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Communication That Counts.

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PART 5 - Case Studies

After a short break in the action, we’re back with our fifth and final installment in our examination of effective communication!  If you’re just joining us on our journey, let me take this opportunity to encourage you to review our four previous installments and consider the specific elements and implications of each of our 3 M’s – Message, Method and Market.

Today, as promised, we look at some real world examples of effective communication in a variety of forms.  While I could fill this entire installment with many examples of poor communication and lessons in how NOT to communicate, I think it more beneficial to look at practical successes most of us can emulate.  Let’s get right into it!

Our first example is that of a pastor and teacher whom I had the privilege to observe for several years.  Many years ago, I was a staff media technician at a large “mega-church”.  My job required me to be in all of the weekend services, which meant that every week I would hear this pastor teach three or four times to several thousand people.  He was truly one of the best mass-communicators I have ever heard, and among the secrets to his success was an ability to make very lengthy, deep teachings feel light and interesting.

I can still recall one sermon series in particular entitled “They’re My Beans and You Can’t Have Them”.  After a couple of weeks of promotional setup, the pastor had everyone wondering if he was starting to lose it!  Every week he would have the congregation repeat the title phrase several times, in a call-and-response manner.  But you better believe he had peaked people’s interest too!  The very scripturally-based message turned out to be a tremendous teaching, wrapped in a light, fun, semi-irreverent presentation.

This pastor never watered down his Message, but he knew his diverse, inter-denominational Market would respond to UNtraditional Methods.  Another unifying device he would often employ was to have the Baptist in the audience raise they’re hands, then the Methodists, then the Pentecostals, then the Church of Christ, then the Mennonites, and so on.  He would often have a friendly quip derived from denominational stereotypes for each, but his point was always the same.  He would always conclude by admonishing the congregation to appreciate the various backgrounds of their fellow worshipers but remember that there is ultimately only one Church in the city, that being the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Bottom line, this pastor knew his audience and tailored the delivery Methods to make the unchanging Message relevant and memorable.

Our next example is one I was lucky enough to participate in.  For several years, I worked with a large junior high school youth ministry, developing custom communication tools and environments for the students.  Two of our most legendary and effective efforts took the form of simple, no-budget video series whose purpose was as much to entertain as it was to communicate information.

The first was called “Visit To Your Room”, and was essentially just a couple of youth workers making an unannounced visit to a students bedroom while they were at school, and poking fun at whatever they found.  The visit was recorded on a simple camcorder and had virtually NO professional production value.  The students never knew they had been “hit” until they saw their bedroom door on the big screen during the mid-week service, so there was great anticipation each week (no doubt some nervousness too) to see who the latest victim was.  This was primarily an entertainment piece, though it was often used to reinforce upcoming events, as well as to promote an overall atmosphere of fun in worship.  The mortified victims… err…students were always showered with accolades after the video and it became something of a right of passage after a while.

The second video series makes the first seem like a PBS documentary, though it was even MORE effective as a communication tool.  “The Adventures of The Pantyhose-Headmen” was a series developed around two superheroes (actually popular youth workers in home-made costumes, including towel-capes and vacuum cleaner hoses, and of course, panty-hose over their heads and faces).  The series was developed specifically to promote an annual event called Disciple Now, and to build a sense of special importance and excitement around this event.  The series featured a new, short episode each week for the five or six weeks preceding the event and always began with the superheroes waking up from their year-long slumber after the previous year’s Disciple Now (in the plot, the heroes basically lived ONLY for the three day event each year).  Through very basic character development, the heroes became renowned for their annual zeal and the students learned that their appearance meant the countdown to the event had begun.  The videos also provided a fun reinforcement to related announcements, as the plots were always about “getting ready for the event”.

These two video series have one major thing in common, and it’s why they were successful:  they take into account the Market’s sense of humor, lifestyle and interests, and they connect on those levels to communicate the desired Messages, such as “we have fun here at church” and “this event is the biggest thing you will do this Fall”.

Our next example is a more recent effort put forth by our very own Northwest Texas Conference’s Camping Ministry!  After several years of sending out volumes of printed materials to churches and campers, promoting and preparing for summer’s many camping opportunities, Conference leadership decided to give a different method a try.  [I’m not sure they believed me when I told them they could use a MORE effective method AND save a ton of money, but they humored me nonetheless!]

Using a more student-friendly and modern approach, we designed a simple CD-ROM which contained all of the documentation previously mailed in paper form, but because it was on CD, each camper or parent only needed to print out the forms they needed and could ignore the numerous brochures and releases they did not need.  Additionally, the CD allowed us to include promotional posters and links to camp websites and volunteer registration sites.  We were even able to include a promotional video emphasizing the highlights of attending camp, and all this on a simple, automatic computer disc.

When the discs went out, the calls started coming in… and they were overwhelmingly positive!  Everyone loved the new, stream-lined method and wondered why it hadn’t been used sooner.  And would you believe that the first year, the Conference saved about one-thousand dollars over the previous year’s efforts!  This year’s camping CD-ROM and website even garnered high praises from the national office for United Methodist Camping!

This is a fabulous example of using technology to improve on an existing Method, delivering important Messages to a media and technology-savvy Market!

We’ll look at just two more examples of effective communication.

Recently, my company produced a wonderful tool for a ministry that reaches out to business owners and workers.  The ministry had wisely identified their Markets interests and had set up a large booth at the cities annual business expo.  We produced a looping promotional video to be played in the background, which highlighted the benefits of the ministry.  And of course, we did so by interviewing actual business owners and employees who had participated in the marketplace ministry and emphasized the impact on the bottom line of the business.  There is no substitute for knowing your Market’s psychology, values and interests.  They will guide your Methods and give your Message a relevant, meaningful access point to your Market’s mind.

Finally, I’ll round out our examples with one I encountered just yesterday, and it appropriately brings us back to where we began, with a discussion on that stalwart staple of church communication, the bulletin!  Yesterday, I encountered a truly rare item:  a church bulletin that I was compelled to read outside of church!  This was not the sparsely-colored, thin-papered pamphlet we’re all used to getting.  No!  It was an immaculate, elaborate treasure-chest of modern design and impeccably organized information from a mid-sized local church.  It had the look and feel of a much more substantial document, and I felt as if I had been entrusted with an important dossier!  Of course, I jest a bit here, though I must admit that this particular bulletin was so beautifully modern and professional that I was surprised to find weekly announcements and sermon notes included on its tastefully-colored, pull-out leaflets.  At first glance, I was sure it was a special visitor’s packet or something similar; surely everybody didn’t get one of these!  Indeed, they did. 

This church has, in my opinion, made a very wise investment in their bulletin.  You see, I am their target Market.  That is, people my age, with my lifestyle.  And if you couldn’t tell, I was impressed by this church, and solely on the basis of their bulletin.  I don’t attend this church; I don’t even know that much about it.  But I am, today, far more interested in them than I was two days ago, because they appear to understand my interest and care enough to spend considerable resources to communicate their values to me. 

Whereas most churches view the bulletin as an extension of the weekly announcements, this church has obviously had the epiphany that the bulletin is often the first and only in-depth communication they will have with visitors.  And they have decided to take advantage of that opportunity in a substantial way.  Furthermore, they have likely realized that their bulletin is one of the few things with the potential to promote their church once it leaves in the hand or Bible of a member.  I am a living, typing example! 

The content was fairly typical, though not member-centered as many bulletins are.  And while useful to a member, the content was clearly designed with the visitor in mind.  Additionally, not every generation (or “demographic”) would appreciate the modern design of this bulletin as much as my generation would, indicating that they have even further focused this communication tool to connect with people of a certain age and lifestyle.

Bottom line:  an unusually impressive spin on a universally-employed Method to connect their Message with a pre-defined and targeted Market.  (…that worked on me.  I haven’t been able to bring myself to throw it out!)

Refine your Message, Define your Market, then select the best Method to connect point A with point B ®.  At my company, that’s what we help our clients do.  It’s a full time job, as you might expect, and I trust that if you’ve followed along to this point, you will find yourself a bit pre-occupied with these things from now on!