Essay Sample on Faith-Based Marketing

Advertising (marketing)is a process used to attract a target group of consumers in a given society using words and pictures to pass information about a product or service. Marketing is especially important after a new product is launched in a market. For a consumer, it is a source of information needed to educate them about consumer products. The education advertising provides enables them to make informed choices about what to spend their money on. Thus, advertising theory has the basic assumption that people want goods and services but that desire lies dormant until it is brought to the fore. Marketing seeks to exploit this hidden desire for goods and services (Philippians 3:18-19).

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For the sellers of goods and services, advertising his how sales are booted by creating and maintaining consumer demand. A secondary purpose for advertising is brand management. Consumers will see value in a product advertised to them when the advert emphasizes its unique character. Similarly, advertising is used to build a good public reputation of a manufacturer of service provider. Simply put, through advertising, a business can promote trust among prospective buyers about the quality of its consumer products and consequently, the likelihood of them spending money on their goods or services.

Marketers recognized some time ago that church congregations were target population. For instance, in the United States, megachurch congregations have influenced how some goods and services are marketed to the public in what has been described as "faith-based marketing".

Faith-based marketing is defined as a strategy that acknowledges the importance of religion to some consumers and consequently, marketers use adverting to tie a business or specific product to a religion. For example, the 2005 Mega Fest festival in Atlanta attracted approximately 500,000 people and its sponsors included Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Bank of America, Dairy Queen, McDonald's, Clorox, Delta Airlines and Alamo Rent -A- Car . Moreover, the Fox -Faith division of 20th Century Fox was created to meet the demand for Christian programing.

The problem with the conventional marketing scheme presented thus far is that it is inadequate in tapping into Christian communities. The weakness in conventional marketing could be because it is driven by a pragmatic view of how to target specific consumer demographics. For instance, the retailer Lowe's adopted the marketing strategy of changing the name of the Christmas Tree product they sold to "Family Trees" resulting in a huge backlash from Christian customers. The company had to change their marketing strategy, reverting the name back to Christmas Tree, and gave a public apology who had protested so vehemently about an essential component of a Christian holiday getting rebranded.

An example of a business that has successfully used faith-based marketing is the fast food giant Chik-Fil-A. The company's founder is open about the Christian foundations of the business and has gone on to included Christian messaging on products like its toys in children's meal. By closing all branches on Sundays, it has successfully tied its corporate brand to the Christian faith. The business has used the strategy of combining its product line , competitive pricing, and faith-driven differentiated marketing to give it a competitive edge in the fast food market.

From these examples, when marketing targeting Christian consumers, it has to comply with Christian values that do not portray material things as a source of happiness (Matthew 16:26). For instance, a fashion store will find problems marketing its inventory in a conventional way to Christians. Conventional advertising for fashion conflicts with Christian doctrines by constantly pushing the idea that buying fashionable clothes will make the buyer feel loved or have self-worth.

The advantages of faith-based marketing are that it is an ethical way of meeting the need in all people to buy consumer goods by de-emphasizing unregulated consumption. Faith-based marketing has a balanced view of material things consequently it helps marketers to reach a much wider consumer demographic compared to conventional marketing. Christianity is one of the world's religions. A faith-based marketing strategy developed in the united states works in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Conclusions

Advertising (marketing)is a process used to attract a target group of consumers in a given society using words and pictures to pass information about a product or service. Marketing is especially important after a new product is launched in a market. For a consumer, it is a source of information needed to educate them about consumer products. The education advertising provides enables them to make informed choices about what to spend their money on. Thus, advertising theory has the basic assumption that people want goods and services but that desire lies dormant until it is brought to the fore. Marketing seeks to exploit this hidden desire for goods and services.

For the sellers of goods and services, advertising is how sales are booted by creating and maintaining consumer demand. A secondary purpose for advertising is brand management. Consumers will see value in a product advertised to them when the advert emphasizes its unique character. Through advertising, a business can promote trust among prospective buyers about the quality of its consumer products and consequently, the likelihood of them spending money on their goods or services. Marketers recognized some time ago that church congregations were target population. Faith-based marketing emerged as a strategy that acknowledges the importance of religion to some consumers and consequently, marketers use adverting to tie a business or specific product to a religion.