Jesus Christ: A marketing mentor

Being Jewish, I never really gave much thought to Jesus Christ other than in an historical sense. Reading Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Church: Growth Without Compromising Your Message & Mission, I am now of the belief that we can add Jesus as one of history's first marketing specialists (or marketing evangelists!).

Warren's book, which talks about how to grow a church through marketing and grassroots programs, is applicable to any organization looking to develop their identity (purpose) and expand within a defined community.

Warren uses examples from the New Testament throughout the book to make many of his points. While Warren alludes to Jesus as a great marketer, it is not the main focus of his book but one which is of great appeal. Here are just a few points to consider on Jesus' techniques:

- Mass marketing to targeted groups: Jesus attracted large crowds by sharing good news (the Gospel) and using it as an attractive power. The original version of a press conference or town hall meeting?

- Message development: His messaging was brought down to the level of the common people making sure he was understood. He did not "dumb down" his message, he respected his audience's intelligence taking time to understand the group and speak to them accordingly.

- Spokesperson training: Jesus was careful to stay on message even in crowds. Staying on point is important in safeguarding the truth.

- Clear & measurable objectives: The New Testament is full of references about Jesus' uncompromising request for 'fruitfulness' and examples of judgement for being 'unfruitful'. Growth equals fruitfulness. Failure to grow through complacency or self-absorption was no excuse and came with consequence.

- Employee engagement: How far will employees go beyond their job description is a very general way to measure employee engagement. Jesus got this. Matthew was just one example of a "good faithful servant". Faithful servants take on risk for the cause and usually are successful as a result. This was recognized and referred to as "faithful" versus "lazy" as passive, fearful, non-fruit baring servants were called.


These are just a few examples but they give food for thought and perhaps a good idea for a research paper for a marketing student looking for a juicy topic.....