How might we bring church to the U.S. faithful using current knowledge of branding and marketing??
Marketing to the Heartland How to build brands for the U.S. faithful
By Paul Jankowski, in AdWeek
There is a new Heartland that is as complex and diverse as the rest of the U.S. It’s comprised of the Midwest, Southeast, and parts of the Southwest—which have more in common than you might think. It includes large, cosmopolitan cities, small rural towns, and spots in the middle of nowhere. Its residents are corporate executives, factory workers, celebrities, soccer moms, debutantes, tobacco farmers, and former U.S presidents.
Marketers no doubt conduct volumes of market research to find ways to engage these customers. But if you want to form a deeply rooted relationship with the 177 million “new Heartland” consumers, you must first understand their lifestyles and core beliefs.
What I found was a very strong common values system that can determine whether the Heartland is won over or turned off. It’s called faith, and it’s a vital lens through which Heartland residents view your brand.
Faith is a massive tenet of America, not just in the Heartland. Notice I didn’t say Christianity? Although that’s certainly the most prevalent, it’s the basic faith in God or a spiritual power that leads us to contemplate our existence here on earth and what happens after we die.
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“Faith is a massive tenet of America” or Fideism?
This is what I posted on the site of the original article:
What is meant here by “faith.” Speaking as a priest in the Episcopal Church (and serving in N. Alabama), I need to say that many confuse faith with belief. Belief for many is about finding out the “true” principles about God, and then usually communicating them in an aggressive manner. In the Bible, however, to have faith really means something closer to “trusting.” To have faith is to place your trust in something, or someone, and live your life on the basis of that trust. Understand that appealing to “faith” is about gaining trust, and assuming that what you’re offering is trustworthy, you’ll have success in your marketing.