This book could have been written about religion just as well as about advertising.
A farfetched idea?
Not really. The essence of any religion is communication. From divinity to clergy to congregation.
The problems arise not with a perfect divinity or an imperfect congregation but with the clergy.
How the clergy applies communication theory to the practice of religion will have a major influence on the way religion affects the congregation.
Some years ago, positioning thinking was applied to the Catholic Church. In other words, communication problems of this enormous institution were treated as if they belonged to a major corporation.
This request did not come from the Pope or a committee of bishops. It came from a group of laity who were deeply concerned about what one renowned theologian dubbed a “certain crisis of identity” that had followed in the wake of the reforms of Vatican II.
It was quickly apparent that communication in the Catholic Church was haphazard at best.
While much effort had been expended in improving techniques, the programs lacked a strong central theme or any continuity. (An especially serious problem in an era of electronic overcommunication.)
It was like General Motors with no overall corporate advertising programs. All communication came from the local dealers. Some of it good, much of it bad.
A large measure of the problems could be traced to Vatican II.
Prior to that “opening of the windows,” the institutional Church had a clearly perceived position in the minds of the faithful. To most, the Church was the teacher of the law. Much emphasis was placed on rules, rewards, and punishment. The Church was consistent in its approach to old and young alike.
Vatican II moved the Catholic Church away from this posture of law and order. Many rules and regulations were dismissed as unnecessary. Changes in liturgy and style became commonplace. Flexibility took the place of rigidity.
Unfortunately, there was no advertising manager in Rome when these momentous changes were being made. No one to distill what had transpired and produce a program in simple language that explained the new directions.
After years of not needing a “corporate” communication program, it’s understandable that the Catholic Church failed to recognize the scope of the problem on its hands.
What was painfully lacking was a clear presentation of what the new church was about.
The faithful quietly asked, “If you are not the teacher of the law, what are you?”
In the years since Vatican II, there has been no simple answer forthcoming. No attempt to reposition the church in the minds of the laity. Even in the minds of the clergy, for that matter.
And with no answers, confusion walked in and many people walked out.
For the first time, regular Mass attendance dropped below 50 percent of the Catholic population. This amounts to a 20 percent drop, while Protestant attendance has remained remarkably stable.
There are 20 percent fewer priests, nuns, and brothers today than there were 10 years ago. Vocations have dropped by 60 percent.
One final set of statistics is especially significant. The Catholic Church is presently the “largest community of moral authority in American society.” (A title bestowed upon it by the Protestant theologian Peter Berger.)
Yet when a group of 24,000 highly influential executives were asked by U.S. News & World Report to rate the influence of major institutions, the Church and other organized religions came in dead last.
The moral authority of the Catholic Church was obviously not being communicated very well.
“What is the role of the Catholic Church in the modern world?”
This question was asked of clergy, bishops, laity. Never was the same answer received twice.
Some say there is no simple answer. Some say there’s more than one answer. (Recognize the everybody trap.)
Corporate executives usually have answers to questions like this. If you ask the top executives at General Motors, they will more than likely see their role as being the world’s largest manufacturer of automobiles. Companies spend millions finding and communicating the essence of their products with words like “Whiter than white” or “Fighting cavities is what Crest is all about.”
The Church had to answer this unanswered question in simple, definitive terms. And it had to put this answer into a totally integrated communication program. Then it had to take this program to the flock in a new and dramatic way.
Working out an identity program for a corporation usually entails a retracing of steps until you discover the basic business of a company. This requires poring over old plans and programs. Seeing what worked and what didn’t.
In the case of the Catholic Church, you have to go back 2000 years and retrace the steps of the Church. Instead of old annual reports, you have to rely on Scripture.
In the search for a simple, direct expression of the role of the Church, two explicit statements in the Gospel could hold the answer.
First, during Christ’s ministry on earth, God, as reported in Matthew’s Gospel, instructed man to listen to the words of his Son, the Beloved (Matt. 17:23).
Then Christ, as he departed from earth, instructed his followers to go and teach all nations what they had heard from him (Matt. 28:19).
It’s apparent from the Scriptures that Christ saw the role of the Church as “teacher of the word.”
Because he was “the Son of God,” it must be assumed that his word is a word for all ages. Christ’s parables were not just for the people of his time, but also for now.
Hence they must have in their construction a universality which would never become dated. They are simple and deep. In them Jesus gives to people of all ages food for thought and action.
So it can be assumed that those who proclaim the message today can and should transmit the old message in a new form in their own locality, in their own time, in their own way.
Thus the retracing of steps led to defining the role of the Church as that of keeping Christ alive in the minds of each new generation and relating his word to the problems of their time.
In many ways Vatican II seemed to point the Church backward rather than forward. From “teacher of the law” to “teacher of the word.”
This may seem like a very simplistic, almost obvious answer to a complicated problem.
And it is. Experience has shown that a positioning exercise is a search for the obvious. Those are the easiest concepts to communicate because they make the most sense to the recipient of a message.
Unfortunately, obvious concepts are also the most difficult to recognize and to sell.
The human mind tends to admire the complicated and dismiss the obvious as being too simplistic. (For example, many clerics in the Catholic Church admire the definition of the role of the Church put forth by a noted theologian named Avery Dulles. His answer: The Church hasn’t one role. It has six different roles to play.)
Once the obvious concept had been isolated, the next thing to be done was to develop the techniques for implementing it.
First and foremost was pulpit training. To fulfill the role of “teacher of the word,” the clergy had to become far better speakers and to give far better sermons. (Your best religious speakers today can be found not in church but on Sunday morning television.)
In addition to pulpit training, an introductory film entitled Return to the Beginning was proposed.
The start of any major communication effort often needs some drama to get people’s attention. The emotion of the film medium is ideal for this kind of effort. (Which is also why television is so powerful a tool for new product introductions.)
A wide range of other program elements was suggested, all carefully constructed around the role of the church as “teacher of the word.”
The point here is that once a positioning strategy has been developed, it sets the direction for all the activities of the organization. Even one as large and multifaceted as the Catholic Church.
Nothing.
It has been very difficult to convince the management of the Catholic Church to implement this solution to their problems.
Not only do bishops resist having lay people tell them how to run their Church, but the solution appears to be much too obvious for them to accept. Simplicity is not as attractive as complexity.
And as with most big problems, they don’t go away. If you’ve been reading the newspapers, you’ve probably noted that the Pope is in the process of convening another synod to evaluate the results of Vatican II. The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano said that the synod’s purpose was to resolve confusion that has arisen over Vatican II in the 20 years since it ended.
Will they at long last acknowledge the confusion problems? Will they solve their “crisis of identity” and come up with a communications program that repositions the Church in the modern world? Will this program reconcile the widening gulf between liberal and conservative Catholics?
Don’t hold your breath.