My boss, Randy Renbarger, is truly one of the greatest communicators I know. This is a guy who has a broad perspective on almost every topic, patience with our clients, and a servant heart that just can't be muted. Yesterday he and I were talking about a discussion he was having with other communications professionals in the church world. All of them are giants in their own right, and I look up to them.
During the conversation, as I understand it, the topic of communications noise was brought up. Too many messages, too little space and difficulty unifying that message. This is the core of branding, and it seems everyone is struggling with it. At our church we have about 250 ministries, all competing for "air play."
The complication is there just isn't that much space available. So obviously you start trying to unify messages so that you can speak once but include 10 groups. But, does that do any good? Aren't you still watering down their message and yours.
Another obvious answer is reduce the number of messages that you have, i.e. the number of ministries. Wow, is that tough. How do you tell a ministry seeking to reach out to battered wives that there just isn't enough interest, or a divorce support group that there isn't any more space. Out of all of the professionals on Randy's conference call only one said they could reduce the number of ministries.
So I'm back to my question how can I support and communicate the message of all of those groups. I truly don't have an answer on this. I'm looking. If you have a map let me know.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Look at it this way. There are messages everyone needs to (should)hear and a multitude of messages that are meant for only a portion of that crowd. Think about it as targeting the market. All messages are not and cannot be for everyone. However, if you really know about the members, you can direct those mega messages to a smaller audience so that they "impact" primarily those who should be impacted. Those who have the need that the message(s) is/are seeking to provide solutions or avenues to solutions for. It unclutters the airways and makes the message errupt in the eyes of the targeted viewer. No, it isn't perfect, you'll miss some that neeeded the message and hit some that didn't need the messsage, but because it isn't lost in the clutter it will have more overall impact. Plus, someone who didn't need to hear it may know of someone who did (and may have been missed) and pass it on because it wasn't lost in the clutter and impacted them in another way. The data can always be updated.
guess who read today??? eric! just for you bro. good questions about the church's branding.
I just have to wonder -- is this problem a communications problem, or is it a system problem? I think it's a very worthy goal for you to pursue solving it, but in the end, it may be out of your control. Let me reverse the question some: what would the recipients (members) WANT to see/hear?
Tony you're right on it. We need to seek out what they want to know while at the same providing information on things that they may not have been exposed to. It's definitely a both and.
Post a Comment