Marketing is the least of my worries.

The last segment of the project is to determine how we will evaluate the success of out marketing campaign.  Now I really should have decided on a communication objective to do this but I'm still torn between an informational campaign and an image campaign. Looking back on what I wrote last Sunday before I was reminded of the simpler labels for the communication objective I think I am leaning towards an image campaign. That does not preclude some informational components.

So if we are going to do an image communication objective to support a retention / stimulate demand marketing objective how do we measure the shift in customer perception?  Is simply tracking the number of repeat customers enough?  Can we even do that?  We currently only track on-line sales. The majority of customers go unrecorded because they are a cash sale from one of the current men to a customer.  Do we shift focus from the calendar to the apparel which is a much more visible show of support and ties in better with the image objective?  Maybe this is the right approach continue the calendar because that is who we are but focus on the apparel because it overcomes many of the objections to the calendar.

I think I've said it before the more I work on this 'marketing" project the more organizational and operational components I see need to be addressed in addition to a simple marketing campaign. Market is certainly a week point but I wonder do we have the processes in place to manage and track an active marketing campaign?

OK I think I have lost the focus of the project.  Evaluating the campaign in the end comes dack to the marketing objective.

Evaluate:

The change in the number of repeat customers.  If this increases we have successful campaign.

Time to back up again?

So did I choose the right marketing objective?

My current objective is:
Marketing Objective
Retention
Source of Volume
Stimulate Demand

In class we learned that for this objective the Communications Focus should be one of image and behavior. However, in order to do an image campaign you must have all ready succeeded at awareness and information. 

This is where I'm struggling our current marketing does not emphasis any of the benefits to the beneficiaries. Most of the messaging is along the lines of "The calendar is to raise money or the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the cure."  We do not talk about the others things we do. I think the first step needs to be to inform people of what 60-Mile Men does beyond the calendar. So can I still be doing Retention / Stimulate Demand objective with an informational campaign?

Part of the reason we need an informational campaign is organizational. Recently we applied to do a project with the Community Consulting Club when I wrote the application I listed out all of the things 60-Mile Men do throughout the year to support walkers and the president was amazed. He said that had he answered the question he would have said "We sell calendars to raise money to the 3-day." So marketing is not its own function it is affected by and affects the rest of the organizational strategy.

The other thing I need to review is what happened to the humor? One of things we are known for and strive to maintain is a sense of humor in everything 60-MM does. Humor is part of who we are as an organization. But know where in my big picture analysis is this reflected. Can I just bring it back in the execution portion and make sure there s a sense of humor to the communication? Do I need to go back and redefine the category? Change the core competency?

Let's start at the beginning and see where we end up. Look for a summary tomorrow. Any help in the meantime would be great!

Execution?

Here is my first stab at the execution portion.   I'm not sure if this is where this is suppose to head or not but I wanted to give it a go before class tonight. The description in the syllabus was different the tradition 4P's so I'm guessing a little as to how this should be structured. But I did get scratch the surface on the fun part of the execution the media and methods used to communicate the message.
 
Communication Plan:
Communication Objective:
Improve the donor’s perception of 60-Mile Men’s ability to support walkers through the promotion of non-financial support provided by 60-mm.  This change in perception will be measured by the change in

Media and Execution:
facebook / Twitter:
Training Tip Tuesday a weekly tip to FB fans with a tip for preparing for the 3-Day.
Fund-raising Friday: a weekly tip on fund-raising
Blog:
Guest post about walking with a 60-MM
What it meant to be a 60-MM man.
Calendar:
Addition of monthly testimonials from walkers that have benefited from 60-Mile Men.
Launch Party Slide Show:
Slide show of pictures of 60-MM on event mixed with stories from walkers
Buttons:
Develop a frequent buyer reward such as a sticker or pin.
 
Product Definition:
An improved self image knowing that not only are you providing a financial benefit to Susan G. Komen for the cure but you are making it easier for somebody else to participate and complete a breast cancer 3-Day through the financial, emotional, educational, and physical support provided by 60-Mile Men across the country.
Key Points of emphasis:
1.    Support provided to walkers
2.    Self image
3.    Helping other
4.    Supporting the 3-Day walker

Collaborators:
Past 60-Mile Men:
Currently previous 60-Mile Men are not responsible for selling additional calendars.  Establishing a motivation for them to promote the calendar to the people that bought it in the years past will be critical to reaching the target customer.
Apparel Provider:
Develop unique products for each year that will generate a demand to buy new products each year. Something like a concert T-Shirt.

Let's add the STP

For my own sanity I'm going ot keep repeating the steps I've completed in reverse order:
STP 

Segmentation

MV: Need for supporting walkers in the breast cancer 3-Day

DV:  Need for making an impact on someones life

Target:

Melissa Brown is a 39 year old mother of two daughters, Beth (10) and Kelly (12). Melissa works as nurse at the University of Michigan hospital. Melissa lost he mother to breast cancer.  Melissa is worried that she might also have to battle breast cancer but is more concerned about her daughters.   She learned about the 60-Mile Men from her friend Mark who was Mr. March. She bought a calendar from in 2008 when he was selling them.  She knew Mark participated in the 3-Day and had donated to his fund-raising in the past. When Mark did not participate in the 2009 walk Melissa did not donate to the 3-Day or 60-Mile Men.  She would like to do more for the fight against breast cancer but does not think she can participate in the walk herself because of a knee injury.  She is not sure what else she can do other than buy products with pink ribbons on them.

Position:

Current Do:

I bought a 60 Mile Men Calendar in 2008

Current Belief:

60-Mile Men is just a calendar to help the men that are in it meet their fund-raising goals.

Consumer Proposition:

60-Mile Men provides, educational, emotional and financial support to walkers in the 3-Day 

Desired Belief:

60-Mile Men is more than just a calendar. The support all the 3-Day walkers.

Desired Do:
I buy 60-Mile Men products every year.

Strategic Quadrant:
Customer Definition
Purchased a 60-MM Product or made a donation directly to 60-MM in the past.
Marketing Objective
Retention

Source of Volume
Stimulate Demand

4B's
Bodies: 3,000 (Current Customers)
Belief:
Before - I support 60-MM because my friend is in the current calendar.
After -I support 60-MM because the money does more than just help my friend
Converted - 50%
Behavior:
Before - I supported 60-MM last year
After - I support 60-MM every year.
Converted - 75%
Bucks: $9,571 (9,500 x 0.50 x 0.75 x $8.50)
$8.50 is the amount of a single calendar sale or portion of a typical apparel order that is donated to the 3-Day.


Business Objective
Fundamental Entity
60-Mile Men as an umbrella brand

Core Competency
60-Mile Men has core competency is in recruiting.

Goal Time Frame
60-Mile Men will donate $16,900 to the 3-Day in 2011 through walker grants. Twice the donations made in 2009.

Category Definition
Support services for 3-Day walker

So there you have it. I'm sure I'll re write all of these section again. But I think this is a good point to move onto the 4P's

It all comes back to the category

This post is going to be rambling as I try to get my brain unstuck.  Hang on or wait till tonight when I post the finished STP.

I still don't have my MV figured out and this is because I don't think I have defined my category and competitors right. I think the rest of the strategic quadrant is right but the category is a struggle. Because 60-MM does more than just raise money to allow walkers to participate. This is out main activity but it is not our only activity. The men also make public appearances to raise awareness, on event we act as a distraction to help walkers physically make it by distracting them with the calendars or just walking beside them. The trouble is it is easier to identify the benefits we provide to the recipients than it is to define what we do for the donors. I n addition many of our donors are our beneficiaries. So should the category definition focus on the donors or benefices? Since the goal is to increase funding I guess the question is what category do our donors see us in?

Maybe we are a "Support services for 3-Day walker". This encompasses the many things we do and defines our competitors. As Walker Teams, Volunteer Crew, 3-Day Staff, friends and family. OK I'm really liking this category definition. Let's see where this takes me.If you are luck I'll have a more coherent post by tonight.

Category Definition

Support services for 3-Day walker

Head, Heart, Hand Loyal

How do you decided who is a loyal supporter?

First Try Loyalty Analysis
Initially I started to do this breaking down all out supports each year and assumed that anybody that did not buy again was hand loyal. The list below is my break down from this point of view. By moving supporters to heart loyal they would donate more year over year because being associated with 60-MM is a status symbol.

Loyalty Current State
Heart 15
Head 1
Hand 84

Loyalty Desired State
Heart 65
Head 5
Hand 30

Revised Loyalty Analysis
But just purchasing once doesn't mean you are loyal. I need to look at it from the point of view of the 15% of all supporters that support us every year. When I look at this group I see a group that is much closer to the desired stated for all customers.

Loyalty Current State
Heart 60
Head 20
Hand 20

Loyalty Desired State
Heart 70
Head 15
Hand 15

Why do I want to shift my loyalties?
With this new desired state I am looking to move people from being head and hand loyal to heart loyal. If they believe that supporting 60-MM has a positive status associated with it, they will go out of their way to find us. If the supporters are hand loyal when a former 60-MM stops selling that sale goes away. In terms of head loyalty this is a hard area to compete in because of our size it is difficult to be the category leader in any one area that would attract head loyal supporters. By looking to shift loyalty in this manner I have decided that image is more important than being the most efficient, most convenient or largest 3-Day fund-raiser.

More important than shifting the beliefs of my current loyal supporters is fulfilling the marketing objective of Retention Stimulate Demand.

Let's do it all again.

Below is a summary of the project to date. This includes several changes that needed to be made after I realized that although we have 12 new men each year revenues are steady year over year. This means we are only retaining a small number of our supporters from year to year. The things that changed as a result of this realization are italicized. The biggest benefit is I believe we can convert a higher % of these people into repeat customers so I was able to increase the goal a little. I think I have the strategic side figured out now it is time to take another stab at the STP and 4 P's.

Business Objective:
Fundamental Entity
60-Mile Men as an umbrella brand

Core Competency
60-Mile Men has core competency is in recruiting.

Goal Time Frame
60-Mile Men will donate $16,900 to the 3-Day in 2011 through walker grants. Twice the donations made in 2009.

Category Definition
Breast Cancer 3-Day Fund-raiser

Strategic Quadrant:
Customer Definition
Purchased a 60-MM Product or made a donation directly to 60-MM in the past.

Marketing Objective
Retention

Source of Volume
Stimulate Demand

4B's
Bodies: 3,000 (Current Customers)
Belief:
Before - I support 60-MM because my friend is in the current calendar.
After -I support 60-MM because the money goes to a good cause.
Converted - 50%
Behavior:
Before - I supported 60-MM last year
After - I support 60-MM every year.
Converted - 75%
Bucks: $9,571 (9,500 x 0.50 x 0.75 x $8.50)
$8.50 is the amount of a single calendar sale or portion of a typical apparel order that is donated to the 3-Day.

Picking a Category

Today has been a struggle with finalizing the 4-B's and falling behind on the whole project. The biggest struggle for the past week has been defining the right category. How big or how small should I define the category. This has been especially difficult for the the steal share scenarios. Because to steal share you have to define who you are going to steal share from. In the end I ended up choosing the 3-Day as my victim. This is a little counter intuitive since the money raised by 60-MM goes to sponsor walkers in the 3-Day. However, there are many walkers that raise more than the 2,300 minimum to walk. This excess money is what 60-MM would be stealing and donating to walkers that have not reached their fund-raising minimum. Kind of the Robin Hood of the 3-Day so to speak.

This is where the question of what is good comes into play. Is it better to help people reach their goal but possibly reduce the total amount of money raised. Or not help these people and have them either self fund the shortfall increasing the amount of money raised but decreasing the quality of the experience had by the walker. Because the amount of money given to any one walker is less than $500 and the total given each year is so small I believe the positive experience of helping some one meet their goal out ways the small reduction in fund-raising totals.

After struggling with that decision in the end it didn't matter. With its current manpower limitation 60-MM can not establish the processes to take full advantage of the opportunity to act as matching service for donors and walkers. This is an area that in the future may be worth developing but does not help meet the goal established for this project.

So where does this put us on the steps of the Big Picture.

Strategic Quadrant

Category Definition
Humor based Breast Cancer 3-Day Fund-raisers

Customer Definition
Purchased a 60-MM Product or made a donation directly to 60-MM in the past year.

Marketing Objective
Acquisition

Source of Volume
Stimulate Demand

4B's
Bodies: 6,500 (People the 60-Mile Men talk to on events)
Belief:
Before - The 60-Mile Men make me laugh on the 3-Day
After - I want to help the 60-Mile Men support walkers
Converted - 50%
Behavior:
Before - I'm home from the 3-Day. I can't wait to see the 60-MM next year.
After - I'm home from the 3-Day. I'm going to order my 60-MM gear right away.
Converted - 25%
Bucks: $7,313 (9,500 x 0.50 x 0.25 x $9)

Defining the Business Objective

Now I know why I haven't started a blog before this. Finding the time to keep up with it a challenge. But that is all about to change time to be more proactive. First step is to lay things out showing where we stand on defining Business Objective.

After struggling with the FE in the beginning I realized due to the size and organizational structure of 60-Mile Men in the end an umbrella strategy for all the products under the 60-Mile Men brand is the best approach.

The core competence of an organization is important to identify what products and services an organization is best suited to provide. Like many organizations 60-MM is dominated by a charismatic leader which sometimes can lead to question is it a core competence of the organization or the leader. I believe 60-MM has been able to integrate the Presidents skill at recruiting into the fiber of the organization. Since that first year when he struggled to find 12 men willing to participate Mathew, President of 60-MM, has stressed that a key responsibility of current and former 60-MM is to identify men to be in the next calender. As part of this the organization spends a lot of time identifying key traits to look for in a 60-Mile Man. These ideals are conveyed to the men from the moment they apply to be in the calendar. Being a 60-MM requires a mixture of grace, humility, compassion and a great sense of humor. The expertize at recruiting is shown in the increase in the number of high quality applications received each year. Choose just 12 men becomes more difficult each year.

The goal of this project is to increase the total donations to the 3-Day to $13,800 in 2011. To achieve the goal donation totals must increase 25% a year for the next 2 years. This goal is set high to focus the team on increasing donations. In 2009 donations to the 3-Day increased by 14% over 2008.

Business Objective:
Fundamental Entity
60-Mile Men as an umbrella brand

Core Competency
60-Mile Men has core competency is in recruiting.

Goal Time Frame
60-Mile Men will donate $13,800 to the 3-Day in 2011 through walker grants.

In the next post I will summarize the Strategic Quadrant.