Marketing and Religion

ABSTRACT Marketing's acceptance by most not-for-profit organizational types (e.g., healthcare, the arts, education, social causes, politics, etc.) has been sometimes slow, but always inevitable. This is not so with religious organizations. While the marketing literature is replete with positive commentary on the use of marketing by religious institutions, complete with “how to” advice for novice religious organization administrators, the religious literature has not been uniformly accepting of marketing thought. This article provides a comprehensive review of both literatures, identifying what we have learned from empirical studies as well as conceptual work on the subject. Tables provide a summary of major findings.