Blog Series Recap: Movement Marketing

by Tyler Zach

In review, this is the full series of articles that I wrote on spiritual Movement Marketing - specifically looking through the lens of connecting with the lost.

The content in these articles was gleaned and contextualized from the book "Movement Marketing" by Richard Reising.

1) Movement Marketing: Is your campus movement connecting with the lost?

2) Perceiving Their Perception: How do the lost really view our movements on campus?

3) Levels of Commitment: Are our movements relevant to each level of commitment within our community?

4) Lostobstacles: What are some obstacles that keep the lost away from our movement?

5) Does Your Movement Slap People? How can our movements be more relevant to people at all spiritual levels?

6) Nailing the Perceived Need: Learning from Nike

7) Creating An Experience: Learning from Starbucks

8) Multiple Movements: Learning from the Gap

9) Before A Sweet Logo: Branding Your Movement

Before A Sweet Logo: Branding Your Movement

by Tyler Zach

Branding Tips To Help Your Movement Connect With The Lost

“Branding is a dynamic weapon used to affect perception. If you can grasp that marketing is the management of perception, then it should be easy to understand that branding is, in simple terms, the use of defined consistency to affect perception over time. Branding is not just a design. It is not a logo. It is not a letterhead. It is the sum perception you create in the mind of those with whom you are trying to connect.” (Church Marketing 101 pg 160)

If your movement can be pictured like a ship, then your brand is what others think about your ship when it passes by or when they come on board. Branding then, is creating a defined sense of self in the ship’s appearance and communication. In regards to your movement, branding comes from having a cohesive sense of who you are as an organization and effectively communicating THAT in all that you do.

Here are some essentials to help you become a well-branded movement (pg 201):

• Know who you are and who you are not as a movement.
• Have a set of core pillars, tenants, or values that you are committed to be passionate about as a movement – and communicate them weekly. Often the leadership says something once or twice and assumes it has been communicated to everyone. It is just not so. As with the radio, people tune in at different times. By the time you have said something several times some people are just hearing it for the first time.
  
• By creating a set of core values that you communicate regularly, you can undo the perceptions that people have of Jesus and your movement.
  
• Have a vision piece (brochure) and supporting media to illustrate the vision and the brand.
• Make decisions that shape public perception with your brand as a filter.
• Have a welcome kit that provides visitors with a sense of the size and offerings of the ship and gives them a “map” of how to get connected and grow.
• Use your design style consistently.
• Have a brand management meeting every six months or less, to discuss how you are communicating as a movement and how well your members and the college community are catching on to 1) who you are, 2) where you are going, and 3) their steps for growth with you.
• Keep statistics on who is volunteering and who is participating in each level of your movement.
• Create a sense of continual challenge for each level mixed with patience.
  

For those of you wondering about graphic design, know this: brand and branding are not graphic design terms. Design plays a part, but it fits into the brand, it does not drive the brand.

Branding is primarily verbal communication. This has caused me to think about how much time I spend with student leaders – coaching them on how to effectively communicate our vision and purpose. I have not done a very good job at this.

Whether you are communicating verbally or non-verbally through graphic design remember that you will always need to:

• Captivate them and draw them in
• Connect with their sense of self, need, or style (meet them where they are at)
• Communicate clearly, providing more answers than raising questions
  

This ends my blog series on Movement Marketing. A big thank you to Richard Reising for pioneering these concepts for churches (as well as us in the campus ministry) around the world. Go buy the book, Church Marketing 101, today!

*content was gleaned and contextualized from Church Marketing 101

Multiple Movements: Learning from the Gap

by Tyler Zach

How can the Gap mentor our movements in the area of reaching the lost?

Campus Crusade for Christ a few years ago launched a new campaign called Multiple Movements Everywhere. The idea was to create multiple contextualized groups on campus whereby every student would have an opportunity to become a disciple of Jesus. Some of these groups include: Impact -> African-American students; Destino -> Latino students; Bridges -> International students; Epic -> Asian-American students, etc.

This was brilliant! However, this really wasn’t our idea. The Gap, as well as many other secular companies, have been doing this strategy for quite a while.

“Have you ever been in a mall and noticed that when you see an Old Navy, you usually also see a Banana Republic and a Gap? Do you think this is a coincidence? It isn’t. The Gap owns all three companies, and each has a different target audience. In general, Old Navy is the low-cost store that carries clothing ‘staples’ for young people. The Gap carries more “fashion-forward” casual attire at a premium price. Banana Republic is an upper-scale line that caters to the modern urban professional. Although they cater to younger people, they all cater to very different younger people.” (Church Marketing 101 pg. 149)

These Gap companies learned that that could be way more effective by creating three stores rather than just having one. Could your spiritual movement be more effective by creating multiple movements rather than just having one?

Here are some challenging questions for us to think about:

1) Is having a good movement keeping us from having great movements?

2) Even though our movement may be large, what percentage of the campus are we really reaching?

3) What type of students are involved in our movement? Are they radically diverse like our campus?


*content was gleaned and contextualized from Church Marketing 101

Creating An Experience: Learning from Starbucks

by Tyler Zach

How can Starbucks mentor our movements in the area of making much of Jesus?

In The Experience Economy, the authors paint a brilliant picture of what makes us so addicted to Starbucks. At a fundamental level, coffee is a commodity, tradable by the ton in a commodities market. But, Starbucks, in all its innovation, has wrapped an experience around a cup of coffee. The authors go on to say that in the modern economy, companies like Starbucks have created “experiences” to set themselves apart from “services.” In other words, you do not simply buy the coffee. You buy the Starbucks experience.

What would it look like for us to wrap an experience around Jesus the way Starbucks has wrapped an experience around coffee?

Richard Reising says, “Some people might be offended by the [question] above, but I think the greater crime is turning [our movements] into a commodity. A relationship with Christ can’t be canned. It cannot be mass-produced. It is an intimate and powerful thing and we should be very serious about enhancing the experience in order to prepare the heart of the visitor.”

If companies like Starbucks work so hard at creating an experience for something as simple as coffee, shouldn’t we as Christians work even harder to create an experience for the student’s spiritual journey? Starbucks has taken the microscope approach: taking something small and simple and magnifying it for us. We, however, as Christians, get the advantage of using the telescope approach: taking something infinitely great and bringing it into our world. Theoretically, it should be easier for us to create an experience for students than it is for Starbucks to create an experience for coffee-lovers. We are dealing with something infinitely valuable. The only obstacle is ourselves.

There are many churches out there that provide a service. We literally call it a “service.” But few churches and movements can provide a transformational experience.

Think about what makes your favorite restaurant your favorite: Hospitality, romantic lighting, comfortable seating, quality food, nicely dressed workers, music, etc. What if the owners of the restaurant said, “It’s not about the building. It’s all about the food.” Now think of your restaurant in terms of stiff chairs, bright lighting, t-shirt dressed unhappy servers, bad music, BUT the food is still top-notch. Even though the food may be good, the restaurant now ceases to be your favorite.

I’ve heard some church and campus movement people say that it’s not about the externals because it’s supposed to be about Jesus. But let’s ask ourselves, “Why do we spend so much time decorating our homes?” I think it is because we love beautiful environments that will leave us with lasting memories. It’s silly to think of all the time we spend on our homes - only to step into a church where there are white walls and stiff pews.

If we are going to pray with Jesus that His whole Kingdom would come, then we need to be about His whole Kingdom. The Kingdom is more than just spoken word. It encompasses physical beauty as well. The New Jerusalem will be more beautiful than we can imagine. The description in the book of Revelation is breathtaking. It will be an experience beyond all comprehension.

So, how can we give our students a glimpse of that… now? What will it take to make the Christian life an experiential journey rather than a purchase of a commodity?

*content was gleaned and contextualized from Church Marketing 101

Nailing the Perceived Need: Learning from Nike

by Tyler Zach

How can we meet the needs of lost students before we tell them about their greatest need?

We know that lost students need Jesus, but they don’t know that… yet. Nike knew our greatest need, but didn’t advertise it because we didn’t even know it… yet. Instead, they went after our perceived need first. So how can Nike’s success shed some light on movements?

Richard Reising says, “To buy Nike shoes was to be a part of something bigger than yourself. Nike was about belonging. We needed to belong; they sold it to us wrapped up in faith and achievement. Why do I think it was about belonging more than a true aspiration toward being better at a sport? Because 90% of us never used Nikes for anything more athletic than going to the mall on Saturday. We did not want to run; we just wanted to belong to the winning team.” (Church Marketing 101 pg. 143)

Reising goes on to contextualize this story for the church: “We know the real, bottom-line need is belonging to Christ, but their perceived need is always something less spiritual. Unless we connect with people on the level they feel they need, we cannot introduce them to their real need. Nike sold us belonging packaged in inspiration. Is there any other way to sell belonging? Do you think Nike would have been successful if they’d done a commercial without Jordan and instead used a slogan like “We make you feel like you belong”? … Like Nike, Starbucks is fulfilling more than a need for coffee. They are filling our cups with caffeine, belonging, comfort, and community all at the same time.”

From these great lines of insight, I wonder what it would look like for our movements to advertise to people’s perceived needs rather than then real need.

One practical way that Demarick Patton and I tried to do this with fraternity and sorority students was changing the organizational name. When we started a Greek movement, we decided against Campus Crusade for Christ for Greeks. We thought that most of the spiritually curious would not yet be convinced that they had a need for Christ or want to be part of a religious Crusade for that matter.

So, we decided to go with Greek Endeavor. For starters, Greek was in the name - giving them a sense of connection (or bond) to the organization without even coming. The second part, Endeavor, sounds like the students can be on a journey, and be on a journey with other Greeks at the same time. This fulfills a variety of perceived needs. This is just one small example from the movement-planting phase that we discussed even before talking about content, structure, etc. I’d love to hear some of the ways you are carrying out this principle as well.

Long before Jesus was known as the Savior, He was known as the Healer. He met their level one needs first. Let’s walk in His beautiful example.

*content was gleaned and contextualized from Church Marketing 101

Does Your Movement Slap People?

by Tyler Zach

How can our movements be more relevant to people at all spiritual levels?

Richard Reising says in his book Church Marketing 101, “…oftentimes we do something to a client that is the equivalent to a slap in the face and that when it happens, the client forgets everything else – even the good that happened before the slap.”

We have to realize that we slap people without even knowing it. After taking some Catholic students to a Christmas conference, they felt slapped after experiencing some amazing (from my perspective) worship with drums, electric guitars, and the whole works. Why? Because it was foreign to them. Whether or not worshiping with rock instruments is OK with God is not the point. The point is that they got slapped and everything they had experienced up until then was forgotten.

A few days ago I got the chance to speak to a campus Greek adviser. She had just graduated from another campus that I’m working on. I asked her what her perception was of the main Christian organization there. She told me that if a student wasn’t willing to shout about their faith from a mountaintop, then they wouldn’t feel comfortable there. I know the leader of this organization personally and I know that what she said is distorted. But, the fact remains that many students on that campus feel slapped because of that perception.

Things might look good when you are standing at the door – looking in at all the Christians who are attending your meetings and going to small groups. But the bottom line at the end of the day is how we come across to the person in the seat or the person outside of the room. What does the campus think of us? In my mind, it does matter - since we are Christians who carry the name of Jesus.

Does the perception of your movement hallow Jesus' name? Or does it hollow His name because you've become irrelevant to the campus?

“Paul encourages the Corinthians to pursue certain spiritual gifts over others as it was important that if ‘there come in those who are uninformed or unbelievers, will they not say that you are out of your mind?’ (1 Cor. 14:23). Paul was once again concerned about what the visitor will think. …’Let all things be done decently and in order’ (1 Cor. 14:40), was an attempt to keep visitors from getting emotionally slapped in the face with something that made no sense to them.” – Church Marketing 101 (pg 117)

The temptation is to gear our meetings towards the mature Christians and not the lost. Why? Because the mature Christians are paying more for their seats. For most movements, they make up the majority of the seats as well as run the show. The mature Christians desire spiritual meat, not milk. So the temptation is to plan a meeting that meets their needs the best. But, this goes against our mission of reaching the lost.

One of the most common concerns, according to the book, is that most Christians think that making our movements lost-centered will require watering down the message. But, a strong movement or church must have a ministry that is focused on both the lost and the mature. You just have to remember to pass out milk and meat in the same meeting. And the most important thing you can do is hand out the milk first!

*content was gleaned and contextualized from Church Marketing 101