Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
Fundraising with Social Media: Facebook ‘Causes’ and Others
The Facebook application ‘Causes’ has just been slammed by a Washington Post article that labels the app as ‘inneffective.’ This is an opinion of course, and many organizations have attained a positive Return on Investment from Causes…
yes, it is effective -> case study: SIDS Research
Sids Education Services’ cause page for ‘Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Research” has over 258,000 members.
- There are 996 comments on its Wall dating from June 2007 (probably around the time the Cause started);
- There are 129 media items posted – photos/videos/web links
- 258,000 members potentially = huge list of qualified email recipients
- $1,746 has been donated by the Cause’s membership
If you’re looking at these stats and thinking, ‘what in the world, they only raised $1,746 in two years!’ then you’re doing it wrong.
Read the rest of this entry »
Strategic Philanthropy: Often Overlooked, Corporations & Nonprofits Both Cash In
Cause Marketing, Corporate Citizenship, Corporate Responsibility — these are todays keywords. Partnerships between nonprofits and for-profit companies can create highly successful campaigns that ensure gains for both organizations. This also works when nonprofits team up with high-profile celebrities to work on specific campaigns.
Nonprofit organizations, constantly suffering a limited amount of resources, benefit from capital funding as well as the image of the partner corporation. Corporations stand to improve their reputation as socially responsible enterprises while developing priceless emotional connections with their stakeholders.
Lately we’ve seen prominent celebrities attaching their names and faces to nonprofit campaigns…these campaigns have in turn achieved levels of brand awareness that rival that of today’s most prominent corporations. Examples of celebrity-cause partnerships are Bono and Product (Red); Angelina Jolie and UNICEF; and who can forget Lance Armstrong and his own cancer fighting organization LiveStrong.
Chrysler’s Jedi Mind Trick: “Let’s Refuel America” – $2.99 per Gallon Gasoline Guaranteed for Three Years
Chrysler’s new campaign “Let’s Refuel America” gives customers that buy one of its cars a guarantee that will ensure them gasoline at $2.99 per gallon for the next three years (CarReview.com, 2008). This is such a great idea – hats off to the marketing team that came up with this campaign. The fact is that consumers still ends up having to shell out more money since Chrysler is way behind in the fuel-efficient car category. Just check out this Consumer Reports article that breaks down the financial aspects related to purchasing a Chrysler instead of more fuel-economic cars. A consumer could purchase a hybrid Honda, which is the only company that actually turned a profit this last fiscal cycle, and save a lot more money. Besides, Chrysler has announced that it will shutdown its factories for two weeks this July just to cut costs (NPR, 2008)
That’s all fine though…the marketing was great…and even though Consumer Reports found holes in the plan I don’t think this is a tough one to push past a sizable amount of consumers. This campaign sure sounds less shady than the ‘employee pricing’ ploys.
Wal-Mart: Mind Control Advertising
I was driving to the office this morning, listening to funny morning shows on the radio as usual, and forgot to switch stations when the commercials came on. Before I knew it I got hit by a blatantly forward (and shameless) punchline: “Spend your paycheck at Wal-Mart.” For the remainder of the day I couldn’t get this out of my head – There is just something awkwardly eerie about this no-nonsense demand – my mother doesn’t talk to me like that! Read the rest of this entry »
Ethics in Fundraising
In its everlasting quest to receive funding, a nonprofit organization may be faced with various ethical concerns. Three areas that are particularly liable to ethical issues are:
1. The Sources of Funding
2. The Socio-Political Location where funds are applied
3. The Specific Causes that receive collected funds
1. The Sources of Funding
In an attempt to increase community goodwill and gain good P.R. points, a private company may choose to donate money to a nonprofit. It is important to the stability and success of the nonprofit to screen the monies received from corporations – as opposed to accepting all incoming donations.
Example: Gold Rush Casino donates money and forms a strategic partnership with the local Counseling Center for Gambling. The deal turns sour for the Counseling Center when the casino is accused of defrauding and taking advantage of slot machine users. The local community may very well correlate the Casino’s actions with the reputation of the well-intending Counseling Center for Gambling. The Center then stands to lose it’s members’ support – then sponsorships – then operating funds – and the rest is history. Read the rest of this entry »
Introduction to: Craigslist.org, Bizrate.com, and Sneakers.com
Craigslist.org
Craigslist.org appears to be using a Classified Advertising e-business model – perhaps in the simplest form possible on the net, requiring little to no viewer information input and minimal user information input – it should be noted that Craigslist has been intended as a non-profit site, and the creator has established a non-profit programming and developing community.
The “Best of Craigslist” section of the site is a snapshot of the average Craigslist user. User is defined as the person posting a classified ad onto the site and viewer, alternatively is the person viewing that ad. The average user on Craiglist is someone that has been using the internet for over 1 year and has relied on e-mail for communication; in addition, most users are familiar with internet marketplaces and they tend to be between 30 and 45 years of age.
The owner of Craigslist is a computer programmer that had an idea for an easy-to-use website that would allow people to exchange classified ads similar to the ease of picking up a newspaper. This simplicity is the very strength of Craigslist.org – there are a plethora of ‘paid’ classified advertisement websites – eBay is an example – but obligatory registrations and entry of credit card details sway many from getting involved with those paid websites.
Bizrate.com
Bizrate.com is a marketplace of sorts – but classifies most accurately as an affiliate type e-business model. Businesses give Bizrate.com a catalog of goods they would like to make searchable through the site’s search engine, when a prospective customer clicks on a product they are redirected to the corresponding merchant’s website, if a purchase is made this click-through and purchase resulted from the listing on Bizrate.com, so the merchant will be billed a fee (sort of an agent/finders fee in the brick and mortar world). Note that Bizrate.com has changed to Shopzilla.com – it is still accessible through the original domain name. Read the rest of this entry »
Consumer Behavior Observations: Back to the Future (yes, the movie)
1. Character Descriptions
The main character, Marty McFly, is a seventeen year old Caucasian male, who lives with his parents in Hill Valley, CA. His hobbies include playing the guitar and skateboarding. He dreams of being a rock star and owning a Toyota 4X4 truck. In the beginning of the Movie, his family is part of the Working class social stratum, but by the end of the movie moves up to at least the Middle class. Since Marty is not an adult, he is simply considered to part of a family household in the Full nest II stage of the household life cycle. He wears a puffy thermal vest and Nike shoes, and drinks Pepsi Free. While in 1955, Marty helped his parents meet and overcome the school bully. This shows that he is family-oriented. He is unsure that he will become a rock star, and fits into the ‘striver’ segment under the VALS System. We consider his shopping orientation to be like a predator’s, because we only see him purchase items when they are needed. Read the rest of this entry »
Marketing at Three D.C. Metro Non Profit Organizations
- CrisisLink (Arlington, VA)
- Coptic Orphans (Falls Church, VA)
- Muslim Association of Virginia (Prince William County, VA)
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Introduction |
Nonprofit organizations play an important role in the operation of day-to-day activities in the United States; furthermore, they can be very sophisticated international entities that are operated by “well-trained MBAs and ex-businesspeople” (Strategic Marketing, 5). The Washington, D.C. metropolitan area is home to a lot of nonprofit organizations including three from Virginia that will be analyzed in this report: CrisisLink, Coptic Orphans, and the Muslim Association of Virginia. Each of the aforementioned organizations is unique in their respective missions and also overlap in certain aspects of their services. Throughout this report we will analyze how they fall into the following five aspects of nonprofit marketing: Customer Orientation, Strategic Planning and Organization, Developing and Organizing Resources, Designing the Marketing Mix, and Controlling Marketing Strategies.
