You know how it goes. You come home from a long day at work and turn the TV on as you slump down on the couch. Flipping through the channels on the way to HGTV to see another episode of Fixer Upper, a commercial catches your eye. It’s a scene with a group of friends all chatting and laughing on a white-sand beach looking out over a picture-perfect sunset. All of the people are in their late-20’s and look like they belong at a modeling agency. They aren’t wearing the most modest clothing either.
You notice after a few moments that you can’t even tell what product they are advertising. You hear the seagulls squawking as the camera starts to pan back. Then, finally, you see the product. Everyone in the group pulls out a bottle of beer as the brewery’s logo fades onto the screen.
The full message now makes sense. The company is trying to get you to believe that if you buy their product, you will have a happy life. You’ll look great, won’t have to work, and people will like you. The reason you’re not happy is because you aren’t purchasing and using their beer.
But it’s a lie.
Yet companies use this tactic time and time again. And people believe it. Our culture has bought this lie that if you just have nice things you’ll be happy.
Let me be very clear: this kind of marketing is anti-Christian.
Marketing sometimes gets a bad rap for trying anything to get people to buy products to increase profit. While this is true some of the time, I fully believe marketing can be redeemed for the glory of God. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ should change the way we do everything. This includes marketing.
Here are 5 ways marketing should be transformed by the gospel.
1. Don’t make people think their life will be complete by using your product.
This is the lie the scenario above outlined. Don’t make customer think that they will be saved by buying from you. They won’t. Promoting this lie detracts from the truth that Jesus Christ came so we may have life – and have it abundantly.
Instead, why don’t we promote our products like this: Jesus Christ died on the cross to redeem us from our sins that we would no longer find our identity in material things. This product won’t save you, but as I follower of Christ I want to help solve the legitimate problem you have and this product can do that, contributing to a redeemed culture for the glory of God.
Now I’m not saying you need to explain that in every Facebook Ad, but the overall theme of your marketing should promote a biblical worldview.
2. Promote biblical standards of beauty.
This is one I see even among Christian companies and Christian blogs. Too many of the pictures and videos companies use in their advertising and marketing feature people, both men and women, who are seen by the world as highly attractive.
Why can’t we just use pictures of normal people instead of models? This contributes to insecure feelings among many people, especially youth. Instead, let’s show godliness and righteousness as more important than physical beauty.
3. Don’t entice people to buy things they don’t need or want.
Yes, I know your company needs to sell products to make money and stay in business. You should do that. In fact, I think making a profit is good and biblical. But using tactics to entice people to buy products that they don’t need or want is unbiblical.
Doing so directly contributes to the consumeristic culture that is so prevalent in our nation. So what should we do instead? (Hint: Read #4)
4. Show people how your product or service can help them.
Business has played a tremendous role in improving the standard of living in our country and around the world. Pooling our talents to make products is far more efficient than trying to produce everything ourselves. In his book Every Good Endeavor, Tim Keller talks about how long it would take to build one simple, wooden chair. You would have to first mold metal into a saw, cut down a tree, and cut the tree into smaller pieces. Now you’re still not close to having a chair. But with companies creating chairs instead, you can buy one for the price of a few minutes worth of work.
Let’s make a point in our companies to focus on helping people. We can use our products to improve our customers’ lives. No, our products are not their savior, but they can genuinely be a service to others.
5. Don’t use guilt to increase donation.
This last point is specific to nonprofit organizations. Many great not-for-profits have sprung up all over the world fighting for things like poverty alleviation and the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth. These are noble causes and worth of our charity. But I worry about using guilt as a tactic to increase donations. There is nothing wrong with asking for donations, but guilting people into giving is not right.
Instead, we can show the impact our organization has made in people’s lives or how we are working to fulfill the Great Commission. Showing people what we do and who we are helping are both ways we can promote our organizations without relying strictly on manipulating emotions.
There are many other ways we can redeem marketing for the glory of God. Marketing can certainly be biblical if we think deeply on these topics. Above all, our goal is to point people to Jesus Christ in every facet of our lives. I pray that we would use business and, yes, marketing to do that.