Читать книгу Marketing God - Donna A. Heckler - Страница 10

Author’s Preface

The premise of this book is very simple. I explore how we can take the elements that cause people around the world to become loyal to a brand and use these techniques to help people find God again.

I have spent my career in marketing. My expertise is in creating brands that matter, that are relevant, that are motivating to people. In today’s society, we measure success by gain, and according to that standard I know I succeeded as a marketing professional. Brands I have worked on have sold hundreds of millions — in fact, billions — of dollars globally. You probably know some of those brands: Energizer, Trane, Enterprise, Kimball, Red Cross, the list goes on.

Marketing is very much about human behavior. Why do people do what they do? How can we understand people so that we can guide them to purchase our product, our service, our brand? The end goal is to make people highly loyal to your brand. When they are loyal, they will always use the brand. Moreover, they will suggest your brand to friends and make others loyal to it as well.

As a deeply committed Catholic, I have long wondered what could happen in our Church if we applied the science of marketing to faith, to God. Would the strategies work? Could those in ministry and pastoral positions use the tools that succeed in marketing to build God’s kingdom? Could these strategies help us in our work of saving souls?

I venture to say yes.

About ten years ago, I coauthored a successful book, The Truth About Creating Brands People Love. The book included fifty-one pithy little topics about building brands. In this new book, I take a similar approach. In fact, I pull several of the insights that were most relevant and most effective, and I use them here as part of the framework for how we can talk about marketing God.

For many people of faith, especially those who are pastors or involved in leading ministries, the concept of “marketing God” is troubling at best, or blasphemous at worst. The reality, of course, is that it can be problematic. God is not a product. This book does not speak of marketing God as an end in itself, but as a means to the all-important end of bringing people to God and being loyal to him. I have had the privilege to know and work alongside many men and women who have a deep love of God. Their joy swells from the depth of their souls, and their hearts yearn to share that joy with others. Yet too often they lack the knowledge of how to draw people to faith-based events, let alone to faith. They need tools to get people in the door. That’s where the strategies we use in marketing come in.

That’s why I wrote this book. I hope it provides those sharing the Good News with tools that are relevant in today’s world. I hope that through this book, those of us focused on sharing faith can help more people become loyal to God.