You are a keenly aware marketing professional with more than 15 years experience. You've worked on everything from Coca-Cola to Apple Computers on both the client and product side of the aisle. Your bio belongs on the cover of BrandWeek. And now, your kids' school (or church group, or local charity) needs help with marketing so they've called you in as a volunteer.
They (and you, by the way) figure that you can market a nonprofit the same way you market a for-profit product or service.
But you can't. Nonprofits are completely unlike for-profits, and the way they need to be marketed is subtly and powerfully different.
After years of experience with nonprofits that range from international relief agencies and multi-billion dollar foundations to local social service agencies and start-up private schools, I'm not haughty enough to label the following as "Immutable Laws" of nonprofit marketing - but I am willing to call it a new marketing paradigm. In my professional career, we call it Passion MarketingTM.
The trademark is as much a testament to our foolishness as it is to our social consciousness. Who else would work to create a new sub-specialty in the marketing arena in the low-paying, unglamorous, nonprofit sector?
The principles of Passion Marketing are as follows:
Principle #1: Cause
All marketing paradigms are built from the bottom-line up.
In for-profit marketing, that bottom-line is profit. In the nonprofit world, however, the bottom-line is the cause.
As an example, during an internal asset review, Southern Pacific Railroad decided that they were no longer a transportation firm. Instead, they started to look at themselves as a real estate company owning a corridor of land that stretched across the US from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They parlayed this asset into a corridor of fiber optic cables that became the basis of a company called Sprint (Southern Pacific Railroad International Telecommunications). You may have heard of them. There was no devotion to the railroad - profit drove decision-making. And in this case, a lack of devotion generated huge profits. When Coca-Cola decided to modify its classic drink formula and launch "New Coke" the results were far less successful.
Nonprofits, however, are different. Revenues cannot drive a nonprofit business. These are mission-driven organizations that want to make the world a better place. The cause is what involves and invigorates its leadership - both professional and volunteer. Without this driving force, a nonprofit is lost, uninspiring, and no more transformative (from a societal perspective) than a for-profit corporation.
Principle #2 - Results
All marketing should be results oriented.
In the for-profit world, marketing results at least in part in the selling of products and/or services.
In the nonprofit world, marketing can only achieve three results:
· Fundraising
· Recruitment or Participation
· Advocacy and Education to change community opinion
This is a straightforward concept, but one that many nonprofits fail to understand. Most nonprofits fall into the trap of thinking tactically. We need an ad. We need a video. But why? Focus on setting goals and build logical and integrated strategies and tactics to achieve results. But just remember, nonprofit results are focused in three areas only.
Principle #3 - Money and Time
In general, people are asked to spend their money and receive a product or service in return.
In the nonprofit sector, people are asked to give their money or time away and become a better person in return.
As in all marketing paradigms, the two-way relationship remains between the "buyer" and the "product" - the difference is that the promise and payoff that a nonprofit needs to deliver is greater and on a higher plane.
When you go out to buy a brand new Saab, you know exactly what you're getting - a beautifully appointed European automobile. You can probably even drive it home today.
When you give money to the American Heart Association, does what are they doing directly and immediately that makes you, their donor, feel good? And imagine if they ask you to make a gift that you consider "too expensive." What's the appropriate price tag for becoming a better person?
Principle #4 - Soul
While all marketing occurs on both a tangible and an intangible level, nonprofit marketing challenges the underlying question of "What's in it for me?"
Volvo makes cars but sells safety. Maytag makes home appliances but sells reliability. Ivory makes soap but sells purity. All of these products appeal to buyers on a deeply emotional level. But the reality is, Volvo's cars are not the safest, Maytag is not the most reliable and Ivory is - well, Ivory is still 99 and 44/100ths pure soap.
Intangibles in the for-profit sector are largely fabricated. They may be based in some truth, but who is to say that Pringles is the potato chip that delivers the "most fun?"
In the nonprofit arena, organizations deliver real and deeply moving emotional products. They affect the soul of our society in a way that cars and soda cannot.
Most nonprofits have a difficult time bringing this emotion out in their marketing - they say "We feed 300 homeless people during Thanksgiving." What they could say is, "We provide the Martinez family with a home and food during the holidays."
In any case, the intangible, emotional sell for nonprofits is real. And when it's communicated effectively it has the power to be more influential than any intangible communicated by a product or service.
Principle #5 - Vision
For-profit marketing is market-driven. Listen to the customers. They dictate and create the marketplace.
Nonprofit marketing is leadership-driven. Nonprofits are formed because of a community need. If the need goes "out of favor" in the public's mind, it doesn't mean you change the focus of the organization. For instance, in the year 2001, the gay community has a hard time raising money to care for AIDS victims. Why? After all, it is among the hardest hit with HIV. With today's new drugs, however, the gay community views AIDS as a manageable disease that thousands suffer with rather than die from.
Does this mean that the need has vanished? Hardly. In fact, it's affecting more people than ever before. And it's no longer the media's "disease of the month." Each nonprofit's leaders must exercise their vision to fulfill the nonprofit's promise and mission.
Principle #6 - Dignity
Advertising images used in the for-profit world can be irreverent, cynical, and filled with outlandish humor. In the nonprofit sector, however, advertising images must be bold, dramatic, powerful, and dignified. Nobody gives their time, money, or involvement away for a joke. They give it away because it dignifies them.
The average person, I am told, is hit with a barrage of over 1 million advertising images each year. Of that, they remember about 25. And only 18 of those 25 are positive associations. So how can a nonprofit with a limited budget break through the clutter to get their message across?
The answer is dignity and drama.
When the United Way runs an ad campaign targeting Gen X'ers and young professionals with the line, "Give. Chicks dig it." they don't get results. It's not because they misread a quantitative research study or misinterpreted a focus group - it's because they missed the point. The most effective nonprofit campaigns deal in human dignity and emotion.
Principle #7 - Evaluation
For-profit marketing is evaluated by sales. If Proctor & Gamble spends $25 million on a new campaign for laundry detergent, there had better be an increase in its volume and market share.
Non-profit marketing cannot be evaluated on sales alone. Results are only generated in partnership with fundraisers, community organizers, and policy makers. Marketing frames the message, but it generally doesn't deliver a direct dollar-for-dollar result.
In the cases where there is a direct mail or telemarketing campaign underway - or when an ad is placed in the New York Times that raises money to help earthquake or flood victims - you can show direct results. Other than that, however, evaluation can be a difficult task. The best solution is to start by setting realistic goals - and by creating a committee of involved stakeholders who are aware of this challenge.
Principle #8 - Decision Making
Marketing decisions for most products and services are driven swiftly and by quarterly earnings. In the nonprofit world, marketing decisions are driven by process.
Unlike their peers in the for-profit world, nonprofit marketers must know how to bring together professionals, board members, volunteers, and donors to create results. Part of this is inherently built into the two-tiered leadership process in place in most nonprofit organizations. Every nonprofit professional has a corresponding volunteer or committee that oversees his or her work. Sometimes there is great parity in the power relationship between the volunteers and the professionals - most times there is not.
In all cases, however, decision-making requires consensus among the leadership. It is the single reason that most nonprofits react more slowly and less boldly; but it is characteristic of the sector as a whole.
The Final Principle - Exceptions
If there was a 9th Principle to set forth, it would be that there are exceptions to each of these rules. There are nonprofits that react quickly - look at the American Red Cross; there are nonprofits that have used humor to create effective messages - such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving. But by-and-large, the Passion Marketing principles hold true.
So when you're cornered (or politely asked) to take on a marketing assignment for your favorite nonprofit - be it a food pantry or a multi-national relief agency - remember the principles of Passion Marketing. It will make the difference between your being a marketer who wants to make the world a better place and your being a marketer who can actually do it.
