Marketing lessons from religious institutions

Religions nailed marketing before anyone else in modernity, so let's talk about it

image via Lorenzo De Plano

"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him." — Voltaire

Politics and religion both are taboo subjects for marketing writers to discuss. Neither institution wants its members to know at their core they are two of the strongest examples of successful marketing in our world, as looking at them through this particular lens sure kills the magic and aura. They are so successful in large part because most don’t consider the fact that they are pure marketing/storytelling.

By me even broaching this topic some of you are already shifting in your chairs.

Why? Because you probably subscribe to some sort of political belief and some sort of religious belief. Politics are discussed openly enough, however today I wanted to discuss religion from a marketing perspective as it’s not done very often.

Religion is concurrently the most successful, yet ignored example of the efficacy of marketing. If you are offended by me talking about religion as marketing, then the point has already been proven. Regardless, let’s consider:

• Countless religions the world over have packaged a compelling story which has been improved and edited for generations.

• Religious leaders wrap their story in messaging and jargon that feels legitimate to many.

• Religion offers both tangible benefits (community) and intangible benefits (promise of afterlife) at both a monetary and time cost to you.

• Religion successfully rallies people the world over to publicly brand themselves as subscribers and work without any compensation as word of mouth marketers to attract new members to their religious brand of choice.

• Religions have logos.

• People gather at their religion of choice’s physical location with frequency.

• People celebrate during established days during which they devote time, make purchases and give resources to their religion of choice.

• Other viewpoints and even science are told to be wrong, because questioning external ideas has been blocked by design.

• Religion fights change to keep itself relevant by updating or changing its messages, its appearance and the manner it spreads.

• Religions have in-group and out-groups.

Much of the business and marketing world clearly has taken cues from what religion has done successfully for centuries as the first image in this post illustrates.

It would be naïve of us to ignore that our species is open to manipulation by messages during early stages of development. This is where religion grows its roots in influencing culture. It’s passed as an idea virus from parents to children, and is instilled from a young age while kids do not have defenses to form their own opinions and make up their own mind. Note, this is probably positive as people do need the transcendent in their lives.

Some core, objective observations about religion as a marketer:

• People crave a sense of belonging to something larger than themselves

• Large numbers encourage greater participation

• It was for years defined as a societal norm to believe and socially deviant not to believe

• The media and much of popular culture reinforce the systems in place (we’ve always done it this way)

• Stories and larger-than-life promises are effective marketing tools, especially if repeated again and again

So, what are some takeaways to actually sell more or create more fans for your creative works, ethically?

Build a following that’s also a community

Religion has existed successfully in many forms for centuries mainly because people desire to belong to something. This can be a great thing for the world.

Digital tools allow anyone to build the same following for themselves. And, you have the opportunity to do so in a collaborative, positive and thoughtful manner without requiring the dogma of organized religion.

Cultivate a mission and sense of purpose

Religions provide their followers with a sense of purpose and a larger mission to work towards. This gives people a reason to commit and dedicate efforts to the cause.

Articulate a clear and inspiring mission for your business or creative works that goes beyond just making a profit. Whether it’s saving the spotted owls or technological progress to help humanity, having a higher purpose can attract and retain customers who share these values: humans crave this anywhere they can get it in an increasingly nihilistic world. Note, you can’t fake it, as people will see through inauthentic efforts.

Be open to suggestions/feedback

Many of the current religions and large businesses have sadly become relics in the mind of the next generation. They aren’t part of the future in their current form because the new generation rejects them as sadly they’ve not kept up with culture.

The successful businesses of tomorrow will not be the ones that mimic the monolithic religious institutions and businesses of the previous generations with a pure top-down approach. The way moving forward is to incorporate ideas from all stakeholders into the mix – including everyone, especially your customers and front-line workers. Love or hate it, Bitcoin is a great modern example of a bottom-up, decentralized religion.

Kill the circular logic

You are not great merely because you say you are. Prove yourself in tangible formats. Just like I’ve said in the past how your resume is meaningless without case studies, so are your marketing messages unless you can back them up with data, testimonials, tangible proof, etc. Because of the internet you now should only write checks you can actually cash.

Create memes that challenge the status quo

Look at the success of the flying spaghetti monster. They are parodying the ridiculousness of much of religion, which is exactly why it became popular.

From Wikipedia:

The Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) is a character created as a satirical protest to the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to require the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to biological evolution. The FSM is the deity of the parody religion The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, founded in 2005 by Bobby Henderson. Since the intelligent design movement used ambiguous references to an unspecified ‘Intelligent Designer’ to avoid court rulings prohibiting the teaching of creationism as a science, this presumably left open the possibility that any imaginable thing could fill that role.

Check out their Wiki entry to see just how far this idea has gone and how much influence and success they have had (even if you’ve never heard of it, it has made a significant impact).

Find your own way to create a flying spaghetti monster type meme as a contra, as there is almost always a wealth of people interested in supporting the opposite end of something popular yet questioned.

Don’t be intrusive or spam, everyone hates it

Part of what makes religion unappealing to many in modernity is the fact that they are so intrusive and forceful into the lives of people and continuously try to dig deeper. If they were permission-based organizations and allowed whoever wanted to opt-in to their messages and viewpoints do so in a less aggressive manner, they wouldn’t be viewed so negatively.

Trying to force yourself/your brand on people by knocking on doors and forcing beliefs into areas they don’t belong hurts your reputation and will backfire long term (you don’t need to look very far into history or even at current events to see how religion consistently paints a negative image for itself in this regard).

Create rituals and traditions

Religions have thrived for centuries by establishing rituals and traditions that bring people together regularly. Many companies come up with a national “day” for their category that rallies customers or the category, tech companies have an annual event for developers, etc. It doesn’t have to start as a massive thing if you’re still a small brand, just be consistent about it.

Wrapping up…

My goal with this post was not to offend, but make you think. Think about how religion has used marketing as a vehicle to shape the very direction of our society. Think about how religion packages their messages and stories in ways that resonate with masses of people. Think about how they use their powers negatively and positively, and how you can use some of the positive aspects for yourself (never take the negatives from religion, it’s a slippery slope and doomed to backfire, just look at all the cult documentaries).

The best marketers have a strong understanding not just of business and playing the corporate game, but perhaps more importantly of culture and how society functions via memetics. Religion is a part of this we should study, too. This knowledge should also be used thoughtfully and not in place of sacred beliefs. I’m afraid it frequently is not, but maybe we can start to do better here.