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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

March 10, 2009 edition of

The FOSTER Letter—Religious Market Update

Tweens, the age 8-to-12 set, now number about 20 million strong and are projected to hit almost 23 million by 2020. Psychologists and behavioral researchers say they are a complicated lot, still forming their personalities and torn between family and fitting in and learning how to be an individual. Research has shown middle school is where some troubles, particularly academic, first appear. Prevention Science reports the percentage of children who use alcohol doubles between 4th and 6th grades; the largest jump comes between 5th and 6th grades. 70% consider Mom and/or Dad to be among their best friends.  82% and 69% regularly watch Nickelodeon and Disney respectively, and 92% play outside. (USA Today 2/4/09) 

Tech Gap Although all Americans (young and old) benefit from technology, the generational divide brought on by digital tools is significant. Each successive generation is adopting and using technology at a significantly greater pace than their predecessors. America’s two youngest generations (Mosaics and Busters) are significantly more likely than the two oldest cohorts (Boomers and Elders) to say a lifestyle on the cutting edge of technology is desirable. All Americans are increasingly dependent on new digital technologies to acquire entertainment, products, content, information and stimulation. However, older adults tend to use it for information and convenience. Younger adults rely on it to facilitate their search for meaning and connection. These technologies have begun to rewire the ways in which people (especially the young) meet, express themselves, use content and stay connected. (Barna Update 2/23/09) 

Parenting Guidance 60% of U.S. parents heavily rely on their own experiences growing up for parenting guidance vs. just 20% that receive a lot of guidance from the Bible or other sacred text, finds a LifeWay Research study. Just 15% look to church as a source of parenting guidance. 96% of parents consistently try to be better parents, but more than 60% completely ignore parenting seminars, and over half don’t care for books by religious parenting experts. A mere 14% are familiar with biblical teachings on parenting. Among Christian parents, those with evangelical beliefs are more familiar than Protestant parents on biblical parenting advice, 52% to 27%. Only 7% percent of Catholic parents are very familiar with biblical advice about parenting. 70% of home environments are claimed to be supporting, positive, encouraging and active. 50% are not peaceful nor relaxed, while 40% aren’t joyful. 57% of parents usually eat dinner together with their families every day, and 45% watch TV together each day. 53% of parents pray together at least once monthly, and 31% have religious devotionals or studies together at least monthly. Over 80% of parents say they have an excellent family life, but 30% rate their family’s spiritual life as only fair or poor. 92% of parents say they need encouragement, but 38% who attend religious worship services weekly say they do not receive any encouragement from reading the Bible, and 24% report not being encouraged from church.  (Christian Post 2/27/09) 

Marketing Rules Change The buying mode and mood of the general public has moved from Intuitive and Feeling (NF, right brain/right brain, pattern recognition) to Sensing and Thinking (ST, left brain/left brain, sequential reasoning.) Consumers have begun buying with their heads instead of their hearts. Ads today should be direct, clear and concise. Clarity is more important than creativity, but it’s also more difficult to achieve. I can help. Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. (Monday Morning Wizard of Ads 2/23/09) 

Scripture Memory Legacy A study of adults who had spent at least 6 years in Awana when they were growing up reveals 90% remained faithful to the things of God or faithful in church and are still active in their faith, including sharing Christ with others. (OneNewsNow 2/28/09) 

Senior Market The Census Bureau reports that between ’05 and ’30, the number of seniors will grow to over 95 million and control over 70% of disposable income. This is a group that deserves specialized attention from marketers. Try these tips: • They are often on a fixed income and may need a bit more incentive to act. Test and track special offers. • Is your font large enough to be easily read? Are you ensuring your calls to action are obvious, in plain sight, not diminished by overly stylized creativity? Are you using age-appropriate images? • Is the process intuitive, transparent and simple? • Give them offline purchasing channel options: toll-free numbers, in-store coupons, etc. • Give them a toll-free number to call for help. Allow them to engage with you in their channel of preference. • Establish credibility and respect. If they don’t know you, trust you or like you, they won’t do business with you or refer you to others. • Stick to the facts. Be transparent in your dealings and don’t over-hype. (E-Mail Insider 2/1/09) 

Advantage Women? A CBS news poll asked, “In our society, are there more advantages in being a man or being a woman, or are there no more advantages to being one or the other?” 52% of Americans responded, “No advantage to either one." 40% said men have an advantage, 6% said women are at an advantage, and 1% had no opinion. (AdWeek Media 2/16/09) 

Gender Difference When women are unemployed and looking for a job, the time they spend daily taking care of children nearly doubles. Unemployed men’s child care duties, by contrast, are virtually identical to those of their working counterparts, and they instead spend more time sleeping, watching TV and looking for a job, along with other domestic activities. (NY Times 2/6/09) 

Relevance is what determines whether an ad works or not. Every media fails when it delivers a message no one cares about. Let me help ensure your ads are relevant to your target audience. Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. 

Expert Generally, about 10,000 hours need to be invested to reach the expert level. (Malcom Gladwell, Outliers, Little Brown and Co., 2008) 

Marketing Hit An Association of National Advertisers study shows more companies are identifying marketing cost-savings and reductions (93% vs. 87% six months ago), and 37% plan to reduce budgets by more than 20% compared to just 21 % previously. The top 5 areas where marketers plan to reduce costs or expenditures in marketing and advertising are: Travel and expense restrictions (87% vs. 63% in 9/08), reducing ad media budgets (77% vs. 69%), reducing ad campaign budgets (72% vs. 63%), challenging agencies to reduce expenses (68% vs. 63%) eliminating or delaying new projects (58% vs. 61%), salary or hiring freezes (57% vs. 45%) and looking at reducing agency compensation (48% vs. 32%). 71% have decreased both marketing and advertising budgets. (Center for Media Research Brief 2/19/09) 

Thomas Nelson will provide buyers of selected hardcover books with access to an MP3 audiobook version and several types of ebook files (including ePub, MobiPocket and PDF) at no extra charge under their NelsonFree program. After readers purchase a book with the NelsonFree logo, they will be directed to a website where they must register. Once approved, they are able to download the files. They plan 12 titles for the program in ’09. CEO Michael Hyatt said, “I believe that the industry is shifting, and we as publishers need to explore new methods of getting our content into the hands of customers…It will enhance their literary experience and allow greater employment of the content without breaking the bank."  (Publisher’s Lunch 3/3/09) 

Depression The World Health Organization expects depression to become the #1 cause of disability worldwide in the next 10 years. In the U.S., 5-10% of adults currently experience symptoms of depression, and up 25% do during their lifetime, making it one of the most common conditions treated by primary care physicians. At any given time, around 15% of American adults are taking antidepressant meds. Studies of all types of religious groups find no evidence these people’s rates of depression differ from non-religious people. So, in a typical congregation of 200 adults, 50 will experience depression at some point, and at least 30 are currently taking antidepressants. (Christianity Today 3/09)  

Church Giving A recent survey of pastors and church leaders by generosity expert Brian Kluth finds 46.9% of churches reported a giving increase during ’08, while 29.3% were down and 23.8% were flat. So far, ’09 giving is behind in 51.6% of churches, 37.8% are meeting budget and 10.6% are ahead. 69.5% of pastors definitely plan to preach a sermon or series on finances and/or generosity in ’09. (Kluth.org 3/2/09) 

Household Debt declined in ’08 nearly 1%, the first such shrinkage recorded. Credit card balances are shrinking as well. Reuters reported in November, “Consumer spending excluding autos fell 3.8% last month on a seasonally adjusted basis, steeper than the 1.5% decline in October.” Charles Schwab reported in December that American families increased their savings to 3.6%, up from almost zero in ’07. (ChristianityTodayOnline 3/2/09)

Wired Moms There are 35.3 million moms online with children under the age of 18—a number projected to reach 36.9 million by ’12. There are only about 40 million moms total with children that age across the U.S. Of the 36.2 million women actively participating in the blogosphere weekly, as either publishers or readers, 46% —or just over 16.5 million—have children at home. 67% of moms online look for help making a purchasing decision. 78% of moms who blog review products. (Media Post 3/4/09) 

An Informed Objective Opinion As a professional Christian Market Channel authority, my input in the early development and planning stages of new product or business/ministry strategy can spell the difference between mediocre and out-of-the park success. Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. 

Teens Still Spend An Arbitron study of teens ages 14 to 17 in U.S. malls finds they are still coming an average of 5 times a month, spending about 2 hours each trip and visiting 5 stores. They are spending about $150 per month on their mall sojourns, with about half coming from their own earnings and half from Mom and Dad. 14% usually go to the mall alone, while 27% shop with at least 4 people or more. Only 17% usually shop with their parents. Although they go mainly to hang out, nearly 80% who say went to the mall to see friends end up making a purchase. (Media Post 2/27/09) 

Aging Out Each year, approximately 20,000 18-year olds in the foster care system are released into society. According to the University of Chicago, less than two-thirds of them have completed high school. Many don’t have jobs. And their rates of arrest, health problems and welfare dependency are far higher than the population as a whole. (Religion & Ethics Newsletter  2/26/09) 

Harmful Music Pittsburgh Univ. School of Medicine researchers have found teenagers who regularly listen to music with explicit and aggressive sexual phrases are twice as likely to be engaged in sexual activity vs. those who avoided such music. 9th graders with the most exposure are more than twice as likely to have had sexual intercourse. (LifeSite News 2/25/09) 

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