The Creel Blog

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2006-06-05T09:36:00.000-07:00

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The Creel Blog

The importance of being evaluative

2006-05-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

In marketing, a critical (and often overlooked) component of any project is evaluation. This process allows you to step back and examine your process, execution and results.

Let’s say we have a client who sells glove box liners that freshen your car. This client is very serious about his product. He knows it has strong lifestyle benefits and wants as many people as possible to experience it. He has given me, his creative agency, free reign and responsibility to present his product message to the world.

So I go to my office and concept an incredible advertising campaign with humor, drama and the compelling message of a better life.

Every few weeks I meet with my client to discover how he’s doing. Are people coming into his store? Is he generating sales online? Are people actually responding to what we’re doing? If the answer is “yes” to all of my questions, that’s great! We keep on keeping on with the same strategy. However, if the answer is “no,” we step back and figure out what we can do to better move the needle.

Here are a couple of questions we might ask:
Is the message connecting? Do people understand what we’re trying to say?
Is the way we’re sharing the message compelling? Do we give people a reason to care about what we’re trying to say?
Is the medium appropriate? Do the people we are targeting have access to, typically consume or respect the particular way we chose to present our message?

The list could go on, but you get the idea. If we discover the answer is “no” to one of our questions, it’s back to the drawing board to see what we can do to remedy the problem. We don’t look at our audience and say, “Well, it’s their fault they don’t get it. We’ve got a good campaign (that has worked before) with a compelling message and great presentation. Forget them!”

It might be pretty obvious, but this has incredible application for churches as well. We’ve been given creative license and responsibility to present the gospel to the world in a relevant way. Unfortunately, many churches neglect this responsibility and continue with strategies and presentation that have gone unchanged for over 50 years.

Let’s ask the above questions about our churches:
Is the message connecting?
Is the way we’re sharing the message compelling?
Is the medium appropriate?

We never want to change the message. The story of Jesus is perfect and relevant, just as it is. We do, however, need to reexamine the method of our presentation and discover what, if anything, we need to adapt.

Rather than sit back and wait for the “lost” to come through our doors, we need to engage them. Rather than blame the “unsaved” for not understanding our message, we need to speak the message in a language or way they’ll understand.

This is a fine line to walk. I don’t support the consumer-driven church. There are some serious contradictions with the consumer mindset and the life of a Christian. However, it is imperative that we understand our culture and communicate in a way that is compelling and comprehensible.

The burden is on us, not on those to whom we’re attempting to reach.

Cultural Missionaries

2006-04-19T12:02:00.000-07:00

Recently I engaged in a “discussion” with a minister who was adamantly opposed to the idea of marketing the church. “Jesus didn’t market himself!” he exclaimed with frustration.

“As His disciples and His followers, we’re called to love and preach His word,” he continued. “Anything in addition to that extends beyond our commission.”

“When we begin to use the world’s standard of excellence and ‘evangelism,’ we miss the point.”

As I listened to his criticism it became apparent that this man was operating from a different paradigm than I was. He wasn’t looking at the culture surrounding Jesus and the early church, or the steps that were taken to craft a culturally relevant message.

Jesus was a master storyteller who used situations, props and people to communicate His message. He understood the culture and climate of the people of His day and spoke to people where they were. In Acts 17, we read about Paul using the culture of those he was trying to reach to share the Good News.

We believe marketing is not a repackaging of Jesus or the truth. It isn’t a matter of branding Jesus or the Bible in a way that is catchy or clever.

Marketing is clearly communicating the Truth in a language that our culture understands. To neglect this culture is to neglect an incredible number of individuals who are seeking truth.

Too many churches are operating as if the culture hasn’t shifted. We have to stretch, we have to adapt, because reaching our culture IS our commission - let’s be faithful to it.

When a missionary is preparing to go to a new country, he or she immerses himself or herself in the culture – its customs, literature, language, etc. What if we started viewing our current, post-Christian culture as a mission field?

Have a nice day.

2006-03-30T10:14:00.000-08:00

When I’m feeling particularly rebellious, I pop the little white buds in my ears, click on my IPod and sing backup to rocker Jon Bon Jovi’s latest hit “Have a nice day.” It’s a true rebel’s anthem.
“…I ain’t gonna do what I don’t want to. I’m gonna live my life shining like a diamond, rollin’ with the dice, standin’ on the ledge to show the wind how to fly. When the world gets in my face, I say Have a nice day.”

It occurs to me, though, a rebel isn’t really a rebel anymore. And this rock anthem is, in reality, the theme line for a generation of young people being raised by our world. I see it everyday in the attitudes of my children and their friends. They won’t do what they don’t want to. They don’t want anyone to define what’s black or white. This deception permeates popular culture—music, movies, television programming—and it has a full head of steam.

We’re called to bring the truth to this new generation, but we have to be intentional about delivering it on their everyday “rebel” terms. In the words of the immortal greens keeper, Carl Spackler, “If I’m gonna catch this gopher, I gotta think like a gopher.” The last thing we want is to be perceived as being “in their face” and to have them say, “have a nice day.” All of us old school rebels know what that really means.

A letter from Earnest Alexander

2006-01-05T08:42:00.000-08:00

My name is Earnest Alexander. I am writing to you because some of you might be in a position where there is a gap between where you are and where you want to be in your ministry.

I know of several churches in this community with godly leadership and wonderful parishioners with great desires and tremendous frustration. Years of frustration have taken its toll on their passion for ministry. In short, they feel like they’ve lost their way. It’s possible your church might be experiencing the same.

This letter is by no means a solicitation for volunteers or monetary support; it is solely to share with you information concerning a group of people who have been a tremendous blessing to our ministry.

As you know, Youth Horizons is not a church. We cooperate with local churches to reach a group of people who do not frequently attend church. We rely on the church to help underwrite the cost of providing services for the impoverished and fatherless. Over the last 10 years, this ministry has gone from being a small “mom and pop” organization to a world-class Christian mentoring ministry. I do not say this to toot our own horn. It could not have been possible without God’s help and the Strategy Group. The counsel and wisdom of owners Jeff & Laurie Carney, along with their capable staff, have definitely stretched my team and me here at Youth Horizons from time to time. But thank God, they have shown us a more excellent way. While they’re a full-service advertising and marketing firm, their greatest ambition is to help churches, ministries and non-profits accomplish their mission.

To achieve the goal of equipping, encouraging and training churches to be more effective, they have launched a new teaching and training division called the Creel Institute. I urge you, go to their website and explore the services and classes they are offering. Let them help you realize your mission and your vision.

Please feel free to call me here at Youth Horizons with any questions about my 10-year relationship with The Strategy Group and their commitment to helping ministries find their way.

With sincere regards,
Your friend,
Earnest Alexander
President of Youth Horizons

For more information about Earnest or Youth Horizons, please visit the Youth Horizons website.

Q&A with Laurie

2005-12-16T09:45:00.000-08:00

What is the Creel Institute?
We are a teaching and training division of The Strategy Group LLC, a full-service strategic marketing firm established in 1990.

What is the thinking behind it?
It’s not just a new thought. It’s an insistence, a value that goes to our core that national-quality excellence and critical thinking should be as available to Christian ministries as to large multi million-dollar companies! Churches and ministries, large and small, subscribe to the sad idea that if their identities are too vibrant, their constituencies won’t give. If they have the money to create this beautiful new brochure, they don’t need my money. The reality is that ministry must compete in a noisy, saturated marketplace to gain the attention of its publics. It is also true that organizational health increases public confidence in giving.

So the Creel Institute will focus on marketing?
Marketing puts a winsome face on an organization, and that’s really important. But The Creel Institute is designed to drill way down to the core of an organization to help it find true relevancy by asking the question, “What is God’s vision for this organization?” With that question solidly answered, an organization can move on to commit critical resources to effectively work within the scope of the vision.

Explain the Creel Model SM.
The Creel Model was inspired by reading a passage from the book of Exodus in the Bible. It was one of those landscape view, wow kind of moments where you see something with soft eyes. Written in the margins of my Bible in this chapter are the words “Vision. Specification. Equipping. Accountability.” The more I thought about it and talked about it, the more it made sense. It’s amazing to read other passages of Scripture and see the same pattern.

Here’s the idea and the supporting Scripture:
God had a vision for His sanctuary on earth. “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.” Ex 25:8 He provided the specification for that vision down to the smallest detail. “Have them make a chest of acacia wood—two and a half cubits long…Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out…” Ex 25:10-30:38. He equipped His people to fulfill His vision. “I have chosen…and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts…Moreover, I have appointed…Also I have given skill to all the craftsmen to make everything…Ex 31: 2-6 He then held them accountable. “They are to make them just as I commanded you.” Ex 31:11

How do you know if your vision is God’s vision?
This is the most challenging question an organization can ask. We believe vision is found in passion. I love the Scripture in Luke where the disciples talk about their hearts burning within them. That’s the Holy Spirit pressing on them. Or where Paul says in 1 Corinthians, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.” That’s passion. Where is God pressing on your heart? Where do you come alive? Where is there confirming Scripture? Where are there confirming circumstances? Where is there risk? Where will God have to come in power for anything extraordinary to happen? If you can answer those questions in a meaningful way, we think you’ll find God’s vision.

Why do you think there’s a need for The Creel Institute?
We’ve served churches and ministries for many years. We see the same needs again and again. Leaders are overwhelmed and forced in multiple directions. Vision is not broadly understood or articulated. Organizational core messages do not exist. Resources are scattered. Staff are not well trained but nevertheless held to high expectations. Communications materials are poorly concepted and created. Decisions are not strategic. Efforts are not directed. Precious dollars are thrown to the wind in a shotgun fashion instead of allocated in a meaningful way to a targeted audience. The people in key roles are tired and frustrated. Energy is spent on false starts rather than bearing fruit.

What is your hope for The Creel Institute?
To see passion lived out and hope ignited. The creative director of the universe is author and perfector of the most amazing purposes. Our desire is to be invested in helping Christian workmen lay claim to His vision and equip them to fulfill it with grace, skill and precision. When men and women catch fish, He triumphs.

- Laurie Carney, partner/principal, The Strategy Group LLC

Keeping it Creel...

2005-12-05T10:10:00.000-08:00

The Creel Institute is a teaching and training division of the Strategy Group LLC, a full-service strategic marketing firm established in 1990. It is the result of a 10-year vision and passion to help churches and para-ministries become more strategic, directed and memorable—ultimately more effective.

The Creel blog will keep you connected to what's happening with The Creel Institute, exciting marketing news and valuable articles for your organization.