Congregations as Consumers: Using Marketing Research to Study Church Attendance Motivations

This article describes a study that applied techniques more commonly associated with consumer product marketing to the measurement of churchgoing motivations. The study used descriptive research, employing a mail survey questionnaire technique. Results suggest that the top two motivations for church attendance are “giving thanks for life’s blessings” and “providing personal spiritual fulfillment.” Other factors of importance to churchgoing behavior are also detailed. Marketing implications of the study are also discussed, including the selection of themes for church marketing efforts, particularly those building on the themes of “thankfulness,” and “fulfillment.” Another implication suggests that motivational areas that received lower motivation scores, such as “music,” “liturgy,” and “friendly priests” are important to parishioners, and should certainly not be neglected. In a sense, they may represent the basic “product features” that consumers have come to expect from consumer products (such as airbags and antilock brakes in motor vehicles)—and also in their religious services. This study adds value to the field of marketing and religious studies because it builds two bridges from the existing literature. First, it uses market research techniques to link Religious Orientation Scale work to the direct measurement of churchgoing motivations. And second, it extends published marketing research efforts among the general public and among other denominations for the first time to a sample of Roman Catholics.