Abstract

Whether you are the company marketing a product or service or the consumer considering its purchase, the primary underlying premise of the marketing transaction is hope. Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. It is often accompanied by positive feelings, such as optimism and a sense of confidence in the future. In its simplest form, hope is a belief that the future will be better than the present. The car sales manager hopes the new model car will outsell the prior year’s model. The customer purchasing the vehicle hopes the new car will run more reliably than their old one. In fact, a compelling case can be made that all business marketing transactions are embedded in the biblical concept of hope. This paper explores the relationship between marketing and the biblical principle of hope. It further explores the directions for future research into this area.