Can the church, like Redbox, see a "sharply higher conversion rate"?

Can the church, like Redbox, see a "sharply higher conversion rate"?

Just up the street from CGS is a 7-Eleven.  In the past I've avoided that store like the plague because its filled with my weaknesses ... Reeses, donuts, ice cream and other temptations.  I'm better off pretending it isn't there.

A month or so ago, an odd shaped red box appeared outside the store.  This contraption is a mini-movie store.  In that redbox sit approximately 630 DVDs with 70-200 titles.  With a quick log-in you can rent a movie for $1/night, letting you head home with a copy of "I Can Do Bad All By Myself"  (or whatever I was going on about) so that you can actually understand my sermons.

This concept started six years ago and now has more locations than Blockbuster.  They are changing the way people rent movies, and, judging by the "Going Out Of Business" signs at the Mill Creek Hollywood Video, the rest of the industry is going to have to adapt in order to keep up.

While I can't find their official mission statement, the main goal of the company is to help people get their hands on new movies.  With more than 22,400 kiosks nation-wide, that mission is being fulfilled.

Interestingly (at least to me) Redbox isn't just stealing customers from other stores.  A recent study found that 20% of their rentals t customers who were not renting DVDs before the introduction of Redbox, but have come back to the industry because its cheaper and easier.

Entertainment wanderers are becoming Redbox users.

Also, more Redbox users end up buying movies.  For the movie studios, that's where the big-bucks come in.  The people who make "Clash of the Titans" will make a little bit of money when you rent a movie, but make alot more when you go and buy it.  The hope is that after you rent a movie, you will convert that rental into a purchase.
Redbox is killing it in the "conversion" area.  Redbox users are 10% more likely to convert a rental into a purchase than any other user-group.  You try it first (for only $1) and if you like it, you end up buying it.

DreamWorks' Jeffrey Katzenberg recently echoed this fact, reporting that Redbox displays a "sharply higher conversion rate from rental to purchase" than other rental companies.

Okay ... I know you're thinking it already.  Why do you care?
Who cares about movie rentals.  Most of it is junk, and the church is supposed to be in the world, not of it.
I honestly don't care about Redbox ... but I do care about getting the gospel of Jesus out there.  In that line, there is alot we can learn from Redbox.
They broke all the movie-rental rules and got creative.
Though they didn't change the mission (getting people to rent movies) they did strip away all the un-essentials.  There are no on-site employees.  Redbox kiosks don't sell candy or popcorn.  You probably won't find old favorites or workout videos.  You'll just find new movies.

By knowing their goals, they were able to get rid of all the other expensive and distracting stuff ... and then grow like wild-fire.

They know their mission and they stick to it.

This is a re-statement of what I said in the paragraph above, but it deserves its own bullet point.  Upselling people on candy and popcorn might work for Blockbuster, but its not in Redbox's model.  They don't do anything but rent movies.

The don't let opposition stop them.

Its not easy being Redbox.  Most of the big movie studios hate them.  Fox, Warner Brothers and a few others won't let Redbox have their movies until 28 days after Blockbuster and the "real stores" get them.  By sabotaging Redbox this way, the studios are shooting themselves in the foot.  (Remember, the big bucks is in buying DVD's, not renting them.)

As we go through LeaderSHIFT, my hope is that CGS will become a little bit more like Redbox.
I want us to be more focused on our mission.
I pray for us to grow in passion and creativity.
As we do this, there will be opposition.  I trust that we will stay together, pray together, and work together through it.
Renting movies is just about money and entertainment...but the local church is the hope of the world.

If Redbox can grow from just 12 kiosks in 2002 to more than 15,000 locations nationwide, renting out more than 500 million DVDs and seeing thousands of new customers daily ... imagine what the Holy Spirit can do with 150 people in this church.