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The Foster Letter —

Religious Market Update

The FOSTER Letter is a bi-weekly e-mail religious market intelligence report targeted to Christian market channel and ministry leaders.  Each issue reports on news, trends, events and research that will directly or indirectly impact your audiences and businesses in a convenient summary format  Better informed leaders make better choices!

Researched, Edited & Published by Gary D. Foster

Excerpts from the

April 10, 2007 edition of

The FOSTER Letter—Religious Market Update

 The Swiss Army Knife of Technology is how media experts describe the cellphone that will soon connect everyday objects with the Internet. Cellphones are becoming a sort of digital remote control. With a wave, they can read encoded information on everyday objects (everything from billboards and cereal boxes to computer screens and print ads) and translate the data into videos, pictures or text files on their screens. In Japan, McDonald’s customers can already point their phones at the wrapping on their burgers and get nutrition information. They can also point at magazine ads to receive insurance quotes and board airplanes using their phones rather than paper tickets. The most promising way to link cellphones with physical objects is a new generation of bar codes: square-shaped mosaics of black and white boxes that can hold much more information than traditional bar codes. Cellphones cameras scan and translate the codes into videos, music or text on phone screens. The technology also allows advertisers to measure often their codes are clicked in their print ads. (NY Times 4/1/07)

 Bible Buyers don’t buy on impulse, but 88% know before shopping they want to buy a Bible. They spend an average of 21 minutes making a Bible purchase, and 61% buy them as gifts. The two top Bible gifting occasions are ceremonial events (32%) such as graduation, birthday, wedding, etc., and life passage events (17%) or life stage transition (e.g. youth to adult). The average buyer spends $33 per Bible or $44 each if buying multiple copies. (Aspiring Retail 3/07) 

It’s Faith Not Biology William Jeynes, a California State University professor led a study finding that stable families, coupled with strong religious faith, enable minority youth to achieve at the same levels as white students. For years, researchers have claimed biological factors are responsible for the achievement gap. Minority students at religious schools perform better academically than do their counterparts at public schools because of better race relations and more emphasis on family and faith; yet many public schools look down on people of faith and discourage expressions of faith. (OtherNewsNow.com 4/3/07) 

Non-Electronic Games is a $5 billion industry with 900 publishers and 38,000 products. Board games have seen record sales for 8 consecutive years. (National Games Week 11/06) 

An Alpha Mom is an educated, tech-savvy, Type A moms with a common goal: mommy excellence. She is a multitasker. She is kidcentric. She is hands-on. She may or may not work outside the home, but at home, she views motherhood as a job that can be mastered with diligent research. An Alpha Mom typically has money to spend, and (key for marketers) she influences how other moms spend. She’s also wired (online 87 minutes a day) and she spends a hefty 7% more than the typical Internet user. If your product or service passes the Alpha Mom test, it’s gold. That’s why the nation’s biggest marketers, from P&G to GM to Nintendo, are focusing on this remix of the modern mom. (USA Today 3/27/07) 

Cohabitation About a third of first births among white women come before marriage, compared with three-quarters among black women. As for children, 55% of blacks, 40% of Hispanics and 30% of whites spend some of their childhood with cohabiting parents. (Washington Post 3/4/07) 

Internet Impact According to comScore Networks, 747 million people age 15 and over used the Internet worldwide in January ’07, a 10% increase versus January ’06. (Center for Media Research 3/13/07) 

Unchurched A Barna Group survey finds 33% of adults in “Christian America” (more than 100 million people) are unchurched - meaning they have not attended any type of religious service during the past 6 months. The unchurched rate varies among population segments: 47% of political liberals vs. 19% of conservatives; 25% of. African Americans compared with 32% of whites, 34% of Hispanics and 63% of Asians; 37% of single adults vs. 29% of married. 61% of adults associated with a non-Christian faith are unchurched, but just 24% of self-designated Christians. Only 1% of evangelicals do not attend church regularly vs. 32% of adults who call themselves Christian but are not born again. 25% of Catholics and 20% of Protestants are unchurched.(Barna Update 3/19/07) 

Ad Trends A recent survey of the Association of National Advertisers revealed that integrated marketing communications (adding digital to the mix) topped senior marketing execs’ list of the most important issues they currently confront. (Media Daily News 3/27/07) 

Religion Site Visits Drop Visits to religion websites in the U.S. are declining rapidly, dropping over 30% within the past year, down 35% the last 2 years, while visits to entertainment sites like MySpace and Facebook continue to soar. Visits to the top 1,200 religious sites in the U.S. accounted for only 0.18% of all Internet visits for the week ending 3/10/07. There are over 60 visits to adult sites for every 1 religious website visit. Religious websites receive 36% of their traffic via Google, Yahoo! Search and MSN Search. (Time 3/16/07)

New Marketing Model For decades the marketing model was push, where marketing messages were pushed down to consumers and presence in the marketplace was key. Marketers had control. Not so today! Consumers want marketing that is more relevant and more precisely targeted. They want a different kind of relationship in which they are in control and receive value for the time and attention they give marketing. Consumers are so empowered and proficient today, they don’t need marketers anymore. They want products, and as far as they’re concerned, they can purchase them without marketing. Perhaps the most valued role of marketers today is to find effective ways to get aligned with what consumers want. I can help you find ways that will work for you and your customers or donors. Contact me at 419-238-4082, GFosterCns@rmi.net or www.GaryDFoster.com.  (Coming to Concurrence by Walker Smith, Ann Clurman and Craig Wood) 

Culture & Media According to an ’06 Culture and Media Institute study, 94% of Americans fit into one of 3 value groups: Orthodox, Progressive and Independent. Orthodox (31%) consider deep religious faith to be the most essential ingredient for living a good and moral life. Progressives (17%) advocate a secularized approach to private and public life and reject the notion that living a moral life requires deep religious beliefs. Independents (46%) view religious beliefs as just one of many ingredients needed to live a moral life. 74% of Americans believe the moral values in America are weaker than they were 20 years ago. Nearly half say moral values today are much weaker. 68% believe entertainment and news are having a detrimental effect on U.S. moral values. 87% believe in God and 52% believe the Bible is God’s authoritative word. Yet only 36% believe people should live by God’s principles; 15% live by their own principles even if they conflict with God’s principles; and 45% combine God’s teachings and their own values. 87% would do what is right even if they are embarrassed in front of their friends, believe in being grateful no matter their circumstances, and say they will help a neighbor or acquaintance in need even if they know the favor will not be returned. (Christian Post 3/9/07) 

Albums Dying Last year, digital singles outsold plastic CDs for the first time. So far in ’07, sales of digital songs have risen 54%, to roughly 189 million units, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Digital album sales are rising at a slightly faster pace, but buyers of digital music are purchasing singles over albums by a margin of 19 to 1. Because of this shift in listener preferences, record labels are signing artists to singles or only ring tones. Some are looking to transform record labels into de facto fan clubs where fans would pay a fee to “subscribe” to their favorite artists and receive a series of recordings, videos and other products over time. (NY Times 3/26/07) 

LifeWay Worship Music Group is creating the ultimate worship resource, an electronic hymnal with an initial collection of 1,000 hymns to be released in ’08. The project is one of the largest recording projects ever done in Nashville. (Facts & Trends 3/4/07) 

EMI Music has agreed to make its digital repertoire available free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions. All other major music distributors insist all their digitally distributed music be DRM-protected, which locks iTunes customers into playing music on only Apple’s iPod players, prevents unauthorized copies, and stops consumers from making unlimited copies for personal use. The protection-free songs will let consumers choose which music player they want to use, but buyers will pay $1.29 per song vs. $0.99 for DRM songs. EMI is a leading distributor of Christian artists’ recordings. (USA Today.com & Billboard 4/3/07) 

Most Important Trends USA Today has selected the 25 most important trends since 1982. The top 10 are 1) Diversity, 2) Fighting for equality, 3) Millions living longer, 4) Globalization, 5) Global warming, 6) Gay rights gain ground, 7) Fear of terrorism, 8) Snuffing out smoking, 9) Obesity crisis, 10) Tech creates the cult of 'me' (USA Today 3/31/07) 

America Is Losing Thousands of its best and brightest to alcohol and drugs. A National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse report found that 49% (3.8 million) of full-time college students binge drink and/or abuse prescription and illegal drugs. Also 22.9% met the medical criteria for substance abuse and dependence, 2.5 times the rate of the general population. The study found the intensity of excess has jumped sharply. From ’93 to ’01 the proportion of students who binge drink frequently is up 16%; those who drink on 10 or more occasions in a month, up 25%; those who get drunk at least 3 times a month, up 26%; and those who drink to get drunk, up 21%. The study links poor school performance and substance abuse with high rates of divorce and the breakdown of the traditional family structure. The study shows a correlation between abuse of alcohol or drugs, poor educational standings and divorce or other irregular family situations. (Lifesite.com 3/31/07) 

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