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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 leaJAN10_09.htmlders make better choices!

Researched, Edited & Published by Gary D. Foster

Excerpts from the

January 10, 2009 edition of

The FOSTER Letter—Religious Market Update

Millennials Despite a failing economy, employment woes and countless other concerns, 80% of Millennials (born between ’80 and ’90) remain confident about what ’09 holds for them. A survey by StrategyOne for Pepsi found 95% say it is important to maintain a positive outlook on life. They spend more time enjoying life than worrying about it and are most optimistic about their overall well-being and relationships with friends and family. 74% find supporting causes make them feel more optimistic; 77% have a strong sense of optimism about their careers; and 95% have positive associations when they think of the word “change,” associating it with “progress” (78%), “hope” (77%) and “excitement” (72%). (Center for Media Research Brief 12/31/08) 

A Child Trends Study reports, “Family structure clearly matters for children, and the family structure that helps children the most is a family headed by two biological parents in a low-conflict marriage.” (LA Times 9/19/08)

Children ages 6-11 are increasingly using the Internet to check out products they see in ads. 46.3% of kids visited a Web site they saw or heard about in a commercial or ad, finds MRI’s 2008 American Kids Study. The older the child, the more likely he or she is to take such action. They are also more likely to come from households where no rules are placed on which sites they can or cannot visit. (Center for Media Research Brief 1/1/09) 

Boomer Women Over the next decade, women will control two-thirds of consumer wealth in the U.S. and be the beneficiaries of the largest transference of wealth in our country’s history. Estimates range from $12 to $40 trillion. Many Boomer women will experience a double-inheritance windfall from both parents and husband. (Boomer Consumer: The Blog 12/2/08) 

Planning Pays “There are two areas in finance where world-class organizations have actually increased spending relative to revenues. One of those is compliance, and the second is planning and analysis,” says Bryan Hall, a Hackett Group finance consultant. I can help you craft and monitor your plan. Contact 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. (CFO 12/07) 

Display Ads Work According to 12 months of proprietary Specific Media Ad Effectiveness data, display advertising lifts online search activity 22% to 260%. Consumers exposed to display advertising are more likely to search for brand and segment terms than unexposed consumers. The study shows display advertising has a direct impact on both paid and organic searches and clicks. (Center for Media Research Brief 1/5/09) 

Influencers Mediamark Research & Intelligence research reveals 11.5% (approximately 25.4 million adults) of the U.S. adult population are the key influencers of other people when it comes to word-of-mouth communications regarding personal finance. These thought-leaders advise family, friends, neighbors and colleagues, as well as people they don’t necessarily know, through viral and social networks. (Center for Media Research Brief 12/26/08) 

Among Regular Churchgoers (attending church at least twice a month) 45% have close friends who avoid church and church-related activities. Among churchgoers over 65, just 33% have such friends. For 75% of churchgoers, most of their close friends attend services regularly. Among once a month attenders, 52% have close friends who avoid church, but 85% have close friends who attend regularly. 61% of those who rarely or never attend have close friends who regularly worship. Just 22% of non-churchgoers say most of their close friends avoid church and church-related activities. 5% of Americans don’t know anyone who attends church on a regular basis. Interestingly, 70% of non-churchgoers attended religious services as children. 55% of non-churchgoers are men. (Rasmussen Reports 12/26/08) 

No Increase Over the last 3 months, 42% of Americans report they attended church, synagogue or mosque weekly or almost every week, finds Gallup Poll. Historically significant crises usually result in fuller pews. So far the current economic crisis has not triggered such a response. (Christian Post 12/18/08) 

Body Art 36% of Gen-Nexters (Americans ages18-25) express themselves through tattoos. At least 40% of Gen-Xers have a tattoo. 54% of Gen-Nexters have dyed their hair an untraditional color or had a body piercing in a place other than their ear lobe. Gender is not a factor in either tattooing or untraditional hair-dyeing; however, body piercing is more common among young women. Among those over 40, just 21% have engaged in any of these. (PewResearch.org,  PWB 12/19/08) 

Religious Talk at Work Recent LifeWay Research reports less than a third of Americans have issues with those who display religious items at work. Also, less than 40% mind religious talk in the workplace. 48% of African-Americans are accepting of religious talk and the display of religious items in the workplace, double the rate of Asian-Americans (22%) and higher than both Caucasians (30%) and Hispanics (33%). Interestingly, 18- to 24-year-olds are the least likely to have strong opinions on the subject. 60% either somewhat agree or somewhat disagree that coworkers should not talk about religion in the workplace. Yet 25- to 34-year-olds are the least likely to either somewhat agree or somewhat disagree with the issue. Those with higher incomes are progressively more likely to agree that people shouldn’t talk about religion or display religious items in the workplace. (LifeWay Research Insights 12/15/08) 

Puddle, Swamp, Ocean or Well? When you’re thinking about developing a new product or ministry, it’s essential that you find out 2 things: 1) How widespread is the public’s interest in it? 2) How deep is that interest? If interest is not widespread and not very deep, you’re looking at a puddle. Never invest time or money in a puddle. If interest is widespread but not very deep, you’re looking at a swamp. Be careful of swamps. They look like oceans at first, because everyone is interested. Many have gone broke when what looked like a swamp turned out to be an ocean. If interest is wide and deep, you’re looking at an ocean. But you’re going to need a platform on which to navigate your ocean. If you don’t have a platform, you’ll drown. And you’re going to need a plan or you’ll drift. If public interest is narrow but deep, you’ve got a well. Don’t underestimate it. You can draw a lot of water from a well. Are you in a puddle, a swamp, an ocean or a well? I can objectively help you find out. Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com (Monday Morning Memo 7/9/07) 

Faith Influences Leadership According to research published in the Journal of Leadership Studies, evangelical Christian CEOs who apply their faith at work earn 8% more net income for their organizations. These CEOs perform 8% better in turbulent, unstable business situations when they consistently apply their faith in their job, and they have higher levels of satisfaction and fulfillment than those who never apply their faith at work, according to the Leadership Studies research. (Foster Network 12/19/08) 

Shrinking Leisure Time The Harris Poll finds the median number of leisure hours available each week dropped 20% to an all-time low of 16 in ’08, from 20 in ’07. This continues a trend which has seen America’s weekly leisure time shrink 10 hours from 26 in ’73. 30% of Americans say their favorite activity is reading (up from 29% in ’07), while 24% say it is TV-watching, and 17% spending time with family and kids (up from 14% in ’07). Rounding out the top 5 leisure time activities are exercise (8%) and computer activities and fishing (7% each). The median amount of time spent working, including housekeeping and studying, is now 46 hours per week vs. 45 in ’07. (Center for Media Research Brief 12/24/08) 

China’s Urban Shift Over the next 17 years, 350 million rural residents (more than the entire U.S. population today) will leave the farm and move to China’s cities. This will bring its urban population from just under 600 million to close to 1 billion, changing China into a country where more than two-thirds of its people are city-dwellers. (Cook Partners 12/3/08) 

Influence Waning Gallup Poll finds just 27% of Americans perceive religion’s influence to be on the upswing, while 67% say religion as a whole is losing influence on American life. It was 50-50 in ’05; since then, there has been a downward trend. The record low for this perception was in 1970, when only 14% said religion was increasing in influence. The last time a majority felt the influence of religion was rising was in December ’01, shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when it hit a historic high of 71%. (Christian Post 12/26/08) 

Reality Check CBA CEO Bill Anderson states, “It starts with the customer (or constituent). It ends with the customer (or constituent).  The fact is, our competitors don’t put us out of business; our customers (or constituents) do. And they do it when we give them permission by not being their best preferred option.” Let me help make sure you are not inadvertently giving your customers or constituents permission put you out of business or ministry. Contact 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com.  (CBA Resources+Retailers 1/08) 

CBA Connect, a new member service set to roll out in January ’09, will give retailers online access to training and support resources. The online platform will bring together all CBA’s training programs and enable users to interact with one another, swapping information. The service is an integrated information and marketing tool that helps retailer-and-supplier training partners communicate more effectively and helps stores place more products into customers’ hands. (CBA Retailers+Resources 12/08) 

Generation-Y is not losing a lot of money out of its 401(K), but the deteriorating job market is how the economy is hurting them financially. “They’re coming out of college with huge student loans and credit card debt,” reports Marketing Daily. Companies looking to capture the Generation-Y market now, in the hopes of gaining them as long-term clients, will want to use messages based on honesty and singularity. It’s all about sharing information and being a true guide and not a marketer. When it comes to considered purchases, they want the face-to-face interaction. (Media Post Daily 12/24/08)

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