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Nonprofit marketing savvy: what does it take to get noticed?
October
25, 2004
By Louise Chatterton Luchuk
Nothing catches the public's attention faster than a nonprofit doing
something wrong. So, what's an upstanding nonprofit to do in order to
get noticed, especially when there are so many, many organizations -
all with important messages - vying for the public's ear? A lot can
be learned from savvy nonprofits that know how to be heard above the
din.
The evolution of nonprofit marketing
"For many years the culture was that if we do our best possible job, the money
and awareness would come," comments Linda Marco, national manager,
communications and development for The
Children's Wish Foundation. "But it's becoming more competitive and
we need more strategy and planning." Brenda Gainer agrees. She
is the director of Nonprofit Management and Leadership and the Royal Bank
professor of nonprofit management at York
University's Schulich School of Business. Her interest in nonprofit
marketing started in the late 1980s while working in the nonprofit sector
and prior to her doctoral work. She saw there was a lot of marketing theory
and models out there but the nonprofit sector didn't have access to it.
Says Gainer, "The nonprofit sector saw marketing as advertising. I think
since then marketing has really evolved in the sector and there is greater
buy-in and attention paid to it."
Gainer sees an evolution in nonprofit marketing that parallels what happened
earlier in the for-profit sector. First, there was a product focus - "We're
a good cause, therefore, people will support us." Gainer finds that many
nonprofits are caught at this stage. It is understandable because, as
she puts it, in the nonprofit sector our "hearts and cause are one." When
we feel passionately about our cause, we tend to think the public will
be similarly interested. The marketing task is simply about bringing that
cause to the public's attention.
Understanding the marketplace
Other organizations moved to more of a sales focus - "We have to get a
lot of advertising out there to persuade people." This approach lacks
an understanding of the marketplace, though. In the 1990s, Gainer saw
large nonprofit organizations move towards a strategic focus that recognized
that marketing was about strategy and understanding the needs of target
markets. The questions to ask became, "Who do we want to be and how to
we want to get that across? What is unique about us and what does the
public value?"
The evolution continues, with a heightened awareness in marketing savvy
organizations that marketing has to be tied to the highest decision-making
levels. "There's not much point," says Gainer, "in developing new programs
without taking marketing into account. Just producing new stuff isn't
good enough. You need the public supporting it. That means that marketing
becomes part of the planning function; marketing moves up from an operational
function to a strategic function."
Strategically engaging the media
The marketing strategy of The Children's Wish Foundation does not include paid
advertising. This may come as a surprise considering how well known their
name is. Instead, the foundation's strategy includes public service placements
on television, radio, and in print, as well as editorial exposure. The
key to making it work, says Marco, is the ability to understand what the
media want.
"You need to produce a product that they are proud to air, something of
high professional quality." In fact, the foundation filmed its latest
public service announcement in high definition because media is moving
in that direction and there is a shortage of material. However, even having
professional material is not sufficient. Marco is in constant contact
with her media list, making sure any promotional material arrived safely,
asking if it is in the right format or if there is anything else that
they need. As she says, "it's up to us to make it easy for them to help
us."
Bombardment of media and messages
Ask Penny Marrett, CEO of the Canadian Mental
Health Association (CMHA), about the evolution of nonprofit marketing
and what it takes to get noticed these days and she points out the effect
of a multiplicity of media possibilities that exist today. "People in
general are bombarded with messages. So you have to do something so different
that makes people stop in their tracks. That makes it that much more of
a challenge for nonprofits. Nonprofits don't have the type of dollars
to ideally deal with this."
That is about to change for the CMHA. They are the inaugural winners of
the Good Cause Award, a national
public service announcement (psa) campaign worth more than $2 million
in donated creative development, production, and media placement. The
CMHA's proposal stood out from a field of 200 applicants that was later
shortlisted down to five. The campaign will launch in the spring of 2005
and run until the end of the year on CanWest Global TV and in CanWest
newspapers across Canada. "This is a phenomenal opportunity for us. It's
a major boost," says Marrett.
Practical and philanthropic
The Good Cause Award is the brainchild of Frank Palmer, chair and CEO of
DDB Canada, a Canadian leader in
marketing communications. The award is Palmer's way of "mobilizing creative
talents to provide a bigger voice (and a national stage) for an admirable
cause." The award also addresses a practical situation for Palmer. His
company has always chosen to give back to the community, usually assisting
one or two nonprofits per year based on causes important to employees.
"But what happens is, if you do one or two a year this year, the next
thing you know is a whole bunch more come asking for assistance,"
says Palmer. "We decided to change our process." Hence, the Good
Cause Award.
Advice for small nonprofits
There's no denying that competition to get noticed is stiff and marketing is evolving
into a huge and very complex function. However, marketing savvy is not
limited to the larger nonprofits. Gainer encourages small organizations.
"A lot of the strategic planning, thinking, and research about markets
can be done very cheaply and almost on the back of an envelope." Consider
your target markets and how to reach them. Consider your unique selling
points and what segments of the public value these features. In short,
discover your highly relevant message for a specific target market.
Louise Chatterton Luchuk is a freelance writer and consultant who
combines her love of writing with experience at the local, provincial
and national levels of volunteer-involving organizations. For more information,
visit www.luchuk.com.
