I recently read that The Christian church is launching its biggest ever Australian marketing campaign. I was enthralled by this news and I decided to do some similar research- not on the campaign itself, which by the way will be incorporating many traditional and new advertising mediums- virals and social media and the like. I wanted to know about The Christian Church and its products, offerings and how they deliver these to a modern community* (their targeted market).
Apparently, the campaign is aimed at the ‘believers’ that do not practice and the ‘non believers’ who obviously do not practice. The part that I found most interesting was the fact that there was limited research and development done into the products and moreover how these products are delivered (logistics). This is where I see the majority of the marketing focus needing to hover- in R&D. There is no real problem with the awareness of The Christian Church, the health is strong and the affiliation with the brand is relatively positive in my opinion.
To employ a campaign to create awareness and promote a presence in the community without consideration of the product and offerings and the way it is delivered is seemingly a waste of time and money. The reason why a conversation fades to an echo is because the products have not been aligned with the audience.
A local shopping complex just finished renovations to align its proposition with the demands of the shopper. It was indicated through R&D that although the demand to shop is still alive as ever, this particular shopping complex failed to meet these demands and therefore its weekly attendance figures were merely a shadow of its former self. 5 years on, developments, renovations and accusations completed , the half million dollar marketing campaign is just about to launch. True story!
One of Australia’s biggest icons have also realised this fact and as a reflection just sold out of the second run of their new 4 cylinder range of cars. Sticking with the automotive theme, a German performance car manufacture has also realised this and starting production of a new ‘clutchless’ manual transmission and as a reflection of this they are experiencing a substantial increase in sales. There are many stories like it and even more with a contrary disposition. The products need to be aligned with the audience.
The moral of the story, it’s a fantastic development to target your audience with new and innovative mediums. To understand the channels that need to be infiltrated to influence the conversation but without offering the right product and service- one that the meets the needs and demands of the audience, it will only fall on deaf ears.
*“We have developed the campaign to promote a presence in the community in which all Australians will consider faith in Jesus as an option, especially in the difficult times we are facing at present,” said Daniel Willis, Bible Society CEO and co-founder.
N.B. This is a post about the marketing campaign not the Christian Faith or Religion in any way. Additionally, I know we are talking about Religion here and there are 2000 years of history and tradition behind it, but we are also talking about moving forward in a modern world and if its not considered it will only be a memory, whether it be in 100 years or 10,000 years. It will struggle to stay in the presence of the modern community.
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