Brand loyalty and your church

from The Lead:

Ron Sellers writes in The Clergy Journal about the "brand loyalty" problem facing mainline churches:

• 84 percent [of people in your pews] would be willing to consider switching

denominations.

What to do?

... It’s time to brush up on your branding acumen. Think about brands that have a clear identity. ...

Growing denominational awareness and loyalty within the congregation is not the same thing as selling televisions or mouthwash, but it does have many common elements. Both require:

• understanding what your audience believes, feels, and thinks right now;

• understanding what makes your “brand” different from others;

• understanding how and why the organization can make a difference to members and affect their lives;

• making a conscious, consistent effort to build the brand; and

• clearly, concisely, and repeatedly communicating the distinctives to your audience in a way that is relevant to them.

Read it all...

This is exactly how I feel, I just didn't have numbers about it. We need to know who we are, what we believe, and how what we do brings salvation of life through Christ to the world in which we live. I don't like "church" as product necessarily, but I do think that we need to know who we are and why that matters.