Wed 30 Jul 2008
You’re paying $4 a gallon for gas. Where does all that money go?
Oil producers - $2.96
Refiners - 36 cents
Federal Govt. - 18 cents
Distributors and marketers - 28 cents
State Govt. - 22 cents
Average profit margin for oil companies is 7.6% Exxon Mobil NETTED $40 Billion in 2007. Hmmmmm.
As seen in the July 27, 2008 issue of Parade Magazine, pg 6. Source from the US Department of Energy. Actual state tax rates vary.
Mon 28 Jul 2008
My earlier post looked at whether churches really differentiate themselves on activities and amenities, etc. Today, here is a quote from James Twitchell, author of Shopping for God:
“Growth itself is a powerful selling tool…Being able to say you are the fastest growing has pulling power. It implies leadership. Leading is not a measure of quality, however, but of consumption. Take beer for example…Where taste is hard to measure, the invocation of leadership often substitutes for the real thing, even if leadership is in an unimportant category. . . Almost without exception a church claims leadership of some sort. Touting growth and size is one of the few ways of asserting this. If the product was not so good, why would so many people be buying it? Growing churches, like growing businesses, have learned the importance of generating “business at the door.” Shoppers equate crowding with value.”
Have you found this to be true? Every “growing” church (read: contemporary) heralds their growth in some way, that I have encountered. The “hot” church in town draws the crowd, per the Rick Warren playbook….draw the crowd and move them inward to the core. While it “works” in getting a lot of people, I haven’t seen it be particularly effective in making disciples. . . but perhaps that is not the point, or is it?
The number that gets the attention, gets heralded, gets the pastor invited to conferences to speak is the Worship Attendance. How many people can you get to come to one place over however many services you have? If you cross 2000 in attendance per weekend, you have crossed over into rarified status. While it’s great that that many people are coming to hear a sermon (oops, I mean message) and sing some great songs, are they growing? As well, many of these folks are not “Non-Christian” people, but mainly people who have been in churches before and now want to come to this hot new show in town. Church Growth people even invented a term for them: Dechurched or Unchurched. You’ll see it in churches’ marketing “we reach out to the unchurched, the dechurched….” etc.
Twitchell comments on this trend:
“While they claim they target the unchurched, they are really harvesting brand switchers up and down the denominations. . .Rather like Wal-Mart, the megas have almost no brand personality, and ironically, that’s the selling point. Physically they are laid out with eerie similarity, and doctrinally, there’s little product differentiation.”
They may even claim people have come by profession of faith in Christ and that is worth celebrating, to be sure. Having run new member classes for several years at a large church, many did profess their faith in Christ, but they also had been in church before, perhaps a few years ago, or several years ago. Very rare was the person who be defined as “lost” or unChristian, or “not a believer” or not “born-again,” etc. You know, someone who was an actual convert to Christianity. More what we encountered were converts to how this large church “did” church. Is that necessarily bad or good?
Something to chew on, from “the leading blog in the world with godthoughts in the title!”
Sat 19 Jul 2008
I’ve been reading the most intriguing book lately: Shopping for God: How Christianity went from in your heart to in your face, by James Twitchell. He basically takes a look at church and how churches market themselves, from an “apatheist” angle.
This quote was worth sharing:
“If you go into stores such as Gucci, Prada, Louis Vitton, or Fendi, you see much the same inventory, but the logos (stories attached), are all different and so are the consumer’s responses. Often the products are the same, made on the same machines, of the same fabrics and textures. The sensations are very potent and come to us not from the product, but from the marketing. . .I look to see whether the same condition exists in church markets: are the doctrinal/ingredient differences among denomination that generate value for the consumer? Or are the denominations separated more by other factors, like marketing, competitive amenitities, packaging, a better selection of friends?”
Whatcha think?
Wed 16 Jul 2008
I know my post from a few days ago was perhaps too intimidating to try and answer, but here it is:
The construction and operation of buildings generate HALF of all greenhouse-gas emissions in the United States, based on estimated data from The US Energy Information Administration. Residential buildings (fancy name for your home) account for 21% alone.
Located in an article on Green Housing in Fast Company, July/August 2008 issue, pg 100.
So, the answer was B.
Now you know!
Mon 14 Jul 2008
If you ever wonder if you are the target market for a particular television show, then pay attention to the commercials. The ads will let you know who they think is watching the show, or should be watching the show. The advertisers are very specific on how they spend their money so they target very precisely on age and stage of life, gender and economic status and more.
So if the show you are watching has a lot of commercials for Viagra, Flex-All, and TD Ameritrade index funds, then the target market would be men (probably over 50 or 55) who need a little help getting up, and around, and who have money to invest.
Or if there are numerous commercials for Vagasil, and anything with Summer’s Eve, you know the target market they expect to be watching are women with “women’s issues.”
Why do you think certain car brands are only advertised with certain shows? Oprah draws a women crowd so the commercials are targeted toward women, specific women.
Take a look at your favorite shows this week and see if the commercials are for YOU, or are you not their target?
Enjoy knowing that the advertising community knows you better than you think!
Sat 12 Jul 2008
What is the largest producer of greenhouse-gas emissions in the United States?
A - Motor vehicle operations (transportation)
B - Operation and construction of buildings
C- Airplanes
D - Oil refineries
Don’t try and Google it, just make a guess!
Sat 5 Jul 2008
Other than your own, what blog do you check every day? Or, if you use a feed/reader system, what is the blog you absolutely must read each day? In other words, what is your favorite blog?
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