This month's topic: The Nonprofit Marketing Cycle
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| This Month's Topic: The
Nonprofit Marketing Cycle |
NEW EDITION!
The 3rd Edition of my book Mission-Based Marketing is
available, both in print
and electronic
book versions. Significantly updated, with new chapters on
technology and using your mission more effectively, this improved
version can be of great help to you and your organization as you pursue
your mission. Check it out.
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Sites
of the Month
Each
month, this area provides with a number of my favorite and most helpful
sites regarding the topic of the month.
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Management
Tip of the Month
Each issue, I start with a
discussion of my management perspective on the month's topic, and give
you a few hands-on ideas to consider.
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Recommended
Publications
Here, I provide you with my
recommendations on the materials available that can help you
become more mission-capable in the area of The Nonprofit Marketing Cycle
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Technology
I
provide you with some good
ideas for uses of tech to better your organization in the area of The Nonprofit Marketing Cycle
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Marketing
Tip
So much to say, so little space to
say it.....
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Next Issue
In January, we'll start the new year by
examining the first in a two part series: Smart
Stewardship for Nonprofits
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|
Past
Issues:
You can see the topics of past Mission-Based
Management Newsletters, and then view those that are of
interest to you, by scrolling to the bottom of the newsletter, or by clicking here. |
Websites of the Month
Here are my recommendations for websites and
blogs
of interest on this issue's topic: The
Nonprofit Marketing Cycle
Back to Top
Management Tip
The Nonprofit Marketing Cycle
Straight from Mission-Based Marketing -3rd Edition
"Marketing is not an event, it is a process, and one
that never ends. Unlike a linear process with a beginning, middle, and
end, marketing is more cyclical, with familiar steps repeated over and
over as the organization regularly responds to changes in the markets,
customer wants, competition, and innovations in strategy and best
practices.
And, even though it is important to know that the marketing cycle is
just that, a cycle that goes around and around, it is even more
important to understand the hub on which the cycle spins. That axis is
the people you are in business to serve. First, last, and in between,
the marketing cycle for your organization should revolve around the
people you serve. Not around your existing services, not around your
current building or staff or board, but around your ultimate customers."
The marketing cycle as I define it a simple, and yet
very flexible: you can use it fundraising as easily as in staff or
board recruitment, or strategic planning. Let's look briefly at the
steps.
1.
Market definition and redefinition
This first step sounds so basic that it creeps up on people. But the
first question to ask is, who am I serving? Who are the people, the
individuals that I am selling to? How many of them are there? Where are
they? Are they as a group, as a market, growing in numbers or waning?
Your market is not everyone; it is a much, much more defined group of
people.
If you are a private school, it is the parents of
children in the age groups you teach, who are interested in non-public
education and who have the resources to send their children to your
school, and who can make the needed commute. If you are a health
department, for health screenings it might be just people who
don’t have private physicians, or if it was for lead screenings,
just people with very small children who lived in older homes with
lead-based paint. If you are a church, while your dogma may suggest
that the world is your market, in reality, you are most likely going to
appeal to people within five to eight miles of your church. Who are
looking for a church. Who do not already have a church home. A much
smaller number than “everyone” in the community, or even
within your five- to eight-mile radius.
2.
Market inquiry
Having identified your market(s) as closely and finitely as you can,
what is next? Is it to figure out how to sell your product or service
to this newly identified group? Is it to blanket them with literature
so that they will want what you have to sell? Is it to offer coupons to
entice them into your doors the first time? No, not yet.
What is next in the
marketing cycle is to figure out what the market wants (see Exhibit
5-3). How do you do that, you ask? By doing just that, asking. By
asking, asking regularly and then, of course, listening and responding,
you will find out what most people want.
3. Service design and
innovation
Only now that you know who your target market is, and only now that you
know what they want, only now can you shape (or reshape) your product
or service to meet the wants of your target market. This may mean
starting from scratch to develop a new product or service, or, more
likely, the constant amendment, innovation in, and improvement of,
products and services already in place. Remember, not only will you be
redefining your markets regularly, but wants change with time. Even
within static markets, wants change. As a result, you need to assess
and reassess and reassess your services again to ensure that they meet
the current wants of the markets.
4. Setting your price
A sensible price is one that: First, recovers all of your costs of
providing a service or manufacturing a product; second, adds a profit
to that price; and third, meets the realities of the market. The first
and second parts increase the price. The third part usually reduces it.
Let me focus you for a
moment on the first part: full cost recovery. I know far too many
organizations that are convinced that they must under-price their
competition at any cost; that cost is all that motivates a customer.
Thus, they often juggle their costs around so that their sales price
appears to be one that ensures full cost recovery but really
doesn’t. In this way they feel that they are assured of getting
the work, of locking in the customer. What they are really doing is
ensuring that each time they provide the service they lose money. Such
a deal.
It is crucial in price setting to remember that
people don’t buy based on price—they buy based on value.
Price is a variable component of value. For some people price is 99
percent of value, for others just a small amount. If price were the
only issue, there would not be any luxury products or services, no
first-class seats on airlines, no Ritz-Carlton hotels, no limousines
clogging up the streets in our big cities. If price were everything, we
would send all of our correspondence first class mail. Federal Express
would be shut down in a day. So would Gucci, Saks, and most of the
stores on Fifth Avenue in New York, or Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
So don’t just
think about price. Think about value.
5. Promotion and distribution
By now you know your market, You know what they want, you know what you
are providing, and you know the price (Exhibit 5-6). Great. But does
your market know about you? Do they know that you are in business, that
you have this wonderful product or service that is shaped to meet their
wants? This area is what is called advertising. It is cold calls, warm
calls, direct mail, word of mouth, in-person sales, referrals, and
public information. Don’t just shotgun your information.
Carefully gauge how and what you tell your markets. Track how they find
you, and use only those methods that work. Experiment with new ones,
but drop them if they are not delivering for you.
6. Evaluation, evaluation, evaluation
As you have already seen repeatedly, the markets and their wants change
constantly . You need to be evaluating the effectiveness of your
efforts as well. Customer satisfaction surveys are one way, as are
regular interviews with funders, service recipients, staff, and board
members. But you also need to be watching competitors, and tracking
where your customers come from. All of these evaluation tools are
important. The essential thing here is to remember that
evaluation and improvement are critical parts of the competitive
marketing cycle.
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.
Back to
Top
Print Resources
My
recommendations for texts and other
readings on The
Nonprofit Marketing Cycle
 Well, of course, my primary recommendation
is going to be the new third edition of Mission-Based Marketing
but, you might also want to read:
Guerrilla
Marketing For Nonprofits, by Jay Levinson, et al
The Networked Nonprofit, by
Beth Kanter, et. al
Note: there are TONS of nonprofit marketing books (see the links
below), but remember to look at those that deal with marketing as
marketing--not just as fundraising--you'll get more mission for your
money.
To see my recommendations for great books
for nonprofits on a variety of topics,
click on any
of the links below:
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Back to
Top
Technology Tip
The
Nonprofit Marketing Cycle and
Technology!
Straight from Mission-Based
Marketing 3rd Edition:
"
It's right in Good to Great,
the wonderful tome by Jim Collins. “Technology is an accelerator
of a good idea, not a substitute for one.” I could not agree
more, nor could I start the chapter with a better and more applicable
caution. You can't just count on technology to hide bad work, poor
survey development, inferior branding. If you do online surveys but
don't ask the right questions, all you do is get poor information
faster. If you don't target the portions of your website to your
particular high-priority markets, all you do is confuse and frustrate
the people you want to please. If you don't listen and respond to the
comments posted on your organization's blog, why did you ask in the
first place?
That said, technology can really help your marketing
efforts, no matter what part of the nonprofit sector you serve. You can
reach out, ask, inform, schedule, accept donations and communicate more
efficiently than ever before. And that statement is only becoming more
true each day.
One more reality check for you. If you don't use
technology to the max, if you don't reach out online, if people can't
find everything they need about your organization on your website, you
are going to lose two entire generations that are adults now, and every
generation that comes after. You may not be online, or tech savvy, but
these people all are.....as are an increasing number of your
competitors. Tech is, in a very, very real sense, a market want for an
increasing percentage of the population. Eschew it at your peril."
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
Back to
Top
Training Schedule for Peter Brinckerhoff
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 training availability
throughout the next 12-18 months, available topics, sample agendas, and
fees go to www.missionbased.com/training.htm
| 11/04/10 |
Midland, TX |
Generations-AM
Mission-Based Management-PM |
AFP Permian
Basin
Lyman Gifford
Lyman.Gifford@scouting.org |
| 11/16-17/10 |
Baltimore |
Business
Development |
NISH
Ana Rodriguez
arodriguez@nish.org |
| 11/17/10 |
Chicago |
Best
Practices in Board Governance |
Society of
Actuaries
Sheree Baker
sbaker@soa.org |
| 11/19/10 |
Altoona, PA |
Mission-Based
Marketing |
Allegheny AFP
Joe Scialabba
jscialabba@mtaloy.edu |
Marketing Tip
It's all
marketing this month--so here's one more idea Straight from the 3rd
Edition of Mission-Based Marketing.
"If your organization moves toward the market, if it
listens to what the market wants, some day, some week, some month, you
will be confronted by a market want that conflicts with your mission,
your organizational history, or even your personal values.
What are you to do? What should be your guide?
Which, in such a conflict, is “right”—the market or
your mission? Let me put it as succinctly as I can in three sentences:
1.
The market is always right.
2. The market is not always right for you.
3. The mission should be your organization’s
ultimate guide.
The market wants what it wants, and there is no
denying it, no ignoring it, no trying to make it not so. The people
that you serve want what they want, but you can, and in some cases
should, give them only so much. The people who fund you want what they
want, but you can, and in some cases should, give them only so
much—even to the point of turning down their money.
And here is the point: The choice is always yours as an organization.
You can choose not to meet a market want whenever you feel that it is
in conflict with your organization’s mission or values, or that
trying to meet the want would mean providing a sub-par service. And,
further, you have to evaluate whether or not such a market move is in
conflict with your personal values and ethics. "
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.
Back to
Top
Future Topics for
The
Mission-Based Management Newsletter....
| January |
Smart Stewardship-Part 1 |
| February |
Smart Stewardship-Part 2 |
| 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...
|
