According to a new Barna survey, 43% of American adults say they’re open to buying a particular brand if they’re made aware that the company is run based on Christian principles. Most respondents (51%) say they don’t care. Only 3% say an overt Christian faith expressed by brands turns them away. “In other words,” the survey report says, “a product or service managed according to Christian principles generates a positive-to-negative ratio of 14 to 1.”
One-third of all USA adults (37%) say they’d be more likely to knowingly purchase a particular brand if the company embraces and promotes the Christian faith (with 22% expressing the highest level of interest possible on the 5-point scale).
Consumers in the Midwest and South were most likely to express interest in both iterations of Christian business. Nearly six out of ten consumers in the South and half of buyers in the Midwest were more likely to support a business operated by Christian principles. In the West and Northeast, only one-third of customers expressed a preference for a Christian-operated business. Yet, even when asked about the most overt type of faith-based business, only small percentages of customers in the West (2%) and Northeast (3%) said they would be less likely to do business with such an enterprise.
Other demographic segments favoring businesses incorporating Christian elements were women, Boomers (ages 46 to 64), Elders (ages 65-plus), married adults, parents of children under age 18, political conservatives, and Republicans. College grads were slightly less interested than average in Christian companies, though income was not a defining factor for or against.
Young adults (ages 45 and younger, but especially those under the age of 25) were among the least interested in Christian-oriented brands.
One company that didn't need to be told the above research is Chick-fil-A. Read a profile by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "At Chick-fil-A, biblical principles shape business." You may also be interested in seeing CNN's "10 religious companies (beside Chick-fil-A)."
What are the implications of this research for your brand and the marketing strategy for your products?