Marketing

Marketing

Our image is all we have in the market, Lord. Keep us honest, and protect us.

Choose a good reputation over great riches. Proverbs 22:1

The success of the organization depends on having enough people in the market exchange with us. Their decisions are determined by their perceptions of whether we offer the best available solution to their felt needs. They decide based on image. In terms of marketing, image is everything.

IT IS so frustrating, God! We work so hard, but being the best—or offering the best value— does not guarantee our success. We do all we can to be honest and creative in all our marketing messages, but that does not guarantee success either.

It is hard to succeed in this media-defined environment, where image is reality. The market acts only on its perceptions—not on how good we really are, only on how good it thinks we are. The lie can be big and brazen or small and subtle, but the lie often lasts long enough to beat the truth. Honor the truth, Lord.

The truth tends to win in the long run, I know, but too often there is no long run. Conditions don’t always last long enough for the truth to prevail. We are determined to market ourselves as skillfully as we possibly can, but, Lord, keep us honest. Don’t let us slip into exaggerating or misleading in any way. Give us a passion for making the truth convincing.

I don’t want to whine to you if we are losing fairly in the marketplace. But, Lord, if we do it right and tell the truth, then we are depending on you to protect our reputation and our place in the market from those who would destroy us unfairly. I ask you to let our image match reality.

Don’t let me mistake my own petty prejudices for the truth of what people really need, or mistake people’s felt needs for their real needs. Help me to know what people really need so I can serve them well.

Keep us true to your values, Lord, whether we seem to be succeeding or not. If you allow an undeserved image to be decisive, I will still do my best to honor you in everything we do as an organization. I would rather fail than dishonor your name.

Our good name matters only if it is under your great name. Lord, by your providence may we have the image in the market of being the best at what we are trying to do, and by your grace may that image be accurate.

Our image is all we have in the market, Lord. Keep us honest, and protect us.

Reflections

No one has ever provided a better example of marketing than Jesus did. He inherited a situation in which his movement, the kingdom of God on earth, had been taken over by small-minded legalists who had reduced its majestic principles to a rigid set of codified behaviors. Its inspiring orientation toward the future had become a stultifying preoccupation with history and tradition. Its singular focus on right relationships with people and with God had been refracted into an array of social castes. Its image ranged from necessary nuisance to irrelevance.

In three years Jesus “repositioned” the kingdom of God so thoroughly in so many people’s minds that when he physically departed, the movement raced on, expanding and maturing in its new form and direction. He accomplished this feat not through selling, advertising, or promotion but by investing heavily in strong personal relationships with a small group of dedicated persons whose thinking he profoundly reshaped. He consistently modeled the values of the kingdom, and he described its true nature. Above all, he always started with people at the point of their felt needs—their wants, fears, and hopes. Then he skillfully guided them to discover their real needs and see their potential.

The compelling new image of the kingdom attracted a vast new public. There were detractors, false advertisers, cheap imitations, and lower-priced alternatives, but the kingdom prevailed. That is perfect marketing.