Should Liberal Religious Groups Be Making Clothing, CD’s, Movies and Other Products?
Category: Uncategorized
Several weeks ago I read Shopping for God: How Christianity Went from In Your Heart to In Your Face, by James B. Twitchell, which explores the marketing of congregations and denominations. It was a disappointment. Twitchell’s sloppy research methodology and muddied arguments overwhelm his occasionally intriguing insights into religious marketing.
That said, I remain interested in one of the central ideas of the book, which is that religious identity and marketing are similar to brand identity and marketing.
After putting down Shopping for God, I started reading Naomi Klein’s No Logo. She describes how international super-brands like Nike have gone from selling a product that has a limited space in consumers’ lives, to selling multiple products with the goal of integrating the brand into every aspect of consumers’ lives.
In the case of Nike, instead of just wearing Nike shoes, the company wants you to be dedicated to Nike in multiple facets of your life, as you play basketball on Nike courts and hang out with friends at Nike Town.
Klein writes, “This is the true meaning of a lifestyle brand: you can live your whole life inside it.” (Klein, 2002, pg.148)
The connection to religion is stunning. Aren’t we supposed to be bringing our values (rather than our commercial brand loyalty) into every facet of our lives? Shouldn’t the goal of religious people be to integrate the sacred presence (however we understand it) into our lives?
Some savvy American religious groups have adopted an if-you-can’t-beat-them-join them strategy. Rather than letting a commercial brand take over followers’ lives, evangelical megachurches are there to fill the gap. You don’t need to hang out at Nike Town; you can hang out at your local megachurch’s coffee shop. You don’t need to play basketball on swoosh-emblazoned courts; you can play on a sports team at your local congregation. And buy the pastors’ books and tapes. And listen to his podcast. And wear a t-shirt for the church. Etc.
Liberal religious groups are generally steering clear of making and promoting commercial products. We do not have an Episcopalian music scene (at least as far as I know), or local Unitarian Universalist coffee shop.
The argument against religiously-motivating selling of products is obvious: our religion could be corrupted by the profit motive. This is a valid concern. (I wrote a related piece recently criticizing the sale of Beliefnet, because it seems like now the main purpose of the site is to sell products, with the promotion of religious diversity and exploration only a secondary concern).
But there is also significant potential to use the making and selling of commercial products to promote religious identity and values, and to compete with the influence of non-religious brands.
One of the best books on the use of products to promote a particular religious identity is Heather Hendershot’s Shaking the World for Jesus: Media and Conservative Evangelical Culture. Hendershot surveys the landscape of evangelical Christian merchandising, including Christian television shows, magazines and music. While some of the evangelical products she describes are rather unspecific in their message, others quite clearly communicate evangelical beliefs and values, and solidify the religious self-identification of evangelical consumers.
Evangelical producers of religious content do not see themselves as selling out, but rather as getting in the game. Hendershot writes:
Many people who don’t identify as Bible-believing (saved, walking, living the life) evangelicals think that Christian music promotes a dangerous ideology that has no place in the secular marketplace. Believers, conversely, argue that they don’t like the dangerous ideology that they feel has already inundated the media and they want their turn to compete in the marketplace of ideas. (Hendershot, 2004, pg. 75).
So, what do you think: Should liberal religious groups be creating and selling our own music, clothing, television shows, movies, and other products? Can we do this while still placing primary emphasis on the message rather than the profit motive?
Update 12/30/07:
Julian responds in the comments:
I went to church camp this year and attended a workshop where the facilitator (a UU minister from Oklahoma i think) said, (paraphrased) “what we (we being all religions in general) are competing with is the most popular religion. The religion of consumerism.”
He went on to list the traits or profile for what a religion is… how it guides our life, we turn to it for comfort, we spend our time and money on it, etc. As I heard these traits and thought of consumerism fit the profile of a religion, I was shocked and saddened.
And Mara Einstein adds:
…given that we are exposed to more than 3000 marketing messages on a daily basis it is almost mandatory that religion market itself as well if it wants to remain relevant in the culture. Not only market itself, but brand itself. A good example of this is Joel Osteen. All you have to do is see that smiling face and everything that he stands for is immediately communicated.
December 20th, 2007 00:15
OH yes yes yes yes yes yes!
Er, um, well… Not exactly. I think we do need to market ourselves, but not quite in the way that mainstream Christianity has.
Don’t worry - I have a post about that coming up soon! And it’ll link to this one.
LINK LOVE!!! (it’s late, and I’m silly)
Namaste.
December 20th, 2007 10:52
Hi John, Nothing wrong with being silly! Thanks in advance for the link love — I’m looking forward to reading more of your thoughts on this question.
December 20th, 2007 12:40
Man, Shelby you’ve pushed my button with this one. I’ve been thinking about this for several years… about marketing in relation to our congregations. I have a background in mass communications… graphic design, marketing, photography, journalism, etc.
I went to church camp this year and attended a workshop where the facilitator (a UU minister from Oklahoma i think) said, (paraphrased) “what we (we being all religions in general) are competing with is the most popular religion. The religion of consumerism.”
He went on to list the traits or profile for what a religion is… how it guides our life, we turn to it for comfort, we spend our time and money on it, etc. As I heard these traits and thought of consumerism fit the profile of a religion, I was shocked and saddened.
Saddened to think this is where the moral compass of the unchurched (and many churched) lies.
I think it’s imperative that we brand our faith and attempt to have it compete with the swoosh and golden arches.
December 21st, 2007 10:22
Julian,
This church camp workshop sounds right on target! Commercial brands and products have a significant influence on people’s behavior and self-perception, and in a practical sense permeate their daily activities.
As long as we stay away from branding and media production, we are missing an opportunity to reach new people. We may also be missing an opportunity to help those of us who are already Unitarian Universalist make our religious identity a bigger part of our lives.
December 22nd, 2007 22:23
This is an excellent post and an important topic. I don’t know yet what I think. It seems like a catch-22. You’re damned if you don’t and damned if you do. I’ll think more about it…..
December 23rd, 2007 23:08
Hi Elizabeth,
Thanks for commenting. Please e-mail or comment to let me know if you post on this topic — I’m curious to read more of your thoughts on this. Merry Christmas to you and Wolfgang!
December 24th, 2007 08:35
[…] Recently, the answer was made clear to me through a fellow Universalist’s blog. Shelby, the webmaster of LookingForFaith.org, wrote an article regarding religious identity and marketing. She points out the trend among evangelicals to use product marketing techniques and asks if religious identity can be synonymous with brand identity. She poses the question as to whether or not liberal religions, such as Unitarian Universalism, should be marketing themselves through clothing, music, television shows, movies and other products. While I would argue against blatant consumerism, we should be marketing ourselves. When it comes to online communities, that means social media. […]
December 28th, 2007 16:56
This is exactly what I address in my new book, Brands of Faith: Marketing religion in a commercial age (Routledge) and on my blog http://www.brandsoffaith.com.
While it would be impossible to address all of the connections between marketing and religion here, I’ll try to hit a few highlights to add to the discussion. First, the process by which we take on a product as part of our personal identity (say, a Mac as you show in a later post and which is covered extensively in the marketing literature about brand communities) is virtually identical to what Gooren has called the conversion career, how one proceeds through the process of taking on a religion as part of one’s identity.
Second, given that we are exposed to more than 3000 marketing messages on a daily basis it is almost mandatory that religion market itself as well if it wants to remain relevant in the culture. Not only market itself, but brand itself. A good example of this is Joel Osteen. All you have to do is see that smiling face and everything that he stands for is immediately communicated.
Finally, I think the biggest issue when it comes to marketing religion is that religious institutions are confusing the marketing with the religion. That is, reading something like “A Purpose-Driven Life” is part of the marketing. It is not at all the faith. The same is true about attending seeker services.
Thanks, Shelby, for giving what is a very important topic additional exposure.
December 30th, 2007 14:09
[…] Leander Kahney’s article “Cult of Macintosh: Worshipping at the Altar of Mac,” published earlier this month in Wired, is a semi-serious, semi-humorous look at Mac adherents. And it relates to yesterday’s topic (the similarities between religious marketing and commercial brand marketing). […]