Getting Tough with Customers

Who gets my prize for the world’s all-time best marketer?  This may surprise you: the Catholic Church.  Certainly it has longevity on its side: by comparison, “old” brands like Ivory Soap and Hudson’s Bay are mere pups. 

Over the millennia, the Church has built the world’s greatest global brand – the original brand icon – to such an extent that it can afford to displease, even anger many of its customers and still count on their unmitigated loyalty. The crucifix is recognized everywhere, inspires intense emotions, transcends language and culture and is the only brand I can think of that people would die for.

So when the Catholic Church announced a minor change in doctrine recently, it was interesting to view it as an initiative in competitive branding.  Through God’s brand manager, Pope Benedict II, the Church declared that it was abandoning the long-held doctrine that unbaptized infants who die proceed to Limbo – not Heaven, nor Hell, nor even Purgatory, but a “special place” where they await the end of the world. By contrast, Muslims believe that unbaptized infants go straight to paradise – an important difference in developing countries with high rates of infant mortality.  So the Church’s announcement was a product improvement to match competition on a key attribute.

A few weeks before, Pope Benedict had angered the Islamic community with his ill-chosen words about the prophet Muhammed, unwisely quoting from an ancient text by 14th-century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus. While the matter was later patched up in an admirable show of brotherhood, it remains true that the two major religions are locked in intense competition for the hearts, minds and souls of the developing world.

Moreover, the Church faces other competitors.  Applying Michael Porter’s famous “five forces of competition” model, in addition to internal rivalry between Catholicism, Islam, and others there are (relatively) new entrants in the form of Mormonism and a variety of cults; substitutes in the form of environmentalism or other causes; supplier power in the form of the community’s shrinking supply of clergy; and buyer power in the form of grassroots movements questioning Church doctrines.  By any measure, this is an intensely competitive market.

In such a competitive environment, it might surprise you that the Church is also not afraid of angering its own customers on issues such as birth control, abortion and female clergy – to name but a few.  But the Catholic Church didn’t get where it is today by ignoring the needs of its customers.  Quite the contrary.

The Church, and other religions, at their core are all about customer experience.  Customers are prepared to give their time and part with their money in exchange for a sense of personal well-being and transcendence.

As the Church shows time and time again, if you get the essence of the brand right, you can afford to dissatisfy customers on less important attributes – indeed, a tough stance can actually enhance your status with your core target group.  It’s important for consumers of religion to know that their Church “stands for” something, much as Harley-Davidson riders like their sense of macho exclusivity, or Virgin’s customers want to be associated with values of youth, fun and flamboyance.

The Church nevertheless faces many challenges, not least the disaffection of its customers in developed countries and the decline in vocations to the priesthood.  Apparently easy solutions to these problems, such as softening its stance on core values around contraception, abortion, female and gay clergy, will only alienate its core customers in developing countries.

While the Church may not like to see itself as a “marketing” organization, it is nonetheless an outstanding one.  It gives the lie to the assumption that you have to be infinitely malleable to satisfy customers.  Yet where business organizations conduct surveys and focus groups to understand customer needs, the Church (and others like it) understands its customers simply by staying close to them – through daily contact with parishioners and by playing a role in shaping their values.  The Church’s decentralized organization is an ingenious way of maintaining intimate relationships with customers.

The lesson for the rest of us?  The customer is not always right.  You don’t need to be all things to all people: focus on your core customers and give them the experience they want (but nevertheless may not be able to articulate).  To do this, you need to have an intimate understanding of their lives and where your experience fits within them.  Once you know this, Heaven’s the limit.