I am happy to be back with you following Heroic Media’s National Prayer Luncheon for Life last week.
It was a very successful event, raising close to $2 million to battle against Planned Parenthood’s marketing programs.
During the part of the event when I was on the stage, I had the honor to tell the story of a young woman who faced an unexpected pregnancy last year, and had used the internet to search for information about abortion.
In other words, she was searching for the product offered by Planned Parenthood – abortion.
Twist of Fate
Then, very unexpectedly, she responded to an advertisement that connected her to a completely different product – choose life services.
The moment she responded to that ad, instead of the Planned Parenthood ad, the course of her life, as well as her baby’s life, changed dramatically.
Of course, it’s a wonderful result that her baby is now alive because of that “twist of fate.”
However, if the story were a work of fiction, a literary critic might complain that the author introduced a “Deus ex machina” to save the day instead of letting a more complex plotline play out in the drama.
That term, Deus ex machina, comes from Greek and Roman drama, when a god would suddenly be lowered onto the stage by machinery in order to resolve a plot or extricate the protagonist from a difficult situation.
“So Many Women Don’t Know!”
While I am grateful that the Pro-Life Business Industry has tools like internet direct response advertising at its disposal to win clients away from Planned Parenthood, I think it is safe to say that, for the most part, pro-life Pregnancy Help Centers are the “Deus ex Machina” of prospective clients who are facing unexpected pregnancies.
Why?
Because the standard plotline for the majority of women facing unexpected pregnancies is to turn to the most well-known product: abortion.
This reality struck me again, when, during the event last Friday, I invited the young woman – about whom I shared the story – up onto the stage to share a few words with the audience.
I’m paraphrasing here, but she said something to the effect of, “Please keep doing what you’re doing because it saves lives! So many women don’t know about Pregnancy Help Centers!”
There it is so I’ll say it again: If women don’t know about Pregnancy Help Centers before they face an unexpected pregnancy, then women won’t go to Pregnancy Help Centers when they face an unexpected pregnancy.
From a marketing perspective, you don’t want your product to be the Deus ex machina.
Instead, you want your product to become the one that is the standard plotline in your target prospects’ minds before they have need of your product.
To accomplish that objective requires, you guessed it, BRANDING!
Tomorrow, we’ll look at one Pregnancy Help Center model that I believe is approaching this the right way.
Until then….
Regards,
Brett