At the recent Nonprofit Marketing Conference presented by the American Marketing Association the tone was defined by a white paper issued by the 2010 Senior Nonprofit Marketers’ Summit. “Nonprofit CMO’s Call for a Transformation of Marketing”, co-authored by 18 senior marketing executives in the nonprofit sector, underscored the need for Marketing Transformation to redefine the perception and role of marketing in nonprofits. This call to action comes at a time when many organizations, nonprofit and for-profit alike, are looking at ways to transform at many levels in order to stay lean, efficient and relevant in the new economy.
According the white paper, one of the challenges faced by many nonprofit marketers is that their role in marketing for their organizations is “too narrowly defined as focusing on advertising, brand guideline, and market research.” Rather than being seen as an integral piece of the strategic puzzle to help drive organization growth, and enhance impact, marketing in nonprofits has been relegated to a “tactical management function.” Shifting our perspective around marketing allows us to see beyond the brand enhancing capabilities of marketing and start to understand how marketing can be a powerful tool to support strategic growth by “developing strategies to generate and sustain the passion people have for [an organization’s] mission and connecting them” in meaningful ways to an organization.
The white paper identified eight myths of nonprofit marketing that define our current perception of marketing as well as laid out key areas of focus for creating a more influential role for marketing at the leadership table.
Myths:
- Marketing is just tactical
- Good fundraisers don’t need marketing
- Good marketing can fix everything
- You can’t measure marketing
- Marketing segmentation is not practical for most nonprofits
- Competition doesn’t apply to charities
- If the board likes the advertising, it must be good marketing
- Good marketing takes money…and lots of it
Key Area of Focus for Enhancing Marketing’s Role at the Leadership Table:
- Developing insights based in truth by knowing your constituents, understanding your competition, innovating, and defining your value proposition
- Building adequate resources needed to implement the insights by building infrastructure, collaborating with internal allies in the “C-Suite” who are advocates for marketing, and leveraging connections
- Showing value for the investment using solid metrics and accurate assessment
For information about how you can get a copy of the white paper, “Nonprofit CMO’s call for a Transformation of Marketing” contact Jessica Thurmond at the American Marketing Association, 312-542-9015.
