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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 25, 2011 edition of

The FOSTER Letter—Religious Market Update

Digital Babies 92% of American children have an online presence by the time they are 2. One-third of mothers in the U.S. say they have posted pictures of their newborns online, and 34% have posted sonograms of their babies in the womb. According to a new AVG study, American mothers are more likely to post pictures of their children online than mothers in any other country. (NY Times 2/20/11) 

Abstinence Education Pays Off According to a March 2011 CDC report 27% of men and 29% of women 15–24 have never had a sexual encounter, up from 22% for both men and women in ’02. In the most recent study, based on data from 2006–08, 68% of boys and 67% of girls 15–17 have never had sexual intercourse, and 53% of boys and 58% of girls 5–17 had no sexual contact of any kind. In ’02, only 46% of boys and 49% of girls in that age range reported no experience. Yet abstinence education federal funding continues to be reduced. (Baptist Press 3/7/11)

Favor Prayer 65% of American adults favor prayer in public schools, according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey. Only 24% say they are opposed to prayer in schools. This is up from 61% a year ago. (Christian Post 2/14/11)

Fact Vs. Values Relentless repetition was once enough to drive your message home. Not anymore! Fact-based statements can be proven or disproven objectively. But the “truth” of a values-based statement hinges on agreed-upon values. Modern advertising overflows with values-based statements, e.g. “Big selection,” “High quality,” “Low prices,” “Easy credit.” Even though they may be true in the mind of the advertiser, the public has heard them all before. The left hemispheres of our brains detect and prefer fact-based statements. Today we are hype-immune and hunger for statements of fact. To persuade today’s hype-resistant customer, you must learn to make fact-based statements in your ads. NOTE: I can help you make sure your ads are not just repeating clichés but clearly delivering meaningful facts that will deliver results. All you have to do is contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. (Monday Morning Memo 9/26/05, Foster Network) 

Crises: The Key to Transformation While more than 66% of Americans say they are either “religious” or “spiritual,” they admit to not being deeply committed to faith matters. Just 18% claim to be “totally committed” to engaging in personal spiritual development. Among adults who claim to be Christian, just 14% say their faith in and relationship with God is the highest priority in their life. While 80% of U.S. adults say they are Christian, only 20% contends the single, most important decision they have ever made was to invite Jesus Christ to forgive them and become their savior. Only 22% of adults who believe they are Christian state they live in a way which makes them completely dependent upon God. Follow-up Barna research indicates such dependence only emerges in times of crisis or suffering. (Barna Online 3/17/11) 

Young Children & Media Nearly 80% of children between the ages of 0 and 5 use the Internet at least weekly in the U.S., according to a Sesame Workshop report. Based on data from 7 recent studies, young children are increasingly consuming all types of digital media, in many cases several simultaneously. TV use dwarfs Internet use in both the number of children who surf the Web and the amount of time they spend on it. In a typical week, children spend at least 3 hours a day watching TV, and TV use among preschoolers is the highest it has been in the past 8 years. Of the time kids spend on all types of media, TV accounts for 47%. Heavy TV viewing may even be partially responsible for the rising number of children who use the Internet. A ’10 Nielsen study suggests 36% of children 2 to 11 use both mediums simultaneously. Altogether, children 8 to 10 spend about 5.5 hours each day using media — 8 hours if you count the additional media consumed while multitasking. The report points out time spent in front of books remains constant even as screen time increases. About 90% of 5- to 9-year-olds who participated in a ’08 Sesame Workshop study spent at least an hour every day reading physical books. (Technology Live 3/15/11) 

Social Media Women and young people are the most active users of social media today, and women in their 30s make up more than half of heavy contributors (they engage in 6 or more social media activities), finds Social Animals: Who’s Sharing What and Why Online? by Netpop Research. Overall, 73% of Internet users contribute to online content via a variety of social media. The most active social media users are 18- to 34-year-olds (82% contributing) and women (78% vs. 66% of men). (USA Today 2/20/11) 

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) 

eMail ROI Regardless of what you may think about social and mobile marketing, there is still no better measured channel than email, and the ROI far surpasses that of traditional, more costly channels. Like it or not, email is still the foundation of communication for businesses today.  It holds the middle ground, not quite as personal as Facebook, more personal than mass advertising. (e-Mail Insider 3/3/11) 

Why We Unsubscribe 18% of email users say they never open email from companies, and 77% of all U.S. online consumers say they have become more cautious in the past year about giving their email addresses to companies. The most common reason for unsubscribing from a company’s permission-based emails is that they come too frequently. Others cite the content becoming boring or repetitive over time. Specific reasons for unsubscribing include: 54% of e-mails came too frequently, 49% say the content became repetitive or boring over time, 47% receive too many emails and needed to get off some companies’ lists, 25% say the content wasn’t relevant from the start, 24% prefer to seek out information instead of having companies push it, 22% signed up for a one-time offer, 13% say that their circumstances changed, 8% switched to another company that provided better information, and 6% found they could get the info another way. (Center for Media Research Brief 2/24/11) 

It’s About Community In these times, people are extremely anxious, unsettled, and uncertain because of massive changes introduced by social and economic forces that seem beyond our control. Your business or ministry is not really about marketing, product, net sales, or donor revenue—it’s about community. Businesses and ministries that can effectively build community with and among its audiences are the ones that will thrive. This should be in your organization’s DNA. Make me your ‘Community Consultant.’ Contact 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com.  

Preborns Name that Tune Paris Descartes Univ. scientists have found one-month-old babies remember music that was played to them in the 3rd trimester of their mothers’ pregnancies. One month after birth, infants displayed a significant heart rate change when they were exposed to the same music that was played to them before birth. Researchers concluded 3 weeks of prenatal exposure to a specific melodic contour affects infants ‘auditory processing’ or perception, i.e., impacts the autonomic nervous system at least 6 weeks later, when infants are one month old. (LifeSite News 3/9/11) 

Expiring E-Books HarperCollins Publishers has begun enforcing new restrictions on its e-books, requiring library e-books be checked out only 26 times before they expire. The policy change has galvanized librarians across the country, many of whom called the new rule unfair and vowed to boycott e-books from the publisher. HarperCollins, in its defense, points out the new policy applies to newly acquired books. They have serious concerns that their previous e-book policy (selling e-books to libraries in perpetuity) will undermine the emerging e-book ecosystem, hurt the growing e-book channel, place additional pressure on physical bookstores, and in the end lead to a decrease in book sales and author royalties. (NY Times 3/15/11) 

Smart Phones are not only toppling powerful dictators. Now some ministry leaders are getting the call to create smart phone outreach using mobile websites and bar code scanners. New Quick Response (QR) barcode technology is revolutionizing communications, and many churches are planning to incorporate the smart phone into their outreach efforts. A QR code is a matrix barcode that can be read by smart phone cameras with QR scanner apps installed. An estimated 40% of all smart phone owners have downloaded a barcode scanning app. Mobile technology experts report that during the last half of ’10, QR code scanning increased 1,200% across North America. (LifeSite News 2/8/11)  

Adventist Growth Newly released data show Seventh-Day Adventism growing by 2.5% in North America, a rapid clip when Southern Baptists and mainline denominations, as well as other church groups are declining. Adventists are even growing 75% faster than Mormons (1.4%), who prioritize numeric growth. Despite its North American roots, the church is growing more than twice as fast overseas. Just 1.1 million of the world’s 16 million Adventists are in the U.S. (The Pew Forum 3/17/11) 

Random Acts of Kindness (R.A.K.) appeal to the vast (and ever-growing) group of consumers who comprise Generation G (G for Generosity, not Greed). Disgusted with big, arrogant, sloppy, and out-of-touch institutions, fed-up consumers around the world increasingly expect businesses to be socially, ethically, and environmentally responsible: 71% of people “make it a point to buy brands from companies whose values are similar to my own.” The ‘Putting It Out There’ effect guarantees many R.A.K. recipients will share their experiences with an ever-wider audience. When done well, R.A.K. will bring unexpected glee to consumers and truly enhance a brand’s reputation. (Trendwatching.com 3/11)

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