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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

October 25, 2007 edition of

The FOSTER Letter—Religious Market Update

The First Green Bible will soon be released by Thomas Nelson Inc. Nelson’s paper manufacturer, Domtar, developed a new environmentally responsible grade of paper, specially suited for the lightweight paper requirements of Bible paper. (Rush to Press 10/15/07) 

Girls Today are fixating on their flaws, causing them to belittle themselves and even take destructive action. The onslaught of messages and images they constantly receive sets an unrealistic standard of beauty. More than 4 in 10 girls and young women only see their flaws when they look in the mirror. 93% report feeling anxiety or stress about some aspect of their looks when getting ready in the morning. (CNNMoney.com 10/2/07) 

Customer/Donor Loyalty According to the 2006 1 to 1 Customer Loyalty Survey, 87% of corporate executives say their companies understand loyalty is driven by the overall customer experience created, yet only 38% have a system in place to identify the experiences that are most important to loyal customers or donors. Do not put it off if you want to close the gap between customer expectations and delivery. I can help you make customer/donor loyalty the center of your corporate strategy. Contact 419-238-4082, gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. 

What Teens Look for in a Church When seeking a church 42% of American say it is very important to them “to better understand what I believe.” Other important things they look for in a church include spending time with close friends (34%); being encouraged or inspired (34%); and volunteering to help others (30%). Expectations teens prioritized as less important were learning about prayer (26%); listening to religious teaching (26%); participating in discussions about religion and faith (23%); being mentored in spiritual development (21%); discovering the traditions of their faith (20%); participating in a study about faith (19%); and studying the Bible (18%). 39% of teens prefer a church that teaches how their faith should influence everyday decisions and lifestyle. (Barna Group 10/8/07) 

Church Shopping Online Church consultant Tom Bandy says that as tools for reaching potential worshipers, church Web sites are growing in number and getting more sophisticated. One sign: 5 years ago, churches made up only 5% of clientele for StreamGuys, an Arcadia, CA based provider of streaming audio and video services. Today, churches represent more than 20% of the company's business. 82% of churches with more than 200 worship attendees have websites, vs. 29% of those with fewer than 100 found a 2006 Ellison Research survey. Efforts to leverage the Web for recruitment are paying off for congregations, says Hartford Seminary’s Scott Thumma, who says church shoppers increasingly make the process a largely online experience. “I hear from people in churches that they’re constantly running into folks who say, ‘I saw your website. Now I’m here.’” (USA Today 10/16/07) 

Marital Strife and other bad personal relationships can raise your risk for heart disease. What it likely boils down to is stress, a well-known contributor to health problems, as well as a potential byproduct of troubled relationships, claims a UK study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Those with the worst close relationships were 34% more likely to have heart attacks or other heart trouble during 12 years of follow-up than those with good relationships. That included partners, close relatives and friends. (CNN.com 10/9/07) 

Who Really Wins? A New York Times examination of lottery documents, as well as interviews with lottery administrators and analysts, finds that lotteries accounted for less than 1% to 5% of the total revenue for K-12 education last year in the 23 states that use lottery money for schools. Most of the money raised by lotteries is used to sustain the games themselves. And as they compete for a small number of core players and try to persuade occasional customers to play more, nearly every state has increased, or is considering increasing, the size of its prizes, further shrinking the share of each dollar going to education and other programs. (NY Times 10/7/07) 

Mel Gibson has been named the “most powerful Christian” in Hollywood by Beliefnet. Clout is defined as a celebrity who has the sway to choose their career direction, while keeping their faith and even injecting it into their work in subtle or not-so-subtle ways. Denzel Washington and Patricia Heaton were dubbed the 2^nd and 3^rd most powerful. (The Christian Post 10/17/07) 

Christian Product to Market I can help you craft a cost- effective marketing plan for any Christian market channel: trade, institutional, church or consumer direct. Contact 419-238-4082, gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. 

Contributions to U.S. churches in ’05 (most recent data available) were 2.58% of members’ income vs. 2.56% in ’04 according to empty tomb. Giving to “church, other religious organizations” accounted for 72% of funds directed to charity. The under-25 age group gave 87% of their donations to churches, which may indicate that religious teachings form philanthropic values in the U.S. For each dollar donated to a congregation, denominations spent 2.2¢ on international missions in ’05, down from 7¢ in the ’20s.  The study’s authors, John and Sylvia Ronsvalle, say evangelical Christians could complete the task of global evangelization for 7¢ per member per day. (Baptist Press 10/12/07) 

Cohabitors who never marry have 78% less wealth than the continuously married; cohabitors who have been divorced or widowed once have 68% less wealth (Cohabitation Facts website).
 

Children @ Risk Compared to children of married biological parents, children age 12-17 with cohabiting parents are 6 times more likely to exhibit emotional and behavioral problems. Likewise, adolescents from cohabiting households are 122% more likely to be expelled from school and 90% more likely to have a low GPA. (New Oxford Review 9/07) 

Canadian Marriages While fewer Canadians are getting married, it remains the single most common foundation on which Canadians build a family. According to the ’06 census, there is a married couple living in nearly 70% of all families. Even so, common-law and same-sex couples are on the rise, with the number of same-sex couples growing by 32.6% since ’01, 5 times the pace of opposite-sex couples. (Leadership Network Advance 10/9/07) 

Ads Ads Ads It’s not easy being a consumer. Current estimates indicate the average urban dweller is exposed to between 3,000 and 5,000 advertising messages every day. That means, settling on the middle number, that every waking hour you’re presented with an ad every 14.4 seconds. That’s 14.4 seconds of every minute of every day you’re alive. The frequency of this advertising barrage has doubled in the past 30 years. (Search Insider 10/11/07) 

 “Mom and Dad” as well as “husband and wife” have been banned from California schools under a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who with his signature also ordered public schools to allow boys to use girls’ restrooms and locker rooms, and vice versa. (WorldNet Daily 10/15/07) 

Teens Learning in Church A Barna study finds 65% of U.S. teens recall learning about moral and ethical standards in the last 12 months; 62% relationships, 55% faith traditions and 50% personal evangelism. Fewer recall church teachings on media, movies and TV within the last year (35%); money and finances (30%); the supernatural world (28%); leisure activities (27%); government and law (26%); art and music (22%); health issues (21%); and technology (9%). 26% of teens and 39% of born-again Christian teens say they learned something about their faith or spirituality online in the last 6 months. 16 % of teens and 25% of born-again teens said they had “a spiritual experience” online where they worshipped or connected with God. (Barna Group 10/8/07) 

Business Elite A new Ipsos Media poll reports the average American elite business leader is male, aged 51, earns $408,000 per year, and has a personal net worth of $1.7 million. As a group, they garner a total combined annual income of $246 billion with combined personal net worth valued at over $1 trillion. A significantly powerful and affluent group, these individuals are highly educated, motivated, and are eager to acquire new knowledge and quality information. Interestingly, more than half said money was not their key motivation, rather quality of life was a high priority amongst the business elite. These 630,000 senior business executives represent over 72,000 companies, responsible for over $1.7 trillion in annual expenditures, a figure greater than the gross domestic product of Italy, or that of Russia and Australia combined, and look after the interests of 144 million employees, approximately two thirds of the US workforce, or half the nation’s adult population. (Center for Media Research Briefing 10/9/07) 

Viral Marketing isn’t that infectious after all. At least that’s the conclusion of Bringing the Message to the Masses, a new JupiterResearch report that reveals that only 15% of viral marketing efforts of the past year actually succeeded in getting consumers to spread positive word of mouth. One of the conclusions reached by researchers after taking a close look at the mechanics of social networks and customers connecting with other customers is that it is a lot harder to generate positive word-of-mouth among consumers than most marketers believe. (1 to 1 Weekly 10/15/07) 

Porn @ Work Wireless Internet access devices appear to be giving the porn-at-work phenomenon a boost even as employers are more aggressive about using blocking software. About 65% of U.S. companies used such software in ’05, finds an American Management Association survey, up from 40% in ’01. When it comes to portable devices, employers can use blocking software if they have provided the equipment to workers. However, there is little they can do if employees have their own BlackBerrys or other devices. Some employers have begun restricting the use of employee-owned laptops or cellphones during work time. A growing number of lawsuits have been filed by workers who say they’ve felt harassed by others’ viewing of porn on the job. And a few lawsuits have been filed by workers who believe they were disciplined unfairly for visiting porn sites on company time. About 1 in 4 U.S. companies has fired an employee for misusing the Internet. (USA Today 10/18/07)

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