Friday, June 29, 2007

Scientology - "A Free Personality Test!" Church Marketing! Yay!

So I used the search engine MSN, now known as "LIVE" (by Microsoft) to have  some fun with a "free personality test." I of course am occasionally searching for who I am, because I'm not exactly sure, I believe like most of us. So I found the top result, being a page on the "Church of Scientology International" web site.

 Like many other personality tests, it begins by asking you for your name and other personal information like your address (not that this is really very necessary to use to gather enough information for a personality test). I just ScientologyPersonalityQuote2assumed they wanted this information about where I live to send me some religious fliers. I enjoy educating myself about other religions or having  some aide in educating myself by a church for example. Unfortunately, in my opinion, that is not why they wanted my information. It turns out, they want my information so they can find a church closest to my home, because they want to (in my opinion, lure... but) entice me to come to their church.

ScientologyPersonalityTest

Scientology Personality QuoteBecause of the nature of the stipulations for taking this personality test ("you must come to our church to get the results," in essence) the presence of a marketing schema seems apparent. It seems the schema is designed to look for those who are those who are trying to find who they are (often, that's why people take personality tests), so that is the perfect place for a church to target their marketing, for people who are willing to try new things, because they're trying to find themselves. That, in my opinion, seems like a business church to me, but then again, most if not all are. I'm not sure if I really blame them in a negative way or not.

Though I'm never particularly thrilled with the business aspects of religion, I'm going to have to admit that in my opinion, preying on those who are trying to find themselves is one of the smartest church marketing tactics I know of. I feel churches use those type of tactics a lot, but to target it so specifically to the kind of people who take personality tests... Genius.

I did a very little but more research on Scientology after fiddling with the personality test. I found where some sources suggest or say "Scientology [as] an unscrupulous commercial enterprise that harasses its critics and victimizes its members, " on Wikipedia.org.  That doesn't sound really good to me, but it doesn't sound that different from multiple other religions I've taken part of. I suppose we all defend what we are, but it's important to know what we are not, which often times must compromise between multiple view points.

A little more research revealed that the popularity of Tom Cruise may be parallel to the popularity of Scientology.

scientology tom cruise

 TomCruiseANDScientology

Source: http://google.com/trends

Now if they could only get Paris Hilton on their side, they'd really be booming! She's more popular than American Idol!

I'm still doing some research on Scientology. I'm really curious to see what their beliefs are. And so you know, from what I've said, I'm not taking favor over any other religion over Scientology, or vise versus. The principals of Buddhism still greatly appeal to me (many of those principals are shared between many religions).

Side note: On the "testing" part of the Scientology Web Site, which I didn't complete (because I didn't trust them, due to the perceived nature of their marketing from my end, I'll leave what you think about their marketing tactics up to you) I found a question that I'm suggesting improvement upon.

"6. Do you get occasional twitches of your muscles, when there is no logical reason for it?" should be...

"6. Do you get occasional twitches of your muscles, when you believe there is no logical reason for it?" or "Do you get occasional twitches of your muscles, when there is no known logical reason for it?" The question in vice suggests that there is no logical reason for whatever  it refers to.

Side note 2: It may be interesting to note that I did a little research on Christianity and Catholicism for a place local to me, and it looks like the popularity of those is declining. You can see some comments on that particular posting

Tuesday, June 26, 2007