products to encounter people with needs and unique preferences and to use the numbers to establish priorities and pursue strategic ministry opportunities," Mike Regele, president of Percept, tells Insight.

Ministers need only log on to the Internet to find religious marketing consultants near their church. But those organizations aren't necessarily preaching to the choir. According to a study published in the Journal of Ministry Marketing and Management, many clergy have negative perceptions of church-marketing tactics. The authors of the report, Robert Stevens and David Loudon, professors at Northeast Louisiana University, and R. Wade Paschal Jr., senior pastor at First United Methodist of Ardmore, Okla., found a preference for low-profile advertising. "It is acceptable to have a large sign in front of the church but less favorable to use a billboard or bumper stickers."

Roman Avila, professor of marketing at Ball State University, says clergy members are correct in preferring lowprofile, personal approaches to increasing church membership but stresses that they should not abandon marketing altogether. "Religious organizations should certainly connect locally with their communities," says Avila. "However, if used properly marketing techniques can be a very positive method for bringing members into a congregation and keeping them there."

What are appropriate marketing strategies? Direct mail describing the church or religious organization's mission and services; segmentation strategies with age-specific and interest-related programs for members; and distribution strategies offering nursinghome and hospital visits. Avila says those with negative perceptions of marketing aren't seeing the light: Marketing can serve the divine purpose of spreading the word and increasing the flock.