Strategic Marketing Issues - Essay Example

? Strategic marketing Q You are the CEO of a large sporting club and are concerned about volunteer turnover. You plan to conduct some exit interviews. What would you ask them and why? What can you think of to retain your current volunteers? Volunteer Management in large sporting clubs requires effective leadership. I think that without dynamic and successful leadership people will become uninspired, uncertain of their role and may lack in their commitments. Volunteers will definitely demonstrate high levels of performance if they are viewed and managed as creative, motivated people who seek responsibility. Another crucial thing which needs to be ensured is the coordination in the work of volunteers to establish organizational effectiveness (Hockey Australia, The Clubhouse Team Kit, 2005). Another important area of concern for the volunteer management is the volunteer turnover. Volunteer turnover is often said to be the result of the lack of recognition by the organization of their employees’ value to the organization, to the policies of growth and lack of advancement opportunities. Thus reducing volunteer turnover will be a prime concern and I think it can be achieved through effective monitoring and increase in organizational commitment (Cronin, 2011, 60). Exit interview Having discussed the significance of the volunteer management I will like to conduct exit interview question to the volunteers leaving the club. Exit interview is an important tool as information can be gathered from the volunteers regarding their experience in the organization no matter how long or short their stay may be and accordingly help us to formulate new strategies in the Human Resource Management practices. It may be the case that under emotional stress some of them will not be willing to take the interviews (Volunteer Management Program Retaining Volunteers, Australian Sports Commission, 2000, 22). The questions I would to like to make in the interview sessions are as follows: 1. What is your prime reason for leaving? This is the most obvious and important question I would like to ask because it will give an overview of the reasons of leaving the organization 2. Are you looking for a better opportunity? (Yes/No)-Give reasons I will ask this question as it will provide the platform to analyze the loopholes and accordingly help to make strategy intervention 3. What was the most enjoyable and what were the least enjoyable aspects of your volunteering role? This question will be asked to intervene the dimension of the motivational aspect of the organization 4. Do you feel you received adequate support in your role? (Yes/No) A random question to judge the spontaneous answer of the volunteer 5. Do you feel you received adequate training in your role? (Yes/No)-Give reasons Training is an integral part in the sporting organization. So analyzing this special area will be a necessity 6. How do you really feel about this organization? This should be a general question to know the understanding of the organization by the volunteers 7. Would you recommend others to volunteer for this organization? This would be asked for the feelings of the leaving volunteers towards the fellow volunteers towards the organization (Volunteer Exit Interview, n.d.). ‘Volunteer retain’ policies This is a fact that the expectation of volunteer turnover is high and often demands for an organizational change in large sporting clubs. But within the constraints of the limited resources optimal policies should be adapted in recruiting, orientating, and training new volunteers and infuse within them a value creation. Various motivational policies can be adapted for retaining volunteers. Offering education and training programs which include leadership courses, mentor training and various guidelines for explaining the roles and the responsibilities of the volunteers. Clear pathway should be created for the people so that they can feel the thrust to achieve higher levels of targets (Burd, 2009). Communication with the volunteers is a vital point. Among the important aspects one of the important is the matching the skills of the volunteers to the tasks expected of them. Nevertheless emphasis should be made on the fulfillment of the needs and assurance of availability of resources to the volunteers to execute tasks should be predetermined. Retaining current volunteers is better than new or fresh recruitment. Again if a volunteer is not performing or struggling with a bestowed role, the Club Board should either assist or remove him/her from the designated post (Hockey Australia, The Clubhouse Team Kit, 2005). Q.2 Given the financial difficulty faced by many non-profit organizations today discuss the opportunity of using social media. How can non-profit organizations use Facebook and other social media? Advocacy is a crucial element of the nonprofit services because it is through the process of advocacy that “empowerment of disenfranchised and oppressed systems is accomplished” (Agrard, 2010, 29). Advocacy of the nonprofit organizations are degenerating and a large part can be attributed to the fact that several nonprofit organizations struggle financially although it may possess excellent programs and have a potential growth dynamics. Granting practices can be held to be a reason for the financial disintegration of the nonprofit organizations. Today’s nonprofits primarily depend on highly constrained grant support that does not envelop general operations. A lot of time is spent in finding appropriate funding. The granting organizations have been found to invest in order to fulfill rather than making social investments. In this process the nonprofit organizations are failing to address the problems and provide solutions (Agrard, 2010, 29). Thus this weakness provides these organizations an opportunity to use the social media and social networking sites like face book and twitter, MySpace to reach and make mass appeal which is discussed in the following segment. Opportunities provided by the social media Social media presents numerous opportunities for nonprofit organizations as it is an inexpensive outlet providing varied ways of developing relationship with the public. In the past five years the social media has evolved as a popular way of staying connected with the public, voicing opinion, and reaching out to others. Various studies have been made on this topic. A noteworthy study was made to analyze the use of Twitter (a social networking online forum) by a US non-profit organization and investigate how the nonprofit organizations are using Twitter to cultivate an exchange of ideas between organizations and their publics, and what forms this dialogic communication takes. Through the process of technical coding, organizational tweets (n=1652) were encountered over a two-week time frame which generated trends for both high dialogic and low-dialogic organizations. The findings came up with the results that the social networking website provided a strong connection between facilitating a dialogic loop and conservation of visitors as quantifiers for majority-dialogic organizations. The conclusion was that Twitter provided ample opportunity for relationship building among the public and the organization (Baumgarten, n.d., 2). Facebook is also a strong social media providing great opportunities for the non-profit organizations to execute their propaganda. Facebook allows organizations to create profiles and become active members. Organizations have taken the use of it and have started incorporating these strategies into their public relations programming. Through a content analysis it has been revealed that there are 275 non-profit organization profiles on Facebook and they are using it to advance their organization’s mission and programs. Although only having profiles in these social networking sites will not increase massive awareness until and unless careful planning and research are adopted and implemented by these organizations which will greatly benefit non-pro?ts as they attempt to develop social networking relationships with their stakeholders (Walters, Burnett and Jessica Lucas, 2002, 102). Q.3 You are the Marketing Manager of a not for profit organization and have just hired a Curtin graduate. You want to brief him/her before he/she starts. What in your opinion are some of the most important things that he/she needs to know about working in a not for profit organization The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of 2010 describes non-profit organization as an organization which is exempted from the federal income tax if it is organized and operated exclusively for one or more following purposes like religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary and educational. Among the qualification list of the not-for profit organization also include the labor unions, farm bureaus, business leagues; and social and recreational clubs (Keller, 2011, 32). Marketing management plays a significant role in a not-for profit organization as statistical data shows significant results of the influence of marketing management on the not-for profit organization (Keller, 2011, 32). A Curtin Graduate is expected to have a strong base in business management as it is one of the reputed business schools of Australia. The candidate is expected to be clear in marketing ideas and fundamental business analysis. There are similarities in the marketing strategy for the non-profit and commercial marketing but both the phenomena are not same. The fundamental concepts which have to be always kept in mind are elucidated in the following segment. Key factors Product In case of the products of the not-for profit organization there is a prevalence of typically weaker selling proposition. The direct benefits make it even more difficult to capture target consumers. As for example, donating in a charity infuses a sense of ‘doing good’ but it is not sufficient to attract people (Not-for-profit marketing, n.d., 592). Price Price is the most important element of the marketing mix strategy of a not-for-profit organization. As for example, in the context of political marketing, the price is defined as the economic costs of voting for one party versus another. In relation to charities, the amount donated is often left to the prudence of the donor and is in fact largely determined by the donor, rather than being specified by the seller as in a commercial transaction. This has to be kept in mind (Not-for-profit marketing, n.d., 592). Involvement In commercial situations the nature of involvement is basically high or low. The consumers get involved with a product or service with an endeavor to learn about it during the purchasing process. But in case of not-for-profit situation extreme situations prevail. Engagement of people with charity or political party shows either robust reaction either in favor of them or in against (Not-for-profit marketing, n.d., 592). Segmentation Necessity may arise to develop a campaign to drive behavior in all targets rather than a target audience as done in commercial markets. As for example, in a road safety campaign the organization might need to encourage all adults rather than a specific audience, to drive at the speed level. But the agenda will be that it will be applicable to all (Not-for-profit marketing, n.d., 592). Continuous marketing-mix check A key point in the strategic marketing of not-for-profit organization is that it needs to continually check the marketing strategy against the environment, available resources, and the organization’s values. The values of the organization does not only imparts focus on the reasons of existence of the organization but also focuses on the marketing activities, including fundraising, promotional programs, and operational programs. So, the above stated parameters have to be always kept in mind as fundamentals by the newly appointed Curtin graduate. References For Question No. 1 (Q.1) Hockey Australia, The Clubhouse Team Kit 2005, http://www.hockey.org.au/fileadmin/user_upload/Game_Development/club_development/volunteers1.pdf (accessed on May 21, 2012) Cronin, Brian E. Strategies to Attract and Retain a Capable Transportation Workforce, Transportation Research Board, 2011 Volunteer Management Program Retaining Volunteers, Australian Sports Commission, 2000 http://www.ausport.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/150033/Retaining_Volunteers.pdf (accessed on May 21, 2012) Volunteer Exit Interview, www.oursharedresources.com/ResourceHelpers/GetAttachment/391 (accessed on May 21, 2012) For Question No. 2 Agard, Kathryn A, Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations: A Reference Handbook, Volume 1, London: SAGE, 2010 Burd, Nancy, On the money-The Key Financial Challenges Facing Nonprofits Today — and How Grant makers Can Help, 2009, http://www.philanthropynw.org/s_pnw/bin.asp?CID=13221&DID=30189&DOC=FILE.PDF (accessed on May 21, 2012) Baumgarten, Carolyn, Chirping for Charity: How U.S. Nonprofit Organizations are Using Twitter to Foster Dialogic Communication, The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications 2, 2, https://www.elon.edu/docs/e-web/academics/communications/research/vol2no2/01BaumgargenEJFall11.pdf (accessed on May 21, 2012) Waters, Richard D., Burnett, Emily, Lamm, Anna and Jessica Lucas, Engaging stakeholders through social networking: How nonpro?t organizations are using Facebook, Public Relations Review, 35 (2002), 102-106, http://academic.csuohio.edu/kneuendorf/c63310/ArticlesFromClassMembers/Julie.pdf (accessed on May 21, 2012) For question number 3 (Q.3) Keller, Gary F., Comparing The Affects Of Management Practices On Organizational Performance Between For-Profit And Not-For-Profit Corporations In Southeast Wisconsin, Journal of Business & Economics Research – March, 2011, 2011, http://worldmanagementsurvey.org/wp-content/images/2011/03/Comparing-The-Affects-Of-Management-Practices-On-Organizational-Performance-Between-For-Profit-And-Not-For-Profit-Corporations-In-Southeast-Wisconsin-Keller.pdf (accessed on May 21, 2012) Not-for-profit marketing, FDS, n.d., http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.co.uk/pdf/he/bfpinsights/chapter-16.pdf (accessed on May 21, 2012) Read More