My new shower curtain came with an extraordinary promise.  I haven’t given much thought to what a shower curtain can do for me, but now that I think about it, it really does have a practical purpose: it keeps water from splashing outside of our shower. 

I suppose if I were in charge of marketing a shower curtain, I would say something like, “Now you can enjoy a hot shower and a dry floor!”  That would be enough to sell me.  But that’s not what the packaging on my new shower curtain promised.  No the promise I received is much grander than having a dry non-slip floor to step on to. 

Do you know what I get for owning this particular shower curtain?  Let me tell you what the package said, “Now you can focus on what’s important – creating lasting memories with your family.”

Wow!  I didn’t realize that all I needed in life was this particular shower curtain in order to spend time with my kids.  I kept scanning the package hoping to read that enticing hook line of yesterday’s snake-oil salesman and of today’s infomercial sales people: “But wait, there’s more!” 

Marketers recognize that we humans have deeper needs than mere utility can provide.  This is why they attempt to stretch a product’s utility beyond the practical.

We’re not simply looking for a cup of coffee when we go to Starbucks, we’re looking for a certain ‘mood’ that goes along with the ambiance and their highly interactive staff.  For some, a cup branded with the Starbuck’s logo communicates ‘life-style.’

High-end restaurants don’t sell food (leave that to the cafeteria in your office building thank you very much), they sell ‘a dining experience.’  When Edward Goeppner, former managing partner of one of the oldest florists in the United States was asked, “Why should people want to buy from you?”  He said, “We don’t sell flowers, we sell beauty.”

So why should people want to come to the Cathedral of the Holy Family?

We’re definitely not offering people mere utility.  Our ‘business’ if you will is about meeting the deeper needs of our parishioners and our neighbours.

So why do you come to the Cathedral of the Holy Family?  Are your deeper needs being met?  Is it the music?  The preaching?  The ambiance?  The experience?  Are you creating lasting memories with your family here?

If you could package our church and put a tag line on it like the packaging of my new shower curtain, what would it promise?  Would you promise:  inner peace, a family away from home, connection, hope, opportunities to grieve and celebrate life?

I’m really interested in what you would say.  Please offer your thoughts in the “comments” section below and take the time to read the comments left by others.

Who knows, maybe we’ll be able to deliver on an incredible promise written by you.  A promise I’m certain that my shower curtain can’t deliver.