Social and Cause Related Marketing

Tripathy, Priyanka

Social and Cause Related Marketing

Communications - Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Social Media

Summary

Social Cause Related Marketing (CRM) has emerged as a top management priority in the last decade due to the growing realization that it is one of the most valuable intangible tools that firms have to gain a better corporate image from Internal as well as External Customers.
Most marketing organizations do not intentionally work in isolation from the rest of society. Instead they find that greater opportunity exists if the organization is visibly accessible and involved with the public. As we’ve seen, because marketing often operates as the “public face” of an organization, when issues arise between the public and the organization marketing is often at the center. In recent years the number and variety of issues raised by the public has increased. One reason for the increase is the growing perception that marketing organizations are not just sellers of products but also have an inherent responsibility to be more socially responsible, including being more responsible for their actions and more responsive in addressing social concerns.
Being socially responsible means an organization shows concern for the people and environment in which it transacts business. It also means that these values are communicated and enforced by everyone in the organization and, in some cases, with business partners, such as those who sell products to the company (e.g., suppliers of raw material for product production) and those who help the company distribute and sell to other customers (e.g., retail stores).
Marketing in an NGO usually means attracting human and capital resources. NGOs today use various marketing principles and techniques to influence a target audience to voluntarily accept, reject, modify or abandon a behavior for the benefit of individuals, groups or society as a whole. However, this is true only in case of some NGOs, while most of them are finding great challenge to collect funds, in building credibility, getting more people involved and in general to carry out its social activities.
The book is primarily targeted to serve as text book to Post Graduate, M.Phil. and Ph.d students of research methodology in all disciplines of various universities. The book seems to be designed specifically for the students who are newcomers to research, and who may have a basic barrier with regard to the subject. The areas covered in the book follow a simple to complex approach in terms of their discussion.

Excerpt

Being socially responsible means an organization shows concern for the people and

environment in which it transacts business. It also means that these values are communicated

and enforced by everyone in the organization and, in some cases, with business partners, such

as those who sell products to the company (e.g., supplier of raw material for product

production) and those who help the company distribute and sell to other customers (e.g.,

retail stores).

Marketing in an NGO usually means attracting human and capital resources. NGOs today use

various marketing principles and techniques to influence a target audience to voluntarily

accept, reject, modify or abandon a behavior for the benefit of individuals, groups or society

as a whole. However, this is true only in case of some NGOs, while most of them are finding

great challenge to collect funds, in building credibility, getting more people involved and in

general to carry out its social activities.

MEANING AND DEFINITION OF MARKETING

Many authorities define marketing in different ways because there is no universally accepted

definition of marketing. Some of the widely accepted definitions which highlight the essence

of the subject are:

1. Marketing is a process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and

distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual or

organisational goal (American Marketing Association).

2. Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain

what they need and want through creating offering and exchanging products of value with

others (Philip Kotler).

3. The UK Chartered Institute of Marketing describes it as:

Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, satisfying and meeting

customer's requirements profitably.

Some common points emerge from these definitions. These are:

1. Marketing is a management process.

2. Marketing offers and exchanges ideas, goods or services.

3. Marketing is identifying and anticipating customer's requirements.

4. Marketing is giving customers what they want.

5. Marketing involves pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods, or services.

Therefore, marketing activities would cover:

1. Scanning of the environment (Demographic, technological, legal and social-cultural

environment)

2. Finding out the customer's needs and wants

3. Deciding which of the wants or whose wants the organisation can satisfy (this is the

"Segmentation" and "Target Market" Strategy)

4. Developing a "Marketing Mix" (these are the four Ps of marketing: Product, Price, Place,

Promotion) to satisfy the needs and wants of the target group

5. Periodically evaluating the marketing efforts

Marketing is by definition a system if we accept the dictionary meaning of a system.

Certainly, the interaction and interdependence of such factors as product, price, place,

promotion (marketing mix) fits the definition.

The "system approach" provides the best mode for studying marketing activity. It helps in the

determination of marketing and organizational goals, the development of marketing

programmes and the total marketing mix. Adoption of a system approach to the study of

marketing provides a good basis for the logical and orderly analysis of marketing activities. It

stresses marketing changing environment, provides a framework for control, and depends on

using the right information.

The first to propound this aspect was (Wiebe, 1952) and later the others (Kotler and Levy,

1969; Kotler and Zaltman, 1971;Fox and Kotler, 1980) established this thought. In fact, it

was (Kotler and Zaltman,1971) who defined "social marketing as the design,

implementation and control of programmes calculated to influence the acceptability of social

ideas and involving considerations of product planning, pricing, communication, distribution

and marketing research". "Thus, it is the explicit use of marketing skills to help translate

present social action efforts into more effectively designed and communicated programmes

that elicit desired audience responses. The marketing techniques are the bridging mechanisms

between the simple processes of knowledge and the socially useful implementation of what

knowledge allows."

They suggested that the role of marketing encompasses helping solve some of the

fundamental problems being faced by a nation's economic and social environment. To this

extent, it can be assumed that the full import of the social marketing concept of

developmental programmes has not been explored and in a sense, this is a need unique to the

developing countries. The state being ascendant over society, it cannot remain a passive

bystander while the society undergoes a natural evolution process. It has to intervene with a

set of carefully designed social change strategies which would accelerate the pace of

development.

IMPORTANCE OF MARKETING

The marketing definition itself "...satisfying customer needs profitably" excluded nonprofit

sector. In this regard, Kotler and Levy (1969) were the first to point out the social aspect of

marketing and indicate that nonprofit organizations exercise marketing activities (Denney,

1998) even though marketing is considered inappropriate for their needs (Brennan and Brady,

1999). From the societal perspective marketing is a process through which individuals and

groups satisfy their needs through `creating, offering and freely exchanging products and

services of value with others' (Kotler and Keller, 2006, p6). Thus, marketing facilitates the

exchange process between organizations and the society for fulfilling the community needs.

Many authors have criticized this concept because marketing is concerned with markets

characterized by buying-and-selling whilst this exchange is not practiced at nonprofit sector,

therefore according to him marketing concept was stretched `to far' Luck (1969).

Nevertheless, all organizations, be it profitable or non-profitable perform: financial function

(raising and managing money); production function (use inputs to produce outputs);

personnel function (hiring, training, assigning promoting and firing people); purchasing

functions (selecting sources of suppliers), in one word perform business functions.

If NGOs perform these functions then they also perform marketing functions, although NGOs

do not acknowledge it (Kotler and Levy,1969). The only difference of the marketing function

at the nonprofit sector is that there is `clear distinction between resource attraction (donors)

and resource allocation (beneficiaries)' (Sargeant, 1999).

Every NGO has its customers or market (Kotler,1972) otherwise why attract resources if not

able to allocate them. Depending on type, function, and influence of the organization

different authors (Sargeant, 1999; Brennan and Brady, 1999) identified different categories of

customers with less formal relationships compared to for-profit sector (Gwin, 1990). IN the

other hand Brennan and Brady (1999) re-conceptualized NGO customers', by using the `six

markets model':

· Customer market comprises of recipients (beneficiaries) of the product/service and

donors;

· Referral market comprises of people and/organizations who refer potential users to

the organization (i.e. current customers, suppliers friends and family);

· Influential market comprising of influential people who are able to influence others

with word of mouth (artists, football players, singers etc);

· Suppliers market are people and/or organizations which supply the goods and

services, ideas for customer markets (intermediaries, funding agencies);

· Internal market are current employees, volunteers, board members of the

organization who are directly involved in service provisioning;

· Recruitment market are potential employees, volunteers, and board members who

are interested to contribute to the community.

For the sake of simplicity NGO markets are categorized in three broader groups:

Volunteers, or internal market, who offer their time, knowledge, and experience for the

benefit of the society but at the same time indirectly benefit themselves (Brennan and

Brady,1999);

Beneficiaries (customer market) who benefit directly from the reception of goods or services

provided by the organization; and

Donors (suppliers markets) comprising of all donors including individual donors, corporate

donors, government funders

Marketing becomes important so as to make Donors aware of the good social work which an

NGO is doing for the Society. It helps attract more donations which can be used for more

projects and activities for the beneficiaries. Marketing also helps to spread awareness about

the social cause of the NGO and hence attract more non-paid basis, self-motivated people to

work as Volunteers. Nonprofit organisations need to focus on building their brands in order

to market their vision, credibility, value, and impact of their work.

In marketing their brand, they should also be accountable to their donors and other relevant

stakeholders. In addition, they should develop a culture of transforming their monitoring and

evaluating their data into case studies and other materials that could be of interest to the

donor market. These materials will also help them to build credibility for their causes. Lastly,

they should develop interactive websites to enable their staff to interact with donors/potential

donors, volunteers and other interested stakeholders.

Although nonprofits perceive marketing as not necessary, distrustive (invading privacy),

immoral (misusing marketing tools), and as something that stifles innovation (Sargeant,

1999). Nevertheless, marketing is becoming very important for nonprofit sector, due to

globalization, deregulation, boosting of information technology and increased competition as

a result of large number of registered NGOs, while affecting the sustainability of the NGOs.

In view of the above circumstances NGOs more and more are employing marketing

instruments thus becoming more like private firms (Clarke and Mount, 2000). The

advantages of employing marketing are: improved level of customer satisfaction; assistance

in resource attraction and allocation; identifying organization's competitive advantage;

defining the framework in order to minimize the marketing resources.

NGOs do Social Service and hence it's an obvious thing that we can use basics of Services

Marketing to NGO Marketing. But as the Services are not provided for-profit basis we find

some crucial differences here and there.

7 PS OF NGO SECTOR:

PRICE: NGOs need 'funds' for implementing their programs, carry out the projects; there is

a cost associated with almost all the activities carried out by an NGO. Hence the allocation of

amount generated through donation is planned for the cost of execution of projects and vice

versa.

PLACE: NGOs operate through their Offices and Centers. They can set-up their

shops/canopy of the products which are made by their beneficiaries like handicrafts, arts,

greetings, drawings etc.

PROMOTION: Promotion is very important and relevant term in Marketing of NGOs.

Direct Marketing, Publicity, Sponsorship, Public relations etc. play vital role in NGO

Marketing.

PRODUCT: Non profit Organization can sell products made by their beneficiaries to make

them self-sufficient and improve their confidence. So here Product is equivalent to the

'benefits' provided to the target group by NGO.

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE: Donors pay generously. So they expect their money to be used

for the correct purpose and hence 'physical evidence' of the 'use' of this money helps gain

more donations.

PROCESS: There is a process of generating funds from donors and allocating it to projects

which imparts benefits to the community. Hence the process through which NGOs generate

funds from Donor Agencies is crucial in NGOs sector

PEOPLE: NGOs are completely people-oriented Organizations. Non-paid Volunteers who

help on various projects are the most important people involved in NGOs. Apart from that

founders and members of NGO and the employees etc. are the people who work of the

community through NGOs.

UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL MARKETING

Social marketing is nothing but adaptation of the methodology of marketing to social

imperatives with the objective of achieving social change. Before we go in for more details

let us first develop clarity on the type of organisations that are engaged in social marketing.

If we plot a diagram (Figure 1) by taking "organisational ownership and control" on `X' axis

and "organisational purpose" on `Y' axis we get the following matrix:

FIGURE: 1 The Scope of Marketing

Government

Non

Government

Profit

Government for Profit

Non Government for Profit,

i.e., Public sector in

i.e., Private sector in

Business

Non-Profit

Government for non-Profit

Non Government and non-

i.e., Public service agencies

Profit

i.e., NGOs and other

Voluntary

organizations

Organisational Ownership & Control

It's either the non-profit organisations or public service organisations which are involved in

social marketing. In practice public services marketing and social marketing are not taken

much different from each other. (In this article the word social marketing is preferred and

used rather than public services marketing).

Differences between Commercial and Social Marketing

There are obvious differences in commercial marketing and social marketing. In the case of

commercial marketing, the major emphasis is on persuading the audience to buy the

company's product, it pertains mainly to goods and services which can be even adapted to

suit audience felt needs. Here the results are cognizable. Whereas in the case of social

marketing the emphasis is on persuasion to make audience learn, adopt and change their

ideas, behaviour and practices in keeping with the large social needs which are not clearly

perceived by them. In social marketing the results are also not cognizable. These differences

are summarised in Table 1.

TABLE 1: Differences between Commercial and Social Marketing

Commercial Marketing

Social Marketing

Felt need and cognizable rewards

Needs not perceived, rewards not seen

Pertains mainly to products

Pertains to ideas, behaviour and practices

Persuasion to make audience buy

Persuasion to make audience learn, adapt and

change

Adapt products to audience needs

Adapt audience to larger social needs

Buyer, user main audience

Audience: Providers, Influencers

Price: Cost, Tax and Margins

Price: Performance cost

Distribution: Wholesaler to retailer Distribution: Social network

Product: Goods and Services

Product: Added value

Competition: Competing brands/

Competition: Existing behaviour, peer Groups

substitutes

and pressure groups

Profit motive

Welfare objective

Talks to people who have money

Talks to needier sections

Success / failure hardly affect

Major impact on society

society

Rarely needs to involve Government Must work with Government to ensure

achievements of national priorities.

PROCESS OF SOCIAL AND CAUSE RELATED MARKETING

The planning of social marketing programme involves six major steps. These are: (a) problem

definition, (b) goal setting, (c) target market segmentation, (d) consumer analysis, (e)

marketing strategy and tactics, and (f) implementation and evaluation.

(a) Problem Definition: The very first step in developing any social marketing programme is

to define the problem. For example all of us are aware that the use of drugs is deadly

dangerous and even the ones who take drugs are aware of it. They perhaps want to give it up

but they cannot. So in this case one can define the problem as "how to help drug addicts

actually stop taking drugs" rather than convincing them that drug addiction is bad for their

health. Social marketing, therefore, must address itself to the right problem in order to be

effective and successful.

(b) Goal Setting: The second step in developing a social marketing programme is to set

measurable goals of performance and which can be hopefully accomplished. These goals will

help in developing plans of action within the available budgets and also in evaluating success

of the programme.

heterogeneous market may be divided into homogeneous market segments keeping in view

various demographical, psychographical and geographical factors. First, the segmentation

would help in selecting specific segments as the focus to channelise the marketing efforts and

secondly, it would also help in studying the behaviour of each segment to develop suitable

marketing strategies.

(Bloom and Novelli, 1981) have pointed out certain problems which social marketers have to

encounter while segmenting their market. First, they face pressure against segmentation, in

general, and especially against segmentation that lead to ignoring certain segments altogether.

Secondly, they frequently do not have accurate behavioural data to use in identifying

segments and thirdly, their target segments must often consist of those consumers who are the

most negatively pre-disposed to their offerings.

(d) Customer Analysis: There is a much greater need in social marketing to explore in depth

customers' behaviour and attitudes in order to identify and develop suitable campaigns to

change their behaviour and attitudes to desired levels. Therefore, it becomes essential to carry

out consumer research about wants, needs, perceptions, attitudes, habits etc., to develop

maximally effective marketing strategies. The major problems, as compared to commercial

marketing, which a social marketer encounters as summarised by (Bloom and Novelli, 1981)"

are: (i) they do not have good secondary data available about their consumers; (ii) they have

more difficulty in obtaining valid, reliable measures of salient variables in doing primary data

collection; (iii) they have more difficulty in sorting out the relative influence of identified

determinants of consumer behaviour; and (iv) they have more difficulty in getting consumer

research studies funded, approved, and completed in a timely fashion.

(e) Developing Marketing Strategies: A product is something having the ability to satisfy

customers' needs and wants. The test for whether a thing is a product or not lies in its

exchangeability. This broader meaning of product permits inclusion of concepts that have

been referred to by various other appellations. Public goods are involved in those transactions

where the governmental agencies are the marketer and the public at larger are direct

consumers because they are affected by `consumption' of these goods, which include flood

control, energy conservation programmes, etc. They are purchased in exchange for the price

of taxation. There are certain public goods which are meritorious and are produced at

consider- able costs but offered at a notional price such as education, health care etc. These

goods are called merit goods (Wish and Gamble, 1971;Phelps, 1975) called respect, love and

status as impalpable goods. Dewey (1939) referred to ready made intellectual goods as

information provided by mass media. However, irrespective of the name the product

continues to be a "thing" that is to satisfy needs and wants of the market.

Product strategies include branding, packaging, product positioning, product differentiation

etc. Like commercial marketing, these concepts are equally relevant in social marketing.

People choose products, including political candidates, based on the familiarity of name

(Newsweek, 1976). However, in developing product strategies a social marketer encounters

three major problems: (i) they tend to have less flexibility in shaping their products or

offering (Lovelock and Weinberg, 1975); (ii) they have more difficulty in formulating

product concept; and (iii) they have more difficulty in selecting and implementing long-term

positioning strategies.

The social marketing price includes money costs, opportunity costs, energy cost and psychic

costs. For example, the cost of using helmets is the charge for buying them, the effort to wear

it and strap it, and the psychological cost of not being completely sure one is better off in an

accident wearing it or not wearing it. Developing a pricing strategy (Bloom and Novelli,

1981) primarily involves trying to reduce the monetary, psychic, energy and time costs

incurred by consumers, when engaging in a desired social behaviour. It is rather difficult to

measure all the costs (Rothschild,1979) and, therefore, the effort should be to reduce them.

(Kotler and Zaltman, 1971) have suggested that the poor result of many social campaigns can

be attributed to their failure to suggest clear action outlets for those motivated to acquire the

product. The effectiveness of current campaigns on controlling infant mortality can be

enhanced manifolds by ensuring proper vaccination facilities at every village. The challenge

for social marketer lies in utilising and controlling desired intermediaries.

The most significant component of social marketing strategy is the communication strategy

which is persuasive and makes the product or programme familiar, acceptable and desirable

to the audience. The challenge in social communication is that it is not always possible to use

advertising but yet the message has to be put across. The other constraint is that in social

communication and advertising there is pressure not to use certain types of appeals (Houston

and Homans, 1977). For example, fear, humour or hard selling appeals are rather undesirable.

In social advertising, as compared to commercial advertising, a large amount of information

is to be given and this poses another set of challenges before the social advertiser.

(Rothschild, 1979) have suggested that before developing a non-business or social

communication campaign, one must consider the following:

The involvement of situation and relevant segments: Due to the potentially very low levels,

traditional promotion tools may be inadequate. Given the current state of the art of marketing

communications, one must conclude that what can work reasonably well in private sector

consumer goods cases may not work at all for non-business cases. While most consumer

goods exist within a broad range of middle level involvement, many non-business issues exist

in either very high or very low involvement environments. These environments may call for

an enlarged set of communication tools and strategies.

The available positive and negative reinforcers: Since the benefits of non-business issues may

be less apparent to the message recipient, it is incumbent upon the sender to consider all

possible behaviour reinforcers. This especially would be the case where the more apparent

benefits are societal rather than individual.

The non-monetary costs: The cost associated with behaviour towards non-business issues

may include several non-monetary costs which raise the cost of behaving beyond the level of

the perceived benefit. In such a case, communication tools will be hard pressed to present a

convincing case for elicitation of the desired behaviour.

The level of latent demand: Many non-business marketing campaigns exist as a result of the

efforts of a small group of individuals. When little latent demand exists, then little desired

behaviour will follow.

The relevant segments: For virtually all issues, there will be at least a small segment of

society for whom the issue will have positive value, another segment for whom compliance

with the law will be sufficient motivation, and another segment for whom engaging in the

socially beneficial act will be sufficient motivation. For many issues, there will remain a large

segment for whom a direct personal benefit must be shown if appropriate behaviour is to

result. The manager must, of course, consider the trade-offs of using segmentation strategies

and whether or not segmentation is a permissible strategy.

The wide range of communication alternatives: Given the limitations of traditional marketing

communication tools, one also must consider alternatives such as movies and television

programmes, or even broader alternatives such as in-school or in-home educational

communications. It is generally felt that public service spots are not very effective. Perhaps

the money spent on their production could be used more efficiently in one of the non-

traditional media.

(f) Implementation and Evaluation: Most good plans fail at the implementation stage. Proper

care should be taken while developing the plans by anticipating the problems which might

crop up at the implementation. Periodical evaluation system would help in identifying the

achievements and pitfalls to take corrective measures. Although, it's difficult to define

effectiveness measures but an effort to establish performance standards would go a long way

towards making the social marketing programme successful.

NON-COMMERCIAL MARKETING

Non-commercial marketing is a type of marketing, in which involved organizations or

individuals that act in the public interest and stand for an idea without a goal for financial

profit. Non-commercial purpose of marketing is the maximization of the social benefits

achievement for the rational use of the community needed limited resources.

Non-commercial marketing covers a very wide range of areas of human activity, much

broader than the production and promotion of goods and services (field of classical marketing

application). These areas include: policy, public administration, defense and security, health,

education, religion, science, art and culture, sport, charity etc. The social value of these

spheres of activity is no less (and in some aspects even more) than the value of material

production and trade.

Non-commercial marketing also enhances the efficiency and satisfaction of primary and

essential needs of society, such as the need for self-awareness and self- identity, the need for

security, the need for social, cultural and artistic values, the need for health care, etc.

Among other things, the non-commercial marketing contributes to solving the problem of

establishing the relationship between the interests of different groups of non-profit entities:

government, non-governmental entities and individuals engaged in non-commercial

activities.

Non-commercial marketing is based on the theory and methodology of classical

marketing. Therefore the development of the concept of the non-commercial marketing is not

accompanied by the revolutionary discoveries in the field.

Some of these functions (for example, an integrated study of the market, research and

development, advertising) are made using traditional marketing tools and procedures. But the

fulfillment of the other is specific, arising from the nature of the non-commercial marketing.

For example, the formation and implementation of pricing is related to the features of the

concept of «price» in the non-commercial marketing. The same applies to commercial

policy, which is determined by the specifics of the concept of «non-commercial product»,

etc.

Non-commercial marketing is carried out by organizations such as the Agency for social

assistance or charitable groups, as well as participating in the election politicians. Due to the

non-commercial marketing there may be the propaganda of ideas (e.g., human rights), goods

and services, but more often it is a part of such social programs as road safety, environmental

protection, restricting the sale of arms, energy saving. Non-commercial marketing promotes

person values, and under the given conditions the maximum possible satisfaction of the

primary needs of the public interest, as the need for self-awareness and personal fulfillment.

PUBLIC MARKETING

NGOs often seek to cultivate public awareness, support and involvement in their activities.

As a result, NGO public relations tend to engage heavily in relationship-building activities.

With the help of various activities like community outreach programs, participation in public

events or hosting special public functions, NGOs try to enhance their social capital and

distribute the knowledge about their activities among the society. All these activities, in my

opinion, belong to PR sphere to a great extent, though people working in NGOs tend to avoid

this term in their everyday lives. Maybe due to the reputation of PR as not a very transparent

and clear profession or bearing in mind some other factors, but basically, there are two

different spheres of NGO involving public relations activities. One is related to campaigning,

and another is tied with social marketing. First one is aimed at achieving particular goals at a

global level like changing the attitude or behavior within a specific organization or

government. The main target of social marketing to the contrary is to produce behavior

change at an individual level. Public relations offers a low-cost means for gaining public

attention for nonprofit organizations. Through media relations (including, but not limited to

press releases), speaking events, networking and fundraising events, nonprofit organizations

can get rise above the fray and become noticed by the people who matter: potential clients,

donors, volunteers and employees.

But public relations must be used selectively for maximum impact. Public relations activities

are most effective when they help an organization present a cohesive whole to its public. For

an organization to use public relations to stand out in the crowd, it must do three things in

addition to providing quality services:

1. Determine which 1-3 messages it wants to convey to the public.

2. Develop a plan including a goal, objectives, target audience(s), strategies, tactics, budget

and measurement to support the message(s).

3. Implement the plan, conveying the message(s).

MARKETING OF INTERACTION

Marketing of interaction develops skills of effective work with potential consumers. NGO

services are evaluated not only according to their technical quality but also according to

functional quality (the way they were presented). Marketing of interaction exists to support

new business sales, strategic marketing and key account management teams to generate,

develop and convert new prospect opportunities into lasting customer relationships.

BusinessDictionary.com defines cause-related marketing as, "Joint funding and promotional

strategy in which a firm's sales are linked (and a percentage of the sales revenue is donated)

to a charity or other public cause. However, unlike philanthropy, money spent in cause-

related marketing is considered an expense and is expected to show a return." Cause-related

marketing can potentially be a win-win-win for the cause, the brand, and the consumer. The

cause/nonprofit organization that the brand partners with gets support in the form of money

or other resources.

The brand will hopefully get an image lift with consumers by being associated with the cause,

which should translate into increased sales. (Note: Cause-related marketing could potentially

backfire if the brand comes off as insincere or hypocritical. As the AdAge article points out,

brands also might not receive the desired results if the cause is not aligned with the target

market.) Finally, if the cause-related marketing campaign is properly executed, consumers

benefit by being able to feel like they have made a difference as a result of making a

purchase. In the process, they get a positive feeling about themselves and the brand.

Every successful relationship is based on communication: how well you understand and can

respond to the needs of the other individual. Instead of talking at a consumer, marketing of

interactions encompass responsive, two-way communication. It's not about creating a

product, casting it out to a sea of consumers, and hoping someone will bite.

Ten Tips for Maintaining a Strong Relationship with Donors to facilitate smooth

marketing of interaction

As with any mutually beneficial relationship, it is easier to nurture and build on an

established connection than to start from zero. Below are a few tips to reinforce your rapport

with major donors.

1. Communicate effectively. Be as clear, direct and honest in your communication as

you can, verbally and in writing.

2. Follow up after donor meetings. After key meetings or conversations between the

leadership of your organization and the donor, send a written summary of key issues

discussed and follow-up actions. This creates a record of the meeting and clarifies

decisions and actions that will be taken in the future.

3. Be responsive to donor requests. When a donor requests information, respond quickly.

Ask questions to ensure you understand what is being requested and when it is due. If

a request is unrealistic, be honest and explain why. If it will take you some time to

compile the information requested, be clear about when you can submit it.

4. Make realistic promises and deliver on them. Be careful not to compromise the

quality of your work for the sake of speed. Thus, when facing a deadline, ensure you

can deliver what you promise with a worthwhile product. If this is not possible, be

honest about it.

5. Use donor funds as expected. Implement your program as described in your proposal;

that is what your donor "bought." Notify the donor of any needed alterations (for

example, changes in scope, location of work, target audience) to your work right away

in order to get guidance on how the donor would like you to proceed.

6. Submit accurate, complete programmatic deliverables on time. Reports and other

deliverables document your program accomplishments and successes. Therefore, it is

critical that deliverables are clear, well-written and without errors so that they reflect

well on your organization and may be shared with other funders and stakeholders.

Emphasize quality over quantity. Meet the deadlines set by your donor as this

Details

Pages
Type of Edition: Originalausgabe
Publication Year: 2015
ISBN (PDF): 9783954899531
File size: 956 KB
Language: English
Publication date: 2016 (January)
Keywords: CRM Marketing Research methodology NGO Marketing Mix Target Market Strategy Branding Nonprofit Brand

Author

Priyanka Tripathy (Author)

Social and Cause Related Marketing

Summary

Excerpt

Table Of Contents

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Author

Priyanka Tripathy (Author)