Should faith and marketing ever mix? Or, should there be a line separating the two and, if so, how do we appropriately draw that boundary? The idea that marketing and ministry shouldn’t mix has its roots, I believe, in the divergent views of two competing schools of economic thought: the mercantilists and classical economists. Mercantilism was the economic philosophy held by statesmen and merchants of the 16th and 17th centuries. They believed that wealth came from finite resources; primarily gold and silver. In order to acquire wealth, nations without these resources had to trade for them by giving up more goods than they received in return. By this view, the person trying to acquire wealth (gold) was always at a disadvantage when trading with those who already possessed it. And so every commercial transaction involved a winner and a loser–the exploiter and the exploited. Were mercantilism true then marketing and ministry would be incompatible because marketing would be the tool by which unscrupulous people exploited others. Not exactly what Jesus had in mind when he said to love your neighbor as yourself. In 1776 Adam Smith offered another view of economics when he published his epic work The Wealth of Nations. Smith’s “classical” view of economics exposed the mercantilist position as fundamentally flawed and supplanted it as the favored explanation of economic behavior. According to Smith, “The ideal economy is a self-regulating market system that automatically satisfies the economic needs of the populace.” Assuming this is true, as most modern economists do, “Every transaction in a free market economy,” as I point out in PyroMarketing, “is a voluntary exchange in which both parties make a profit. In fact, the only reason people or businesses undertake the exchange at all is because they expect a profit. By profit I mean that each party values what they acquire in the transaction more than what they gave up. What’s more, whether the parties repeat the exchange in the future depends on whether they got the benefit they were expecting. If consumers consistently profit, they will continue doing business with your company. If they don’t, then they will stop. The mildly startling consequence of this is that your most valuable customers are the people who consistently profit from doing business with your company.”
Spread the fire. GS
Greg Stielstra is the author of PyroMarketing: The Four-Step Strategy to Ignite Customer Evangelists and Keep them for Life (HarperCollins, 2005) www.pyromarketing.com and co-author of Faith-Based Marketing: The Guide to Reaching 140 Million Christian Customers (Wiley May 2009). www.faithbasedmarketing.com.
Wow! You guys beat me to it! Congratulations on the new book.
Regarding your post:
Very well said! Short and to the point!
Greg, I can tell that you took time to write this. The words you used, created pictures for me and brought understanding (Prov. 4:7). I appreciate the clarity your brought to this issue. You are a man of unbelievable insight! You said what I have been saying to Business Owners for 6 years.
BTW, I have enjoyed the PYRO Marketing audios and look forward to getting a copy of the new book.
I must admit, when I first saw the question, my thoughts were business gathering at Church Services to promote their products and services. For me, thats a no no!
What I hear you saying is Marketing, when done the right way, meets the needs of it’s prospects, customers and clients. And leads to repeat business, referrals and a win-win situation. Thanks again.
I presently work in Broadcast Marketing for a Christian NY Radio station and own my own Marketing Company. Maybe we can speak sometime about a joint venture or affiliate program.
If you send me copies of your books, I would be happy to blog about them!
Sean,
Thanks for joining the conversation. Yes, I am saying that marketing done correctly meets people’s true needs, benefits both parties, and leads to repeat business and referrals. This kind of marketing is compatible with biblical principles and, therefore, the church. Attempts to exploit people by tricking them into buying things they don’t need are incompatible with biblical principles, should be avoided by the church, and ultimately doomed to failure anyway.
As you can see, there is both “good marketing” and “bad marketing.” Unfortunately, too many Christians reject marketing altogether. However, if they showed discernment and thought critically about each situation, they could identify and benefit from appropriate business relationships while avoiding exploitative or inappropriate offers.
Thanks for being one of the thinkers. GS
“What’s more, whether the parties repeat the exchange in the future depends on whether they got the benefit they were expecting.”
So true. All the one time sale sham artists, online especially, are dwindling as the ‘no real added value’ is catching up with a whole bunch of them.
The style of your site and message is excellent. I will surely follow what you guys are doing – and yes @joelcomm has a massive following and is how I found you.
Rick
[...] to Greg Stielstra, one of the authors of, ‘Faith Based Marketing” in his article, ‘Should Ministry and Marketing Mix’ the marketing concept of Mercantilism views marketing from the perspective of trading limited [...]