Chrysler increasingly courts African Americans at their places of worship

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald
From The Washington Post
(December 16, 2006) Automaker DaimlerChrysler AG is finding redemption -- and a valuable new venue for showcasing its vehicles -- in the African American megachurch.

Four of the nation's largest black megachurches, including Jericho City of Praise in Landover, are breaking ground in the worlds of marketing and religion by hosting test drives for Chrysler vehicles this fall. So far, about 500 churchgoers have driven the new Aspen SUV, the new Sebring sedan or the Chrysler 300 on sacred ground that's not known for peddling big-ticket merchandise.

For Chrysler, the experimental test drives mark a coup on two levels: The carmaker has overcome a centuries-old taboo on marketing goods for profit in sacred spaces, and it has gained entry into influential black church circles less than four years after Chicago area black pastors launched a boycott alleging the company discriminated against black customers.

Chrysler has achieved its de facto redemption in part by sponsoring singer Patti LaBelle's 14-city gospel concert tour, which included her Dec. 2 show at Jericho City of Praise. That's one element of the car company's partnership with churches whose memberships range from 3,000 to 27,000 members. For each test drive, Chrysler gives the driver a free concert ticket and donates $5 to the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

The campaign helps Chrysler reach its target demographic more directly than through advertising alone, said David Rooney, director of Chrysler brand marketing at DaimlerChrysler.

"We try to go out to our best prospects in their environment, where they're already engaged . . . and in the African American community, one of the opportunities is the church," Rooney said. Churches provide access, he said, to "opinion leaders who are involved, upscale, new-car-buying types of people."

Twenty years ago, such an initiative would have likely been a non-starter because of black pastors' skeptical views of corporate America, said Tulane University sociologist Shayne Lee. But now, Chrysler is riding a "revolutionary" shift in attitudes, especially in prosperous congregations, where Lee spots an emerging "commercialization of black religion."

Test drives at congregations are "just symbolic of greater changes taking place in the black church," Lee said. "The black church under [Martin Luther] King had sort of prophetic response to corporate America, to raise challenges and attack systemic racism.

"Now we have this new black church that is very conservative, very bourgeois, telling people: 'Hey, corporate America is your friend. God wants you to make money, so you need to know how this world works.' "

Corporate sponsorships of religious activities dovetail with a "prosperity gospel" from the pulpit, he said. Chrysler isn't alone in courting black customers through churches. For years, McDonald's Corp. and Coca Cola Co. have given away free samples of new products at the 25,000-member New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga. This year, discount retailer Target won kudos from Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn by donating 2,000 backpacks for its outreach ministry to children in a nearby housing project.

Still, Chrysler walks a fine line when using church property to showcase its goods, said Christophe Van den Bulte, associate professor of marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

When a company tries "to enroll people's support for a commercial product in a setting that is sacred, that is not supposed to be spoiled by anything else, that can backfire," Van den Bulte said.


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