Getting attention for your organization of for a cause. You can use the usual methods - Facebook, events, Web site updates, blogging, radio and magazine ads, et cetera. But, what do you say exactly? How can you afford magazine and radio advertising?
This time I want to just share a simple way to come up with new marketing ideas, and illustrate how it works.
I've written before about using a technique called random input to generate new marketing ideas. To review, random imput requires you to state a creative thinking challenge, select an object or activity at random, then compare the two things. Hopefully, reflecting on the random object will give you a new and (potentially) useful idea.
This is a post about nonprofit marketing so it should be easy to guess what's coming next.
Say you have a small charity that exists primarily to help other anti-poverty organizations raise money and get attention for their specific causes. The challenge you set yourself is this: "How can I raise the profile of my organization in the DC area so my fundraisers are more effective?"
Opening a magazine to a random page, the first thing you see is a vending machine. What do you think of when you see a vending machine? Your list might look something like this:
1. Positioning in high-traffic areas
2. Brightly lit to attract attention
3. Tend to sell soft drinks and snack foods
4. Other vending machines sell coffee, tea, toiletries, and aspirin.
5. Big buttons
6. Take bills and change, sometimes credit/debit cards
7. There are vending machines in some men's rooms to sell cologne and novelty items
Selling beer from a vending machine for charity might be a good PR stunt, but it doesn't seem like a viable marketing scheme for any nonprofit. In any case, selling beer from vending machines is probably illegal in all 50 states.
I've done enough work for today. Now, write down a marketing challenge and take another list above. See if you can add to it. See if anything on the list sparks a new idea. Recognize that the ideas you get will need a little massaging before they can be used.
This time I want to just share a simple way to come up with new marketing ideas, and illustrate how it works.
I've written before about using a technique called random input to generate new marketing ideas. To review, random imput requires you to state a creative thinking challenge, select an object or activity at random, then compare the two things. Hopefully, reflecting on the random object will give you a new and (potentially) useful idea.
This is a post about nonprofit marketing so it should be easy to guess what's coming next.
Say you have a small charity that exists primarily to help other anti-poverty organizations raise money and get attention for their specific causes. The challenge you set yourself is this: "How can I raise the profile of my organization in the DC area so my fundraisers are more effective?"
Opening a magazine to a random page, the first thing you see is a vending machine. What do you think of when you see a vending machine? Your list might look something like this:
1. Positioning in high-traffic areas
2. Brightly lit to attract attention
3. Tend to sell soft drinks and snack foods
4. Other vending machines sell coffee, tea, toiletries, and aspirin.
5. Big buttons
6. Take bills and change, sometimes credit/debit cards
7. There are vending machines in some men's rooms to sell cologne and novelty items
Selling beer from a vending machine for charity might be a good PR stunt, but it doesn't seem like a viable marketing scheme for any nonprofit. In any case, selling beer from vending machines is probably illegal in all 50 states.
I've done enough work for today. Now, write down a marketing challenge and take another list above. See if you can add to it. See if anything on the list sparks a new idea. Recognize that the ideas you get will need a little massaging before they can be used.
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