Church Marketing via Doughnuts?
Posted by nathan on 21 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Communications
The following in an excerpt (a complete ‘chapter,’ actually) from Seth Godin’s Small is the New Big:
Today’s New York Times reports that the Radiant Church in Surprise, Arizona spends $16,000 a year on Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
The health risks aside, this is smart marketing. (And is there anything wrong with a church doing marketing? Churches have always done marketing.)
Marketing doesn’t mean advertising.
What are you doing to aid your church in marketing? Even a smile is marketing. Do you smile?
ADDENDUM: not smiling is marketing, too!
6 Comments »
on 22 Jun 2007 at 10:38 am 1.
Todd Helmkamp said …
$16,000 on doughnuts?
That’s ridiculous.
I refuse to believe that spending that kind of money on snacks is changing lives (or getting the message of the Gospel of Christ to those who most need to hear it!).
Four years ago, before I began following Christ, I never would have considered entering a church, even if they were the coolest thing around.
The only people most churches are marketing to now are church hoppers.
on 22 Jun 2007 at 10:59 am 2.
nathan said …
a church markets no matter what they do. You market if you refuse to give doughnuts out. You market when you tell people–and some actually say this to guests–’You aren’t welcome here.’ You market when you smile. You market when you don’t smile. You market when you have a run-down building. You market when you charge people an entrance fee. You market when you don’t sweep your carpets. You market when you force people to sit on metal chairs. You market when you wear nice clothes. You market when you wear shorts.
Bottom line: it’s impossible to not market. I think perhaps you are confusing a church’s actions as advertising instead of marketing. You will never, never, never find a church that doesn’t do some form of marketing.
A church’s meeting location is marketing, so if a church meets anywhere, it is a form of marketing.
marketing doesn’t mean advertising.
on 22 Jun 2007 at 1:32 pm 3.
Emily said …
I’ve tried to write this response about 3 times and I just get off the subject and have this long drawn out response, so I’m going to try this again…this time in bullet points:
-good point–advertising and marketing are not the same, despite what I’ve always thought
-people are not all the same, what works for one person, doesn’t work for another…hence demographics (business world marketing term from college :))
-There’s nothing wrong with making a church appealing…is it wrong for me to put make up on in the a.m. or keep myself clean?? Am I trying to deceive people into liking me or accepting me…or do I just care enough about myself and my job to make myself presentable to those I work with on a daily basis?
-I think there is a lot of value in winning people to Christ…and just because doughnuts would probably not have been a factor for me in winning me over to Christ…I believe it could be a factor…maybe not THE factor…but A factor…(let’s say I’m a non-believer searching for a church…I go to the church down the street…good teaching, good musice…but no one says hi or seems to care…so I try another church…good teaching, good music, people seem to care…they smile, someone greets me at the door and takes me to a table to offer me a doughnut…WOW…this church spent lots of money on doughnuts and they seem to care enough about me to offer me, a visitor, a doughnut…someone cares…maybe I’ll come back next week…and somewhere down the road, I give my life to Christ)How much is one soul for Christ worth? Can we put a price on a soul? Is $16,000 a year too much?
To put that in perspective…that’s 51 dozen doughnuts a week (assuming $6 a dozen) that’s about $300 a week in doughnuts…for a church of 300 people, that’s probably a little extreme…but a church of 2000? If each member of that church gave 15 cents a week in offering designated specifically for the “hospitality” ministry, that would pay for their $16000 a year in doughnuts.
Okay, so this still drug on and went off on a tangent…but I think I’ve said what I really wanted to say.
on 27 Jun 2007 at 8:36 am 4.
Todd Helmkamp said …
Hmmm. Nathan, I believe you’re right; I have been confusing marketing with advertising (as I understand the terms). Could you explain what you mean a bit more? That puts a different spin on things…
on 27 Jun 2007 at 9:17 am 5.
nathan said …
you bet.
Advertising is putting up a billboard (or running TV ads) saying ‘Come to Radient Church and get free doughnuts’
in this case, the ‘product’ is doughnuts, not God or Jesus or even church–they are advertising doughnuts.
Marketing is offering people a product on their terms, not ours. Doughnuts (or coffee) is a marketing tool which culture relates to. (Krispy Kreme especially so several years ago when that article appeared in the paper a few years ago.) our ‘product’ (in marketing terms) is Jesus, and helping people find Jesus on their terms, not ours, is why i believe marketing is important. doughnuts and coffee are simply tools to help some people feel comfortable in a strange setting. (church is a pretty scary place the first time!)
Marketing is switching the language of church service from Latin to the vernacular. Who wants to go to church and not understand anything? Marketing is using a translation which is vernacular of today, not vernacular of 400 years ago.
Those are certainly not advertising.
And, for what it’s worth, Radiant Church spent $0.02 per year on each attendee who attends each weekend. (15,000 weekend attendance).
that is way less than a church spends on toilet paper!
on 29 Jun 2007 at 12:00 pm 6.
Todd Helmkamp said …
That does change things considerably. Thanks for bringing that up!
P.S. I wonder how much they spend per person on T.P….