TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
1.7 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 DATA ANALYSIS
CHAPTER FIVE
5.0 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
REFRENCE
APPENDIX
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND STUDY
One aspect of marketing that man y researchers have not concentrated much is “ecclesiastic marketing” and according to Sherman and Delvin (2001) it refers to the application of marketing in order to spread a religion, to attract proselytes and to obtain their loyalty and that is increasingly used by different religious groups, through specific institutions such as churches or praying buildings and missions in order to get the wanted answer from a target market. We consider this definition of church marketing being too commercial, referring to religion as a normal service, not as a social one. Another view, of Christian origin is offered by Prehn(2001) which states that religious marketing is a serving measure that consists of a sum of activities (every action and process that tells the story) involved in moving the Salvation good (produced by God through the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ) in order to help the one who intends to become consumer(a lost human being) to accept this Salvation. The limits of this approach lies in two aspects. The first one regards the fact that religious marketing is analyzed only from a Christian perspective. The second aspect is related to the fact that it refers only to the “spiritual” exchange. In reality, church marketing can be used by any Church or religious organization, and the pursued goals can be less grandiose (for example, fundraising).In the opinion of Stevens et al. (2004), church marketing means analysis, planning and management of the voluntary exchange between a religious organization and its constituents, with the aim of satisfying the needs of both parties. Religious marketing focuses on analyzing the needs of its constituents, on developing marketing programs to satisfy those needs, on offering them at the right place and time, on effective and efficient communication with the constituents and on attracting the necessary resources in order to support the activities of the organization. The authors describe the “constituents” of a religious organization as being members, employees, participants, supporters and all other persons affected by the organization.
Churches all over the globe and Nigeria in particular have become a fast growing business. With the daily influx of churches in every nook and cranny in our society, churches have become one of the biggest employers of the labour market. In spite of the growth of churches, the business is facing a lot of administrative challenges. For instance, foremost churches such as Catholic and Methodist have lost most of their members over the years. There has been serious migration from these two older churches to newly emerging Pentecostal churches. In a research conducted by Barna (2008), he discovered there has been no growth in the proportion of the adult population that can be classified as “born again” Christians. (these are people that have made personal commitment to Jesus Christ, accepting Him as their Lord and Saviour). Secondly, he found out that since 1970, there has been no reasonable changes in the number of adult members that attend weekly programmes. Attitudinal studies have also shown that people confidence in churches is fast declining. More dramatic was the finding that the average protestant congregation has fifty to sixty adults who regularly attend Sunday morning worship services.
Emphatically speaking, the churches that are growing will be those that are responsive to the needs of their customers and then satisfy these needs satisfactorily. They are responsive by understanding what those needs are, how they might function to satisfy certain needs, the process by which persons choose a congregation to satisfy their needs, and how to ensure that all this can take place within the structure of a well-defined mission for the congregation.
Many of today’s growing churches have adopted marketing orientation and have also understood the importance of marketing concept and marketing segmentation. This paper aim at offering advice to religious organizations to adopt market segmentation strategies, examine the successful implementation of market segmentation by certain successful growing churches and to suggest some appropriate market segmentation strategies for religious organizations. Therefore, this study focuses on the roles of marketing strategies in enhancing church growth, using ibeju-lekki local government as case study.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
It has been observed that most people are leaving the ancient churches for the newly established Pentecostal churches because of the adopted marketing strategies by the newly established churches. Like every other business, the church Is also expected to meet the needs of their customers ( members) and no one wants to be involved in a business transaction without his/her needs being met.
One of the major challenges faced by most churches in Nigeria is low number of church attendance and a proper marketing strategy is expected to counter this problem. It has been discovered that most churches still maintain the traditional system of church marketing instead of imploring the modern system.
One of the major traditional system of marketing is publicity of the needs met by the church. Women go to any length to ensure that they get children. The religious climate often leads most women to seek help from Spiritual churches. The Spiritualists often explain the reasons for such infertility within a religious context. Items are usually required to perform rituals of religious nature. This is another hot spot for merchandize. These religious vendors of fertility are only too willing to utilize the opportunity to make money by marketing the church using any of the communication tools to tell the outside world what they can do in terms of fertility.
The need of employing a good church marketer helps to give advices on the strategies for creating awareness of the establishment of churches. Most churches are not financially capable to get the service of a marketer and this affects the population of the attendees in the church. These problems make it glaring that there is a need to carry out a study on the roles of marketing strategies in enhancing church growth.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The general objective of this study is to examine the roles of marketing strategies in enhancing church growth, using ibeju-lekki local government as case study. The specific objectives include the following:
1. To ascertain the type of marketing strategy adopted by churches in Ibeju-lekki Local government area.
2. To find out if marketing strategies influences the population of members in churches in Ibeju-lekki local government area.
3. To examine if marketing strategies help to increase the publicity of churches in Ibeju-lekki local government area.
4. To determine the relationship between marketing strategies and the growth of churches in Ibeju-lekki local government area.
5. To investigate the impact of marketing strategies on the finances of churches in Ibeju-lekki local government.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The relevant research questions related to this study are:
1. What is the type of marketing strategy adopted by churches in Ibeju-lekki Local government area?
2. Do marketing strategies influences the population of members in churches in Ibeju-lekki local government area?
3. Do marketing strategies help to increase the publicity of churches in Ibeju-lekki local government area?
4. What is the relationship between marketing strategies and the growth of churches in Ibeju-lekki local government area?
5. What is the impact of marketing strategies on the finances of churches in Ibeju-lekki local government?
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The need for a good marketing strategy for church growth makes this study very important for most religious leaders. Ministry can only escape from the current crises facing it if only it embraces marketing orientation in the current market – driven environment. Churches that are also willing to be marketing oriented must realize that there have been a major shift in population. Consequently, they should also know that church cannot be all things to all people.
This study will enhance the existing body of literature by contemplating the areas of the literature that have not yet been examined or considered and incorporating these factors into the current study. The study will thus form the basis for further studies in the field.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of this study is restricted to the the roles of marketing strategies in enhancing church growth.
Churches in Ibeju-lekki local government area of Lagos state are used as a case study.
1.7 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
Some of the major constraints the researchers encountered in putting up this research include lack of time, lack of willingness to give information by respondent and also limited resources.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Marketing is the process of interesting potential customers and clients in your products and/or services.
Amarketing strategy: is a business’ overall game plan for reaching people and turning them into customers of the product or service that the business provides.