The use of marketing in the service of the Catholic Church

CONTEXT

The catholic Church in Europe is experiencing a number of challenges to be solved urgently. Among them:

- A decrease in day to day religious practice, a much slower frequentation of churches and weekly offices - except for key life events (birth, marriage, burials,...)

- An increasing difficulty in recruiting new priests

- A huge problem of image and reputation (sexual abuses of priests, bad perception of pope and vatican authorities

- Generally speaking, a growing trend of rejection of traditional bodies in the society (justice, school, church, etc...)

It should however be noted a growing attraction for new forms of spirituality, meaning that there are still needs to answer philosophical and metaphysical questions.

Taking this context into account as well as information and data gathered on the web, please consider the following questions:

QUESTION 1

Can the catholic Church problems be considered as marketing issues ? Why ?

More specifically, can you isolate the 3 major marketing problems to be solved in this case ?

The Catholic Church problems can be considered as marketing issues because it is all about the image that the society has on the religion. The problems that we consider can be solved with marketing are the decrease in day to day religious practice and slower frequentation of churches and weekely offices and an increasing difficulty in recruiting new priests. This occurs because the church has an old- fashioned mentality and really backward to society of our times.

If a few people make mistakes in the church as in the case of sexual abuses of priests does not mean you should condemn the entire congregation, with the help of marketing, everything can be made more transparent and show the society that they can still believe in religion and church.

QUESTION 2

If you were a marketing consultant to the catholic Church, how would you go about solving the problems you indentified. What is the methodology you recommend before getting into solutions.

In my home city in Mexico you can find a church named San Felipe Neri, this congregation found the key for people to came to the church every Sunday and to the main events. They are always full because they combine the catholic songs with electronic music, ligths and technology. They also talk in modern terms. For example, the priest compared the bibile with the internet, it was so interesting and a really easy way to understand the message he wants to give us.

At this point and with the damage Catholic

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