November, 2007 -by Peter C. Brinckerhoff

This Month's topic: Generation Change and Marketing

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My New Book on Generation Change Is Available!  My newest title, Generations: The Challenge of a Lifetime  for Your Nonprofit is available for review and purchase at the  Fieldstone Alliance website. I'm really excited about the  reaction to this book, and I know that the issues covered in it  are affecting your nonprofit and will continue to in the coming  years. Check it out.

Websites of the Month

Here are my recommendations for websites of interest on this month's topic: Generation Change and Marketing

www.startribune.com/308/story/473877.html	Interesting article on selling to different generations from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
nationalserviceresources.org/epicenter/practices/index.php	Really good piece on outreach for volunteer work to different generations.
http://www.hals.lib.tx.us/plan123/2generations.htm	A piece from the Texas Library system on working with different generations.

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Generation Change and Marketing

Regular readers know that marketing is one of my favorite topics: certainly it is the most widely useful standard business skill a nonprofit manager can possess. Yes, even more than budgeting, and we can have that discussion another time.

For now, let's agree that targeting your marketing efforts to a wide variety of generational wants is crucial to your success. So crucial that I included an entire chapter in Generations on the subject.
Straight from Generations:

"In generational marketing, there is no larger issue than what I earlier labeled MeBranding. To quickly recap, MeBranding is the result of the ability to ultra-customize products and services down to the smallest possible denominator: the individual. Think of it as the old Burger King slogan “Have it your way!” writ large.

Not only is MeBranding a technical possibility and a marketing strategy, but it has morphed into a consumer expectation across generations, but weighted more heavily the younger you go. As I said in Chapter 2: 

“When I can go online and design and order a one-of-a-kind running shoe just for me, that’s MeBranding. When I can go to ITunes and download just the music I want, mix it just the way I want, and listen to it to the exclusion of all the other bothersome noise called “The World”, that’s MeBranding. When I can order a cup of coffee with 5 adjectives in front of the word “coffee”, and a company builds its business model around that fact, that’s MeBranding. When I can watch “You’re Right!” news, read a “You’re Right” newspaper or magazine, that’s MeBranding.”

But turn this around. Now I go into a store and when I can only get regular or decaf coffee (no latte, no cappuccino) I’m disappointed. When I am stuck in a hotel and can’t Tivo my show (to avoid commercials), I’m bummed. When I can’t do what I want, when I want, the way I want, I’m frustrated. 

Again, as I noted in Chapter 2, this can result from a lack of common experiences, a reduction in appreciating other’s tastes or perspectives and most importantly, a disconnect from other people. And for those of us in the nonprofit sector, this is a big, big problem. Again, a quote from Chapter 2…. 

Now think about it in relation to nonprofits. What is the core of nonprofit service? Of nonprofit volunteerism? Of nonprofit mission? It’s this: It’s NOT about us. It’s about someone else. Will MeBranding affect our recruitment of staff and volunteers, or of securing donations? Also, most nonprofits offer an array of services, but not ultra-customized ones—we don’t have the money or the infrastructure for that. What will this mean to our ability to provide wanted services?

So, the issue of me branding is very, very important. Dealing with MeBranding is just the extreme extension of my long standing belief that marketing in nonprofits is about meeting people’s needs in a way that they want, and here’s the key: what individuals increasingly want is not to be a part of a market, but to be the market. One by one."

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If you found this hint helpful, there are lots more management, marketing, and technology ideas for you in the "Ideas" section at www.missionbased.com. Check them out--they're free.

And, remember to take a look at the Mission-Based Management Blog.

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My recommendations for texts and other readings on Generation Change and Marketing.

These are all my writings. Mission-Based Marketing and its associated workbook are publishes by John Wiley and Sons.
Generations: The Challenge of a Lifetime for Your Nonprofit.

Mission-Based Marketing

Mission Based Marketing Workbook

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Generation Change and Marketing...and  Technology
In any marketing effort, the basics are still the basics. Who is your market? What do they want? How can we get it to them? What's the price? What's our evaluation benchmark?
After that is done, and done every time, you can use technology to help.

Certainly with GenX and Gen@ using technology is more important. Recently, after a lecture on generation change, a participant wrote me about asking his staff (all attorneys) about what they wanted changed in their benefits array. He had sent out a survey, on paper, and got perhaps 3 or 4 back (out of approximately 60 attorneys) over a week or so. Then he sent the same information out in a SurveyMonkey survey, and got 35 back in two hours.

Hmmm. More straight from Generations:

"Go where the market is, remembering that different markets have different techspectations. My daughter’s generation is on their phone, on the web, and instant messaging. My (boomer) friends use their email (but hate spam), and spend more time on the web, while reading their snailmail less and less. GenX and Gen@ want reviews and online discussions. Everyone (and I do mean everyone) hates slogging their way through automated answering systems. 

Some members of your community strongly prefer paying their bills, purchasing their concert tickets, making appointments, or making donations online; while some recoil at the thought.

The challenge is to create a mix of these technologies that give the choice to the consumer/user/donor in a manner that is both seamless, while not condescending to any one group. And that’s not easy."

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If you found this hint helpful, there are lots more management, marketing, and technology ideas for you in the "Ideas" section at www.missionbased.com. Check them out--they're free

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Below you'll see the date, location, and topics of public training I'm currently scheduled to do in the next few months. For more information on a particular speaking engagement, get in touch with the contact person listed in the right hand column, or email me.

For more information on my availability throughout the next 12-18 months, available topics, sample agendas, and fees go to www.missionbased.com/training.htm

11/1-2/07	Vienna, VA	CRP Recruitment and Retention	NISH Therese  Stein Tstein@nish.org
11/13/07	Columbus, OH	Mission-Based Management & Financial Empowerment	Ohio Council of Behavioral Health Care Providers Hubert Wirtz OCWirtz@aol.com
12/6/07	Tampa	Generation  Change	Achieve Management Karen Ryals kryals@achievemanagement.com
1/10-11/08	Anchorage	Generation Change	The Foraker Group Laurie Wolf lwolf@forakergroup.org

Generation Change and Marketing

Well, this is the key subject isn't it? Here's some more, straight from  Generations, and it's about the basics, which, as I said above, never change, no matter what generation you approaching:

"We need to talk a little about a key mistake that nonprofits regularly make in marketing: Assuming people will seek what they need. We are so good at needs analysis, needs assessment, diagnosis, and the like (which is unarguably essential to our work) that we take on the attitude in marketing that if we build it they will come. And yet, we know the assumption is flawed. Do communities need the arts? Of course. Then why are they always underfunded? Do people need to live healthy lifestyles? Of course. Then why are we in the U.S. the most obese nation in history? Do we each need to have an SUV? Of course not, but we’re still a nation of SUV drivers.

 My point is that while we all have needs, we all seek wants. In marketing our services, our jobs or our volunteer opportunities, we need to know what people want if we are to be successful. To do that, we have to be willing to ask.

 The most common, and most fatal mistake you or I can make in marketing is saying or believing this: “I’ve been in this business 15 years and I know what these people want. I don’t need to waste money or time asking.” Do you remember what told you in the staffing chapter about this attitude? I said that yes, you did know a lot about your markets, and probably could rattle off 75%-80% of what your market wanted, but its that last 20-25% that makes the difference between a good organization and a great one.

Finally, remember that the wants (and concomitant value) are defined by the market, not by you. Just because you know someone needs something, that it would be good for them, does not translate into their wanting it. The user perspective is key. This is what I refer to as the marketing disability for most nonprofits. We are so used to doing needs assessments that we can’t translate into wants assessments. I tell audiences all the time that while for-profit marketers make people want stuff they don’t need, we non-profit marketers should try to make people want stuff they do need. The dynamic (people seek wants) is the same.

 Never assume. Ever. Ask."

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If you found this hint helpful, there are lots more management, marketing, and technology ideas for you in the "Ideas" section at www.missionbased.com. Check them out--they're free.

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Future Topics for
The Mission-Based Management Newsletter....

December	Signs of Organizational Trouble
January 2008	Reorganizing Your Board of Directors
February	New Communications Tools
March	Generation Change and Finance
April	Greening Your Nonprofit
Send me your topic suggestions at: peter@missionbased.com

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You asked, so here they are: Past Single-Topic Issues of the Mission-Based Management Newsletter...

	2004	2005	2006	2007
January	Business Development	Strategic Planning	Generation Change	Conflict of Interest
February	Fund Raising	Leadership	Accountability	Generation Change and Your Staff
March	Volunteers	Core Competencies	Ethics and Management	Admin Costs
April	Financial Management	Expanding to New Markets	Staff Satisfaction	New  Tech Ideas for Nonprofits
May	On-line Marketing	Endowments	When Boards Cross the Management/Policy Line	Generations Change and the People You Serve
June	Transparency	Tech and Mission	Staff Rewards	Mentoring
July	Nonprofit Start-up	Sustainability	Saying No to Community Needs	Better Cash Planning
August	Governance	Ethical Benefits	Board and Non-CEO Relations	Small Nonprofits
September	Political Activities	Entrepreneurship	Executive Transition	Generation Change and Technology
October	Attracting and Retaining Younger Staff, Board, and Volunteers	Internal Communications	Advocacy	Crisis Management
November	Outcome Measurement	Board Recruitment	When Boards Fail
December	Lifelong Learning	Better Budgeting	Conflict of Interest