It’s pretty difficult to get excited about plastic food containers, don’t you think? That said, since their inception in the 1940s, Tupperware have done a phenomenal job of marketing their product.

They have been so successful that they have become to food containers what bic is to ball point pens and sellotape is to adhesive tape. They were one of the early pioneers of ‘social proof’ – relying on friends to market to each other rather than all the marketing coming ‘from the top’. Long before we had ever thought of trading with each other online and checking out each other’s feedback ratings, people were picking up the Tupperware in other people’s kitchens and thinking ‘well if she uses it, maybe I should too’.

Social proof 

Social proof is now a discipline all of its own, with advocates, experts and forums to prove it! Professor Robert Cialdini conducted a survey into the impact of notices in hotel rooms which encouraged clients to reuse their towels. The replacement of a standard notice with the words: “75% of other guests in this hotel use their towels more than once” brought 25% more uptake. Adding the words ‘in this room’ brought even more.

We are social creatures and the social proof that a product or message matters to someone else is a major influence on us. The billions of dollars poured into social media marketing, where we can become ‘friends’ to a brand of a crisp or a type of washing powder are further evidence of this.

Religious professionals 

All this has major consequences for the role of the paid religious professional in spreading the 'message' of Jesus. People who choose their car or their energy supplier because of what their friends think rather than what the experts think may well make decisions about faith in the same way.

Writing in August 2012 Church-in-a-circle stated that ‘in this modern, marketing-savvy world, the pastor has reduced credibility as a paid employee of the organisation’. If the theories of social proof are to be believed, then the role of the professional religious communicator is secondary rather than primary in the aim to introduce others to Christianity and its claims.

More talkative friends

When Jesus looked out at his faithful band of followers and told them to ‘go into all the world and make disciples’ (Matthew 28: 19-20) there was not a religious professional amongst them. They were all from other walks of life. As the Jesus movement gathered pace and spawned churches, denominations and professionals to staff them, all of that changed. In time there would be not only local church professionals, but the itinerant ‘sales force’ of the Christian world – exporting the Gospel from village to village and continent to continent.

To suggest that all of these things should be abandoned in an attempt to turn back the clock would seem sheer folly. We have churches and denominations, and we need people with training to look after them. Not only that, but the skill base built up by para-church organisations can benefit us all. I think what we need is not fewer professionals, but more talkative friends who will provide the ‘Gospel of life’ with the social proof it deserves.

A velvet rope 

Some people describe social proof as the ‘velvet rope syndrome’. If you put up a velvet rope outside a shop or a restaurant, it will not be long before somebody starts queuing outside it from sheer curiosity. Wouldn’t it be great if the faith that makes us tick was so ‘relateable’ and naturally attractive that it 'put up a velvet rope' and people couldn't help be drawn to it out of sheer curiosity?

What do you think makes people want to share their beliefs?

Do you think sharing your faith is appropriate, or do you prefer it to be a ‘private’ thing?