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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 25, 2009 edition of

The FOSTER Letter—Religious Market Update 

New Frugal At least 80% of all generations believe “living within your means” is the most important lesson to pass to the next generation. This is a change from ’08, when Age Wave posed this question in a study conducted for Charles Schwab before the economic meltdown. Back then, only 63% of Millennials and about 75% of the other generations felt that way. Marketers, think about how your products or services can help consumers “spend less and live smarter.” Responsible consumerism is here to stay. (Boomer Project 5/7/09) 

Beyond the Call Business consultant Paul Herr insists the best corporations are like an ant colony or beehive. These super-organisms function with little hierarchy and a great deal of cooperation. Truly successful organizations can mimic this behavior by working in harmony with human nature, which is driven by emotions. Companies that ignore their employees’ natural emotions will have low employee engagement. High employee engagement is achieved by targeting people’s natural social appetites. People are innately attracted to opportunities to innovate, demonstrate their competence and deploy their skills. In his new book, Primal Management, Herr says “you can’t expect your employees to go beyond the call of duty for you if you are not prepared to do the same for them.” (Primal Management by Paul Herr, AMACOM, 2009) 

Where do People Check their E-Mail? 67% do so in bed in their pajamas, 59% in the bathroom, 50% while driving, 39% in a bar or club, 38% in a business meeting, 34% at Happy Hour and 15% in church. (Outreach 1-2/09) 

Licensing Opportunities Does this growing strategy hold increased revenue opportunities for you? Let me help you find out. If proven viable, I can help you strategically maximize it. Contact 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com.  

State of the Industry CBA’s 2008 State of the Industry report shows net sales down 10.75% from ’07. Yet, nearly a third of participating stores reported ’08 sales increases, with a surprising 6.8% of all respondents reporting jumps of more than 20%. 61.5% indicated annual sales declines. While 54 new Christian stores opened in ’08, at least 91 closed, leaving a net channel decrease of 37 stores. Formal training and established church-relations programs appear to be success-contributors for stores reporting increases. Contact CBA for the complete report. (CBA’s 2008 State of the Industry Report 5/14/09) 

Unaffiliated Adults make up 16% of the population. Among those raised unaffiliated—a category that includes agnostics, atheists and those who don’t identify with any religion—only 46% remain unaffiliated. This retention rate is far lower than Protestants (80% of whom remain Protestants) and Catholics (68% of whom remain Catholic). (Baptist Press 4/27/09)

Coupons American families are extremely value-focused and eager to stretch their buying power. An Information Resources Inc. study on trends shows 78% of retail shoppers currently use newspaper coupons, with nearly 1 out of every 4 of the newspaper coupon-clippers likely to be at least 65 years old. It also revealed that nearly 4 out of every 10 shoppers would be very likely to use coupons accessed online. (Center for Media Research Brief 4/10/09) 

Its Attitude When filling a senior-level position, it is often not hard to find candidates with the right experience–in today’s job market, there are many competent executives available. However, having the right experience and skills does not guarantee success in a particular position. In fact, the largest reason anyone fails in a job is not ability—it’s attitude. (Engage, Bruce Dingman, The Dingman Company, Spring ’09) 

Business Intelligence Any small business owner knows that competition is tough, but he or she may not be able to pinpoint exactly what changes are needed in order to get to the top. “Business as usual” may no longer suffice. How can small businesses identify noteworthy trends and make better decisions faster? Many answers already reside in a business’s customer data. I can help you discover, analyze and act on that data. Gary@garydfoster.com, www.garydfoster.com or 419-238-4082. (Small Business Computing 4/11/06) 

Reverts The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life asked the 54% of U.S. adults who were raised unaffiliated but later joined a religion why they left their childhood beliefs. They could give as many answers as they felt necessary. Their leading answers were: Their spiritual needs were not being met (51%), they found a religion they liked more (46%), they married someone from a different faith (23%), they moved to a new community (15%), and someone they were close to passed away (10%). Among those no longer unaffiliated, 22% are now members of evangelical churches, 13% mainline churches, 6% Catholic churches, 4% black churches and 9% another religion. (Baptist Press 4/27/09) 

Working Women Over the past 100 years, the percentage of women in the American workforce grew from 15% to 73%; although for most of the world, the percentage of women in the workforce is around 25%. Although the earnings gap between males and females has narrowed since ’80, as of ’08 women in American are paid 78¢ for every dollar a male receives for the same job. (Christian Leadership Alliance newsletter 4/27/09) 

Cash for Grads 58.9% of Americans who will buy for graduates will give cash, up from 56.8% last year. 29.4% will give gift cards vs. 32.2% last year. (Inspirational Gift Trends 5/20/09) 

Book Jacket Copy is the second most important book purchase factor (after favorite author), finds a Publisher Trends study conducted by Codex Group. It is especially important for fiction. Title and cover impact are closely related to the impact of jacket copy. If the copy defies the expectation created by the cover and title, readers are less likely to buy it. Making absolutely clear what makes the book special is the most important task of cover copy. Women most care for “detailed narrative of the story that reflects the book’s atmosphere without spoiling its plot (34%).” Men most want “detailed description of the topic and key plot elements of the book (22%).” The job of writing jacket copy shouldn’t be foisted off on editorial assistants or interns. (Publishing Trends 5/09) 

Fewer Land Lines For the first time, during the last of half of ’08, the number of U.S. households opting for cell phones only outnumber those with only traditional landlines (20% vs. 17%). 15% have both, while 2% have no phones at all. (USA Today 5/6/09) 

Think Outside the Box Tyranny of the urgent results in costly mistakes, squandered resources and lost opportunities. I can bring you a fresh set of eyes that will help uncover the less obvious solutions. Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com.  

A Seventeen Magazine Study finds 53% of teens’ parents give them spending money regularly. Only 25% said parents are giving them less than they did in ’08. 75% are getting more or the same amount as last year, and over half are working. 40% said the economy’s downturn has affected them through receiving less money, having an unemployed parent, losing their own job or having their own working hours cut. Still, most won’t give up cell phones or clothing, no matter how bad things get. 55% said they are waiting for things to go on sale prior to purchase; 50% are making fewer impulse purchases; 42% are doing more comparison shopping, 35% are staying with their favorite brands and 31% are shopping at less expensive stores. 79% are saving money; mostly for clothing and/or college. (Marketing Daily 5/6/09) 

Expectations 43% of college students expect a starting salary of less than $45,000 with an average starting salary expectation of $52,400 across all college students, far below starting salaries offered to grads over the past decade. Whether caused by dimmer prospects or a shunning of material desires, collegians are shifting away from financial compensation as a career motivator. Less materialistic concepts such as “personal satisfaction” (mentioned by 43%) and “experience gained” (mentioned by 22%) are seen as more important than “money,” which ranked as the third most-mentioned motivator (mentioned by 16%). (Engage Gen-Y 5/15/09) 

Losing Luster A new study finds consumers are losing their enthusiasm for Internet shopping, and customer satisfaction with e-tail is down 3% from ’08. The fifth annual customer service ranking from ForeSee Results finds the average satisfaction level of the top 100 e-commerce sites slipped to 73 out of 100, with more than half of the sites registering decreases in customer satisfaction. Only 20% showed any gains. Part of the waning satisfaction comes from higher expectations, says ForeSee’s CEO Larry Freed. “You don’t go into a restaurant or department store every year and expect it to be better than last year. But shoppers do expect a certain amount of innovation from Web sites.” Over the years, there have been plenty of things that enhanced online shopping, but innovation is currently in a plateau. A second factor is the economy. Sites that gained tended to be brick-and-mortar retailers.  (Media Post 5/11/09) 

Spirituality 81% of U.S. self-identified Christians equate spiritual maturity with “trying hard to follow the rules described in the Bible.” Church leaders believe the 3 primary obstacles to people’s spiritual engagement are lack of personal motivation (32%), other competing obligations and distractions (26%), and lack of involvement in activities that nurture growth (19%).  Born-again Christians identify distractions (24%), lack of motivation (20%), and lack of involvement (13%) as their greatest challenges to spiritual engagement. Interestingly, 54% of adults say they are “completely” or “mostly” healthy when it comes to spirituality; while 65% describe themselves as “completely” or “mostly” satisfied with their spirituality. (Barna Update 5/11/09) 

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