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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

May 10, 2007 edition of

The FOSTER Letter—Religious Market Update

Transparency: Tyranny Or Triumph Changes in behavior, mass and technology all point toward an even more transparent marketplace in the near future. No longer can incompetence, below-par performance, ignored global standards, anti-social & anti-eco behavior or opaque pricing be obscured. In its place has come a transparent, fully informed marketplace, where producers have no excuse left to under perform. For example, TripAdvisor boasts more than 20 million visitors each month and has amassed close to 5 million registered users and over 7 million reviews and opinions covering 23,000 cites and 180,000 hotels. It’s not just travel: countless other sites, from epinions to Amazon, are inviting consumers to share their experiences on everything from kitchen knives to cars and from churches to bookstores. It comes down to this: in the past you could get away with not performing at your industry’s global peak, as consumers didn’t enjoy full transparency of the best, the first, the most original, the most relevant. Today, there is no excuse. They know, you know. Do not despair though; while consumers will always be more passionate about bad experiences, they will share good experiences with others, too. Let me help you insure transparency is a triumph and not a tyranny for your organization. Contact 419-238-4082, GFosterCns@rmi.net or www.GaryDFoster.com. (Trend Briefing 5/07) 

Hispanics Are Abandoning Church Several studies show Hispanics are more likely than other Americans to say they were once religious, mostly Catholic. While many former Catholics join evangelical or Pentecostal churches, recent research shows many leave church altogether. Although quite religious prior to immigrating, they find that here it is not essential for social or professional success. The Pew Hispanic Center found 8% of Hispanics have “no religion” vs. 11% of the general public. Of those, 66% had once been religious and 39% were former Catholics. The increase in the Hispanic population has meant a proliferation of churches. But even when their own churches are thriving, Hispanic ministers say most are not interested. (NY Times 4/15/07) 

Bible Raises Grades Recent studies find that students who possess high levels of Bible knowledge achieve at higher academic levels and are more likely to demonstrate positive behavior patterns than those with lower levels. The difference in GPA between students high vs. low in Bible literacy was 3.60 vs. 2.47. In a separate study the GPA difference was 3.31 versus 2.91. “These results indicate that efforts to introduce the Bible as literature courses in public schools will likely yield positive academic benefits.” The primary reason is simple. It is probably impossible to be an educated American unless one has a solid knowledge of the Bible. It is the most published and cited book not only in world’s history, but also in every single year of recorded human history. “One cannot have an adequate grasp of most of the classics of literature and American history without an impressive knowledge of the Bible,” cites William Jeynes, a Baylor Univ. non-resident and Cal. State Univ. prof. (Religion News Service 4/24/07) 

Barna Research parenting and child development studies reveal that by age 23 an average American will have been exposed to more than 30,000 acts of violence via TV, movies and video games. He will have viewed thousands of hours of pornographic images, which diminish the dignity and value of human life, plus listened to hundreds of hours of music that fosters anger, hatred, disrespect for authority, selfishness and radical independence. 20-somethings’ typical worldview promotes self-centeredness, the right to happiness and fulfillment, the importance of personal expression in all forms, the necessity of tolerating aberrant or immoral points of views; allows for disrespect of other people and use of profanity; and advances forms of generic spirituality that dismiss the validity of the Judeo-Christian faith. Their typical worldview doesn’t facilitate respect for life, acceptance of the rule of law, or the necessity of hard work, personal sacrifice, paying the dues or contributing to the common good. (Barna Update 4/23/07) 

Alternadads is the lifestyle label for ’90s hipsters who grow up and  have families but stay trendy by dressing their babies in Black Sabbath T-shirts instead of baby-blue onesies. They even have their own online magazine, http://www.babble.com. (Outreach 5/07) 

Kids With Religious Parents are better behaved and adjusted than other children, finds a new Mississippi State University study. Kids whose parents regularly attended religious services (especially when both parents did so frequently) and talked with their kids about religion were rated by both parents and teachers as having better self-control, social skills and approaches to learning than kids with non-religious parents. But when parents argued frequently about religion, the children were more likely to have problems. (Live Science 4/24/07) 

Sales & Management Gap More than half of U.S. companies say fewer than 50% of their salespeople make their quota, according to TAS Index Global Sales Effectiveness Benchmark Study 2007. While 72% of sales managers believe their sales process is well-defined, just 50% of sales reps agree. 48% of managers think they spend time coaching (not chasing the reps for updates), but only 34% of reps agree. 58% of reps believe they close deals as originally forecasted, but only 46% of managers agree. (Customer Relationship Management 5/07) 

Streamies TV has its couch potatoes, and now the Internet has “streamies,” a new term for distinguishing and tracking heavy users of streamed video and audio content. They spend far more time online than the average Internet user. Knowledge Networks/SRI’s MultiMedia Mentor tracks the way average consumers consume media. Streamies are most likely to be younger demos. 43% of boys and 40% of girls ages 12 -17 qualify as streamies vs. 36% of men and 16% of women 18-34, and only 21% of men and 11% of women 35 to 64. Teen streamies spend 28% more time, young adult streamies spend 41% more time and older adult streamies spend 67% more time online than their non-streamie counterparts. Surprisingly, they are not doing this at the expense of other media, but simply using the Internet to consume more audio and video content at times and in places when they cannot access conventional offline media. Much of their access occurs during the day when consumers are at work or school. Adult users, for example, may be consuming business related content. (Media Daily News 4/30/07) 

Gen Y Prefers Simple Outlaw Consulting, a San Francisco research firm, claims Generation Y trendsetters are more drawn to brands that speak to them in a straightforward and stripped-down way, use plain packaging, and avoid excess. The bottom line: any company that is inconvenient or confusing, or that uses over-designed imagery, is seen as out of touch and too “corporate.” (Marketing Daily 4/20/07) 

First Time Married Couples who attend worship, even if only several times a year, have a 10% to 31% lower risk of divorce than those who never attend, claims Statistics Canada. The data published in Canadian Social Trends also says choosing not to live together before marriage, avoiding teen marriage, and accepting children are critical to lowering risk of divorce. (Religion Watch 4/10/07) 

The Best Actions to combat brand deterioration are product innovation, refocusing marketing efforts on growth, exploring new targets, analyzing the root cause of the deterioration and completing a deep qualitative study on brand issues. I can bring objectivity to your brand issues. Contact 419-238-4082, GFosterCns@rmi.net or www.GaryDFoster.com. (Advertising Age 4/25/07) 

Media Industry Threat According Accenture research, media and entertainment executives see the ability and eagerness of individuals to create their own content as one of their biggest business threats. 57% identified the rapid growth of user-generated content (amateur digital videos, podcasts, cell phone photography, wikis and social-media blogs) among their top challenges today. (Research Brief 4/30/07) 

Campus Fervor On secular campuses across the country, professors and administrators say students are drawn to religion and spirituality with more fervor than at any time they can remember. More students are enrolling in religion courses, even majoring in religion; more are living in dorms or houses where matters of faith and spirituality are a part of daily conversation; and discussion groups are being created for students to grapple with questions like what happens after death, finds UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute study. The survey reports 66% of students pray and 80% believe in God. Nearly 50% of the freshmen are seeking opportunities to grow spiritually. Officials credit the surge of interest partly as a result of the rise of the religious right, 9/11 and an influx of evangelical students at secular universities, along with an increasing number of international students with a broader array of religious experiences. Ed Note: This helps explain why 44,000 students attended the Urbana and Passion conferences at the end of ‘06. (NY Times 5/2/07) 

Gospel Music Channel (GMC) and Black Family Channel (BFC) have made an agreement that will make GMC available in the nation’s 10 largest markets. GMC is the first 24-hour, all music entertainment network devoted to the uplifting, inspiring and diverse music that is gospel/Christian. (Christian Post 5/2/07) 

Chris Tomlin was awarded Artist of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year at GMA’s ’07 Dove Awards, while Aaron Shust won Song of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, and New Artist of the Year. Among the other top winners were Casting Crowns (Group of the Year), Natalie Grant (Female Vocalist of the Year), Jars of Clay (Music Video of the Year), and Ed Cash (Producer of the Year). (Various Sources) 

Religious Book Sales increased 31.8% in February, with sales totaling $39.5 million, according to the AAP. Sales are up 33% for the year, a significant turnaround for the category that was down 10.2% in ’06. (Christian E-tailing 4/26/07)

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