Marketing God. Donna A. Heckler
have sold hundreds of millions — in fact, billions — of dollars globally. You probably know some of those brands: Energizer, Trane, Enterprise, Kimball, Red Cross, the list goes on.
Marketing is very much about human behavior. Why do people do what they do? How can we understand people so that we can guide them to purchase our product, our service, our brand? The end goal is to make people highly loyal to your brand. When they are loyal, they will always use the brand. Moreover, they will suggest your brand to friends and make others loyal to it as well.
As a deeply committed Catholic, I have long wondered what could happen in our Church if we applied the science of marketing to faith, to God. Would the strategies work? Could those in ministry and pastoral positions use the tools that succeed in marketing to build God’s kingdom? Could these strategies help us in our work of saving souls?
I venture to say yes.
About ten years ago, I coauthored a successful book, The Truth About Creating Brands People Love. The book included fifty-one pithy little topics about building brands. In this new book, I take a similar approach. In fact, I pull several of the insights that were most relevant and most effective, and I use them here as part of the framework for how we can talk about marketing God.
For many people of faith, especially those who are pastors or involved in leading ministries, the concept of “marketing God” is troubling at best, or blasphemous at worst. The reality, of course, is that it can be problematic. God is not a product. This book does not speak of marketing God as an end in itself, but as a means to the all-important end of bringing people to God and being loyal to him. I have had the privilege to know and work alongside many men and women who have a deep love of God. Their joy swells from the depth of their souls, and their hearts yearn to share that joy with others. Yet too often they lack the knowledge of how to draw people to faith-based events, let alone to faith. They need tools to get people in the door. That’s where the strategies we use in marketing come in.
That’s why I wrote this book. I hope it provides those sharing the Good News with tools that are relevant in today’s world. I hope that through this book, those of us focused on sharing faith can help more people become loyal to God.
Introduction
God’s Portfolio of Brands
God is big — really big — infinite, in fact. That means we cannot contain God, we cannot hold him in our hand, and we cannot even begin to understand his complexity. Granted, we have guides such as the Bible, the Church, and theologians, but we can never comprehend God. So when we want to “market” our relationship and our insights to draw people to God, what should we do?
Secular brands that we know are usually rooted in tangible items or services that are easy to understand. A battery, for example, fits in the palm of my hand. I know how it works, and I know what it does. It really is quite simple. A Trane air conditioner, while quite a bit bigger, is still pretty easy to grasp. I can see its size and come to understand its complexity. Even when dealing with brands who provide services, not products, I have a sense of what I’m getting. I understand what H&R Block does, for instance: they provide tax preparation services.
Big companies with multiple brands, various products, and a variety of target audiences use what is called a “portfolio strategy” for marketing. When we are considering faith from a marketing perspective, I suggest we look to a portfolio model for insights. In portfolio marketing, the idea is that different products will meet different needs for consumers. One brand does not have to be everything to everyone. In fact, that is a sure recipe for failure. An easy example comes from farming. If you wanted to plant corn seeds one year, you would purchase the brand DeKalb. If you were interested in planting soybeans the next year, you would purchase Asgrow. The same farmer makes the purchases, and he does so from the same company, Bayer’s Crop Science division, but he is able to make his purchases according to his specific needs each year by choosing different brands in Bayer’s portfolio.
We can apply this model when we think about sharing God. When we have a mission or apostolate that shares God, we have to keep in mind that we are part of the whole. There is no one person in our Church who can share everything. Some are very good at sharing and reflecting on Scriptures; others may have a deep understanding of building faith; others may have insights into the role of women in a faith community. People need these understandings at different times in their lives. Your role in your parish, ministry, or apostolate is to be part of this enormous portfolio, all committed to leading people to God when your specialty, gift, or service is needed in their lives.
We cannot answer every little item with our work, or with our messaging. That’s okay. Remember, when we speak of “marketing God,” the one calling all the shots is God. He is the one who sees it all, who understands it all. He knows what the world needs, and you have answered his call, which is why you are here. Our work is to market and communicate our part of God’s brand portfolio as effectively as possible.
Let this book serve as your guide.
Truth 1
The Hardest Part is Done
“All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
— JOHN 1:3–5
The hardest part of marketing is creating demand. It is hard to get people to understand that they want or even need your brand, your product, or your service, so the best marketers are skilled at creating demand.
Honestly, does anyone really have to have $250 Nike shoes? No. But Nike has done a marvelous job of creating demand. They have inspired people to “Just Do It” with the not-so-subtle message that you can do it better if you are wearing Nike shoes. Nike has invested much of their marketing activity in the creation of demand, getting people to desire their shoes.
Creating demand is expensive. When you are creating demand, you are often creating a new category, defining a new service, offering a new concept. That requires significant research to understand your customers and significant investment in educating them on why your solution answers the need they didn’t even know they had.
The good news for those of us seeking to use marketing strategies to build God’s kingdom is that we do not have to create demand. People inherently seek God. How do we know this? First of all, as Christians we know that we were made in God’s likeness, and God is love. God has placed the desire for love within each of us. Moreover, we see people throughout the world seeking love, seeking purpose. The psychologist Abraham Maslow was one of the early psychologists to identify this foundational need. He famously outlined a hierarchy of needs, which prioritizes human requirements in a pyramid model. In this model, love and belonging are listed among those needs that must be satisfied to achieve self-actualization. More recently, social researcher Hugh Mackay, in his book What Makes Us Tick, posits that two of the top ten desires of humans include “something to believe in” and “love.” People seek love by nature, and this means they are seeking God, even though they may not call him out by name.
The point is that people deeply desire God, even if they think they don’t. In marketing vernacular, the “demand” already exists. That means that the first critical step is already completed.
That does not mean the task is easy. Many people have a difficult time recognizing that what they want most deeply is God. Your first challenge is an education challenge: to help people understand that your ministry, your service, your apostolate can help them to find what they seek. You do not have to invest in creating demand, but in drawing lines of sight between the longing people have for God and the service or ministry that you provide.
Saint Teresa of Calcutta is a beautiful example of recognizing the true demand. She understood that people are longing for love. Her ministry of helping the poor, especially the dying, was in direct response to this demand. Yet there was another demand, one that was less apparent. People