Role of marketing in helping charities - Essay Example

? Task Role of marketing in helping charities to achieve their objectives Charitable organizations, just like any other organization, need to be marketed to succeed in their operation. The urge to show ability to spend and compete favourably in the larger market contributes highly for the reasons for marketing. Owing to the ever dynamic marketing techniques and messages, the ancient techniques and approaches of the charitable organization have proved to be irrelevant for the success of these organizations. Similarly, as a result of the ever increasing numbers of channels that conducts marketing for various organizations, consumers have had the opportunity to acquire more information on different organizations. This has also resulted into people being selective on their taste and choice (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). The internet has been of great importance when it comes to enlightening them on the best choice to go for at any given time. This is because they have been able to get access to prices, quality, benefits and value cutting across a wide range of goods and services. For instance, various sites have contributed greatly in exposing various charitable organizations, and help them acquire supports inform of donations and contributions. In addition, many charity organizations have created websites in order to make such efforts effective and the need to indulge people in true dialogue rather than just simply broadcasting messages to them. One of the obligations for the success of this technique is the use of softer skills and collaborations; this must be accompanied by open sharing of information, honest discussion of views and goals amongst others (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). . Understanding and getting appropriate answers is very crucial for charities just as commercial brands, this becomes useful when communicating with supporters and reaching out to supporters who need their services and support. Unlike commercial brands that tend to be faster in investing in new routes to market, charities are more reticent in that, the resources allocated to them is always insufficient, and this has always called for wise spending of the allocated donations (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). According to Wymer, Knowles & Gomes (2006), for many years, media option such as mail, press and television have been of considerable help when it comes to fundraising, marketing and even communication. Despite the fact that their returns have always taken a downward trend in the recent past, ignoring these techniques proves difficult as their success or failure depends on the charity organization at stake. It will therefore, be significant to identify where people, who need help have interest as far as the charity services is concerned. It is always significant to engage or concentrate more on people and goals and not technologies or techniques used in marketing these organizations. This would mean that there is no need of setting up ones presence in a social network that brings no benefit to any of these charity organizations. This can be determined by checking whether the charity is capable of attaining any of its set goals or objectives and if not then there is no need of being in such network. For cases where resources are limited, it is advisable to be in only those networks or channels that best meet the set goals or objectives (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). It has always been thought that charities organizations don’t need go online in terms of marketing simply because they don’t deal with physical products. However, the validity of this observation is doubtable since they can use online marketing for their brand awareness and cause(s), get more donors and raise more fund which will enable them achieve their set objective and goals. Online marketing takes the form of online fundraising, charity auctions, acquisition of members and retention, lead generation and advocacy amongst others (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). Some of the proven online marketing techniques that have been deployed and succeed in charities organizations include but not limited to, completion of a free SEO audit on a charity’s site and the online google advertising grants. This have resulted into more awareness creation and funding for such charities leading to real positive changes with a difference. Political, Economic, Social and Technological Elements of the Macro Environment That Are Currently Impacting Upon the UK Charity Sector Just like any firm, the charity sector also is affected by political, economic, social and technological factors of the external environment. Such factors are normally beyond the firms control and therefore, considered more as threats. On the other hand, they are at times considered as opportunities available for such firms. Some of the political factors that have influence on charities include but not restricted to political stability. A place with no peace will mean that nothing if not very little constructive activities can be undertook. This also comprise of the risk of invasion by the military (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). Lack of legal framework that enables contract enforcement derails any progress even to charitable organizations. Biasness in form of favouritism in this sector has made it difficult for other organization to thrive successfully. Those that get favoured will have an advantage over the rest, this result into such organization receiving more funds and donor support to achieve their goals leaving the disadvantaged experiencing problems of finance and donor support. Certain laws such as the anti-trust laws in this sector discourage some organization from venturing into charity work (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). When it comes to economic factors, type of economic system in the host country of operation affects the establishment and daily running of charities. The rate of economic growth in of a country also has influence on charities. This comes into play by the fact that when the rate of growth is on the increase, such organizations also record improvement on their activities. This is closely linked to the inflation rate in the country where the charitable organization is found. At any time the inflation rates goes up, the normal running of such charities also goes down as the expenditure goes up. This is pegged on the fact that the purchasing power goes down. When those working in charities provide low level of skills, the ability of such organization to attract more donors and funds is jeopardised. The ever increasing unemployment rate would mean that the number of people who will be seeking help from such organizations will also go up. With the fixed allocated resources from donors, charities capability from these organizations will be limited (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). The social factors that affect charitable organizations include but not limited to, demographics; this deals with the number of people and their distribution and a certain area. For areas where the number of people who need services and help are large in number, the available funds and resources gets over strained. Education of those who seek help from such organizations dictates whether the acquired help will be useful or not. As for those providing services to the needy, good training is needed so that they deliver the required services competitively. The culture of people in the area where the charity organization is found has impact on the service delivery. For instance where gender roles are distinct, there will be conflict on the duties to be undertaken by women and those to be undertaken by men. This as a result will affect quality of services to be delivered as an individual might be victimised despite having the best knowledge simply because of their culture. Attitudes towards those offering such help go a long way in determining the outcome. Such attitudes are health and environmental perception (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). Technological advancements in the recent years have been improving on a day to day basis. Recent technological developments for instance have made it possible for charity organizations to acquire more resources through their efforts to create awareness on their existence and services they offer. This has also enabled them to interact with people who need their help. Technology’s impact on service offering has ensured that such charity organizations’ set goal and objectives are clearly highlighted and for their supporters to understand. It is important to note that the number of macro-environmental factors is virtually unrestricted. This therefore would mean that any firm have to decide on prioritising and monitoring of those factors that are of influence on its industry. Despite doing all that it might still be difficult to predict future trends with suitable level of precision. With such cases the concerned firm need to come up with planning techniques or approaches to tackle high levels of ambiguity in crucial macro-environmental variables (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). Task 2 Primary care respiratory society UK (PCRS-UK) is an independent charity that undertakes primary care health professionals dealing with respiratory care to attain optimal respiratory care for all. The broad environment has six components, this include demographic, economic, natural, technological, political and social-cultural environments. Marketers use a wide range of tool to draw desired responses from their markets. Marketing mix can be said to be a set of marketing tools that a firm can employ to attain its marketing goals and objectives in the market of target. The tools are classified into four groups which form s what is known as the four Ps of marketing. These are price, place, product and promotion. Any marketing mix decision to be made must have an influence on final consumers (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). Communication is the core factor in human relationship. It is through communication that people build common meaning and understanding. With this in mind we can say that a brand is majorly a mental phenomenon and therefore brought about as a result of communication. Due to this, a brand cannot be separated from communication and the contact between an individual and a brand also constitutes communication (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). As depicted by Wymer, Knowles & Gomes (2006), the aim of marketing communication is mainly to add value that benefits the brand and the customers. In this scenario, customers are represented by donors, members and other parties who are on the receiving end without being employed by the charity in question. Here the communication is regarded as a contributor to brand and mission building within the framework of integrated marketing. Communication can now be clearly examined under broad perception, such as the significance of employee communication and the relation of charity identity to brand identity. After realizing the importance of communication, arguments that communications planning and management process need to be operated. However, this has not been a frequent case as significant opportunities don’t exist for quite a number of organizations including charities. Research has projected a gain of about 10-25% in terms of performance. This will be so despite charities having turned into more professional in their marketing strategies. Currently, marketing practice need constant update so that consumers get acquainted with the latest products and services that are available and where to get easily and at affordable prices (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). Charities have developed recommendations that stand for integrated marketing communications (IMC), customer relationship management (CRM) and other linked fields. Most charities in have adopted IMC and CRM with PCRS-UK being one of them. This has been to create competitive advantage in the form of brand delineation and positioning and supporter devotion (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). The main objective of IMC is creation of communication synergies and message magnification by summing, integrating and harmonising elements of the marketing mix. IMC have also been developed by charities as a response to increased disintegration of media and the habit of donor base. Elimination of biasness has been achieved through media neutral planning thereby optimising communication mix. Integration involves promotion of consistency while harmony is directed towards mix optimisation (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). It should be noted that despite the fact that the term media neutral planning insists on media, has other important components such as communication method or tool used with the medium. This has lead to the development of the term channel which combines communication discipline with a medium, with medium being any contact that relays a message to the audience. In addition, to achieve better customer interface and customer management, charity marketers are urged to develop CRM and relationship marketing practice. To increase accessibility of resources and consumer databases, IT have come in handy and thereby reinforcing loyalty and customer equity through relationship marketing and importance of brand equity creation and feeding through image. Recommendations Some of the recommendations that can be made include but not limited to brand recognition and image enhancement. This helps in marketing the charities to potential donors. Several structural changes that include adoption of a team of equals approach to core agencies. This mean changes in the charity’s way of working in collaborations with the agencies without forgetting changes in the agencies on the way they perceive each other. Payment and changes in contract; there will be separation of ideas from payment for implementation and an important team performance element by payment. Charity organization need to function within a process that does the coordination of all communication for a given stakeholder community. In order to achieve this, organization by stakeholder type or through ensuring mapping of activities within each time span. This aims at ascertaining that each recipient recognises consistency across the charity’s communications. Adoption of the so called open to planning approach incorporated into an open procedure. The open tool approach makes it possible for all communications of all sorts to be planned and appraised through employing a single framework. A good open tool does best operational practice concepts. Thereafter is implementation through integration into an open planning approach that briefs individual agencies and activity by the use of a common framework for goals and assessment. It allows for equal opportunity for all the agencies/techniques to be used (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). The marketing environment can be classified into task environment; this comprise of immediate actors in production, distribution and promotion of the product or services being offered by an organization and broad environments as earlier on highlighted. In order to realise positive achievements, marketers have to be attentive to the unfolding trends in these two environments. This has to be accompanied by timely adjustment to marketing strategies that are employed (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). Within the highlighted environments, marketers have to apply the marketing tools used in pursuing the set marketing objectives in the intended market. These are referred to as marketing mix. For this reason charities need to adopt either one of the five orientations towards the market place. The product concept presumes that consumers prefer easily available, affordable products. Product concept also portrays consumers as having the preference of products with high quality, performance or innovative characteristics. On the contrary, the selling concept assumes that customers are not willing to buy nay product unless thorough promotion and advertisement effort is done for the product. On the other hand, marketing concept argues that firms must be at a position of creation, delivery and communicate customer value effectively in order for it to perform better than its competitors in any particular chosen target market. As for societal marketing concept, the firm must be at a position to satisfy customers effectively and efficiently than their competitors without compromising the consumers and societal wellbeing (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). Globalization, technology and deregulation have influence on customers, brand manufacturers and store based retailers in a range of ways. Making response to such changes have prompted new demands driven by these forces prompting many firms to make adjustments. Conclusion Through extensive research and analysis, the best approaches to be employed in this sector to realize successful running. It is quite obvious that more work needs to be done in the form of practice evaluation, tools and methods. Recommendation entails a new practical philosophy of communication backed up by new behavior and skills. According to philosophy the generally accepted core capabilities of media and disciplines but refutes that they are restricted to these. It instead argues that any medium is capable of working with any discipline to realize any communication set goal and that discipline a can be incorporated in communications (Wymer, Knowles & Gomes, 2006). References Wymer, W. W., Knowles, P. A., & Gomes, R. (2006). Nonprofit marketing: marketing management for charitable and nongovernmental organizations. 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