No one will tell you that they have cross the sales target of ten million this year. The customers have nothing to do with it. It can also create negative impact that the certain organization is earning so much and providing such little value to their customers. Yet, social marketing case, now organizations are engaging them for social causes as well and telling the world about their accomplishment for the social cause, but this is very rare and most of such activities are very much targeted for their own customers or organization. It has nothing to do with well being of society.

Top management leading the marketing from the front:

The top managers are the biggest part of the marketing campaigns of the non-profit organizations. They have to come forward and show them what they are doing for the cause by themselves so that the customers will be influenced. The credibility of the leader makes a drastic impact on the marketing campaign of the non-profit organization. They need to show themselves working hard for the cause and they need to have potential to influence the people to direct them to work for the cause. Simply means directing them to become their customers. But in profitable organizations, mostly top management remains at the back, just providing the guiding principles and developing broad strategies. They have nothing to do with specific tasks. Even it is very rare that they show them on any of their own promotional campaigns. They have nothing to do with their customers. Their only duty is to design and implement the organizational strategy, monitor the working and control if change is required.

STRATEGIC MARKETING PLAN for NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS

It consists of eight steps that are:

Develop the Goals:

The first step to the marketing plan is to develop the goals. These goals should be in quantity form and should realistic as well. The goals must revolve around the basic cause of the non-profit organization.

Situation Analysis:

This step is of considerable importance but it is mostly overlooked by the marketers. This step includes the evaluation of internal, market and external conditions. The internal conditions include values, skills, staff, systems, and structures, the market conditions include e funding climate, a comparative analysis of other organizations, and the organizational niche or distinctive competence while the external conditions include social, cultural, technological, ecological, economic, and political factor. The conditions analysis can be done through primary and secondary research. The primary research can be done through focus groups and interviews while the secondary research can be obtained through the literature review of the current trends.

Market Analysis and Segmentation:

For non-profit organizations, mostly the market is segmented through demographic factors. It is due to the reason the spiritual and holy motivation mostly drives people towards such sector. The largest potential market ideal for your cause is your target market.

Developing Criteria and Selecting Target Market:

After segmenting the market properly, then the organization should develop the criteria based on their cause or story. The target market should be selected through the largest possible population that is supporting the criteria.

Develop Market Strategies for Target Market:

Now it is the time to plan how to communicate the cause of the organization with their target market. This communication should not only include that particular cause but also mention what organization wants, what they expect from their customers and what they want to achieve for the cause in the near future.

Programs and Services:

After...

These programs must highlight the cause and story the organization is working for and what benefits the mass will get if the targets are achieved.
Promotion and Outreach:

The promotions should not only limit to one way communication, it should be meant for feedback as well. These promotions should be done in the manner to get as much response as possible, not in terms of sales but in terms of people involvement in the cause.

Implementation and Leadership:

The implementation of the marketing of non-profit organizations is a difficult task. The proper leadership is needed from the front. The leaders should use themselves as an inspiration for others. And the implementation also relate to the cause.

Conclusion and Recommendation

From this report it is clear that now even non-profit organizations are also working for marketing same as for profitable organizations to earn as much revenue as possible. But there are certain differences like their focus on idea and lack of concern over long-term planning. But as we are moving forward, we have examined that the non-profit organizations are striving hard to market their idea and earn as much as possible. Their strategies differ slightly from profitable organizations. They are also using the modern means for promotion and marketing. Their marketing involves more complexities as they do not have any value to provide in return. Apart from that, they cannot shift from their idea as per the changing demands of their customers.

The non-profit organizations should use the modern era techniques for marketing, which not only lower their costs of marketing but also help them to make their idea audible to a very large or global population. Such techniques include marketing through social networking. It is a very common practice to market through these sites. And non-profit marketing is getting much better response through social network marketing.

References

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Gallagher, K, and Weinberg C. 1991, 'Coping with Success: New Challenges for Non-profit Marketing', Sloane Management Review, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 14-15

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