MarketingTech.com’s latest article by Colm Hebblethwaite, titled “Can Your Employees Recite Your Organization’s Vision and Mission Values?” reports that half of the marketing professionals in Rungway – a highly successful social and working communications platform, cannot recite the company’s V&M statements. The author states that Runway is not alone in this and that the pattern repeats itself in medical companies, retail stores, and property companies. Young people are eager to participate in the life of the company and more and more employees want to take part in determining the vision and mission of their companies (Hebblethwaite).
V&M are considered to be important in marketing. Many articles talk about how V&M can inspire employees, attract customers, and give confidence to shareholders. At the same time, as exemplified by Rungway and many other companies, V&M may be overrated. Every company nowadays has a vision and mission statement filled with fancy words and global goals. Some of them are successful while others are not.
Employees do not care about V&M, they care about payment, benefits, and being able to do their job properly. Customers do not care about V&M either; they care about the quality of the products and services they receive. Shareholders care about returns to their investments. The only people who care about devising V&M statements are marketers. They can spend days inventing impressive statements, not taking any risks, and receiving money for it. It is much easier than solving actual marketing problems. This article and the articles akin to it illustrate a digressive trend in modern marketing – a trend of wasting time and company money on empty statements.
Marketing for Not-For-Profits
Not-for-Profit organizations typically exist with a certain noble goal in mind. Charity, medical relief, promotion of culture, knowledge, and sports are some of the more recognized and popular goals of nonprofit organizations. At the same time, no charity can exist without money. Money is necessary to acquire spaces, instruments, materials, gear, and compensate hired personnel. While for-profit companies receive money from sales and payments, nonprofit organizations rely on donations, sponsors, and government support to continue their mission. Attracting donations, thus, is the primary goal of not-for-profit marketing campaigns.
According to Maier et al. (65), to attract additional support, nonprofit organizations are becoming more business-like, adopting many marketing strategies and concepts commonly associated with for-profit companies. Branding is one of the core activities that these organizations engage in, as they realize the importance of having their names recognized. A well-known and recognizable charity is more likely to attract donations from companies and individuals alike, as a strong brand for a non-profit organization means that it managed to prove its dedication and effectiveness at spending donated money to improve the lives of the communities it operates in.
Many charities, following the example of sports clubs, offer advertising efforts to donor corporations, which serves as another outlet for brand promotion. The Red Cross, for example, works in tandem with the Coca-Cola Company, which provides drinking water for populations in Africa (McDonald 975). Taking money in return for placing stickers and flags of the donor companies is an effective way of fundraising.
Lastly, non-profit organizations use every media outlet to attract attention to their cause and expand the pool of potential donors by exposing them to their messages. The primary outlet for non-profit advertising is the internet, TV, and the newspapers (Bryce 36).
The reasons for such transformations are associated with the rising necessity for funds to conduct various relief efforts across the globe as well as an internal competition between charity organizations. With the number of funds and government grants being limited, nonprofit organizations that provide the most convincing arguments are more likely to succeed in their mission.
Works Cited
Bryce, Herrington. Financial and Strategic Management for Nonprofit Organizations. De Gruyter, 2017.
Hebblethwaite, Colm. “Can Your Employees Recite Your Organization’s Vision and Mission Values?” MarketingTech. 2018. Web.
Maier, Florentine et al. “Nonprofit Organizations Becoming Business-Like: A Systematic Review.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 1, 2016, pp. 64-86.
McDonald, Robert et al. “From “Virtuous” to “Pragmatic” Pursuit of Social Mission: A Sustainability-Based Typology of Nonprofit Organizations and Corresponding Strategies.” Management Research Review, vol. 38, no. 9, 2015, pp. 970-991.