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Serving the Christian Market Since 1968 14732 Middle Point Road Van Wert, Ohio 45891 - 419.238.4082 |
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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 July 10, 2009 edition of The FOSTER Letter—Religious Market Update Recession Dads With men currently outpacing women in job losses, this new economic reality is bolstering an already-growing trend: wives taking on primary breadwinner roles while husbands become primary caregivers. Marketers can no longer afford to continue gender-based efforts focused solely on moms. We must be on our toes more than ever when targeting consumers of both genders. (Brand Week 6/15/09) No Vacation 35% of U.S. workers don’t plan to take a vacation this year. Of these, 71% say they can’t afford it. But nearly 1 in 5 workers indicate they are either afraid of losing their jobs if they go on vacation or feel guilty about being away from the office. (CareerBuilder.com) Marketing Activities most likely to be maintained throughout the recession include R & D (47%), PR (42%), innovation/test/learn budgets (33%) and promotion activities (33%). Activities most likely to be increased in the current economic environment are pricing deals (47%), social networking and word-of-mouth activities (26%), and public relations efforts (23%). (Marketing Daily 5/29/09) Customer Loyalty Customer acquisition is an investment, but profitability is built on customer retention. And with the economy in its current state, it’s more important than ever to keep the customers you have. So how do you retain your customers and earn their loyalty? Like any successful relationship, if you want customers to be loyal to you, you must be loyal to them. Let me evaluate your customer retention effectiveness and craft a cost-effective plan to improve it. Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com, 419-238-4082 (Performance Insider 6/12/09) Bedtime & Teen Behavior The National Institutes of Health research finds middle- and high-schoolers whose parents don’t require them to be in bed before midnight on school nights are 42% more likely to be depressed than teens whose parents require a 10 p.m. or earlier bedtime. Those allowed to stay up late are also 30% more likely to have had suicidal thoughts in the past year. Kids who have a 9-10 p.m. bedtime were in bed, on average, by 10:04 p.m. They slept an average of 8 hours and 10 minutes vs. 7½ hours for kids allowed to stay up past midnight. (USA Today 6/9/09) Offerings Dip 40% of evangelical church leaders polled by Your Church magazine said current economic conditions have resulted in a drop in weekly giving by 2% or more. Despite the losses, more than one-third expect their current church budget to increase by at least 2%. Just 25% expect their church budget will shrink. Nearly a third expect their current budget to stay the same. Though the average worship attendance in respondents’ churches is 580, 47% are less than 200. (Your Church magazine’s ’09 Budget Priorities Survey) Boomers in Recession America’s 77 million Baby Boomers face an economic storm: The Wall Street meltdown trampled their retirement nest eggs more than any other group. After losing jobs during what they thought would be some of their peak earning years, many are struggling to get back into the workforce. Healthcare costs are rising, and declining home values mean they might not be able to count on home equity to guarantee an easier retirement. The reality is sinking in and Boomers are planning to work longer, save more, and spend less to reach a semblance of the retirement they once envisioned. (USA Today 6/16/09) Hunger in America In ’07, 37.3 million Americans (12.5%) were in poverty, 36.2 million (23.8 million adults and 12.4 million kids) lived in food-insecure households, and 3.9 million households (3.4%) accessed emergency food from a food pantry one or more times. (Leadership Network Advance 6/23/09)
Have a Purpose—Live Longer
An increasing body of research is finding that
having a purpose in life is crucial to maintaining psychological
wellness as well as physical health, finds a Rush Alzheimer’s Disease
Center study. Dr. Patricia Boyle, a neurophysiologist, says, “If you
have a purpose in life (lofty or not), you will live longer. We found
people that reported a greater level of purpose in life were
substantially less likely to die over the follow-up period—only about
half as likely to die—as compared to people with a lower level of
purpose. If you find a purpose in life, if your life is meaningful,
and if you have goal directed behavior, you are likely to live
longer.” (Health Day News 6/16/09) Bleak Future “Brick-and-mortar operations haven’t lost all their business, but they’ve lost the business that will allow them to stay in business, whether they know it or not,” claims former Nelson and Zondervan executive Greg Stielstra in World magazine. He adds, “There’s still too much allegiance to old ways of doing business. Surges in Christian fiction or in sub-niches are just disguising the fundamental problems.” The magazine also reported that self-publishing is the bright spot in a gloomy book-selling environment. (World magazine 7/4/09) School Spending Despite the ongoing recession, only 15.7% of consumers plan to spend less money this season on school supplies, finds Burst Media study of some 2,100 households with children attending elementary school, middle school, high school, or college. 24.9% plan to spend more than last year. (Online Media Daily 6/19/09) Increase Energy, not just efficiency! Through an “energy audit,” understand what energizes your staff and fuels personal growth, which is the ultimate source for creativity and profit. Reduce activities that de-energize your team, and match your employees to activities that stimulate creativity. Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or visit www.garydfoster.com. (Business Week Online 11/2/05) No Uptick Global business consultancy Alix Partners reports Americans say they have changed how they plan to use their money. According to the February study, Americans say that even after the recession ends, their spending will return to just 86% of pre-recession levels, which roughly equates to a 10% drop, or more than $1 trillion annually, in GDP. They also say this new, lower level of spending is structural and could last for nearly a decade after the recession ends. So, even if the economic downturn ends soon, don’t expect any significant uptick. Marketers need to accept this new mindset of spending less and spending smarter. Make sure your products and services can fulfill the consumer desire to make better buying decisions. (Boomer Project 6/22/09) Habits Changing There are 303 million people in the U.S. Only 10% of U.S. households have more than 5 people vs. 21% in ’70. This means that more people are venturing away from home, and the “traditional family unit” is changing now that the Baby Boomers are empty-nesters. This means media use and buying habits are changing to reflect more of individual interests rather than those of the family unit as a whole. (Time 12/3/07) Millennial Values Being Reshaped Depending upon how long the downturn lasts, historians, economists, and psychologists say it could shape Millennials’ values and attitudes in much the same way the Depression shaped those who grew up in the 1930s. A February JWT (formerly J. Walter Thompson) study of 18-29s suggests 60% feel their generation is being dealt an unfair blow because of the recession. 44% say they might be able to afford a house now that home prices have plummeted; 25% say that if they have trouble finding a job, they'll just start their own business. (USA Today 6/23/09) New Role for Dads Whether by choice or circumstance, more dads are finding themselves increasingly responsible for daily parenting. In response, they are making a place for themselves in what has traditionally been “mom” territory. To many fathers today, sharing parenting responsibility is the norm rather than the exception. Working mothers expect it. Telecommuting and workplace flexibility have enabled it. And right now, the recession is making it almost inevitable. There are more men out of work than women, making many working wives the family's sole wage-earner and even sending stay-at-home moms back to the workforce. With family income diminished, outside child-care often becomes a luxury of the past. For these reasons, some men are finding themselves chief caregiver for the first time in their lives. Ed Note: Does this open new market opportunities for your existing or planned product or services? (Engage Moms 6/24/09) Teens Read The book business may be flat, but sales of books for teens are booming. Contrary to the depressing proclamations that American teens aren’t reading, the surprising truth is they are reading novels in unprecedented numbers. Young-adult fiction (ages 12-18) is riding a boom with sales up more than 25% in the past few years, finds a Children’s Book Council study. Virtually every major publishing house now has a teen imprint, and many bookstores and libraries have created teen reading groups. Experts credit two reasons: the increasing sophistication and emotional maturity of teens and the accompanying new freedom for writers in the genre to explore virtually any subject. Another is that bookstores and libraries are finally separating teen books from children’s books. Many teens agree reading books (especially fantasy fiction) is a healthy way to momentarily escape from the sometimes debilitating stresses of adolescence. (Newsweek.com 5/21/08) For information on how to become a subscriber to the entire 3-4 page Foster Letter---Religious Market Update, E-mail us at: subscribe@garydfoster.com
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