Marketing Private, Nonprofit and Government Organizations - Assignment Example

Discuss the idea that “marketing is aimed at changing behavior.” Why does this fact make nonprofit marketing more challenging than product marketing in a for-profit company?  Marketing aims to influence the behavior of its target market’s with the end of making them purchase or patronize its good and services through its marketing campaign. Its effort to change its market’s behavior can be done through its many promotional tools such as advertising, sponsorships etch. While it could be a challenge for the traditional profit oriented firm, marketing for non-profit organization is more challenging because it usually does not usually have the corresponding product or service to be exchanged in lieu of the money given by its target market.

Non-profit organization typically appeals to the audience “charitable heart“ to seek support for a certain cause or endeavor that a certain non-profit organization is involved. For example, promoting Red Cross or the Salvation Army with objective of increasing its donation from its prospective donors. In the example cited, marketing to increase donation can be a real challenge considering that the target market gets nothing in return except for the feeling and recognition that they were able to help others. 2. Distinguish between “organizational-level” and “campaign” marketing planning.

Describe how they intersect and give an example of each (either real or hypothetical).  For non-profit organizations, organizational level marketing is responsible for attracting customers to support its objective/s which is not for profit, but rather to donate or raise money for its cause. This organizational level marketing cannot materialize without the “campaign” or the concrete marketing effort to execute what the organizational level marketing intends to achieve. An organization’s target market usually knows about its cause through their interaction with the “campaign” and therefore “marketing campaign” is critical for a non-profit organization especially if it does not have any product or service to give in exchange of the support that will given by its target audience. 3. As the new marketing director at a multi-facility nonprofit providing services to adults diagnosed with autism, you have been asked by the executive director to develop a capital campaign for needed expansions.

The executive director is the organization’s founder, and has told you to “just get on with it.” What arguments would you give to convince her to conduct research as part of market analysis before setting a plan in motion?  The best argument that I could give to the Marketing Director that it would be necessary to conduct research as part of market analysis before setting a plan in would be “It will be difficult to ask for money from people that we do not understand because we would not know how to approach and ask effectively, thus making the plan doom to fail”.

Of course we can always ask for donation, but can we immediately collect donations? In this regard, marketing for non-profit organization and profit organization is no different in principle. In non-profit organization, the way to raise capital for the needed expansion to respond to people diagnosed with autism may be done through more donations, charging existing patients more, asking government subsidy, etch, but this is no different from a profit oriented company who wants to increase its revenue.

Such, it would be necessary to know the purchasing behavior of the market or in the case of a non-profit organizations, what appeals to the donors to give more and/or what approach is best to make non-donors become a donor. This is a tougher marketing effort considering that its target audience will not get anything in return except the idea that they have helped or contributed to something good. Unlike in profit oriented organization where there is a tangible product or service that they can offer that would benefit the customer, in non-profit organization, it would be just selling the idea of “helping” cause and not so many people are philanthropist or have spare money to give to charity.

Such, knowing the best method to approach, solicit and collect from its prospective donors is imperative. 4. You are the marketing manager for Hometown Memorial Hospital, a non-profit health-care institution in a medium-sized city. It has an excellent record of care in general medicine. It also has a growing reputation in two areas: obstetrics and orthopedic surgery. Using the concepts of “market segmentation” and “targeting,” describe efforts you might use to increase the number of people coming to your facility for treatment in those new areas.

  Market segmentation is the process of defining and subdividing a large homogenous market into clearly identifiable segments having similar needs, wants, or demand characteristics. Its objective is to design a marketing mix that precisely matches the expectations of customers in the targeted segment (businessdictionary.com). Simply put, it is grouping the market and identifying which group that the organization could best cater and targeting is directing the marketing efforts of the organization to such group or segment which their product or services can best cater.

In the case of Hometown Memorial Hospital, it has a wider target market because general medicine could cater to anybody who have the basic ailment such as fever, cough, etch. If patients need specialized treatment, it is the time that the market segment can be narrowed down. They can immediately accommodate those who need obstetrics and orthopedic surgery while referring other patients to other health care institutions who could attend to the patient’s specialized need. Other hospitals and health care institutions can also refer to Hometown Memorial Hospital those who need specialized care in obstetrics and orthopedic surgery.

Reference Businessdictionary.com. Market segmentation. Retrieved from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/market-segmentation.html#ixzz2MNP0LXfT