Market a Non-Profit Organization

Every NGO no matter how noble the cause, will need to sell itself, through various channels. Many NGO's shy away from the word Marketing, since it has words profit and corporate strongly associated with it.

But an NGO also needs to be equally effective, awareness needs to be prevalent about it's initiatives, cause and purpose. The NGO needs funds to survive, and popularity can certainly help.

So here are my Seven Steps for Building a Strong Non-Profit Brand. (They are really the same as building a strong for-profit brand since the goal is the same -- to own a position in the mind.)

1. The name.

This is the first and most important decision any non-profit has to make. Too many charities have generic names that are descriptive of what they do, but lack the ability to distinguish them from similar organizations in the mind.

2. The spokesperson.

Ideally the founder is the best person to take on this role. He or she has a powerful connection to the brand and can sell the story to the media, donors, volunteers and supporters.

3. The position.

the only way to get your brand into the mind is with a narrow focus.

4. The enemy.

Every strong brand needs an enemy. This is something non-profits by nature tend to avoid discussing. But strong brands are built by figuring out who the enemy is, what the enemy stands for and then building a brand that stands for the opposite.

5. PR, PR, PR.

6. A signature event.

All charities, schools, clubs and teams have endless fundraisers.

7. Color and logo.

Any brand can benefit from the use of a strong singular color they can own in the mind. Pink and Breast Cancer is the best example of this. You see pink and you know what it means. The American Heart Association uses red.

Viral Marketing: Trickle In Approach

The Viral Brand is created mainly through the reach and ability of the influentials to communicate about the same to the Mass. So for effective Viral Marketing, it is important to target the right influentials.

Even if influentials are several times as influential as a normal person, they have little impact beyond their own immediate neighborhood.
Hence brand idea or a trend ends up getting diluted as it travels farther out of the influentials’ control. So, while the idea might gather more of a reach, it diminishes in traction and is eventually outlived by fresher, newer ideas that demand consumers’ attention.


So, instead of “trickling down,” can we “trickle in” and keep the influentials feeding off each other’s discoveries, which will in turn affect the mass?

One clear example of a brand that seems to be playing in this territory is Firefox. Targeting these very influentials helped (Mozilla) Firefox to “trickle in” its efforts to preserve meaningful choice and promote innovation on the internet. By targeting the tech-savvy mavens, Firefox soon started gaining in popularity.

Today, viral marketing is based completely on a scatter gun approach, and maybe that’s why we cannot predict what is going to happen. We need strategies that depend on being able to measure things very well.

This gives credence to the Peter Drucker quote, “You cannot manage what you cannot control, and you cannot control what you cannot measure.”

Coffee for Everyone?

India and China

Both India and China are still small players in terms of domestic coffee consumption. China has one of the world's smallest coffee markets whereas India ranks 36th out of 53 nations with the most sales of packaged coffee, according to market research firm ACNielsen. The United States tops the list, followed by Germany, France, Japan and Italy.

However, patterns are shifting in India and China due in part to changing consumer aspirations and a keenness to indulge in the "Western" experience.

Starbucks captured a niche market early in China. It's a slightly different story in India, where a coffee revolution has been quietly brewing and the retailer may already have lost the first-mover advantage.

Barista and Coffee day outlets are prevalent across the country in all the major cities and metros. They have acquired prime real estate locations and were able to capture the market within the age group of 16 to 25 very effectively while charging upto 10 times the price of a regular cup of coffee.

The Startbucks Strategy

Each coffee Starbucks is currently worth around $3.50 and whether or not the Indian consumer wold pay such a high amount is questionable, but it definitely isn't impossible considering the "experience" each of these outlets would provide on similar lines with the other existing Indian chains.

One of the main reasons for the probable success of Starbucks in India is the already popular brand image it has created for itself without too much of a direct effort. The name is famous across the stated target age group mainly due movies, magazines and other forms of exposure to the Western Universe.

Barista's Management feels that it has established itself as a strong brand with a good brand loyalty association among its consumers. Whether Starbucks confronts these chains directly or tries something niche is yet to be seen. But with the hassles it is currently going through trying to get an Indian partner for entry the confrontation seems a little far away.

Limited Editions: Unlimited..

Limited editions of various products and brands are available in the market constantly at every period throughout the year. Companies mainly claim that these limited editions are a genuine tool to foster and launch new innovative products. But there is a flip side which argues that though this initiative might lead to a surge in short term sales, it finally results in dilution of the brand equity.

International Examples

• Coke Orange 2.5 m pounds (Jun 2007)

• Nestle' Kit Kat Blood Orange/Milkshale etc.

• Nokia X-Factor ranges (TV Show)

• Diet Coke with Lime

Reinvigorating brand interest Industry experts say Coca-Cola's limited edition flavoured variants are an attempt to reinvigorate interest in its flagship Coke brands. Coke Orange will be available for three months and follows the launch of similar limited editions, such as Diet Coke with Lime.

Nokia, Swatch and Nestlé, among others, have launched limited editions in recent years but the response from consumers has been mixed and some observers claim the products only serve to dilute the prestige of the main brands.

Indian examples

• HUL - Lux Chocolate Seduction, Lux Aromatic Glow, Lux Festive Glow, Lux Haute Pink

• PepsiCo India - Pepsi Blue, Pepsi Café Chino, Pepsi Gold, Mirinda Batman Blast Berry Fusion and Mirinda Sorbet

• Maruti Udyog Ltd

• Fastrack MTV Masala Collection of watches

• ITC's Classic cigarettes - Rock, Jazz

Advantages

The Limited editions sometimes tied with important events like examples listed below actually might lead to a positive association for the product and might lead to more than a short term sales surge.

• Fiat Palio - Sachin Tendulkar signed - World Cup

• Coca Cola - Aamir Khan - Range de Basanti - new 300ml variant

• LG Electronics - World Cup TVs - Yuvi Mobile Phones (Yuvraj Singh)

“We use limited editions to create a distinct space for the LG brand in consumer minds. The purpose is to attract customers at the shop level and to build brand awareness,” says Sandeep Tiwari, head – marketing.

Limited editions not only rejuvenate brands, they also serve the strategic purpose of testing the market for new long-term launches. In fact, Pepsi’s Pota is of the opinion that with the rise of modern trade — which enables better sampling and better targeting — special editions could move in as a permanent line or variant if they are successful.

In the luxury segment, limited editions acquire meaning in the form of collectibles. Louis Vuitton’s Mirroir range of limited edition ladies handbags, priced between Rs 26,000 and Rs 66,000, is an example.

Limited editions are not going to die anytime soon and its popularity among various companies across the world will make sure for its "long life span". Marketers would always justify the Limited editions as a justification for the improvement in the brand equity if any.

Triveni Khushali Bazaar: Rural Retail

Triveni Khushali Bazaar (TKB), a rural super store chain of Triveni Engineers and Industries Ltd, plans to nearly double the number of its outlets by March 2008 to 80, as organized retail takes off in the country’s rural pockets.

By 2009, it plans to have a total of 200 stores. The chain currently has 45 outlets that sell agricultural implements, diesel, fertilizers, and consumer goods to the farming and rural community.

TKB has the majority of it's stores around 35 of then in Uttar Pradesh. During the visit to one of their outlets in Hathras, western UP a flavour of their model was obtained.

The store is present just on the outskirts of the town of Hathras and the main visible category is Grocery. They also sell Agri-inputs, cycles, tyres etc.








The Customers
This concept should have been very successful, since the town (rural) customers do not have too much variety and options in the local market. A survey on the income group showed a good portion of local businessman and government employees with household incomes in the range of 10k to 30k per month.

But still the store has not done well and the daily average sales is only in the anges of 15,000, which is very dismal in comparison with local town retailers.






Communications
The main reason for this could be the very poor Marketing Communication practices followed by TKB. An example of an inefficient visual merhandising is shown here. These are how the promotional offers displayed instore. The store also has very poor visibility within the local town. A new establishment should advertise aggressively in order to pull new customers to visit its store.

THE BRAND EXPERIENCE & SUSTENANCE MODEL

This model has been built to better understand the various parameters that are involved in the road to the creation of brand sustenance. Every parameter is influenced by the consumers and their experience acts as the bridge between building a brand from inception to its sustenance through brand loyalty.

The variables influence each of the parameters and determine the success and future of the brand. The major drivers of the model; Brand Experience and Brand Ambassador are determined by brand usage, indirect experience, brand performance; and Viral Marketing, B2B-B2C-C2C, Relationships respectively. Relationships for instance are the collaborations and partnerships that firms have with their clients and other complementary businesses.

RIN Re-launch off take generation Plan

The RIN detergent re-launch in the Chennai metro was done at the same time of the "Shivaji" tamil movie release during the month of June 2007.





Offtake Generation Plan

• Main target: Super Value stores in Chennai: 143

• RIN 500g and 1Kg packets had to be pushed to the customer

• For these SKU's TIDE was to be replaced by RIN through the traders (retailers-Super Value)

• Traders were told to replace TIDE packets with RIN especially for Home Delivery without the customers approval

• Pamphlets were sent along with the RIN packets communicating RIN's advantages and also communicating a "Money back guarantee scheme, if dissatisfied"

• Incentive for the Traders: 2 tickets for a first week Shivaji show on a Sunday
  

Brand Identity = Brand Image?

Let us first define both.

Brand Identity: How the company wants the consumer to perceive their product or their brand.

Brand Image : The perception of the company's product or brand by the consumer.

Every year, fmcg companies rethink their mission statement. They position their products to attain a certain type of perception association.

Brand Identities are created for the following situations:
New Product Launches
Product/Brand extensions
New logos
Initiatives with respect to a brand
In order to change brand perception

Creating a brand identity is more than finding out what customers say they want. It must also reflect the soul and vision of the brand, what it hopes to achieve.
Brand Image Trap
An insidious problem caused by the brand image trap is that it lets the customer dictate what you are.

Brand Position Trap
"A brand position is the part of the brand identity and value proposition that is to be actively communicated to the target audience and that demonstrates an advantage over competing brands." The brand position trap occurs when the search for a brand identity becomes a search for a brand position, stimulated by a practical need to provide objectives to those developing the communication programs. The goal then becomes an advertising tag line rather than a brand identity.

External Perspective Trap
The external perspective trap occurs when firms fail to realize the role that a brand identity can play in helping an organization understand its basic values and purpose. Because an effective identity is based in part on a disciplined effort to specify the strengths, values, and vision of the brand, it can provide a vehicle to communicate internally what the brand is about. It is hard to expect employees to make a vision happen if they do not understand and buy into that vision.

Product-Attribute fixation Trap
The most common trap of all is the product-attribute fixation trap, in which the strategic and tactical management of the brand is focused solely on product attributes.

Conclusion
The traps in order to be avoided need great determination by Managers to stick to their execution of the Brand Identity so that they can equate it to the Brand Image that will develop over time about the brand in mention.

Increasing Ad Effectiveness

Magazines
Increase Readership of Your Message - Run Two Ads in the Same Issue.

Repetition is the foundation of communications.

Studies have shown that more readers see ads when they are repeated over time, but how do readers respond when an advertiser runs two different ads with the same sales message in the same issue?

Logic would say that adding a second advertisement to an issue would bring additional readers to the message.Some readers who read the first ad would pass on the second, and some who didn't read the first ad would stop and read the second. If the unduplicated readership of both ads is higher than the readership of the first ad, then the second ad brings incremental readers to the message.

In the case above, taken from two 1-page, 4-color ads running in a single issue, 46% of respondents read the first ad and 38% read the second. The unduplicated readership though, shows that 63% of respondents read at least one of the ads. Running the second ad increased readership of the message by more than onethird over the first ad.

Running two ads in an issue can help maximize readership of a sales message (Assuming the Ad is ofcourse good by itself). Utilizing this strategy is ideal for:

• New product introductions (Dove, Zero Damage)
  
• Immediate release information about product improvements or updates
• To support a sales push or promotion (Airtel)
  

Indian Context: Billboards

The Dove "Zero Damage" campaign has been running throughout India, especially in the metros. It follows a similar concept to the magazine example given above.

Marine Drive in Mumbai is filled continuously at a space of about 100-200 m with repetitive, but different Dove ads. Each communicates the same product, yet is hits the consumer again and again. Thus the cumulative unduplicated viewing percentage among consumers would be very high.

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

Starting this FMCG and Retail blog with one the best books in Marketing, the lateral thinking here is unquestionably questionable yet it intrigues anyone who reads it.

The first few chapters change your perception of Marketing drastically for a person nascent into that field. For a person familiar with the basic marketing functionalities it analyzes and attacks these commonly held practices of marketers. The premise behind this book is that in order for marketing strategies to work, they must be in tune with some quintessential force in the marketplace. Just as the laws of physics define the workings of the universe, so do successful marketing programs conform to the "22 Laws." Each law is presented with illustrations of how it works based on actual companies and their marketing strategies.

In this book, they argue that the market position of a product or service in the perception of the customer is everything, and offer up twenty-two "immutable" laws of marketing that to them demonstrate this fundamental point. Their basic thesis is that "...to cope with the terrifying reality of being alone in the universe, people project themselves on the outside world. They "live" in the arena of books, movies, television, newspapers, and magazines. They "belong" to clubs, organizations, and institutions. These outside representations of the world seem more real than the reality inside their own minds....

People cling firmly to the belief that reality is the world outside of the mind and that the individual is one small speck on a global spaceship.

Actually, it is the opposite. The only reality you can be sure about is in your own perceptions. If the universe exists, it exists inside your own mind and the minds of others. That is the reality that marketing programs must deal with. Most marketing mistakes stem from the assumptions that you are fighting a product battle rooted in reality. All the laws in this book are derived from the exact opposite point of view."

The book challenges almost every major corporation and its decisions with respect to marketing strategies.