Friday, April 28, 2006
Media, Marketing, Image And Product
In some ways it is a fascinating world we live in. When it comes to how we do business, things have changed radically over the years. It used to be that marketing was the means of telling the buying public about a quality product. That's not true anymore - now marketing virtually is the product.
The original idea wasn't a bad one - when two competitors are offering virtually identical products, marketing, particularly what's called "image" marketing became a way to distinguish the otherwise indistinguishable. Initially it was the earliest from of branding. For example, when one picked peas from the field they were sorted and the best were lablled with the major cannery label - Green Giant or Stokley's Finest. There might even have been some medium brand, and then the worst of the harvest got the "store" label. It was all edible, but some were clearly better than others and the labels, the image if you will, helped us tell which was which.
As we got television, this idea was expanded - television helped develop a distinct image for a product that went beyond just the label - the image was associated with lifestyle and "hipness" or "coolness" - think Coke v Pepsi.
As this has trend has progressed we have now learned to market through the use of image absolute junk. Things of relatively little value or quality sell like hotcakes at exorbanent prices becasue we are able to build an image around it that far exceeds the product itself. Think almost anything on television - we make it look like so much more than it is.
I could not help but think of these things as I read this Out of Ur post on pastors and image.
The first is that everything I have ever read about using modern communication tools to spread the gospel misidentifies the product the church has to "sell." For one thing, we aren't selling anything, we're giving it away. But usually these things are discussed in terms of "meeting God," or "epiphany," or "genuine Christian experience" - all of which fall far, far short of the totality of the gospel. You see, unlike image marketing which creates an association between the market and being "cool" there is no association in the gospel, there is reality. We are the only people with a product that actually will make you cool. Image marketing simply cannot create that reality, only the linkage.
The second point I want to make is that image marketing is at its best making an indistinct or relatively worthless product appear very distinct and worthy. And yet, when it comes to the gospel, we have a product that actually is incredibly worthy and genuinely distinct. When we use these techniques to market our product it says we ourselves do not understand the real value and worth of what we have to "sell", we are substituting a perception of value for actual value.
Here is what I find most amazing. When we find the actual value of our product we become the image, we don't have to put it on. When we allow ourselves to be genuinely transformed by the Holy Spirit, the value and worth of the product becomes apparent in us - we don't need to create an image because the Holy Spirit makes us the image.
The answer to the question, "Why isn't the gospel spreading like wildfire?" is not becasue it lacks coolness or hipness. No, that answer lies in the fact that we who already have the product have failed to capitalize on it ourselves. When we ask the questions we need to look inward, not outward.
Related Tags: image, marketing, gospel, Christianity, church
The original idea wasn't a bad one - when two competitors are offering virtually identical products, marketing, particularly what's called "image" marketing became a way to distinguish the otherwise indistinguishable. Initially it was the earliest from of branding. For example, when one picked peas from the field they were sorted and the best were lablled with the major cannery label - Green Giant or Stokley's Finest. There might even have been some medium brand, and then the worst of the harvest got the "store" label. It was all edible, but some were clearly better than others and the labels, the image if you will, helped us tell which was which.
As we got television, this idea was expanded - television helped develop a distinct image for a product that went beyond just the label - the image was associated with lifestyle and "hipness" or "coolness" - think Coke v Pepsi.
As this has trend has progressed we have now learned to market through the use of image absolute junk. Things of relatively little value or quality sell like hotcakes at exorbanent prices becasue we are able to build an image around it that far exceeds the product itself. Think almost anything on television - we make it look like so much more than it is.
I could not help but think of these things as I read this Out of Ur post on pastors and image.
All joking aside, I can't help but recognize the unease in my conscience about how image-conscious we are becoming as young pastors.Why the unease? Isn't this all about applying the tools of modern communication to the message of Jesus? The author says
Maybe some of what I have described thus far bothers you. Aren't we as Christians supposed to be less focused on appearances and more concerned with the heart? Aren't some of the practices I described verging on dishonesty?I think the author is partly right, but I think the problems much deeper. There are two points I want to make here.
The first is that everything I have ever read about using modern communication tools to spread the gospel misidentifies the product the church has to "sell." For one thing, we aren't selling anything, we're giving it away. But usually these things are discussed in terms of "meeting God," or "epiphany," or "genuine Christian experience" - all of which fall far, far short of the totality of the gospel. You see, unlike image marketing which creates an association between the market and being "cool" there is no association in the gospel, there is reality. We are the only people with a product that actually will make you cool. Image marketing simply cannot create that reality, only the linkage.
The second point I want to make is that image marketing is at its best making an indistinct or relatively worthless product appear very distinct and worthy. And yet, when it comes to the gospel, we have a product that actually is incredibly worthy and genuinely distinct. When we use these techniques to market our product it says we ourselves do not understand the real value and worth of what we have to "sell", we are substituting a perception of value for actual value.
Here is what I find most amazing. When we find the actual value of our product we become the image, we don't have to put it on. When we allow ourselves to be genuinely transformed by the Holy Spirit, the value and worth of the product becomes apparent in us - we don't need to create an image because the Holy Spirit makes us the image.
The answer to the question, "Why isn't the gospel spreading like wildfire?" is not becasue it lacks coolness or hipness. No, that answer lies in the fact that we who already have the product have failed to capitalize on it ourselves. When we ask the questions we need to look inward, not outward.
Related Tags: image, marketing, gospel, Christianity, church
