Recently I did a talk for a lovely group of people. One of the things that came up in our discussions was how marketing is not just for business. There are so many other things that need marketing, because marketing is about fulfilling people’s needs and solving their problems and about communicating to them how you can do that. Hence, most things can benefit from marketing thinking and methods. Here are a few examples:
- Schools can use marketing to attract students – and teachers – believe me, Ivy league schools don’t get the best students and teachers “just because”
- Hobby clubs can use marketing to attract members
- Sports clubs can use marketing to attract better players, or attract an audience (paying or not), or attract better (volunteer) coaches
- People can use marketing to raise awareness for social causes
- Public services can use marketing to create awareness and educate users
- Government organisations can use marketing to raise awareness of their services, improve their image, or educate their users so that things run smoother
- Activist groups can use marketing to spread their ideology and recruit fighters for the cause
- Individuals can use marketing to get their dream job
- Individuals can use marketing to get their dream partner ;)
The list can go on and on and on… I actually challenge you to give me an example of something that you think could not benefit from marketing thinking and methods ;)
Nobody Wants to Kiss a Pig!
However, at this talk, a gentleman asked me about their particular club, and whether it could be marketed to not only get more members, but to get younger members, as the membership group is getting older. I promptly answered that yes, that would of course be possible. And it is. What I did not say at the time, as it was not appropriate, was that [Read more…]
