In today’s world, where everyone is trying to get the maximum financial benefit from just about anything, it is hard to believe that there are still non-commercial organizations that pursue other goals. However, non-profit marketing is quite common. There are more than 1,5 million non-profit organizations at the USA. Therefore, today we will try to let you understand what non-commercial marketing is and why it is needed.
So let’s start with the basics!
What is Marketing?
Marketing is a complex discipline that includes the ability to analyze competitors, predict consumer demand, and skillfully build communications with the target audience. In short, a professional marketer must understand how to turn the needs of people or organizations for services and products into consumer demand.
Thus, if we describe marketing briefly, it is an activity to meet the needs of customers. In fact, it is the main goal of all marketing strategies of the company.
What is Non-Profit Marketing?
Non-profit marketing is a type of marketing that is carried out by organizations or individuals acting in the public interest and advocating a particular idea without the goal of generating financial profit.
Non-profit marketing is a non-commercial component of the marketing activities of non-profit organizations. This activity is aimed at achieving goals related to creating and maximizing social impact.
Non-profit marketing is a marketing, which leading subjects do not seek to make a profit and have non-financial goals and objectives.
Non-profit marketing is a tool that non-profit organizations use to collect donations and distribute their main ideas.
Non-commercial marketing has a number of features:
- Non-profit marketing involves organizations, territories, ideas, and even products and services.
- More complex marketing goals, since success or failure cannot be measured in purely financial positions.
- People can expect or demand specific actions and results from non-profit organizations.
- The advantages of non-profit marketing are not associated with the payment of goods and services by consumers. At least, very often.
Main Goals
While in a commercial company, the indicator of successful marketing activities can be the resulting profit, for a non-profit organization, the indicator of success is the public benefit, and first of all, bringing public goods to the neediest groups of the population, and then to organizations.
Today non-profit marketing solves at least three problems:
- Rational provision and distribution of social services and other products;
- Increasing the prestige and attractiveness of individual social ideas, social institutions, and individuals within a particular social community;
- Increasing the prestige of this social community.
Using the concept of non-commercial marketing, its tools and procedures allows non-profit organizations to:
- study and formation of consumer needs and demand;
- create an optimal internal environment that is appropriate to your stated mission;
- influence your customers, competitors, and contact audience with marketing communications;
- creating non-commercial products that meet demand;
- ensure effective non-commercial exchange and full satisfaction of particularly important social needs of the society;
- win an investment competition (or pass it) and secure the necessary funding for your business;
- create, maximize and master external, including social, effects in these specific conditions;
- ensure efficient use of limited resources of the society.
Non-Profit Marketing Types
As you can see, there are several types of non-profit marketing. This way, companies can use different marketing strategies to involve more people. Here are some of them:
- Point-of-Sale Campaign
Such a campaign assumes that the company offers a potential donor to add a donation to a purchase they are already making. Surely you have encountered a similar phenomenon. Most often, such manipulations are carried out at the checkout counters of large stores.
- Message-Focused Campaign
This is also a fairly common type of non-commercial marketing. In implementing this strategy, organizations associate the collection of donations with some widespread events usually also published in the media.
- Transactional Campaign
This campaign is a bit similar to the first one, but it is used on the Internet and social networks. This is a great example of how a non-profit organization cooperates with a commercial organization, from which both parties benefit. A non-profit organization engages more people in its campaign, while a commercial organization gains positive features for users.
Main Differences Between Profit and Non-Profit Marketing
Okay, now you know what is non-profit organization and how it works. But there is one more important thing you need to know.
What are the main differences between for-profit and non-profit marketing? Let’s try to compare it.
- Non-profit products are more difficult to” sell “because they almost do not cause the” buyer ” to feel a direct benefit. A person feels that he has done a good thing, but often this motivation is not enough.
- Imagine a store. When you buy a product there, you pay for it exactly as much as the store owner estimated it to be worth. You cannot give less or more for it, or in any way affect its value. In non-profit marketing, the situation is different. Here, the amount of donations is almost always determined by the donor and the charity organization is practically powerless in this case.
- Unlike commercial organizations, non-profit organizations are often not aimed at a specific target audience. They should have an impact on the entire population.
- Despite the fact that commercial organizations are in constant interaction with many companies, non-profit organizations still win in this competition. Due to the fact that they are aimed at many people, they can also involve a lot of joint-stock organizations, companies, and other non-profit partners.
- Just like for-profit organizations, non-profit organizations can also provide their own products and services. The difference is that for non-profit organizations, they often do not pay off. Therefore, other companies are more loyal to them, and often do not require any financial return.
- Commercial organizations receive most of their income from the sale of goods and services. Non-profit organizations mostly profit from donations and charitable contributions.
Recommendations for your Non-Profit Marketing
Non-profit marketing should catch attention of donators right here and right now. Therefore, it is very important to understand what you should pay attention to in order to involve much more people.
Perhaps, after reading this article, you want to open your own non-profit organization? Then here are some recommendations for catching people’s attention!
- Set yourself a clear goal and develop as detailed a strategy as possible, and then achieve it.
Trust me, this is the most important thing! When you know what exactly you want to do and how you are going to do it – there is nothing impossible.
- Create a large database
Information is your everything! The more information you have about potential donators the more effectively you can influence them and direct them to make a donation.
- Collaborate with market leaders
This way you can not only get support, but also learn something new that can improve your organization.
- Enlist support
The more people involved in your project, the greater your chance of success.
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