I hope my claims yesterday about Pregnancy Help Centers, in general, losing badly to Planned Parenthood in terms of market share measurements didn’t cause you too much heartburn last night.
Actually, part of me hopes it caused you at least a small bit of angst.
A little pain can lead to a willingness to change.
For long-time pro-lifers, it can be difficult to break out of the “PHC as social ministry” mindset, and embrace a “PHC as business competitor” mindset.
Interestingly, and tragically in my view, we tend not to hold our favorite ministries as accountable to proof of results as we do the businesses we invest in.
Why not?
I would offer that our commitment to social ministries draws much more from the emotional part of our brains, whereas our expectations of the businesses we invest in are fueled by the analytical side.
Therein lies a weakness that Planned Parenthood can, and does, take advantage of.
Planned Parenthood operates, and competes, as a business.
Therefore, it’s singular strategic focus is on what its customers – women facing unexpected pregnancies – actually want.
And what their customers want is to be “un-pregnant.”
On the other hand, Pregnancy Help Centers, in general, while claiming to “be there for the woman,” in reality are primarily motivated to “save the baby.”
If you doubt my claim in this regard, all you have to do is survey the brand names of many PHCs in your area.
Note how many directly reference something to do with the baby.
And by the way, for many (not all!) PHCs that do brand themselves with a woman-centric focus, don’t be fooled. When you pull back the curtains and see how they operate, it’s still all about the baby.
The problem with this from a competitive business standpoint is that the preborn baby is not the decision maker in terms of choosing to buy either abortion services, or the competing alternative: choose life services.
The pregnant mother is the decision maker.
With Planned Parenthood focused on meeting the desires of the purchase decision maker – the pregnant woman – and PHCs focused on meeting the desires of the person who will not make the purchase decision – the preborn baby – is it any wonder who dominates this competitive battle in the marketplace in terms of market share?
If you have any doubt about which industry is winning the market share battle, please consider the statistic that Planned Parenthood, in its most recent annual report, had 332,757 client “wins” nationwide.
I don’t know about you, but I want to support a business that offers a “choose life” product that is so compelling that, if we could go back in time, all of those 332,757 women would have chosen it instead of Planned Parenthood’s offering.
I know. Now you’re going to ask me what that “choose life” product looks like.
I don’t have the answer for you.
However, I have some thoughts on engaging a process that can eventually lead to such a product.
More on that tomorrow…
Regards,
Brett
