Marketing, Membership & Freemasonry: What the Public Want To See.
This is a long one, and I do have quite a bit of a rant!
When we think about the different ways in which we present Freemasonry to the general public, what message are we sending? What is it that we actually communicate to them through our signs, banners, pamphlets and other materials?
But also, what is our intent from these promotional activities? Many would say that the ultimate outcome of our public presence is for membership. When I think about the all of the different materials we put into the public sphere, the ultimate outcome or end state is always membership based. We want more men to become Freemasons.
If you have any experience in marketing or sales, you will know there are some specific things that are required in order to ensure your message is effective and gets the desired result. In our case, as we agreed before, ultimately its more Masons.
Let’s face it, if more Masons wasn’t the ultimate outcome, then, we wouldn’t put ourselves in the public sphere. We’d actually live up to being a ‘secret society’.
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Recently I have helped a district put together a pull up banner for when they are out in the community. The design was very simple. Square and Compass, HUGE QR Code and the suburbs of the masonic centres which form that district.
But an objection was raised. A miscommunication apparently. In the midst of wanting to generate leads for membership, the feedback, the banner needed to contain images showing the good things that masons do. Which is apparently what the public need to see……. This had me wondering, what do the public actually need to see?
I spend a lot of time talking to Masons about Membership. I won’t go into why, as that will conflate my own personal views with the purpose for which I was speaking with them. But, professionally I have spent my career in sales and personally, I have built audiences across both Youtube and this newsletter turned podcast aka, marketing.
My Youtube Channel is about Drones that you fly through VR style goggles giving you a live feed of exactly what the drone sees. I have done this for a few years, and have amassed a respectable audience of just over 8,000 subscribers. Then, there are the hundreds from around the world who read this newsletter. You are one of them.
From all of this experience, while I am a few nuggets short of a happy meal, you’d hope that I have learned at least something about sales and marketing over that time.
When I talk to Masons about membership, the most common thing I hear is that the public simply do not understand what Freemasonry is. But, I have also found that most Masons themselves, also don’t understand what Freemasonry is.
So lets bring this back to the the point of, what message we communicate through our public presence. Those signs, brochures, pamphlets that are regularly given, received and shortly after binned and never to be seen again.
Today, everyone has one single question on their minds when you ask them to do something. “What’s in it for me”. That’s true no matter what, even with alturism.
When we produce marketing materials, we first need to decide who is the “me” that our message is going to speak to. The message then almost always organically conveys that “what” that is in it for that “me”.
In the example of using imagery that tells the public about the good things, we, as Masons do, who is the “me” that we are speaking to?
Well, think fast, and answer: What it is that Masons do? Now, stop. Don’t read any further, reply to this email.
Send me in a few words (less than 5 words), what it is that Masons do. Go. Do it now!
(Bet you didnt know you could reply to this email and it would reach me)
Welcome back!
I will have a bet that most of the responses will be along the lines of, we do charity (or related), have meetings, socialise. Those will most likely be the top three results.
All three of those responses speak to the “me” who is a Mason. The man standing behind or beside that pull up banner.
This is not to knock or say that doing charity or community service isn’t a good thing, it’s a great thing. The positive impact we have on those who need it is monumental.
But rather, promoting that we do charity is self serving. It only communicates what’s in it for us. That is feeling good about the outcome we delivered and the impact we had on the world, even the small world of the local community. So charity, promoted publicly as the thing that Masons do, is not blessing him that gives!
There is of course naturally a time and a place to promote the charity we do. That being at the moment it happens, but not after and certainly not within an activity or medium for activity.
Here is a way to think about it. I was watching Q&A the other night, the politicians when asked a question immediately went into their default response of explaining how great their policies are around the question, what they have done to address the matter of the question and how much money they committed to the matter of the question. In the end, they didn’t answer the question, but, in the process completely turned everyone off wanting to hear from them.
Telling people how great we are at charity is our version of the politicians answer I just shared. To paraphrase a quote from the Volume of Sacred Law that sums this up perfectly.
Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward
See the more we promote the good things we do, or how great we are, the more we are practicing our righteousness in front of others. In this case, the general public.
Then, we wonder and complain as to why, when we do these public events for membership, we don’t ever “get any members from them”. I wonder why!
If you think about all that is going on in modern life. Wage growth has been flat, the cost of living has been exponentially increasing, house prices and rent are unafforable. Households having two full time income earners with children, schooling (or childcare) and after-school care or sports. Throw in that as life is getting more digital, personal connections fade, genuine friendships and the physical human experience diminish. We are getting more lonelier each and everyday. Consumed in our smartphones and constant notifications. (How many emails, text messages, notifications did you get reading this?)
In this battlefield of modern life, we dare to say in those marketing materials, come and join the Masons so you can put more pressure on yourself, your family, your work and give your time to also doing the good things that masons do.
Then those that do, we say “family, work, freemasonry”.
Then we want them to come and do those acitivities so the burden on us is lessened.
Then we put them through degrees quickly so we have work to do.
Then we put them straight into office, we have them skip office just so we can fill empty chairs and get a Master Mason in the Chair
Then we push them into other orders.
But we’ve told them it’s only one night a month, you’ll find out (what Masonry is) when you join, it’s charity, it’s becoming a better person.
Yet we wonder why they are not engaged or committed and just leave.
We get so caught up in the acts of physical or monetary charity, we forget what charity really is. The word chairty is translated from the Greek word agapē, which means “love”. Masonically, our Ceremonies instructs us that charity is “giving and serving”, and doing so unconditionally even when we have nothing to give.
So how does this all tie back to marketing, membership and “what’s in it for me” (where the “me” is the general public and not us Masons).
The answer is very simple, we need to be giving and serving others.
In this instance of a pull up banner, it’s information. The QR code directs the member to a landing page which gives them information about Freemasonry, explains what’s in it for them from Freemasonry and provides them a way to get more information about the Craft.
And yes, it’s all well and good to say we share “what’s in it for them”. You might think, isn’t being a part of Masonry so they can participate in the good things that Masons do giving them something?
No. It gives us something, rather someone and additional hands to lessen our burdens. But, you may say, it’s the “blessing of giving” that they get. I see your point and I raise you this.
What is Freemasonry?
Our ceremonies are explicitly clear as to what Freemasonry is. Any answer other than (a simple translation of) a peculiar system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols, is not what Freemasonry is.
So then, let’s come back to the request of having images that show the good things that Masons do on the banner. Let’s define what Masons do, before we determine whether they are good.
I’ll start with Charity. Charity is not what Masons do. Have meetings is not what Masons do. Socialise is not what Masons do.
What Masons do is “Practice Freemasonry”
Well, that’s a completely vaugue and unhelpful answer Darren. Let me explain. You’ve come this far. Or have you?
Let’s conside doctors. Medical Doctors. They practice medicine right. You could also say that advertising showing Doctors helping sick people is what they do. But it’s not. If they don’t practice medicine they won’t be able to ever help anyone who is sick.
If Doctors just focused on doing the good things they do, ie helping the sick, instead of practicing medicine; well, you’d still be getting cough medicine laced with opiods. Yes, cough medicine used to have heroin in it. Now I know this is an extreme example, but it clearly demonstrates that focusing on practicing medicine.
But there is more to why it’s practicing medicine.
Medicine is a forever expanding art and science and we must be students of the human body and our expanding understanding of it.
- Dr Anne Malatt.
Why do we say that we practise medicine?
In the article which the quote is from, Dr Malatt uses the definition of practice so substiantiate her position. Much like how I do the same. The definition is:
Perform (an activity) or exercise (a skill) repeatedly or regularly in order to acquire, improve or maintain proficiency in it
Carry out or perform (a particular activity, method, or custom) habitually or regularly
Actively pursue or be engaged in (a particular profession or occupation)
Observe the teachings and rules of (a particular religion).(1)
Now, it should be quite obvious to draw the parallels from why Doctors call it practicing medicine to why we practice freemasonry, however there is a little more to it as to why practicing freemasonry is.
This brings us back to the “peciluar system” definition of Freemasonry. We know it means a unique method of teaching the lessons of intention, character and action through the stories and symbols of ancient stonemasons.
I want to delve into the “peculiar system” part of the defintion. I’ve been trying to figure out what makes Freemasonry a peculiar system. Peculiar means unique, as I mentioned above. But this leads me to what is unique about Freemasonry. Why is it different, but also, why has it stood the test of time.
Not to compare to the organisational success of Freemasonry to other similiar bodies like Odd Fellows, Rosicrucians, the Free Gardeners, Independent United Order of Mechanics, The Order of the Illuminati, or even the ; but in those named orders, there are many similarities, some too close for comfort.
Now we can say that what makes Freemasonry unique is our rituals and ceremonies. But, those formerly mentioned orders all share commonalities in their ceremonies and teachings. Although the mechanics is basically a complete copy of Freemasonry, but splits 3 degrees over 5. In the Mechanic’s ritual, they pretty much replaced any references to Freemasons, Freemasonry, Masons with Mechanics. Like the Gardeners, the Square & Compass appears in their logo.
The mechanics were founded in 1757, in England. Structurally, they were a Friendly Society (like Odd Fellows) and not a Fraternal Society (like Freemasonry). The key difference between a Friendly and Fraternal society is monetary. Friendly societies were the precursor to private & life insurance, superannuation and co-operative banking (or credit unions). The Manchester Unity Odd Fellows evolved into Australian Unity, a Health Insurer, Super Fund, Bank and Financial Advisory business. Just like IOOF.
Their membership was quite prolific, my Grandfather was also an Odd Fellow. But, their consitutions required that you couldn’t be more than 3 months in arrears otherwise you’d forefit your benefits. So the last meeting of every quarter was well attended. But in 1911 (in England) the National Insurance Act was passed, instituting a public welfare system and reducing the need for people to be part of Friendly Societies. You were only a member as it was your insurance. Those that were small, died, those that were big continued. It wasn’t until laws changed in more recent times, did those Friendly Societies evolve into Financial Services companies.
The Mechanics on the other hand, went down the path of a Fraternal Order. They already had “adapted” Craft, Royal Arch and Templar Ritual across their degrees. It’s literally word for word.
What I am trying to get at here, is Freemasonry, despite other systems of teaching the exact same, overlapping or similar lessons— even those that use practically the same ritual (after replacing Mason with Mechanic) is still unique to any other similar body.
So what makes Freemasonry unique. It’s culmination of both the Operative or Guild and Speculative Masonry within Freemasonry. None of the other orders mentioned have that.
Guild Masonry from which it is said that Freemasonry evolved from, still had the moral lessons and standards of intention, character and action told said to be verball passed on and taught through the stories and symbols of the ancient stonemasons who built King Solomons Temple.
The Halliwell Manuscript thought to be from c. 1390 very much lays out what we know as the lessons of moral instruction that we as peculative masons apply or learn from. When you read it, if you know your ritual, you will find the origin of many of the things we do and say in throughout our cermonies, our ancient usages and established customs.
But the point is this. It’s straight from the working tools.
The operative meaning or interpretation from our ceremonies give us the practical lessons and instructions. While the allegory and symbolic meaning and interpreation give us the moral lessons and instructions.
The operative lessons speak to how we apply the lessons in the physcial realm, while the moral lessons speak to the internal or spiritual realm.
The fact that we combine both applications of the lesson from the same symbol or allegory is what makes us unique.
And this is what the public want to know. That want to know what’s in it for me.
What do I get from Freemasonry (not being a Freemason) for giving up my time and putting aside everything else thats going on my life. Well, here is the answer
You learn from the ancient wisdom that has stood the test of time, that gives and teaches you the practical and internal lessons to construct the metaphorical temple.
That metaphorical temple is anything you wish to pursure in life.
By practicing freemasonry, it builds you into a person who life has meaning, purpose, and fulfillment.