This is part II of the series, What is the relationship between religions and market share. You can catch up on the introduction here.
Just a recap on how market share could be grown for religions.
- By converting competition users
- By converting non-users
- By adding new users who did not exist earlier
- By making the users consume more of their product in a single usage
- By making the users consume more of their product by finding different occasions
Today, we will cover point no. 1
By converting competition users
Who is the competition to any religion? In India, it is the market share dominant Hinduism vs. other religions like Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, etc. And by common parlance, whoever holds the maximum share controls the market. In the case of religions, they control the narrative.
Humankind started with no religion and have come to this point of converting from one to another, over a period of 13,000 years. There is a quite a bit of marketing to learn here.
Who is the target segment to whom they pitch the conversion? Who make up the numbers and help in increasing their market share?
In India, mostly they are the forgotten people who bore the brunt of the Indian caste system. They make up the huge numbers on a quid pro quo basis. And adding to the pie are the unfortunate people who strongly believe that my God made me go through this suffering and if I convert to this other religion, I can escape suffering to have a peaceful life.
The vulnerable and unfortunate are the prime targets. The converters move with a mission backed by heavy investment. Because they are on a mission, the converters will henceforth be called missionaries. The missionaries later reap the benefits of that heavy investment over centuries of payback through donations, holy places visits and crucial manpower addition by means of spreading propaganda and procreation.
Let us work with a few numbers to understand the marketing bandwagon. All money quoted are for representation purposes.
Suppose a missionary is given Rs. 1000 to convert 10 people. The missionary will pitch to 100 people saying that if you join my religion, I could give you a status with zero baggage or alleviate your suffering. And you do not have to do it for free. Here, take these 5 rupees and improve your lives. They pitch Rs. 5 to 100 people to lure them in for the sermons. Rs. 500, well spent.
But over a period, people evaluate options; a lot of them drop out. Once the gestation period is complete, 10 out of those 100 people convert. And those 10 people are given a joining bonus of Rs. 50 that is left from the remaining kitty of Rs. 500 in the missionary’s budget.
The Customer Acquisition Cost is Rs. 100 (Budget of Rs. 1000 divided by 10 final converts).
The missionary achieves its goal.
The person who was converted got a total of Rs. 55 (Rs. 5 at the pitching stage and then a bonus of Rs. 50 after conversion).
Now, over the period of the convert’s lifetime, he will visit places of worship, make donations, make offspring (who, for no fault of theirs, will follow the same religion) and act as free manpower in spreading the propaganda for more converts (kind of a lead generator).
The first two – visiting places of worship and making donations - are economic activities where money flows back from the converted person to the religion. With the Rs. 55 that the convert got when converted, there would have been an economic upliftment. Most often the reason for the upliftment is credited to the new God who has been benevolent and not the money. This gives him a strong incentive to invest his reaps back into the religion by visiting and donating towards the places of worship. All our transactions with God have been about give and take. God, you make me pass that Applied Mechanics paper, and I will come to Tirupati and sacrifice my hair for you.
The next two – make offspring (who follow the same religion) and a free lead generator are what people do out of love and reverence. When a common man does it with no monetary incentive, he acts out of ignorance (ignorance that he has been played) and to do good for others (I was alleviated from my suffering, you will be too). With no monetary incentive, he works for the missionary machinery and helps them grow the market.
His Customer Lifetime Value is immense. That acquisition cost of Rs. 100 pales in comparison to the lakhs of rupees of value addition he would have done.
Thus, it is in the best interest of religion to grow market share by conversion. It is not an easy thing to do. But it is lucrative as a long-term plan.
On that note, let us dive into this week’s mind!
A. Political
Nothing interesting here!
B. Technology
You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A lot of people can reminisce this dialogue back to Person of Interest. Jonathan Nolan was not kidding when he wrote the series. In this age and time, it is easy to track anyone using their mobile phone. Fun fact is that we are already being tracked at an elementary level by advertisers. Remember when you were flabbergasted on seeing an ad for a product on Facebook right after a conversation about it over Whatsapp?
In this article, Shalev Hulio talks about one of the most notorious spyware companies in the world – NSO Group. He not only talks about how the fine line between security and privacy does not exist anymore, but also the ethical guidelines that his company tries to abide by. Ethical guidelines, and not legal guidelines!
Inside NSO, Israel’s billion-dollar spyware giant, Patrick Howell O’Neill, MIT Tech Review
If the above article piqued your interest, then this should quench your thirst for a detailed profile on the NSO group. Remember the saying, we are all in this together? The we here are the countries and they all are in this together.
C. Marketing
Nothing interesting here!
D. Economics
Nothing interesting here either!
E. Sports
An entertaining week of sports. CSK went from being the best to a team that is struggling to put a formidable playing XI that can chase any total. A shake-up of the starting XI is required. The team management has a week off to think about it before coming back to play on 2nd Oct. Watch out for this space for an in-depth analysis on how Net Run Rate (NRR) has played havoc in previous IPLs.
F. eCommerce
Nothing interesting here!
G. Behaviour
Why social media isn’t really the villain of this age, Manu Joseph, mint
There is one line about hypocrisy in this article, which makes it worthwhile to read. I haven’t watched The Social Dilemma yet. But this article does not have any spoilers. It is purely a funny way to look at the reality of the social dilemma.
Call it an action, a habit, or an addiction. Sharing and browsing photos on Instagram activates those parts of the brain that makes us forget the outside world. TikTok took that kick to another level. They are deep work in maximizing pleasure. Just that this pleasure seeks more pleasure with no diminishing marginal utility. In the end, as life gets in the way, we feel sad and sometimes even depressed. Once we become self-aware of our surroundings, we put away our phones and vow not to touch Instagram again for the day. As reflex would have it, in just a few minutes, we would be back at checking our insta feed. This is akin to a cocaine addiction. After realizing that the habit is killing one from the inside, one vows not to touch cocaine again, but nevertheless goes back to it. Is Instagram equal to cocaine? I do not think so. Instagram if unchecked is a lot worse than cocaine. Oh well, at least we have the Narcotics Control Bureau to strictly control the cocaine supply. Who keeps a tab on Instagram?
H. Books & Cinema
We watched C U Soon. It is a perfect movie to watch at home because you have got to pause frequently to understand what really is going on. Partly because, every detail is condensed in that 1.5 hours run time. And partly because I do not understand Malayalam completely. C U Soon is a movie that you should not miss. Apart from the social message, it also draws too many parallels to the real-world behaviour of people around us.
Spoiler alert: The only way C U Soon is connected to COVID is the way it is shot. And nothing else!
I am still reading the short stories collection, Rhododendrons in the Mist by Ruskin Bond. Such simple writing! It makes you want to go to hills, rent a nice cottage, put your feet up with a warm ginger-lemon-honey tea by your side and read Ruskin Bond. A perfect holiday!
With that, we wrap up this week's musing.
Do share your list of interesting articles that you came across.
And that's word no. 1581!
