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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 June 25, 2009 edition of The FOSTER Letter—Religious Market Update Mag Readers Age The average age of magazine readers is catching up with the overall population. The median age of U.S. adults increased 1.3 years to 45.2 since spring ’04, claims a spring ’09 Mediamark Research report. But adult readers at the nearly 200 publications and publishing groups saw their median age rise 1.6 years to 44. About 56% of the titles tracked in both years posted age increases higher than the general adult population’s. Often advertisers covet younger people because there are many product categories particularly interested in younger consumers, and they generally will pay a premium for them because they’re so hard to reach—there’s also the notion that they have a 60-year lifetime value. Yet, older consumers typically have more money and become loyal readers more often! Print is not alone in the challenge; all traditional media are struggling to maintain younger consumers, even American Idol has a median age of 44 vs. 32 when it launched. (Advertising Age 5/25/09) Rethinking Retirement Just over half of all working adults ages 50-64 say they may delay retirement, and another 16% never expect to stop working, reports Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project.. 37% of full-time employed adults of all ages have thought in the past year about postponing retirement. This swells to 52% among full-time workers 50-64. This “Threshold Generation” is twice as likely as younger workers to say they never plan to retire (16% vs. 8%). Thresholders who do plan to retire want to keep working until they are 66, 4 years older than current retirees aged 65 stopped working. (Pastor’s Weekly Briefing 6/5/09) Total U.S. Book Publishers’ net revenues reached $40.32 billion in ’08, up 1% over ’07, while ’08 unit sales reached nearly $3.1 billion, down 1.5% over 2007, according to Book Industry TRENDS 2009. The religious segment has underperformed the publishing industry as a whole in ’08 with revenues declining 10% against total industry growth of 1%. While the economic downturn played a role in recent performance, sales in this sector had been plateauing over the last few years. (Book Industry TRENDS 2009, BISIG 2009) 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 give seasoned advice on what it means and how to best respond. Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. College Degree 69% of American adults say a college degree is still a good financial investment in today’s economic environment. 19% disagree, according a Rasmussen Reports survey. 79% of adults who are responsible for financing a child's education say a college degree is a good financial investment. 32% say a 4-year college is the best value for the money. (Rasmussen Reports 5/19/09) Charitable Giving Fell last year by the largest percentage in 5 decades, finds a Giving USA Foundation study. Individuals and institutions made gifts and pledges of $307.65 billion, a 5.7% (inflation-adjusted) decrease over ’07’s $314 billion. Some were surprised the drop was not even bigger, given that endowments fell by as much as 40%, the stock market declined by a similar margin, corporations posted unheard-of losses and unemployment was rising. (NY Times 6/19/09) Campbell Rinker research finds 24.6% of all U.S. donors in ’08 gave to faith-based charities. Within this group of faith-based donors, 76% identify themselves as Christian. 29.1% of Christian donors support faith-based charities. 55% plan to give the same amount in ’09, 27% less, and 14% more. On average, Christian donors gave $4,180 to charity in ’07 vs. $1,353 by donors of other religions. The amount donated by Christian donors is nearly double the national average of $2,140 for all charitable households. (DonorSpeak 6/09) WIIFM? What happens to your messages when you mail too often? You change consumer behavior. First they screen you out and then they are likely to ignore you. Bottom line: you lose—because you can no longer use email to reach this audience. And consumers lose because they don’t receive relevant offers from an enterprise like doing business with. Your message has to deliver meaningful or interesting content in a timely manner that is not intrusive. It needs to answer the age-old question, WIIFM (what’s in it for me), to have a chance in today’s marketplace. Often fresh eyes like mine can find a new and engaging way to tell your story. 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com (e-Mail Insider 6/10/09) DWT Despite Driving While Texting (DWT) bans in 7 states and the District of Columbia, 25% of all mobile phone users admit to DWT, and it occurs in all age groups. Almost 60% of those ages 16 to 19 admit to DWT, and 49% of those 20 to 29 admit to it. The percentages get smaller for older respondents, but usage remains high with 13% of those in their 50s admitting to doing so. Yet, more than 83% think DWT should be illegal. (Center for Media Research Brief 6/4/09) Consumer Changes When compared to the general population, Active Christians spend nearly the same amount of time online each week. Of the general population, 43.6% spend more than 15 hours online each week vs. the 42.1% of Active Christians who spend the same amount of time online each week. (CBA Industry Brief 6/8/09) Religion Raises Click-thru The bi-annual Email Marketing Metrics Report revealed e-mails with religious or spiritual themes have the highest open and click rates compared to all other industries. Also, the top 10 most popular words used in e-mail are: news, party, newsletter, free, night, sale, com, update, holiday and week. (CBA Industry Brief 6/8/09) Massive Realignment Barna Research finds about 7% of U.S. adults attend a house church in a typical month (a 7-fold increase in the past decade). Also, about half as many people now rely upon marketplace ministries for spiritual experiences as attend a conventional church service during a given month, and millions are becoming increasingly reliant upon faith-based media—such as television, radio, and the Internet—for religious experience and expression. Put together, this represents a massive realignment of religious behavior over the past decade. (Barna Update 6/8/09) Change Catalyst Barna Research has discovered women are more likely than men to pursue their faith in a different type of structure or environment (68% vs. 59). to sense that God is motivating people to experience faith in different ways (79% vs. 60%), and to be willing try a new church (50% vs. 40%). (Barna Update 6/8/09) 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) Young People ages 6-17 who attend religious services weekly are linked to positive developmental outcomes, according to a special report entitled The National Survey of Children's Health Finds That Children and Parents of the Religious Intact Family Do Best on Child Development. These children and youth exhibit the fewest behavior problems, are more likely to have a high-quality relationship with their parents, and are more likely to exhibit positive social behavior, including showing respect for teachers and neighbors, getting along with other children, understanding other people’s feelings, and trying to resolve conflicts with classmates, family Key Life Events Asked what life events made them more open to considering matters of faith, the most common response among all ethnic groups was the Christmas holiday season (37% to 50%). The Easter holiday season was second, but among ethnic groups this was true only for non-Hispanic whites (39%). Rather than Easter, Hispanics (41%), African Americans (46%) and mixed/other ethnicities (35%) are more open to considering matters of faith after a major national crisis such as 9/11. Asians' second most common response was after a natural disaster (39%). (LifeWay Research, Baptist Press 6/9/09) African Americans are more open than other ethnic groups to receiving information about local congregations, finds LifeWay Research African Americans, regardless of the communication channel, are at least 12 percentage points more open to receiving information than Hispanics, non-Hispanic whites, Asians and mixed/other ethnicities. (LifeWay Research, Baptist Press 6/9/09)
Americans are More Open
to conversations with friends, neighbors and family members than any
other method of communication about a church. (LifeWay Research,
Baptist Press 6/9/09) Pain of Unemployment When 1,097 Americans 45 and older were surveyed last December, 9% had lost their jobs in the past 12 months, and 31% said it is very likely their jobs will be eliminated this year, according to AARP. Baby Boomers also are out of work longer than younger Americans. In ’08, they were out of work 22 weeks on average, compared with 15 weeks for the 20- to 24-year-olds. They may find it hard to get a new job because they’ve had higher salaries; this means they may have a higher threshold before they’re willing to take another job, says Rutgers University Maria Heidkamp. . (USA Today 6/16/09) 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
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