In my book, Your Pro-Life Bottom Line, I dedicated an entire chapter to “Marketing is Everything.”
As famed management guru Peter Drucker said, “Marketing is not a function; it is the whole business seen from the customer’s point of view.”
That begs the question for the pro-life community, who is the customer?
I think in most businesses, the answer to the question “who is the customer?” is fairly obvious.
For many in the pro-life community, the answer isn’t obvious at all.
If you don’t believe me, just ask other pro-lifers you know the simple question, “Who do you think the customer is for the pro-life community?”
For some, you’ll get a strange reaction by using the word “customer,” which is already telling, but if they play along with you I guarantee you’ll get a host of different answers to the question.
My answer to the question is controversial and gets some people riled up, but I think the answer is obvious.
In my view, for the pro-life community the customer is the woman who will choose life or choose abortion should she face an unexpected pregnancy in the future.
That’s it. No one else.
Why do I constantly repeat this?
Because women facing unexpected pregnancies are the decision makers, choosing between two options.
And in marketing and sales we have another name for those who are the decision makers in a transaction.
We call them customers.
So if your marketing programs lead to more women choosing life than choosing abortion, then you win in your competition against the abortion industry.
Simple enough.
But some will say, “Yes Brett, but we need to educate everyone about the evils of abortion.”
And I agree.
But “everyone” doesn’t make the decision about choosing life or choosing abortion.
Young women do.
This is why in my book I advocate that the “Pro-Life Business Industry” – frontline life-empowering women’s healthcare clinics – operate separately from the Pro-Life Movement.
The latter focuses on the human rights issue of abortion, whereas the former should focus on competing for patients against the abortion industry.
With a few exceptions, most frontline clinics still operate with a Pro-Life Movement mentality, resulting in confusion about who their actual customer is.
Many clinics think it’s the preborn baby.
But the preborn baby doesn’t make the decision about choosing life.
The woman does.
This confusion leads to a devastating result: Still today about 9 out of 10 women seeking an abortion will end up going through with getting an abortion.
Said another way, our frontline life-empowering women’s healthcare clinics are losing 9 out of 10 of their customers to the competition.
We are not winning.
Brett