Many organizations often have complicated marketing messages. They need to state the need they meet, how the public and government can help, and build relationships with donors. This is especially true with nonprofit organizations where the messages can be replete with complex jargon and hard-to-understand programs.
Nonprofit organizations need to provide clear explanation of goals and convince people to support its causes. Many nonprofit organizations have a difficult time competing – after all, there are no bad causes, only causes that either resonate – or not – with prospective donors.
The Colon Cancer Alliance is one of these types of organizations, and they eventually turned to marketing professionals for help in recrafting messages and marketing programs. One of the campaigns that they used during Shark Week called out the fact that while sharks attack only 16 people per year, more than 130,000 people each year are diagnosed with colon cancer!
Even words such as “disabled” or “disability” or “disease” can cause confusion and concern. These are broad phrases that can be applied to virtually any illness. Be specific in the messages, audiences, and treatments. After all, even nonprofits have competitors.
What causes motivate you?
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Divide students into teams.
- Have each team select a different nonprofit organization to examine.
- Review and revise the message and vision of the nonprofit.
- Develop a marketing program for it that is creative and catchy.
- Have students vote on the most effective campaign.
- How should it be deployed?
Source: New York Times
