For decades, Planned Parenthood has stood as the dominant national brand for women facing unexpected pregnancies.
At Heroic Media, we recognize that Planned Parenthood profits from promoting abortion as a solution to women’s problems, and we acknowledge the grave evil of their actions.
However, unless we understand why the Planned Parenthood brand is so powerful, the pro-life movement will not be able to build a credible national counter brand.
Central to Planned Parenthood’s business strategy is their ability to market themselves effectively.
Pro-lifers will often highlight the existence of over 3,000 Pregnancy Help Centers (PHCs) nationwide compared to only 700 Planned Parenthood abortion facilities.
Yet, what many fail to grasp is that most PHCs are small-scale operations with limited outreach and resources, thereby constraining their marketing efforts.
So young women don’t even know PHCs exist.
In contrast, Planned Parenthood operates more like Walmart, a corporate giant, than a collection of smaller, local organizations.
Planned Parenthood has a unified, coherent marketing and operating strategy implemented across all its facilities.
It invests significantly in multi-dimensional marketing programs to ensure that all young women in the local community know that they can get an abortion there.
Despite what many of us may want to believe, the substantial marketing investments made by Planned Parenthood yield tangible results.
With a clear objective to win “market share” in the minds of women, Planned Parenthood competes directly with local PHCs – and the numbers are undeniable: Planned Parenthood is winning the market share battle by volumes.
For example, if the PHC you support with your charitable investment dollars reported saving 50 lives from abortion while the local Planned Parenthood facility conducted 1,000 abortions, would you be satisfied with the PHC’s performance?
That would equate to a market share of 4.7% for the PHC, in stark contrast to Planned Parenthood’s commanding market share of 95.3%.
Put simply, out of every 100 women “in the market” to consider abortion services from Planned Parenthood or “choose life” services from the PHC you support, 95 opt for Planned Parenthood’s abortion offering.
Planned Parenthood’s overwhelming success stems from its business-centered approach.
This approach allows for a singular strategic focus on addressing its customers – women facing unexpected pregnancies.
Conversely, while PHCs are also very supportive of the woman, many times the language PHCs use in their limited marketing efforts is focused primarily on the preborn baby.
It is clear that Planned Parenthood’s strategic allocation of resources toward cohesive branding and targeted advertising that focus on the woman as the key decision maker has played a major role in their “success.”
It is only fitting for the pro-life movement to seriously discern implementing similar strategies for the cause of life.