There is a move underway nationwide to appeal to the large and apparently growing number of consumers who identify themselves primarily as people of faith.
In recent years, marketers have seen how word-of-mouth promotion through congregations and other religious organizations contributed to the tremendous success of Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ and Rick Warren’s book The Purpose-Driven Life.
They’ve also seen how both of the country’s major political parties utilize “faith based” organizations to get out the vote.
Conservative Christian groups sponsor voter education campaigns that are credited with increasing turnout of Republican-inclined voters, while Democratic office-seekers commonly speak from pulpits in inner-city churches in an attempt to reach minority voters.
An event hailed as the nation’s first known “faith-based marketing summit” was held in November 2005 under the
auspices of the Faith Based Marketing Association, based in Rockwall, Texas.
“Today’s faith-based marketing efforts are about tying directly into one’s sense of self and building a fluid connection between their values and your company, brand, products, and services,” says Craig Wood, founder and CEO of The Clarity Group, a marketing firm based in Chapel Hill, N.C. Wood has studied the connection of values and faith to consumer behavior since his days with the market research firm Yankelovich.
“[Faith-based marketing]might be more easily done when marketing faith-based products, such as The Passion of the Christ or Christian music, but I have seen it done very well by firms selling other products and services.”
According to Wood, “today’s faith-based marketing is radically different from religious affinity marketing of the past.
“In those days,” he says, “[faith-based marketing] had very little to do with core values and how that consumer defined himself or herself. It was really focused on religion rather than faith.
“Today,” he adds, “consumers are increasingly bringing their own personal values, beliefs, opinions, and aspirations into their day-to-day consumer behaviors.
“One of the most important criteria consumers consider when making a decision--from purchasing a simple product to voting for a candidate to determining how to spend their leisure time--is the consistency of the decision with their values and other self-defining variables.
“The challenge for marketers is to find consumers who link some of their personal values with the values of the brand, product, or company,” he says. “This does not need to be in the area of selling faith-based products.”
It’s nothing new for property/casualty insurance to be marketed to members of religious groups based on their mutual affinity.
“There’ve been companies established for decades to market insurance in connection with religious-related organizations,” says David Lehman, president of Mennonite Mutual, Orrville, Ohio, one of several carriers formed primarily (though not exclusively) to insure the exposures of certain churches and their members.
“One advantage you get out of marketing to a particular group is to tie into the emotional connection to that group,” Lehman says, but those carriers must still meet competitive expectations, even among their targeted consumers.
“If the price and the product are not as good as what’s available on the open market, that affinity is pretty thin,” he says. “Some people will pay almost anything to [buy a product] that relates to a church group, but that’s a fairly small number of people.”
That point gets no argument from Jim Wallace, president and CEO of GuideOne Insurance, West Des Moines, Iowa, who says that, “at the end of the day, a policy has to provide benefits of value.”
GuideOne is a longtime church writer that has distinguished itself, in part, by selling personal lines insurance to individuals who do not consume alcoholic beverages.
In 2005, GuideOne introduced its innovative “FaithGuard” products with features designed to appeal to consumers who regularly participate in religious activities.
Under a “Faith Guard” homeowners policy:
- The medical payments limit is doubled for an injury that occurs at the insured’s home arising out of an event hosted on behalf of a house of worship;
- An insured’s pledged donations to a house of worship are covered up to $750 if the insured suffers a loss of income from a disability caused by an accident at the insured’s residence; and
- The deductible is waived when there is a loss to personal property while it is in the care, custody, and control of a house of worship.
The FaithGuard personal auto policy offers analogous benefits, including a waiver of the deductible for an accident that occurs while traveling to and from religious activities, and a memorial contribution of $1,000 to an insured’s house of worship if a covered family member is killed in an accident involving an auto insured under the policy.
“We felt churchgoers had needs that were not being met by the industry,” Wallace says. “The package of benefits [provided through FaithGuard policies] responds to churchgoing as a way of life, not just a casual activity.
“The more church activity you’re involved in, the more you benefit from FaithGuard.”
The fact that FaithGuard policies are structured to provide benefits to churchgoers is critical in allowing GuideOne to market the policies without having to ask applicants about their religious beliefs or practices.
Atheists, agnostics, and others who rarely attend a house of worship are free to apply for FaithGuard coverage, Wallace explains. An application will be accepted or rejected on the basis of standard, secular underwriting criteria, and the company will likely never know the applicant’s religious proclivities.
Yet, even though the application and underwriting process are religion-free, FaithGuard allows GuideOne to benefit from the new appeal of faith-based marketing.
According to Wallace, the mere fact that an insurer has designed a product to meet unique needs of people of faith has generated enthusiasm in some religious circles.
“We’ve had a pastor get very excited and invite one of our agents to address an entire congregation,” he says. “It’s unusual for someone to invite an insurance agent to address a group. Many of us think that one of the worst things you can do is to sic an insurance agent on your friends.”
If that kind of reception grows, GuideOne could begin to tap into the faith-based channels that were so successful in marketing The Passion of the Christ and The Purpose-Driven Life.
The Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Services (OFIS) is looking to tap the unique ability of congregations and religious organizations to reach out to people.
The office is sponsoring an initiative whereby community and faith-based groups in Detroit and Flint can participate in the formation of non-profit insurance purchasing groups that can bargain for better rates for coverage for residents of those cities.
According to OFIS Commissioner Linda Watters, the initiative is designed to limit reliance on ZIP Code and other territorial rating that, in effect, penalizes people of sound judgment and character who happen to live in poor, crime-ridden areas.
Once established, the insurance purchasing groups must be prepared to provide coverage to all qualified applicants in those communities, without consideration of religious affiliation or congregational membership, says Kathy Fagan, public information office for the OFIS.
In effect, then, the OFIS is counting on the community and faith-based groups to spread the word to enough of their members to ensure that an insurable pool of good risks participates, thus avoiding adverse selection.
“It’s problematic to ask individuals about their beliefs, but I think it’s entirely appropriate to consider partnering with church organizations to identify people of sound character with good judgment and values,” says Daniel Guild, deputy director of the office of community and faith-based initiatives in the city of Lansing, Mich.
At press time, Lansing did not have an insurance purchasing initiative, but Guild was monitoring the progress
in Detroit and Flint.
Limits
There are several factors that could limit the growth of overtly “faith-based” marketing in insurance.
One is standardization. If, for example, the “FaithGuard” benefits for churchgoers prove to be effective in self-selecting a pool of good personal lines risks, other companies may simply choose to copy them and eliminate any product-based competitive advantage.
Another is the likelihood that, at some point, companies may be forced to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable religions.
While Wood at The Clarity Group offers a nuanced view of what constitutes “faith-based marketing,” in general the practice is designed primarily to appeal to Americans who identify Christian belief or a biblically rooted worldview as a defining aspect of their lives.
The Faith Based Marketing Association, for example, has a “statement of faith” on its website that reads like a Christian creed.
Committed Christians might accept that faith-based business practices could legitimately extend to adherents of any of the world’s established religious traditions.
But would “faith-based” marketing have any appeal at all if practitioners could not discriminate against extremist strains or pseudo-religions? Would a company have to offer equivalent benefits to Wiccans as it might to Buddhists? If it did, how would its principal market react?
Wallace at GuideOne acknowledges the theoretical possibility of such a dilemma.
He adds, however, that the structure of GuideOne’s “FaithGuard” policies relegates that possibility to the remote and rare occurrence of a claim where his company may have to determine if an activity was truly religious in nature, thereby triggering the unique policy benefits.
One thing is certain, on their own and in conjunction with the public sector, insurers are likely to explore all options for marketing coverage to those who identify themselves primarily as people of faith.
Faith-Based Marketing 
