Three marketing lessons from Nairobi’s new high-end church

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Politicians Ronnie Osumba, Peter Kenneth and Esther Passaris at a church service. One Nairobi church is targeting politicians, celebrities and business magnates. Photo/File 

By BONIFACE NGAHU 

Posted  Monday, July 22  2013 at  17:32

There is a new church in town that targets high-end individuals and celebrities. The launch of the church caused many mixed reactions as believers were shocked by the focus of the church.

The new church has been the talk of town because it seems to discriminate some segments of society. The popular opinion is that the word of God knows no boundaries and, therefore, any church should open its doors to everyone regardless of status.

The comment by one of the founders that the church is meant to attend to those people who cannot go to River Road churches was especially considered insensitive and in bad taste.

But we can pick some lessons.

1. Market segmentation.

Different entities have different abilities to serve different types of customers.

Therefore, instead of competing in an entire market where the firm would be competing with probably superior competitors, segmenting the market comes in handy.

Each business should adopt a market segmentation strategy by identifying the parts of the market it can serve best.

Marketing guru Philip Kotler suggests that firms that understand their customers’ requirements can opt for needs-based segmentation approach. Through research such a business can identify the customers who value specific attributes and focus on satisfying their needs.

In case of the high-end church, it has placed its focus on the believers who cannot set a foot on River Road.

While it may sound like one of those middle class jokes about the upcoming rich who wouldn’t know where Muindi Mbingu Street in Nairobi is, we shouldn’t fail to learn the powerful marketing lesson from it.

2. When communicating to your segment, be careful not to offend others.

Remember the Korean Airline online ad that referred to Kenyans as people full of primitive energy annoyed many Kenyans though it was targeted at Koreans who would want to visit Kenya.

3. Mass customisation.

For the sake of those who believe that a church should target everyone, we can say they are calling for a mass customisation strategy.

This would mean that you offer the same service to the whole market but have customised elements for different groups with differing needs.

In a church there is Sunday School for the children, a youth service and may be an evening service for those have a problem waking up early on Sunday.

What the high-end church has done is to select a micro segment that includes people like politicians, corporate heads and musicians. This has created an institution that provides VIP treatment to VIP churchgoers.

The initiative points to a rising affluent class that needs to be addressed by businesses using unique business models.

It appears that what is good for the goose may not always be good for the gander.

Mr Ngahu is the marketing director of SBO Research. E-mail: bngahu@sboresearch.co.ke, Twitter @bngahu