BY MIKE SCOTT
OAKLAND BUSINESS REVIEW
Nov. 2, 2006
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Copyright © 2006 Michigan Business Review.
MARKETING RELIGION: Ads gather faithful
Savvy pitches outsell churches' word of mouth
BY KORTNEY STRINGER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
June 16, 2006
Dressed to the hilt and flashing her recent dental work along with a business card, Pam Perry is a
marketing whiz on an almost immortal mission.
Fueled by Starbucks coffee and spiritual zeal, she works diligently drumming up publicity for her
biggest client: God.
"I'm pitching for my client, but I'm also pitching the Good News," of Jesus, said Perry, owner of
Ministry Marketing Solutions, a Farmington firm for Christian churches and authors. "What I do,
I consider it both a ministry and a business."
Turns out, marketing isn't just for mere mortals. Gone are the days when preachers looked only
to divine intervention to fill their pews.
Some marketing-savvy Christians believe higher powers need help getting good word-of-mouth,
too. The signs of this trend can be seen across the nation and around metro Detroit, from
billboards and TV ads to flyers and business cards.
For instance, Perfecting Church, led by Pastor Marvin L. Winans, pays $5,000 to $20,000
monthly for ads on seven billboards in Detroit. Additionally, it hired Grosse Pointe Woods-based
LAC Consulting to market its eight-day Holy Convocation conference last month, spending
about $100,000 for everything from radio spots to a feature on its Web site,
www.perfectingchurch.org, enabling people to watch video of services for $9.95 for one night to
$39.95 for the conference.
"Even though it's a church, it's still a business, and as with any business, we have to advertise,"
said Cindy Flowers, Perfecting's general manager, who says 4,000 each night attended the
event. "We can't assume everyone knows there's a church on Nevada in Detroit."
Reluctant promoters
Historically, religious groups haven't been the biggest proponents of marketing. For some, the
word itself conjures up images of pushy salesmen and telemarketers, while others simply write
marketing off as too worldly for church.
Perhaps the earliest examples of widespread church marketing come from the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has run TV ads and public-service announcements since the
1970s.
More recently, the United Church of Christ, promoting a message of inclusion, in the last couple
of years, has run controversial TV spots as part of a $1.5-million ad campaign.
One ad, which some major TV networks decided not to air, shows bouncers not allowing some
people, including a gay couple, into church and ends with the tag line, "Jesus didn't turn people
away. Neither do we."
Ron Buford, a UCC spokesman, said ads are needed because, "The comment I hear most often
when people visit the UCC church for the first time is, 'I never knew that a church like this
existed.' "
Hugh Cannon, a Wayne State University marketing professor, said such church advertising as
UCC's has grown out of necessity.
"If you've got to have a congregation of critical mass to survive, you've got to do something to
make it grow, and there's a lot of competition from other religions and other things people can
do," he said. "If they don't do something, they'll get squeezed out."
Adding to that, mega-churches with congregations larger than 2,000, popular Christian movies
and plays such as "The Passion of the Christ" and larger-than-life TV evangelists such as T.D.
Jakes have raised awareness about religion, prompting more religious groups to flex their
marketing muscles.
The trend is so prevalent that the Center for Church Communication, a Los Angeles nonprofit of
about 30 marketing professionals, created a Web site, www.churchmarketingsucks.com, to help
churches market effectively.
"We've got the greatest story ever told, but no one's listening," said founder and president Brad
Abare, who runs the Personality ad agency in Los Angeles. But "We think the church has a
communications problem. In general, the church has been resistant to the idea of church
marketing."
Indeed, not everyone is thrilled about religious marketing.
"I've been really struggling with the whole concept of church using advertising, marketing and
branding techniques to promote the Gospel," a posting by Frank McClung read last month on
churchmarketingsucks' Web site. "Something just doesn't sit right in my spirit with the whole
thing."
Marketing experts say overcoming those views is one of their biggest challenges. Another big
one, they say, is convincing religious leaders to put their money behind their marketing.
For instance, Royal Oak-based Skidmore Inc. charges some clients about $1,000 for branding
workshops. But the firm, which has a client list that includes DaimlerChrysler AG, recently did a
similar seminar for Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Monroe for a "love offering" of
$400.
"Whether you're doing branding for nuns or for Coca-Cola, the key is finding out what
differentiates them" from competitors, CEO and creative director Mae Skidmore said. "There has
been a hesitation among nuns and other religious orders that marketing should be left up to God."
The religious order said it's considering more marketing because of a decline in the number of
women becoming nuns.
The group said it has more than 520 vowed sisters compared with 2,000 in the 1970s, in part
because old stereotypes die hard.
"I think people think of nuns as being in a sequestered community and that they spend all of their
days sitting in pews praying," said Holly Knight, spokeswoman for IMH. "Branding is just as
valuable for us as it is for businesses. But that's been a tough sale for the nuns to understand."
Evelyn Craig, a nun for 42 years, said, while everyone doesn't accept religious marketing, there's
a need for it.
"In the old days, advertising wasn't even thought of," she said. "But back then you didn't need an
ad, because teachers in Catholic school were our living ads. Now, there's less religion in schools,
and you need advertising."
Perry, the Farmington publicist who began her Farmington marketing firm in 2000, said her
business has grown to more than 50 churches and Christian authors who pay from $800 for an
hour-a-week, 10-week crash course in marketing to $5,000 a month for a national ad campaign.
This month, Perry met with Loretta Morman, Christian Tabernacle Church's administrator, to
discuss the Southfield church's 20th anniversary kicking off this month. Wearing a hot pink chiffon
suit and a light pink-colored stone ring, pink fingernail polish and a rhinestone crucifix, Perry tried
to convince Morman, wife of Pastor James L. Morman, to appear on the cover of First Lady, a
Chicago-based magazine.
With some hesitation, Morman, who doesn't like taking photos, agrees to consider it.
"We've done well with word-of-mouth, but we just got to a point where we needed" marketing
"because our ministry has just grown so much," said Loretta Morman, who says church
membership has risen from 300 members in 1998 to about 4,000.
Contact KORTNEY STRINGER at 313-223-4479 or stringer@freepress.com.