Bible College of Victoria looking to refresh marketing strategies

The Bible College of Victoria is one of the 'old-timers' amongst Melbourne's theological landscape. Originally formed as the Melbourne Bible Institute, they have a well established campus and curriculum taking full-time and part-time student enrolments at their Lilydale campus in Outer Eastern Melbourne.

With a relatively new principal (Mike Raiter), a new Administration and Marketing Manager (Patricia Wong), and the recent departure of their publicity officer leaving a vacancy for a review and fresh outlook on marketing, I've been invited to assist BCV in recommending strategy and undertaking many of the routine publicity and marketing tasks that are required.

I'm excited about the opportunity to work with BCV as this is a very rare opportunity to work in an environment whose primary objective is not financial but rather the spiritual welfare of Australia and, indeed, the world. None of my other clients could make that claim! Although responsible stewardship of resources demands that we measure financial performance as a key indicator of our success, I relish the challenge of communicating to potential students and donors about the powerful impact that BCV's theological training has for students serving in the real world.

Bible Colleges generally struggle against society's subliminal programming that says "theology is irrelevant" and so there is the frequent temptation to try to skew courses towards alot of the "how", often at the expense of the "why" - in other words, teaching people "how" to interact with those in need, "how" to counsel them, "how" to "do ministry". The opportunity in this marketing assignment is for us to communicate far more powerfully how a solid "why" base (in other words, a solid theological understanding of the Bible and its principles) provides a far more versatile foundation which can better adapt to any circumstance that arises.

I have no doubt that the lessons learned from this assignment will also give me some further powerful insights into human behaviours and will be an invaluable experience.