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