Marketing Analysis of The Royal British Legion - Essay Example

? Royal British Legion Marketing Plan of the Institute Appears Here Appears Here Introduction The Royal British Legion (RBL) is the prominent charity organization based on United Kingdom. The purpose of the organization is to provide financial, social and emotional assistance to retired or current service men of British Armed Forces. The functions of the organization extends to the dependants of the above mentioned group, as well. Royal British Legion was created in year 1921 as an organization to merge four charity organizations and was granted a Royal Charter six years after its creation. It was this royal charter which gives the Legion the prefix 'Royal' in its title. Till date, the Legion is principally a campaigning organization which promotes the wellbeing and welfare of presently serving and retired members of the British Armed Forces. The first campaign of the Royal British Legion pertained to the campaigning for War Disablement Pension cases for war veterans. At present, campaigns of Royal British Legion which are ongoing include advocating for increased research into psychological conditions of Gulf War syndrome and for enhanced compensation for the victims of the war. Other campaigns by the organization include upgrading of War Pensions; the expansion of endowment mortgage payment for British military personnel that are serving outside the country. The key objective of the organization is better provision for support of British military personnel that are facing difficulties in resettling back into civilian life. One of the most successful campaigns of the organization is the one in which the Legion organized a fund-raising drive weeks before Remembrance Sunday. During the course of this campaign supporters of the war veterans were required to wear artificial red poppies on clothing. It was announced that the proceeds from the sales of the artificial poppy flowers will be donated to charity. Appeals for Charity The organization can use a number of appeals for raising charity. Two forms of marketing objectives can be relevant to this organization. The first one relates to recruitment of volunteers, the second one relates to collection of charity for the objectives of the organization. To increase inflows of charity funds to the organization, the Royal British Legion can organize a festival to commemorate celebrate war veterans. It is proposed that most parts of this festival should be composed of formal. The event can generate revenue for the organization through sale of the attendance tickets or sale of items related to celebrated wars. These wars can depict civilian life during wartime or based on similar themes. Such an event is likely to generate high attention of the prospective target market because it will enable viewers belonging generations that were born after these historic wars – for instance, the World War II – to benefit from the affirmative engagements of those people who want to relive glorified history of the nation. Another appeal for charity which can be used by The Royal British Legion is the support for foreign troops of United Kingdom who are engaged in military combat. The organization can launch an ‘Honor’ campaign which can call on the citizens of United Kingdom both within country and abroad to honor the military men protecting country’s interest in foreign lands like Afghanistan (Beamish and Ashford, 2009). The objective of the campaign would be gather public support for the issues recognized by the Legion and to promote interests of military men abroad. The same campaign can be used to create support of the federal government, as well, for the troops and to influence government to create laws which are beneficial for the interest of these men. One aspect of this campaign can be seeking priority treatment for military men in hospitals rather than having them to wait for treatment in national institutions. ‘Online Assistance of Military Men’ can be a campaign which can be launched by the organization. The idea of this campaign can be the general public can help military troops through a number of measures like giving online donations through credit cards or making online transfer through bank account for charity. Opportunities for financial assistance may be found through this area for those people who are offspring of military men and who qualify for assistance due to absence of a support network. The Royal British Legion can also operate bands round the world which can generate funds for the bands through public concert shows, brass ensembles and even drum performances. A revenue stream can be generated by these bands through sale of tickets and other measures (McLeish, 2011). The net outcome will be increased revenue for the organization an these revenues can be used for funding regional activities of the region rather than handling these funds centrally. There is a high potential to earn charity funds for these initiative because the awareness about band performance has been growing in recent years. Another charity avenue for the Royal British Legion is to leverage its brand to create a set of activities which can be used to further the cause of the organization. The Royal British Legion can hold annual competition events to engage public in sports which are organized by an organization for safeguarding interests of war veterans. This positioning will draw in large crowds and will create charity revenues through sponsorships. Motor cycle races or school-level competitions can be two potential ideas in this area. The organization can also launch a magazine which will be mailed to annual subscribers and the revenues from the magazine will be donated to charity. Benefits offered by Royal British Legion Several benefits can be provided by the organization to its contributors through a number of means. These benefits are an integral component to use for different methods of raising charity by the organization. Two forms of benefits can be relevant to this organization to induce its target market to contribute charity – emotional and tangible. Emotional benefits which can be gained by the contributors of charity include the feeling of self-fulfillment after giving the charity and the feeling of association with the army men who are fighting for protection of country’s citizens (Epsy, 1993). For increasing inflow of charity funds to the organization, the Royal British Legion can give away war paraphernalia to its contributors. Objects collected during wars from the battle field can be given to the contributors to acknowledge the celebration of war veterans. It is also proposed that during the course of the festival plays can be held and major charity contributors can be assigned roles in those plays to acknowledge their contribution. This will impart a feeling of being given importance and having an association with celebrated army men of the war. One possible source of revenue pointed out in the plan pertained to generating revenue through sale of the attendance tickets or sale of items related to celebrated wars. These tickets can be in the form of souvenirs to increase the salability factor of the tickets. The theme of the souvenir can have a direct relation to the theme of the event, so as to make these tickets a valuable memoir for the participants (McLeish, 2011). These tickets will become an important value for the customers due to the affirmative engagements of those people who want to relive glorified history of the nation. For prominent contributors to the charity cause, the Royal British Legion can create a permanent mention in their monthly magazine. The readability of the magazine is anticipated to be high due to the noble theme of the publication and annual subscriptions to the magazines. Those people who have a high valence for public acknowledgement of their contribution, are likely to be of value (McLeish, 2011). For the program of ‘Online Assistance of Military Men’ the organization can place images and profile of major contributors on the website. Also, a small souvenir can be mailed to the donators in acknowledgement of their financial support to the cause of the organization. The souvenir must be wearable so that donators of charity can wear it to convey their support for the cause of the military Marketing Plan Marketing plans for Royal British Legion include details about how the organization plans to reach each target audience group. All elements of the marketing plans are discussed below: Goal Statement: The goal statement of the marketing plan of the Royal British Legion is to contribute towards betterment of military personnel and their family. The primary objective of marketing plan is to collect funds for the financing of the organization. The secondary objective of the marketing plan is to create a positive attitude among masses pertaining to military personnel and generate pride among people to associate themselves with a cause related to betterment of military men. Objectives: Objectives of the marketing plan are at several levels. Knowledge Objectives are as follows: 1. Create awareness about problems faced by military personnel and their families after retirement 2. Counter negative perceptions about retired military men Belief Objectives are as follows: 1. Counter beliefs about military personnel being immoral and receiving undue benefits from governments Action Objectives: 1. Influence members of the target audience to contribute financially to the cause of the organization 2. Increase moral support for goals of the organization 3. Increase the number of volunteers who enlist for the organization Strategies: The marketing strategy for the marketing plan is to increase elements of cognition and affect of the target audience towards the cause of military personnel and their families. The strategy followed in the marketing plan is to increase the number of members of target audience which are exposed to the marketing message of the Royal British Legion. Marketing Tactics: the marketing tactics used by the organization will be multilevel and several marketing channels will be used to maximize audience. Website announcement – online methods will be based on increase the traffic to the organization’s website. The website of the organization will also contain the feature to generate contributions for the cause of the organization through online payment methods. The website of the organization will also be used to promote events and tickets sale will also be carried out through website of the company. Online ticket sales – Online tickets sale will not only be carried out via the official website of the organization, rather specific website channels will be used that are dedicated to sale tickets. These website include www.Eventbrite.com or www.BrownPaperTickets.com  to offer tickets for sale online (McLeish, 2011). The benefit of these website will be increasing the exposure to the audience of the website and the cost will only be a percentage commission on sales. Ticket outlets – Physical retail outlets for souvenirs of the organization and tickets will be utilized in selected locations by the organization. Preferred location for sale of tickets is likely to be local retailers, professional offices or banks to serve as ticket sales outlets. For sale of physical souvenirs, the organization can use selected retailers. Signage – the word about the events and other initiatives of the organization will be spread by placing posters or flyers in the windows of stores, restaurants and offices around town (McLeish, 2011). The strategy for the placement of these posters will be to target those members of the target audience which are less likely to be exposed to other mainstream communication channels utilized by the organization. Press releases – public relations will be essentially be utilized by the organization to disseminate its message. The reason for importance attached to public relations is that the medium entails low cost and high credibility is attached with public relations as compared to paid advertisements. The organization will write and distribute press releases about the Royal British Legion events to local print, as well as, broadcast media to increase awareness among target market pertaining to activities and initiatives of the Royal British Legion. Public service announcements – the organization will also engage in public service announcement related to the key messages of the Royal British Legion about supporting retired military personnel and their families. Execution of this medium will be carried out by contacting community affairs representatives both at local television stations and in radio stations of the region (Fabbi, 2011). The organization will also look into the possibility of running public service announcements for all the events carried out by the organization. Media sponsorships – all athletic competitions organized by the organization will be media sponsored or sponsored by local or international brands associated with health and sports. The organization will consider offering title media sponsorships to media companies within the organization in exchange for on-air promotion. Guest appearances – guest appearances will be utilized by the organization to draw attention to its events and increase news coverage. The personnel of the organization will contact celebrities, as well as, producers of local news programs to look into the possibility of scheduling interviews related to the cause of the organization or events of the organization that will be printed and aired on media. Newsletter – a monthly newsletter of the Royal British Legion will be circulated in the prominent corporate circles that will feature the message of the organization including details about the events held by the organization. The newsletter will serve to create awareness about the charity avenues offered by the organization and will highlight the contribution of the charity towads social uplifting the affected families. Email marketing – is a low cost medium with high reach. Interesting content will be developed by the organization to share a mailing list to share information about the contributions and actions of the organization (Keaveney, 2011). Social media – Facebook, Twitter and other social media avenues will be chosen to spread the word the events and initiatives of the organization through social media outlets. Budget: Proposed annual marketing budget for the organization is shared below: Expense TOTAL Media   Magazines 800,000 Newspapers 1,000,000 TV 1,500,000 Radio 400,000 Internet 600,000 Trade Shows 400,000 Promotions 400,000 Outdoor 600,000 TOTAL 5,700,000 Production   Magazines 200,000 Newspapers 100,000 TV 3,000,000 Radio 50,000 Internet 100,000 Trade Shows 1,200,000 Outdoor 50,000 TOTAL 4,700,000 Sales Force   Expenses 3,800,000 Incentives 600,000 TOTAL 4,400,000 Publicity 600,000 GRAND TOTAL 32,600,000 Monitoring: Monitoring features are also included in the marketing plan. Performance of the marketing function will be reviewed through market research to gauge knowledge and affect among the target audience. This will be utilized to make further improvements in the marketing plan. References Beamish, K. and Ashford, R. (2009) Cim Coursebook 05/06 Marketing Planning, New Jersey: Routledge Publication. Epsy, S. (1993) Marketing strategies for nonprofit organizations, Ohio: Lyceum Books. Espy, S. (1986) Greenwood Publishing Group, New York: Greenwood Publishing Limited. Fabbi, M. (2011) Feeding the Marketing Plan with Innovation and Responsability, Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag. Keaveney, P. (2011) Marketing for the Voluntary Sector: A Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance, New York: Kogan Page Limited. LeRoux, K. (2010) The Nonprofit Marketing Guide, San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons. McLeish, B. (2011) Successful Marketing Strategies for Nonprofit Organizations, New York: John Wiley & Sons. Read More