An evangelical opportunity

Churches the world over should be rubbing their hands in glee at the radical, global transformation that is taking place in the way in which companies and governments communicate with consumers, prospective customers, voters and society in general.

Because, as a result of this transformation, right now billions of people the world over are more ready than they have been for decades, to either turn to religion or embrace their existing religions a lot more meaningfully.

An example of this change of tack was to be found strangely enough, in the way CNN covered the final moments on earth of Pope John Paul II in April.

Nothing could have come as a greater surprise to me, having shied away from CNN ever since they displayed such gung-ho, bilious bias during the 1991 Gulf War and subsequently with their insidious pro-US embedded journalists in the most recent invasion of Iraq.

The clue, which could lead marketers into the psyche of the consumer of the future, wasn’t contained in the fact that CNN’s coverage of the death of the pope was so widespread, nor that the network had obviously worked extremely hard to ensure that all comment was elicited not from the usual self-appointed gurus but from real experts from all the major religions.

Rather, it was in CNN’s complete lack of sensationalism and almost obsessive determination to separate fact from fiction and reality from perception by over and over again almost painfully prefacing even the most mild form of speculation with disclaimers such as: “We repeat, at this moment CNN cannot confirm that the pope has fallen into a coma. We cannot confirm coma reports.”

Now, why such an about-face? Why suddenly, was a major news network going to such extraordinary lengths to make absolutely sure that no viewer might inadvertently confuse fiction for fact? This is not at all what we have been used to from this highly competitive media industry that not too long ago seemed to have adopted a policy of totally irresponsible, fact-deprived, sensationalism as best business practice.

What has happened, quite simply, is that CNN seems to have woken up to the realities of the fundamental and radical transformation of the mindset of modern Mr and Mrs America. These changes started with 9/11 and were fuelled by the Enron and Worldcom scandals, the Afghan and Iraqi invasions and even incidents such as that massive moral outcry over Janet Jackson baring her breast in a sports stadium, and then culminating in the recent US presidential election that was won on a combination of fear and religious conservatism.

In a nutshell, all of this has left consumers insecure, fearful and desperately looking for something in which to put their trust. They are starting to demand this of their mass media, their politicians, churches, companies, corner store and most of all, from the products and service they buy.

Given the difference in the way in which the pope’s passing was covered in Britain and in Europe–and even more so in South Africa, some newscasters have not yet become as aware of this remarkable shift in consumer attitudes.

But this conservative and demanding new consumer mindset will spread from the United States across the world, and the South African mass media, along with marketers and advertisers, will clearly need to start accepting the fact that shock tactics, sensationalism, and shallow promises will have increasingly detrimental affects on newspapers, magazines, TV and radio channels, brands, products and services.

In his book Permission-led Marketing, Seth Godin wrote: “The average individual is exposed to more than 10000 marketing messages every day. And those messages that will start to stand out most will be those that contain not what the advertiser wants to say but what these now discerning consumers want to hear.”

The time now, could not be more ripe for churches to “cash in” on consumer attitudes that are changing in favour of a renewed faith in the power of the Almighty.

Already, I have noticed churches in many developed countries launching marketing campaigns aimed not only at their traditional flocks but probing deep into previously uncharted territory.

Hopefully, South African churches will not let this evangelical opportunity of a lifetime slip by and start concentrating not on what they want to say but what parishioners want to hear.