The Makeover

How to revitalize a fading brand: the Roman Catholic Church

Image credit: Wired

For nearly a thousand years the Roman Catholic Church (henceforth RCC Inc.) was the greatest commercial enterprise in human history. Today, it’s a sad and faded echo of its former self. Our brief: to propose a business strategy that will return RCC Inc. to a position of market dominance and restore its bottom line.

Let’s begin with current assets:

· One billion two hundred thousand customers, most of whom are still brand-loyal despite all the negative messaging that’s happened over the last few decades

· More than eight billion dollars in cash, plus another forty billion or so in real-estate

· A well-known brand and significant intellectual property in iconography and fictional works

Moving on, we need to accept the fact that previous management has made significant mistakes that have greatly crippled RCC Inc’s market position:

· Discontinued products that were making a significant contribution to the bottom line

· Failure to adequately suppress negative publicity about Church policies of habitual child abuse and pedophilia

· Failure to respond adequately to new market entrants, especially those with greater commercial appeal (e.g. Evangelicals, Baptists, New…