Marketing Life

Recently I've begun reading some blogs and books on marketing. Especially blogs by Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki. Interestingly I found Seth Godin's blog while reading Wil Wheaton's blog (Wesley Crusher from Star Trek TNG in case you were wondering). Wil reads Neil Gaiman, so he must be intelligent, right?

I know that any church I'm a part of should be growing. Not because numbers are important, but because I want every person in the church to be a life saved by God. I also want them to be someone who shares God's love and truth with everyone around them (yet another thing I'm not so hot at myself :) ). To do that we need to run an organization like a marketing firm, having a quality product people not only want to buy but also want to tell others about.

Let me ask you, what's the last thing you bought that you really loved? Ok, with that in your mind, how many people did you tell about that thing? If you know me, try to guess what would be on my list and compare it to the one below:

• Rachel
• Erin
• God
• Wegmans
• Coldstone Creamery
• Youth Group
• Buick LeSabre
• 80's music
• Romance movies
• Deep Impact
• Galaxy Quest
• Star Trek (TNG, Voyager & DS9, TOS was just ok, movies were all awesome)
• Cable Modem, DSL of some sort of Broadband Internet access (a hint to the above comparison :) )
• Friendship

This list is just what pops off my head of things I love and the things I talk about as lot. How many did you already know? We really talk a lot about the things we love with other people, even strangers (at Don Pablos I recently asked our waiter if he was a Christian and whether he wanted to be our new youth minister, as Christine suggested, that's talking about what you love).

I feel completely and utterly out of my depth in this field. Working with people is ok, but marketing to someone who doesn't even know we're there is harder. It's especially hard when you think that for someone to really talk up something it can't just be good, but has to be incredible. People don't talk about the sweater they got for Christmas because, while it's ok, it's not incredible. They do talk about the XM Radio they received (well, I do anyway).

So, what is it in your life that you love? Something you're incredibly passionate about? When is the last time you worked it into conversations with friends or strangers?

What would it take for you to tell other people about church or God? Why don't you make that the reality within your church (if you have one)?

Peace,
+Tom/Bob

posted by Tom at 2:14 PM