1. SWOT Analysis: Campus Renewal Ministries
Strengths:
The strengths of Campus Renewal rely on its strong mission statement. Its vision to forge
partnerships in prayer to build missional communities to impact college campuses serves the
CRM brand well. The vision is a complement to the organization. This specific strength helps in
solidifying the brand as a functional, God-fearing organization. In addition, CRM’s websites
have a strong visual appeal. For reasons touched on later, this attribute can only be strengthened
rather than weakened, but for the most part the color schemes in both the CRM site and the
Campus Transformation site are visually appealing and for the most part easy to view and
comprehend information. The biggest strength for this organization is the brand remembrance
that its events provoke within the target publics. Events like Rez Week and One Cry keep the
brand fresh in the public’s eye. They provoke brand association and, if used correctly, can further
the breadth and reach of the CRM brand. Compared to peer campus ministries, CRM has the
advantage of these iconic events. If the pursuit of rebranding is in effect, this strength should be
the foundation on which the brand should be built. This is the strongest and most influential tool
in CRM’s arsenal, and should be exploited with careful and consistent messaging to avoid
confusion between event and organization or vice versa. In conclusion, CRM’s strength is
contingent on the maintenance of the mission statement through the various signature events it
promotes.
Weaknesses:
When browsing through the hubs and official sites of CRM we encountered flaws in the
branding of the organization throughout. First, the logo of CRM has to be memorable,
recognizable and consistent. If you were to browse the UT hub and the CRM official site you can
see the contrast in this most important item. Both sites have a different logo, and although the
name stays the same it does offset the link between the both. What it does is create confusion,
something that can prove detrimental to CRM as an organization. The sites apparently have no
link to each other and the lack of a consistent logo, and perhaps color scheme, worsens the online
presence. We believe that the redesigning or creation of a new logo would be best. We also noted
that the site’s content can be difficult to comprehend by first-reading. CRM must seek to achieve
a comprehensive layout which allows for consumer ease-of-access. This has to be a priority
because it throws away the strength of having a strong visual experience. In terms of content,
CRM must do a better job in improving the type of font and incorporating it into the strong
visual appeal of the site. At times, while browsing through the different tabs and sub-categories,
textual information seemed as if it was copy and pasted directly from a word file, with no care
for customization and compliance to the overall layout. A major weakness is the frequent
confusion between event and sponsor. Talking to target publics within the University of Texas,
they knew all about Rez Week and knew it was sponsored by a student organization but did not
know its name and what it was they did. This is dangerous because CRM seems to be only
known within the inner circles of college ministries and not the general target public of college
students. Better marketing and concise strategizing can solve this issue.
2. SWOT Analysis: Campus Renewal Ministries
Opportunities:
CRM’s noted efforts to promote ministry throughout college campuses have been successful.
Because of this success and years of prolonged growth throughout the Christian communities in
the college atmosphere CRM has the opportunity to brand itself as the go-to religious
organization throughout national campuses. Throughout the years the number of students who
identify themselves as “God-fearing” within campuses has steadily grown. The need for a central
organization that unites religious student organizations in campuses is at a current high. The
development of social media as a tool to incorporate and link various campuses in real time
provides the opportunity of, what we’ll call, inter-connection. The constant use of electronic
devices by our target public gives us an opportunity to divulge and promote the CRM brand. A
plausible scenario would be the creation of a standard CRM app which could provide various
locations of religious organizations to students seeking a religious home away from home. The
creation of the app could be linked to the national and partnering websites, providing CRM with
an increasingly connected consumer experience. At a time where our surrounding environment
becomes increasingly dependent on electronics it would be naïve to not pursue ventures through
this medium. If at all, careful pursuance of an electronic connection with our target will only
steadfastly grow CRM’s consumer traffic, increase brand awareness and heighten its social
presence. Another opportunity would be to have a heavier focus on what we’ll call “feeder”
schools and regions to various universities. Feeder schools and regions would be areas within
states with a higher rate of sending students to schools which already have a CRM affiliate to
their name. During the times of high school graduations through the summer before fall
semesters, CRM could reach out to these schools and local churches and provide any religious
high school organizations in these areas with information about CRM and how it helps provide
incoming students with a stable spiritual presence in the University. This would help prospective
students in knowing where to go when looking for a church or religious organization when they
begin their semesters, as well as helping CRM in already establishing a connection with the
student before setting foot on campus. For our purposes we’d like to call this the “Feeder
Connection Initiative.” This initiative would help in the proliferation of the CRM brand to our
target public.
Threats:
It would be hard to classify peer ministries as threats seeing as we all strive to promote growth
and partnership through the teachings of our Lord. What we do want is to promote what WE do,
and provide students the opportunity to enrich their spiritual lives with the tools and
opportunities we present to them. More than anything, the main threat to our organization and all
the ministries out there is the increasing call of the public to disassociate God from our public
forums (Universities, schools, etc.). As was the case in Vanderbilt, we must be conscious of the
posing threat of these institutions. At a time where what is right by God and what isn’t, college
students face daily social prosecutions which could alter the path they choose to walk. So even
from a business standpoint, CRM must seek to pursue its mission statement and do so rightly.
Conflicting ideals and an age of demoralization of core spiritual values are the biggest threats our
organization faces and they must be addressed accordingly.
3. SWOT Analysis: Campus Renewal Ministries
STRENGTHS
1. Strong mission statement and core
values
2. Strong visual appeal of websites
3. Iconic events solidify the credibility of
the organization
4. Reach of CRM throughout the country
WEAKNESSESS
1. Branding is weak throughout the online
presence
2. Lack of a consistent logo affects brand
association
3. Layout and content of websites creates
confusion
4. Target publics don’t know who to
associate iconic events with
OPPORTUNITIES
1. Growing number of self-described
“God-fearing” students on campuses
2. Need for a central organization to unite
religious student organizations
3. Creation of CRM “app”
4. Feeder Schools Initiative
THREATS
1. Public dissatisfaction with religion
2. Conflicting ideals and hostile
environments for Christian students
3. Public push for dissociation of religion
and education