Serving the Christian Market Since 1968

14732 Middle Point Road Van Wert, Ohio 45891 - 419.238.4082

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

June 10, 2009 edition of

The FOSTER Letter—Religious Market Update 

On-Demand Spikes Based on Books In Print® data, Bowker projects U.S. book publisher title output in ’08 fell by 3.2% with 275,232 new titles and editions vs. 284,370 in ’07. Yet on-demand and short-run books grew a staggering 132% from 123,276 to 285,394. For the first time in U.S. book publishing history, on-demand and short-run books topped the number of traditional books released. The big winners in ’08 were Education and Business, while the Travel and Fiction took the biggest dips. The top 5 U.S. book categories for ’08 were Fiction (47,541 new titles),  Juveniles (29,438),  Sociology/Economics (24,423), Religion (16,847) and Science (13,555). (SOA World Magazine 5/19/09) 

People are the Medium A new Nielsen report finds total minutes spent on Facebook increased nearly 700% year-over-year, growing from 1.7 billion minutes in 4/08 to 13.9 billion in 4/09. In all that time spent on Facebook, you know what people were doing? Consuming content created by other people. If marketers want to be a part of all those billions of minutes, then we have to realize that people are the medium through which we need to distribute our message.  

Back Home AARP reports a rise in multigenerational households as economic facts compel more people to move in with other family members. As it is, 11% of 35-44-year-olds are “boomerang adults,” living with their parents or in-laws, as are 11% of those 45-54 and 13% those 55-64. 4% of people 50 plus live with grandchildren, 7% with parents. 42% of those 18-34 live with parents. (AdWeek Media 3/16/09) 

Twitter Not A study from the Harvard Business Review finds 10% of Twitter users account for more than 90% of the messages sent over the service. Half of all Twitter-users tweet less than once every 74 days, and “the median number of lifetime tweets per user is 1.” (Online Media Daily 6/2/09) 

It’s OK to Quit Contrary to conventional wisdom, winners actually do quit. Seth Godin points out in The Dip that knowing what to quit and what to keep doing is a key element in success. These are hard choices that my outside objectivity can help you make. 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. (The Dip, Seth Godin, Portfolio hardcover, 2007) 

Men 60% of men do not like flowers and embroidered banners in church, according to Sorted, a UK Christian magazine. The survey implied men are not comfortable with physical contact, such as holding hands, and activities such as sitting in circles to share feelings. It also suggested men who go to church would like less hugging and hand-holding and more singing of hymns and “proclamational” songs, such as Onward Christian Soldiers, And Can It Be, Guide Me O Thy Great Redeemer, Amazing Grace and Be Thou My Vision. (ChristianPost.com) 

Extraordinary Islam Growth Rate At its present rate of growth (mostly through high birthrate), Islam will become the dominant religion in the world in 5-7 years. (Muslim Demographics http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3UXrnDhcf4)  

Need to Control Costs by “right-sizing” your company or ministry? I can help steer you through this delicate process. Unless very carefully done, it can become a disastrous staff de-motivator. I can strategically assess your situation and craft a healthy implementation strategy. Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. 

Catholic Book Buyers 64% of Catholic store customers are female, according to the Catholic Marketing Network. 28% of core Catholic store customers are 18-35; 72% are 35+. In ’08, 52.5% of consumers surveyed by CBA Consumer Intelligence who identified themselves as Catholic read books. Of those, 80.9% read frequently or occasionally. Comparatively, of all respondents who identified with any Christian denomination, 82.2% read books frequently or occasionally. Of all consumers surveyed, regardless of religious affiliation, 82.7% read books frequently or occasionally.  25.9% of self-identified Catholics consumers read their Bibles daily. Another 27.8% do so weekly. In ’08, 35.3% of those read frequently also frequently purchase new books in a store vs. 21.44% who frequently purchase their books online. Overall, 34.6% of those who frequently read also purchase new books in a store vs. 21.6% online. (CBA Retailers+Resources 5/09) 

T-Shirt Evangelism 98% of Christian T-shirt-buyers desire the message on their Christian T-shirts to be noticed by unbelievers, according to Christian apparel company Kerusso. 56% of Christians wearing faith-apparel have had an unbeliever ask about the message on their garment. Their research finds that 7.4% of unbelievers made a decision to accept Christ as their Savior immediately from the faith-apparel discussion. 44.4% of Christian apparel-wearers report they shared the Gospel while wearing their faith-apparel. (CBA Retailers+Resources 5/09) 

Friends Church members who have a best friend at church are 21% more likely to attend church at least once a week and 26% more likely to have a strong active faith in God. (Group Publishing 5/20/05) 

Less Work About 6.7 million people were working fewer than 35 hours a week in April because of “slack work or business conditions,” nearly double the number a year ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A recent Hewitt Associates survey found 16% of companies had cut pay and 20% had cut hours or imposed furloughs, far more than the firm has seen in previous recessions. (NY Times 5/29/09) 

The Average Consumer spends less than 3 seconds scanning titles of books on a bookshelf in the store, and then spends roughly 20 seconds scanning the contents before making a decision to either purchase or sit down with the book to research further. Ours is a culture of top-10 lists and recommendations. It’s not surprising that publishers recommend book titles that are 3 words or less. Much of the focus of book marketing today is on the design of the cover, the author’s bio and leveraging recommendations. (Media Post’s E-Mail Insider 5/11/09) 

Performance in the business environment can be traced to 3 employee qualities: mission ownership, a sense of urgency and personal commitment. I can help you assess employee performance in these areas and point your company to higher productivity and profits by maximizing existing staff talent. Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. 

Casual Christians, spiritually middle-of-the-road, perhaps even ambivalent about their faith, represent 66% of the adult U.S. population, according to Barna Research. Pollster George Barna describes this “tribe” as “faith in moderation.” It allows them to feel religious without having to prioritize their faith. Christianity is a low-risk, predictable proposition for this tribe and provides a faith perspective that isn’t demanding. A Casual Christian can be all the things they esteem: a nice human being, a family person, religious, an exemplary citizen, a reliable employee – and never have to publicly defend or represent difficult moral or social positions or even lose much sleep over their private choices, as long as they mean well and generally do their best. From their perspective, their brand of faith practice is genuine, realistic and practical. To them, Casual Christianity is the best of all worlds; it encourages them to be a better person than if they had been irreligious, yet it is not a faith into which they feel compelled to heavily invest themselves. (Barna Update 5/25/09) 

Americans are just as happy as they were a year ago in spite of the poor economy, finds The Harris Poll Happiness Index. 35% are very happy, the same as in ’08. Women are slightly happier than men (36% vs. 34%), and 38% of married women are very happy compared to 34% of single women. Also similar to last year, 91% Americans agree their relationships with friends bring them happiness, and 90% have positive relationships with family members, while 81% agree they are generally happy with their lives. 67% frequently worry about their financial situation, also unchanged. (Harris Poll Weekly 5/19/09) 

Re-Spiritualization The Rev. Paul M. Zulehner, Dean of Vienna University’s Catholic Theology Department, claims there is a boom in religious yearning in Europe. He says, “Re-spiritualization started in the mid-’90s. Until then it was considered modern to be an atheist. Now one is thought of as modern if one is spiritual.” Since ’95, the share of people in Brussels who call themselves religious rose from 48 to 59%. In Lisbon, it went from 51% to 82%. In Vienna, it moved marginally from 62% to 64%, according to a European Value Systems survey. One major exception is Paris, where religious devotion dropped from 55 to 48%. Zulehner stresses churches must respond quickly to the phenomenal revival of spirituality on the Continent, where 67% describe themselves as religious. (UPI 5/6/09) 

Google is planning to introduce a program by year end that will enable publishers to sell digital versions of their newest books direct to consumers through the web giant. This puts them head-to-head with Amazon, who is seeking to control the e-book market with its Kindle reading device. This is a welcome move for most publishers concerned that Amazon offers Kindle editions of most new best-sellers for $9.99, far less than the typical $26 at which publishers sell new hardcovers. Google has said it will allow publishers to set consumer prices. Under the new program, publishers give Google digital files of new and other in-print books. Users can search up to about 20% of the content of titles already on Google and can follow links to online retailers. This new proposal allows users to buy those digital editions direct from Google. It also will allow consumers to read books on any device with Internet access rather than being limited to dedicated reading devices like the Kindle. (NY Times 5/31/09) 

Non-Grads Nationally, 4-year colleges graduated an average of just 53% of entering students within 6 years, and “rates below 50%, 40% and even 30% are distressingly easy to find,” reports American Enterprie Institute. (USA Today 6/3/09) 

For information on how to become a subscriber to the entire 3-page Foster Letter---Religious Market Update, E-mail us at: subscribe@garydfoster.com