Markerteer of God
By May Chow
(9 November 2003)
It is indeed a great joy to be here today. It has been some time since I left this circle of
Christian communications, but that doesn't mean that I am not a Christian communicator.
I always say to my friends that Christian communications is where my heart belongs.
When the time is here, I am sure that my CEO, my chief executive officer, i.e. God will
show me the way.
Dominic asked me to talk about New Needs, New Demands from a marketing
perspective. Why me? I guess it's because I have been stepping in and out of the
Church and the commercial field of journalism and marketing throughout my career.
And he knows I believe in marketing communications. I am certainly not the only one.
There are several books that talk about faith and business. There are Jesus as the
CEO, Jesus as the Entrepreneur, and God is My CEO.
Marketing
Marketing - it's everywhere in our daily life. We are bombarded with thousands of
advertising messages every day. Almost everything is about selling and buying-in, be it
a product, a service or a piece of information.
Sometimes we feel marketing is a bit too earthly. It's about money; it's about making
profits, or fame or success. It's something not very spiritual. Yes, we need to market our
videotapes, cassettes, CDs, services or training courses. And that's what marketing is
all about within the Church.
But let's change our mind set for a moment. Just come along with me and look at
Christian communications from a marketing perspective.
I see the community we serve is the marketplace.
The believers and non-believers are my customers; those we need to nourish, and those
we need to evangelize.
My faith, the bread of life, is the product I want to sell.
I want my customers to buy-in, and I want them to be happy, to have the maximum
satisfaction with my product.
What differentiates my product is that my product is given to me free, it's the bread of life.
What miraculous about this product is that the more I sell, the more I have, as in the
miracle of the loaves, described in the Gospel.
Before we start our business, we need to know our product and our market. Let's
assume we all know our product very well. This is the bread. We know its ingredients,
the secret recipes, the flavors, the nutrition, and the benefits. We then need to know our
customers and the market. Just as we want to evangelize, we need to understand the
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people. We adopt different approaches, use different audiovisual languages when we
proclaim the Good News to family, young people or children.
Back in the 60s and 70s, IBM was THE computer company. They thought their products
were fantastic. They thought anything they brought to the market would be welcome.
For years, it seemed to work until one day when they realized that the market had
changed already, with more competitors, new needs and new demands.
Certainly I am not suggesting that we shall twist our product so as to please our
customers. We always say that we need to educate the people; we need to create or to
help them realize their needs and wants. Also, the bread of life is the bread of life. But
as the marketplace continues to change, we need to understand the market, to listen to
our customers and know their needs and wants so as to retain the existing customers
and grow new ones.
So market analysis is an exercise we cannot afford to miss. In the business circle, we
often conduct the so-called SWOT analysis so as to understand the market we are in.
Let's have a quick run.
SWOT Analysis
S
W
Strength
Weakness
O
T
Opportunity
Threat
S = Strength
I guess we all believe that our bread of life is the best. A good product is essential to
start with.
Another strength is that we have a community; we have a strong culture that shares the
same passion the same love towards this product.
This product is highly regarded in society.
voiceless, the deprived, and the persecuted.
It stands by the poor; it speaks for the
And we, the marketeers, the Christian communicators, now have better tools and
expertise in our work.
We have a lot of alliances too. If Bush talks about the axis of the evil, we have the axis
of the good. Many other organizations share our beliefs too.
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W = Weakness
It's the two sides of the same coin. We are established, at the same time, we are
perceived as rigid, not dynamic or not responsive to the changes.
And to certain extent, we do have a bureaucracy, a strong tradition that may be
restrictive at times.
We have our own shortfall too. The recent scandal about child sex abuse, for example,
has created a negative environment in which we find it difficult to do our work.
O = Opportunity
It is a big market out there. There are many believers and non-believers we need to
reach out. There are many hungry souls, lonely hearts we need to touch. People in the
new millennium are not less spiritual.
In fact, in a world of changes and uncertainty, when nothing seems to last, people have
a great sense of loss. Very often, they go back to the basics and search for comfort and
security. For example, after the September 11, people sought consolation in churches
and families.
Do we have the channels to reach out? We do. There are all kinds of media we can
employ. We can promote through words of mouth, face-to-face communication, prints,
radio, TV ... and certainly the Internet. Also, we can have a multimedia approach in
marketing our product. We shall not confine ourselves to one particular media; and at
the same time, we need to understand our constraints. What's available here in East
Asia may not be available in South Asia, as pointed out by Magimai. But that shouldn't
stop both regions to share, and to develop a unique and effective approach that's
tailored for their specific customers.
Another opportunity is that the market is not an exclusive market. We don't need to play
monopoly. We can embrace different products. We can be more ecumenical.
T = Threat
Certainly, this marketplace is highly competitive. There are many offers; many choices
in the market that claim to feed the hungry souls.
The value system, the moral standards are going through tremendous changes. The
needs and wants of our customers keep changing all the time. Sometimes they don't
even know what they want or what they like.
And in a society that's more pluralistic, can our product fare well among all the extremes,
such as freedom versus conservatism, globalization versus tribalism.
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Change is a Novelty
As I was going through this SWOT analysis, one element stands out from the rest. And
that is CHANGE. And when there is CHANGE, there is something NEW.
Well, our CEO is always there. He is a constant. The company, the church is always
there. Our product will always be the bread of life. But we, the marketeers, the Christian
communicators do operate in a different setting. We always say we can use different
media to promote, to market, to sell, to evangelize. But as Marshall MacLuhan pointed
out back then, the media itself has also created a new culture in which we live, i.e. a
digital culture. Though it may be at different pace, some ahead of time, some slower, it's
the digital culture that we are in or are entering in.
Digital Culture
When I look at my own children, I know they are of a different breed. We were brought
up in a TV culture. They are brought up in a digital culture. They are called digital kids
or screenagers. They can process images and sounds much faster and better than we
do. They can be multi-tasking, listening to music, talking to me while doing their
homework.
During my study in Electronic Media, I did a piece on digital story telling. And I was
amazed at the kinds of sharing and emotions circulating in the cyber world. As Matthew
Chung from Radio Verities pointed out, through their website, someone came to know
God, and was baptized. There are many hearts and souls we can reach through the
Internet. Many people always surf on the Internet as if something is out there for them.
I certainly don't want to count less the effectiveness of the traditional media, like cinema,
TV, print and other audiovisual productions. I focus more on the internet; because my
interest is in this area, also, this is where all different media converge. In Macau, radio
and TV programmers are now broadcast on their website. It’s the same with DAVC in
HK. The platform it offers is just very wide, just as it stands for, the worldwide web. And
this platform is multimedia already, digital film, digital radio, videos, music, and prints ...
almost unlimited. In HK, there is a well-known website now.com, which is a broadband
web casting. They produced web drama series, just as on television.
Multimedia Approach
Having said that, we have to look at the resources, the limitations we are in. We need to
know the needs and wants of our customers. Internet is a multimedia platform we need
to enter; but at the same time, we should employ various media to reach out the people
either within or outside the Church. It's because not all our customers like to use the
internet or have access to the new technologies. For example, in China, as presented
by Fr. John B. Zhang from China, their people requested for cassettes. In response to
the growing demand, they produced cassettes on Christmas carols. And in India, in
some of the provinces, as I understand, they can reach out to their people through the
traditional drama theatre, the dance and the music.
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In fact, all different kinds of media can co-exist. Sometimes they reinforce each other’s
function and values, and create a greater impact on their customers. The new digital
culture has not weakened the role of newspapers, in particular in the social and political
arena.
Evaluate – Quantify – Execute - Evaluate
The SWOT analysis I did today is only a concept. I didn't illustrate with a case, because
that will take another hour or so. Each analysis has to be genuine, truthful and go into
details. And it will subsequently lead to an action plan to tackle all the problem areas.
There should be an evaluation at the end.
In the book on Revenue Management (by Robert G. Cross), there are 9 steps to
success. Though our revenue may not be quantified in money term, it's good to give it a
thought.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Evaluate your market needs
Evaluate your organization and process
Quantify the benefits
Enlist technology
Implement forecasting
Apply optimization
Create teams
Execute, execute, execute
Evaluate success.
Here you can notice a few key words.
execute and to evaluate.
Remember to evaluate, to quantify and to
Somehow, SWOT analysis is not just an exercise for a company. It can be an analysis
of each one of us.
In the book God Is My CEO (by Larry Julian), there is a session on how to write your
personal business plan. I put it here for your reference.
1. Your situational analysis
2. Your vision
3. Your core values and principles
4. Your mission
5. The need
6. Your unique quality
7. The target market
8. An environment for growth
9. Your products and services
10. Your strategic partnerships
11. Your personal, professional and spiritual development plan
12. Your sales and marketing plan
13. Your financial plan
14. The fruit
15. Renewal
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Marketeer with Heart
So what are the new needs and new demands of today? I guess I only attempt to
outline a framework. The actual needs and demands will vary depending on where we
are, what areas we are in, and who are our customers.
On a personal level as Christian communicators, we have to identify our own set of
needs and demands that we must meet. Each comes with his or her own talents. Some
may work within the Church structure like you do. Some may work in the secular media
like Peter and I. But we are all in the same boat. It's therefore important to embrace all
these people and build a community.
It may sound a bit odd to be a marketeer. But what differentiate us from other
marketeers will be our conviction, and the love in our heart.
Few years ago, during an interview with a Jesuit priest on the book of New Catechism, I
asked him about the spirit of the book. He summed up with a beautiful line,
“…everything begins and ends with love.”
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