This paper investigates the business of spiritual services and, in particular, the marketing, branding and other promotional policies of pilgrimage shrines. It does so by looking at the spiritual services provided, in the late Middle Ages, by the wealthiest monastery in the Iberian Peninsula at that time, the Monastery of Guadalupe. Only a few years after the young Hieronymite order took over the Monastery, in 1389, it had become a large holding of enterprises devoted to agriculture, stockbreeding, crafts, and charitable and spiritual services (Llopis, 1995 and 1998). The excellent economic results achieved until the mid-sixteenth century can be primarily attributed to the monks' successful branding and marketing practices around the wordship of the Blessed Virgin (Santa Maria of Guadalupe) and all the spiritual services associated with it. The revenue obtained through spiritual services allowed the monks to later increase the sanctuary’s tangible assets (that is, land and cattle) as well.
In this paper, we analyse how the Hieronymites were able to develop a differentiated spiritual service around the icon of Santa Maria of Guadalupe, how they fought against imitation and counterfeiting, and how they got the institutional support needed to create their brand. We contribute, therefore, to a better understanding of the medieval pilgrimage business, an issue little explored by the business history scholarship (Bell & Dale, 2011; Jonveaux, 2015). We offer some insights, furthermore, on marketing and branding at preindustrial times and for the service industry, a time period and a sector usually neglected by literature on the topic (Moore & Reid, 2008; Belfanti, 2017; Bastos & Levy, 2012; De Munck, 2012; Maitte, 2009; Richardson, 2008).