What big business can learn from nonprofits
By Jacqueline Durett
Budget cutbacks. Layoffs. Reorganizations. When a downward shift in cash flow means getting creative in your marketing department, it can be hard to find models for success. But nonprofit organizations are working with those same limited constraints all the time, and have a thing or two to teach about making the most of every dollar.
Katya Andresen of the Bethesda, Md.-based charity supersite Network for Good and author of Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes, says the one area where nonprofits shine when it comes to marketing is storytelling.
"For nonprofits," Andresen says, "it's easy because it's all about changing lives and doing good. And that means there's a host of really good stories." The typical appeal at a nonprofit, she says, "starts with someone who's been helped or someone who needs something, and that's quite effective. I don't think corporations are quite where they could be with their corporate stories."
What should those stories be about? Andresen says great customer service lends itself to great stories. The customer service at the upscale department store Nordstrom has become the stuff of urban legends. "There's one story about a person who came into Nordstrom to return tires—that's one version, the other version is tire chains—and Nordstrom doesn't sell tire chains or tires, but they took the return," she says. Her point? Nordstrom has become legendary for its customer service, and it's because of word-of-mouth efforts by customers who have experienced first-rate attention.
"Nordstrom has [such good service] that they are famous for it. They have really passionate constituencies built around these extraordinary stories." She suggests following Nordstrom's example of offering extraordinary service and then tell people about it.
Kathleen Brown McHale, chief program officer of Special People in Northeast (SPIN), a Philadelphia organization that provides services for people with disabilities, agrees. "The first thing about our marketing is that we have to have great customer servicem," she says. "Every single person, every single employee of this agency, is part of that marketing."
Andresen also advises using technology, not just word-of-mouth, to let everyone know about the great things your company is doing. "Tell your stories on your Web site, tell your stories with your advertising, tell your stories in your blogs," she say. Marketers don't need to rely solely on customers' enthusiasm. Nonprofits have to turn every meeting into a chance to raise funds or awareness. "Wherever you are is an opportunity for customer service and creative marketing," says Andresen.
The Value of Emotion
Nonprofits also understand the role of emotion in marketing. "Most people give money for emotional reasons, not intellectual ones," Andresen says. "I think that most people buy products for emotional reasons, not intellectual reasons."
Passion, however, shouldn't be reserved just for charity. "Nonprofits have the fodder for that, and they do it quite naturally, but there are a lot of people who are passionate about a lot of products," she says.
Marty Siederer, senior director of training and customer service for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in White Plains, N.Y., says that along with creating an emotion around a given company or brand, it's also important to create a personal connection with it—something he says nonprofits are especially good at doing. For example, it's important to find fund-raising events that are the right fit for participants' strengths and dedication levels to keep supporters at all levels engaged.
SPIN's Brown McHale agrees. "[Our challenge is] making sure there's a personal message, that someone can understand that we are very, very human here and want to engage each person in terms of what they want," she says.
Cut Costs, Right Now
Siederer has spent time in both the for-profit and nonprofit worlds. As such, he has plenty of ideas for companies facing marketing budget challenges—ideas that can be implemented right now.
Nonprofits, he says, work with such limited resources that they're forced to find creative ways to accomplish tasks like training. "We really cut down the number of offsite workshops. We do all of that online. Also, we've built a wiki that anybody on the society staff can access any time. We still provide help-desk resources, of course, but there's also a more of a do-it-yourself mentality." The wiki also provides help for marketers looking for strategy help. "If you're looking for best practices on how to send out an e-mail blast to recruit participants for a walk, we have all of that on there," he says.
Another area in which nonprofits have had to struggle is staffing. Siederer says the way his organization has made it work is through first determining what a project needs, and then adding a staff—not the other way around.
Siederer has grown very accustomed to prioritizing. "You have to make some choices," he says. "Can Project X have an immediate impact, or is it something we can put off until some additional staff can come on?"
Share and Share Alike
Brown McHale says one way her organization has generated some positive spin is through an open-door policy of information. "We've become known through [our research and presentations] as experts and innovators in our field," she says. "We're kind of an open book. I think a lot of for-profit organizations are not as willing to share their ideas. We're more than willing to share."
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