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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 25, 2008 edition of

The FOSTER Letter—Religious Market Update 

Bible is Favorite Americans named the Bible as their favorite book of all time, according to Harris Poll. In addition to being the #1 book overall, the Bible also came in first across the board with all demographic groups. An estimated 92% of Americans own a Bible; the average household owns four. The New Yorker estimates Bible publishers sell 25 million copies a year. But just 45% of Americans read it in a typical week says the Barna Research Group. In the poll, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind was the nation’s second favorite read, while J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings fantasy series nabbed third. (Christian Post 4/8/08) 

Employees First You have to treat your employees right before you can deliver exceptional customer service, because they are the ones delivering those services. Jack Mitchell, author of Hug Your People, believes you need a hugging culture to have exceptional customer service. It’s a culture that requires trusting people and these 5 principles: Nice, Trust, Pride, Include and Recognize. You need to dig in and understand the personal side of each associate who works with you. You need to know what really motivates them in terms of their personal goals, and hopefully they parallel the workplace organization goals. (CRM Magazine 3/08) 

Reputation Is Everything The Internet makes all information easily accessible and capable of becoming viral and ubiquitous in a millisecond. The Web is the new central nervous system of the marketplace. It has introduced unprecedented speed and efficiency in synchronizing the core truth about who you really are with your actual reputation in the marketplace. The Web is driving expectations and sensitivity to brands higher than ever. As a result, marketing and brand-building is no longer about creating a desirable façade, but about driving all that is desired into the product in the first place. It’s living by the philosophy that the sum of all your actions equals your brand equity -- including even the experience of mundane things like invoicing and returns. Are you really what you say you are? Contact 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com.(Online Spin 4/11/08) 

Retirement Redefined U.S. adults nearing retirement are one of the country’s fastest growing demographics. 17.9% of all U.S. adults are now retired, a rise of 6% since ’03 and growing more rapidly as Boomers exit the workforce. Habits of aging Americans are likely very different from those of their predecessors because they are living longer, achieving higher levels of education, are wealthier, and are redefining what it means to be retired. The Media Audit reports 83% of retired U.S. adults own their home. 30% have cash, stocks and CD’s valued at more than $100,000 (the highest ever). 13.1% of new automobile purchasers are retired, vs. 11.1% in ’03. 8.3% of adults who have a car loan are retired, vs. 6.4% 5 years ago. 16% of adults who frequently stay in hotels are retired, up from 14.7%. Retired adults are 6% more likely than the average U.S. adult to frequently dine out at a full-service restaurant. Today retired adults spend nearly 30% more time watching broadcast TV, 14% more time watching cable TV and 25% more time reading a daily newspaper than the average U.S. adult. They spend only 89 minutes per day online, 26% less than the average. Boomer retirees will likely be more computer and internet friendly. (Center for Media Research Brief 2/7/08) 

The Average American Child watches TV 1,680 minutes per week, while the average parent spends 38.5 minutes per week in good conversation with their kids. (Christian Radio Weekly 3/28/08) 

Women Of the 153.6 million females in the U.S., 59% work and 37% are professionals or managers. About one-third have a bachelor’s degree or higher. The number of women who are married (62.4 million) as nearly equal to those divorced, widowed or never married (59.8 million). Women make most of the decisions about spending money. 84% of women are big computer users at home, per the U.S. Census Bureau. 52% of all Internet users are female. (Diane Mermigas On Media 4/2/08) 

Honest Feedback The Wall Street Journal asserts: “Top company officials are often surrounded by ‘yes’ people who filter out bad news.” The result is a culture of “yes people” who don’t contribute truthfully to the health and progress of the organization. Effective executives must have a culture of truth-telling to know what is and isn’t working. I can help you determine the culture in your organization and counsel you in implementing a reliable honest feedback culture. Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. 

Kindle Although Amazon.com hasn’t released sales figures for its e-book reader Kindle, it reports supply is not keeping up with demand. The International Digital Publishing Forum says e-book sales have risen from $6 million in ’02 to $33 million in ’07. Those numbers do not include many smaller publishers or library and educational purchases, making it likely the download market is far larger. Publishers are reluctant to discuss sales figures but say they’ve seen double digit increases in e-book sales since the 11/07 Kindle release. (USA Today 4/4/08) 

America Less Ugly After years of becoming progressively more negative, public views of the U.S. have begun to improve, according to a BBC World Service Poll across 34 countries. While views of U.S. influence in the world are still predominantly negative, they have improved in 11 of the 23 countries polled, while worsening in just 3. The average percentage saying the US is having a positive influence has increased from 31% in ’07 to 35% today. The view that it is having a negative influence has declined from 52% to 47%. (WorldPublicOpinion.org 4/1/08) 

MySpace and 3 of the world’s largest music companies, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group, have formed a landmark joint venture, MySpace Music. The service will offer DRM-free downloads, free audio and video streaming supported by advertising, and a mobile storefront. MySpace members can personalize all their music content, from creating playlists to personalized storefronts, and stream songs in full from their profiles, as well as place links to buy tracks from their favorite artists. Artists can use their profile pages to sell downloads direct, as well as sell ringtones, concert tickets and merchandise. (ChristianRadioWeekly 4/10/08) 

Happy Teens 81% of teens (13-17) say they are at least somewhat happy, and over a third are very happy, finds a Teen Topix study by OTX and the Intelligence Group. They report to be happiest with their relationships with friends, their talents, their abilities, and their school performance. More than 75% are happy about how they “look” online. 61% worry about their looks, and 48% compare the way they look with friends and peers. 50% say looks and physical appearance are very important when it comes to being respected by others, but less important in being liked by others, getting ahead in the workplace and making lots of money. (Center for Media Research Brief 4/1/08) 

Media Bias A recent Pew Research Center study found 32% of national reporters acknowledge being politically liberal, compared to only 19% of the general public. (OneNewsNow 4/11/08)

The Most Important Questions in business are often never asked: What is our motive? What is our purpose? Are they worth-while? Motive and purpose guide behavior, color decisions, and add or subtract joy from work. Keep asking these questions, and use the answers to measure success. I can help you ask and answer these vital questions in your organization. Contact 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. (Joy At Work, Dennis Bakke, 2005) 

Placement Vital Internet users don’t even see most of the ads on a Web page, particularly if they’re below the ‘fold’, no matter whether the site is a highly trafficked media property or a niche blog. A MarketingSherpa study found while an ad placed above the fold is visible to 100% of site visitors, only about 60% actually see it. At best, below-the-fold units are visible to roughly 70% of viewers, but only about 25% actually see the ads. The ratios continue to trend downward as the ad units move from center placements to columns and spots on the far left side of the page. (Online Media Daily 4/8/08) 

Generous People Among the most generous U.S. population segments were evangelicals (24% of whom tithe); conservatives (12%); people who pray, read the Bible and attended a church service during the past week (12%); charismatic or Pentecostal Christians (11%); and registered Republicans (10%). Among the least generous are people under the age of 25, atheists and agnostics, single adults who have never been married, liberals, and downscale adults. 1% or less of the people in each of these segments tithed in ’07. Among all born again adults, 9% contributed one-tenth or more of their income. Protestants are 4 times as likely to tithe as Catholics (8% vs. 2%). From ’00 to ’04, an average of 84¢ out of every $1 donated by born again adults went to churches. Since ’05 that proportion has declined to just 76¢. (Barna Group 4/14/08) 

Giving in the U.S. in ’07 was up 4.2%, and in current dollars before inflation adjustments it has increased $279 billion since 1966. Giving in ’07 is estimated to be $295 billion, an increase of more than 200% adjusted for inflation in the last 40 years. In just the last 10 years, it is up 65%. Giving by individuals and households was $222.9 billion in ’06 or 76% of total U.S. giving. Gifts to religious organizations hit $96.82 billion, up 4.5% over ’06. 32.8% of all giving went to religious organizations and has increased an average of 4.7% per year for the past 10 years. Since ’95, the number of registered 501(c)(3) organizations are up 67%, while total giving is up 185%. Total charitable giving as a percentage of the GNP was 2.2% in ’06. Individual giving as a percentage of personal income was 2.0% and above the 40-year average of 1.8%. There are approximately 1.4 million charities in the U.S. Americans really are generous! (Giving USA 2006) 

The Consumer Spending Slump and tightening credit markets are unleashing a widening wave of bankruptcies in American retailing, prompting thousands of store closings that are expected to remake suburban malls and downtown shopping districts across the country. Even retailers that can avoid bankruptcy are shutting down stores to preserve cash through what could be a long economic downturn. Spending on food and gasoline is crowding out other purchases. Because retailers rely on a broad network of suppliers, their bankruptcies are rippling across the economy. The Int’l Council of Shopping Centers estimates there will be 5,770 store closings in ’08, up 25% from ’07. (NY Times 4/15/08)

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