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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

August 10, 2009 edition of

The FOSTER Letter—Religious Market Update 

Foreverism encompasses the many ways that businesses’ and consumers’ conversations, relationships and products are never finished. Driving its popularity is technology that allows them to follow, interact and collaborate forever with anyone and anything. Countless individuals are building online profiles and relationships that are potentially ‘forever’, and it is impacting their interaction with brands in a variety of new ways. Hundreds of millions of personal pages, feeds, status updates, tweets, profiles, blogs—courtesy of the Facebooks, the mySpaces, the Twitters, the LinkedIns—are building up to an eternally up-to-date encyclopedia of individuals that defies even the most futuristic predictions back in the early days of the Web. These profiles will live on forever not just because the Web is a massive caching machine, but more importantly because younger generations will never want to dispose of their groomed online presence. (Trend Watching 8/09) 

Religion and Old Age Religion is a far bigger part of the lives of older adults than younger adults. Two-thirds of adults ages 65 and older say religion is very important to them, compared with just over half of those ages 30 to 49 and 44% of those ages 18 to 29. Moreover, among adults 65 and above, 34% say religion has grown more important to them over the course of their lives, while just 4% say it has become less important and 60% say it has stayed the same. Among those who are over 65 and report having an illness or feeling sad, the share who say religion has become more important to them rises to 43%. (Growing Old in America, Pew Research Center 6/29/09) 

Active Christians buy more Christian books than any other market segment, yet they buy only 30% of their Christian books from Christian stores, according to R.R. Bowker’s Kelly Gallagher. Active Christians shop for books of all kinds at Christian bookstores 42% of the time, compared with general market stores 58% of the time. The Active Christian gender ratio is 61% female, 39% male. (ICRS 7/09) 

Where to Turn When asked where they turn if they want to find out more about God, the first response for all ethnic groups -- ranging from 50% among African-Americans to 24% among Asians -- was “Read a Bible.” The next most frequently selected response for most ethnic groups was “Attend a church.” (LifeWay Research, Baptist Press 6/9/09)

Ads that emphasize value propositions, or ‘luxuries for less,’ appeal to consumers more than empathy and cheerleading. (Harris Poll Weekly 7/21/09) 

Business Intelligence (customer and market information) is a key and necessary strategic element for every Christian ministry and product company. I can provide a full-fledged scan of the environment facing your organization, plus seasoned advice on what it means and how to best respond.  Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com.  

Believer Scientists About 1 out of every 3 scientists in the U.S. professed believing in God in a recent Pew Research survey, in comparison to 83% of the general American public. (Christian Post 7/16/09) 

Most Important Causes A study conducted by SurveyU shows the environment is merely the 10^th most-important cause in the minds of current college students, as stated by 54% of them. The first 9 are: Education (81%), Child endangerment/abuse prevention (68%),  Rape prevention (65%), civil/human rights (65%), cancer (62%), drunk driving prevention (61%), genocide (59%), domestic violence (57%) and AIDS (57%). 41% of college students think brands “definitely should” support causes, while 39% think brands “probably should” support a social cause of one form or another. (Engage Gen-Y 6/26/09) 

Loss During the past 12 months, 25% of U.S. adults have experienced the death of a close family member, while 22% have suffered the death of a close friend. (AP/GK 7/09) 

The Volunteering in America 2009 report, the most comprehensive data ever assembled on volunteer trends and demographics, found that 22.2 million volunteers, or 35.9% of the total 61.8 million volunteers in the U.S., served with or through a religious organization in ’08. Volunteers who served through faith-based organizations were also more likely to continue serving year after year than volunteers of any other type of organization. 70% of volunteers of religious groups continued to serve year to year. Although faith-based groups account for a third of U.S. volunteers, only about 15% of non-profit charities report partnerships with religious organizations. U.S. volunteers donated 8 billion hours of service, worth an estimated $162 billion. (Christian Post 7/29/09) 

Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” He also said the problems you face can’t be solved by the same level of thinking that created the problems. I can bring you fresh thinking that will lead to new solutions that deliver new results. Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. (IvySeaZine 5/20/08) 

Pastor/Teacher Megachurch pastors are more likely to view themselves as teachers rather than pastors, finds Leadership Network’s Large-Church Senior Pastor Survey. 81% of senior leaders in churches with more than 2,000 view their role as “preacher/teacher,” while only 16% see themselves as a “pastor, shepherd or spiritual guide.” 51% chose the term “directional leader,” and 33% described themselves as a “visionary.” 79% of megachurch pastors say they are strongest in preaching, and 77% say they are strongest in thinking about and promoting a vision and goals for the congregation's future. Around a third say teaching people about the faith and training people for ministry and mission are tasks they do best. And only 10% are strongest in pastoral counseling and spiritual direction. (Pastor’s Weekly Briefing 7/17/09) 

WoM New research from PQ Media, finds word-of-mouth marketing (WoM) rose 14.2% to $1.54 billion in ’08, despite the worst economic recession in 70 years. However, WoM spending is on pace to grow another 10.2% in ’09, placing it among the fastest-growing advertising and marketing segments. By comparison, the U.S. economy, as well as the advertising and marketing services sectors, is all expected to decline in ’09 for the first time since the Great Depression. (Center for Media Research Brief 8/5/09) 

Growth Restraint When 79 million people—nearly a third of Americans—start spending less and saving more, you know it won’t be pretty. According to consulting firm McKinsey, boomers’ conversion to thrift could stifle the economy’s hoped-for rebound and knock U.S. growth down from the 3.2% it has averaged since 1965 to 2.4% over the next 30 years. (Business Week 7.23.09) 

No Standing Still Even as it turns in its best financial results in decades, McDonald’s is doing a global brand-strategy study to ensure it keeps its momentum. Mary Dillon, EVP of Global Marketing, notes, “Consumer needs and attitudes change every day, so we have to be out ahead of it.” Are you staying ahead of your consumer or constituent? Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. (Media Daily News 2/6/07) 

Reaching Young Adults When reaching young adults (age 18-35), 20% of megachurch pastors say small groups work best, and 17% say targeted worship service helps them connect with young adults. (Pastor’s Weekly Briefing 7/17/09) 

Movieguide reports the number of obscene language words in movies has decreased about 50% in the last 25 years. In the 80s, G-, PG- and PG-13-rated movies averaged 35 obscenities or profanities per movie, compared with just 16 in the current decade. Much of the credit for the change is due to Movieguide’s strategic efforts to influence Hollywood executives. (Movieguide Vol. XXIV, Issue 114/15, 2009) 

Sales of E-Books remain small but are growing fast, according to a survey by the Codex Group. 4.9% of books sold in May were in digital form, up from 3.7% in March. (NY Times 7/21/09) 

American Hispanics A Barna Group finds that Hispanics and the total adult population have nearly identical beliefs on the following: belief their faith is very important in their life, a personal sense of responsibility to share their faith with others, and the likelihood of reading the Bible in the past week. Alignment among U.S. Hispanics with the Catholic Church dropped by 25 percentage points over the last 15 years. The study also showed Hispanics gravitate toward a middle-of-the-road ideological posture on social and political issues. (OneNewsNow 7/13/09) 

Revealing Youth Study OneHope, formerly Book of Hope, found 91% of youths in Costa Rica say they do not believe they will go to heaven despite claiming to have accepted Jesus Christ. In Spain, 74% say they do not want to be a virgin when they marry, and in Russia, 42% report having tried to commit suicide. (Christian Post 7/29/09) 

Divorce is Unhealthy Those who have been divorced or widowed suffer from 20% more chronic health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes or cancer, compared with individuals who are married. Additionally, individuals who remarry report an average of 12% more chronic conditions and 19% more physical limitations compared with the continuously married. (Journal of Health and Social Behavior 9/09)
 

Nap Time A Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends survey finds on a typical day, 34% of U.S. adults take a nap. When asked if they had taken a nap in the past 24 hours, 34% of men and 31% of women said yes. This gender gap occurs mostly among older adults. 41% of men 50 and older say they napped compared with just 28% of women of that age. Below age 50, men and women are about equal (35% vs. 34%). (PewResearch.org) 

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