Christian Values Into This Modern Marketing Landscape
Introduction
In the modern digital age, companies are increasingly acknowledging the need to connect their marketing efforts with fundamental values that appeal to their audience. For Christian businesses and entrepreneurs, incorporating faith in digital and social media marketing is not only a strategic decision but also a reflection of their purpose and beliefs. This approach is not merely about selling products or services but about forming meaningful relationships, creating trust, and upholding values that reflect Christian ethics. As consumers become more and more discerning, they seek authenticity and purpose-driven brands, and faith integration becomes a relevant and valid aspect of contemporary marketing. By integrating Christian values into digital campaigns, businesses can create a unique identity that stands out in a crowded marketplace while remaining faithful to their beliefs.
Understanding Christian Values
Christian marketing is a concept of doing business that includes three components: profit, customer needs and public interests. In other words, a company should not just make money or provide consumers with products, but also benefit society by solving its actual problems. Of course, this does not bring direct benefits, but it allows to create an attractive image and increase brand loyalty. Within the framework of social and ethical marketing it is possible to:
Reduce the damage caused by production to the environment.
Serve your employees and take care of them by improving working conditions.
Help vulnerable groups such as different minorities so everybody feels included.
Protect animals specifically by preventing them from participating in product trials.
Combat social problems, such as family violence, racism or discrimination.
Promote useful health and education initiatives.
And finally, to ensure that advertising is fair and credible.
Christian values such as honesty, integrity, and compassion provide a firm foundation for ethical marketing. In today's business environment, where consumers are more and more attracted to purpose-based brands, these values can set Christian businesses apart. Christian entrepreneurs should take advantage of it by integrating these values into their marketing campaigns, it will allow them to engage more meaningfully with their customers, demonstrating that their faith is not just an identifier but a driving force in the way they do business.
I want to discuss every value that is important in Christian marketing.
Honesty forms the cornerstone of ethical marketing. It is important to have an open communication with consumers, allowing businesses to accurately portray the products or services without manipulation or exaggeration. In digital marketing and social media, this means avoiding clickbait, false advertising, or misleading content. For example, a company that willingly reveals both the strengths and limitations of its products is honest, and this establishes trust and credibility with its customers. This practice accords with the Christian principle of speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).
Integrity goes side by side with honesty that requires a balance between action and word. Marketing integrity is about even when no one is watching, making promises and sticking to them. For example, a company that insists on honest pricing, quality products, and courteous treatment of customers has integrity. This helps to build trust and loyalty in the long run because consumers know the business will operate with their best interest in mind. Integrity is also apparent in the way companies address problems, for example by acknowledging their mistakes and looking for ways to fix them.
In addition to the basic survival instinct that comes with fear, compassion takes precedence to place people over profits and 'profit-making' businesses need to be human-made as well to care for their audience. In advertising, this means guiding campaigns to heights that lift, inspire and serve without taking advantage and without manipulation. So for instance, a company can leverage its platform and tell stories of hope, donate to charitable causes, or help bring attention to social issues in a manner that displays Christ’s concern for people. Marketing with compassion also includes understanding of the audience and their needs.
Challenges and Ethical Dilemmas
It is not easy to bring Christian values into social media and online marketing, there are some challenges that can occur. Christian business owners encounter issues such as where to draw the line between making the profit/maximizing shareholders' wealth and keeping the promises that were made to consumers. An example can be the Hewlett-Packard case. In 2020 HP was involved in unethical sales practices. As a result the company was fined $6 million by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for misreporting financials in 2015. The company used aggressive sales practices in order to puff up quarterly earnings, misconceptions have led channel partners to "pull-in" transactions ahead of time and provide inaccurate inventory declarations, which have misled investors about the company's financial health. "According to the SEC's order, from early 2015 through the middle of 2016, in an effort to meet quarterly sales targets, regional managers at HP used a variety of incentives to accelerate, or "pull-in" to the current quarter, sales of printing supplies that they otherwise expected to materialize in later quarters." (SEC, 2020). These actions have further damaged HP's reputation and raised questions about company transparency and corporate governance.
Successful Balance Between Profit and Faith
I want to talk about two companies that learned how to balance faith and profitability.
Hobby Lobby sells goods for hobbies and needlework, and very successfully: the annual profits of this family firm are in the billions of dollars. But the name of the company does not come off the pages and billboards of American business media, and the reason is not only because of its impressive financial numbers. Hobby Lobby has long surprised its consumers with its consistent, not to say insistent, christianity: a mandatory Sunday off for employees to attend church, several priests on staff to support employees, and advertisements explaining the meaning of Catholic Christmas and Easter. The company's owner spends more than a third of the profits to fund Christian TV and film projects, have opened a chain of religious literature stores, sponsor pilgrimages to Christian shrines, and donate millions to religious education programs in schools and colleges. In 2007, they saved Oral Roberts Christian University from bankruptcy with a $70 million investment. A few years ago, Hobby Lobby challenged in court its obligation as an employer to include oral contraceptives in health insurance coverage for female employees, as required by Obamacare. And in 2014, The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby and allowed it to not pay for contraceptives because it was contrary to the beliefs of the company's founders.
Long before Chick-fil-A became known for its great customer service and for being closed on Sundays, the restaurant was a humble diner outside of Atlanta, Georgia.
After 76 years, Chick-fil-A has grown into one of the largest family restaurant chains in the United States. Chick-fil-A was also the No. 1 fast food restaurant in customer satisfaction for seven consecutive years, ahead of Domino's, KFC and Starbucks.
So how did Chick-fil-A evolve from a small diner in the suburbs to what they have become today?
Any Chick-fil-A fan knows that the chain is closed on Sundays. Samuel was a Baptist, so this rule has been in effect at all of his restaurants since 1946.
“Closing the business on Sunday is our way of honoring God and demonstrating our loyalty to Him,” Samuel Cathy wrote in his book Eat Mor Chikin.
Experts have estimated that the chain is probably losing millions of dollars by refusing to open on Sundays.
Today, Chick-fil-A donates surplus food to free soup kitchens, shelters and nonprofits across the country through its Shared Table program. They also give restaurant employees the opportunity to earn college scholarships and provide grants to nonprofits aimed at helping in categories such as food, community and people.
Both companies that exist in different business areas show us how two ordinary Christian men were able to build their empires balancing the profits and their faith in God.
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Leveraging Social Media for Faith Integration
From Christian perspective one of the main purposes of social media should be to communicate information, which can serve the purpose of Christian mission. Moreover, social media offer undeniable advantages over the evangelistic preaching context of past centuries - speed of information and audience reach.
Christian marketing can also shape consumers' conscious shopping habits and promotes support for charitable organizations. People are starting to ask questions. How environmentally friendly is the product? What impact does production have on the local community? Companies that demonstrate an ethical approach can change consumer habits.
Social media platforms can provide a special forum for companies to make room for faith inside their marketing strategies, therefore forging close relationships with customers while honoring Christian values. Businesses must concentrate on authenticity, interaction, and intentional content if they are to properly use social media to create place for faith. One of the key strategies is to publish testimonials and tales inspired by faith that highlight how Christian in nature the company's goals are.
Personal Reflection
In my personal reflection I want to conclude all my thoughts. Christian marketing should not be just a temporary trend, but rather a long-term and sustainable approach that will impact the future of business and society as a whole, and in this blog I provided two great examples of comapnies and men who were able to do it. Christian marketing is a concept of conducting business processes in which companies think not only about making profits, but also about people, because our main goal should be to serve others, as God does everyday, and Jesus once did on Earth. And such a business model implies not just selling products, but living out the gospel and sharing the word of God with others because that is what God wants us to do, but we also should consider the interests of other people and adjusting goods and services for customers. In this case, the main idea is the mission carried by the company.
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References:
https://thinke.org/blog/your-legacy
https://www.silvales.com/post/5-ways-to-incorporate-faith-into-your-digital-marketing-strategy
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