Come Home to Conservative Judaism: United Synagogue Creates an Ad Campaign
July 2008 – How do you advertise an entire way of life?
More specifically, how do you advertise an entire way of life when among the glories of that way of life is its commitment to openness and variation, its strong core assumption that within certain parameters there are many right ways to do things?
With its new ads, available free to member synagogues, United Synagogue it tackling that question.
The process began when a small committee of Conservative Jews, all United Synagogue lay leaders with backgrounds in marketing or advertising, was formed. Formally United Synagogue’s marketing subcommittee, it was created in response to requests that Rabbi Paul Drazen, United Synagogue’s chief program development officer, has been hearing since he began visiting synagogues across North American in 2005. “Representatives of congregations were consistent in asking for help in marketing their congregations,” he said.
The requests were consistent, and so are the problems faced by many congregations, but the congregations varied widely in many other ways. The Conservative movement, too, is a wide-ranging body. As part of its theology and ideology, it welcomes people and congregations with a wide range of beliefs and practices and draws strength from that diversity.
So if it’s hard to market a product – Do you focus on how well it works? How good it makes the user feel? How competitively it is priced? How cutting-edge it is? How time-tested it is? – it’s even harder to devise advertising for something as complicated and nuanced as Conservative Judaism.
And if it’s hard to define the market for that product – are they people who are new to the entire category? To the niche? Are they older people? Younger ones? Urbanites? Suburbanites? Technologically adept? Luddites? – it’s that much more difficult to decide the idea audience for the way of life that is Conservative Judaism.
“Congregations are held together by their like-minded approach to Jewish life and to Jewish living, but we’re not in any kind of lockstep,” Rabbi Drazen said. “It’s more of a federation; in business terms we’d be a franchise. Our synagogues are not the equivalent of corporately owned restaurants. We have congregations whose practices span the full range of Conservative Judaism. Our member congregations use a wide variety of prayer books, chumashim, and educational materials. The variety reflects the communities in which they are rooted and the varied backgrounds of their clergy and professional staff.
“It’s difficult enough to condense a philosophy or theology into a slogan, but when you’re dealing with a range of users that becomes even more of a challenge.”
With all that in mind, United Synagogue’s marketing committee began its work. After some preliminary discussion a committee was formed, it met by conference call throughout the fall, and then met in person beginning in December. Its first goal, according to its mission statement, was to “identify a contemporary message for Conservative Judaism with words and images.” That message is to serve as the basis for promotional materials.
After considering the results of a series of professionally facilitated focus groups and a professionally designed survey, the committee came up with a tagline, Come Home to Conservative Judaism.
Next, a design firm – Nehmen-Kodner of St. Louis – took on the job of creating the ad campaign. It has produced four ads, each with a different image and the same tagline. Each is designed to appeal to a different group; the assumption is that each synagogue that chooses to use them will pick the one most appropriate to its situation. The range of United Synagogue’s member congregations made it highly unlikely that all the ads would appeal to anyone. The ads are available on United Synagogue’s website in a variety of formats – high resolution, low resolution, and grayscale – and they can be used in different media. They are free to member synagogues; all he aska, Rabbi Drazen said, is an email address. The committee wants to find out how the ads were used, and how effective each one is.
There also is a user’s guide that provides technical information, and an idea guide that lists ways to use these and other marketing tools.
These ads are very much a work in progress, according to Rabbi Drazen. “Our plans include creating more ads, and also making videos. We are very open to new concepts and would appreciate suggestions for ways in which congregations could use our help in establishing a public presence. We’re working to help our member congregations in the areas that are significant to them, to help them present a better public face.”
The goal, in the end, is to help more and more people come home to Conservative Judaism.
