Though sales figures for Christian products such as books, cassettes, and CDs run into the billions of dollars each year, the industry as a whole does very little marketing research, says George Barna, president of the Barna Research Group.

Barna's Glendale, California-based company is one of a small number of companies doing research in the Christian products industry. He says that he frequently encounters resistance from prospective clients to the idea of performing research on the Christian market because many people in the Christian-oriented companies and organizations come out of ministerial - rather than business - backgrounds.

"Our company spends as much time educating people about research as it does actually doing research. Because if you look at a lot of the people running the organizations, they basically come out of a ministry background, so they don't understand business, and they have no training in or exposure to research. So the thought of spending tens of thousands of dollars just to get information doesn't sit very well with them. They see it as a risk rather than an investment."

One tool Barna is using to change that perception is the Christian Retail Products Survey. Released for the first time in 1984, the survey was performed again last year. The survey is designed to assess, among other things, the size potential of the market for Christian products, to make clients such as book publishers, bookstore owners, and makers of musical products aware of what's out there.

"That's one of the reasons we do the survey, because by and large, these organizations are not doing that kind of research on their own. They put out materials that they hope will be helpful or useful to the target population, but without any kind of information base, there's no way of knowing if they are."

While acknowledging that the Christian product industry has an important spiritual component, Barna says he tries to remind clients that it is also an industry that needs to understand its market and its audience's needs if it is to grow.

"Our feeling has been that if there was a'greater understanding of the market that they're trying to reach, the marketplace would expand more quickly. All of the surveys we've done over the past few years indicate that that's the case. But for the most part, (these organizations) are working without any kind of current and relevant information for that kind of decision-making."

During the 20-minute telephone survey, respondents are asked about their interest in and purchase of religious products, to find out how much they spend, what types of products they buy, where they buy, and how they find out about them (direct mail, TV, etc.).

The most recent study found that while household incomes among the group surveyed increased substantially, there was very little growth in the amount of money being spent on religious books, compared to five years ago. There was also virtually no brand loyalty to any of the product makers.

"One of the things we looked at was people's recognition of the names of publishers, and for the most part, recognition levels were very low. What people are more attuned to are the topics that are being written about, or the author, particularly if it was an author whose material they had read before and really appreciated," Barna says.

Barna's firm also performs research for a number of private companies as well as other Christian organizations such as individual churches and parachurch organizations.

One study, America 2000, is designed to keep these organizations informed on trends in lifestyles, values, attitudes and behavior related to church activity and religious beliefs, and what these trends mean for the future.

"We're trying to tell the churches, Things are changing, and you need to change too if you want to stay relevant and effective.' We try to outline some of the things they need to start doing to keep pace with that change."

Measuring religious preferences

Barna says that through many surveys, the company has developed a standard series of questions to measure respondents' religious beliefs and activities. These questions are designed to define more precisely the nature of the individual's beliefs, because the term "Christian" means different things to different people.

"One of the things we know is that 80% of the people in this country call themselves Christians, but the word 'Christian' has become a generic term. In many cases it doesn't have anything to do with one's beliefs or spiritual practices, so we're trying to focus in on what the original intent of the word was."

As might be expected, he say s many respondents are reluctant to speak openly about their religious preferences, so the surveys approach the issue carefully.

"It's very different than the consumer product research we do. In those studies, people will talk all day long about VCRs or their television viewing habits and think nothing of it. But if you're doing a study that's focused on (religious preference), you can't just jump right into it. You have to ease people into the whole topic. You have to be very cautious about how you broach the subject."