Market Orientation Among Small to Medium Sized UK Charitable Organisations: Implications for Fund-Raising Performance

ABSTRACT

A mail questionnaire was distributed to a sampling frame of 613 small to medium sized UK charities in an attempt to ascertain the extents of their fund-raising market orientation. Three major dimensions of market orientation were identified: donor orientation, competitor orientation, and 'influence of marketing personnel.' These factors substantially explained respondents' perceptions of their charities' recent fund-raising performances. Organisations scoring high in market orientation appeared on average to have increased their incomes by significantly higher percentages over the previous five-years than charities low on market orientation. Overall, the results suggest that the importance of effective marketing is widely recognised by smaller UK charities.     

Benchmarking Charity Performance: Returns from Direct Marketing in Fundraising

ABSTRACT

Despite rising public interest and concern only a handful of extant studies have addressed the performance of fundraising techniques and outlined the returns that might be expected. To date no one has examined the returns accruing from direct marketing activities in fund-raising. In this paper we present the results of a study of 150 UK charities currently employing a range of direct marketing tools/techniques and indicate the ROI that can be achieved through each. Cold and warm direct mailings are considered, as are reciprocal mailings, unaddressed mail, DRPA, DRTV and face-to-face (i.e., on street) recruitment. The results indicate that most charities lose money on donor recruitment activities and that the overall returns accruing to all forms of direct marketing activity are comparatively low. The implications for both professional practice and further research are explored.     

Students,Patients, Citizens,and Believers as “Customers”: A Cross-National Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

Executives in 94 large UK companies engaging in cause related marketing (CRM) completed a questionnaire concerning (i) their firms' approaches to the management and evaluation of CRM, (ii) the benefits perceived to accrue to the practice, and (iii) whether these businesses applied commercial rather than philanthropic principles when selecting CRM partners. It emerged that, in general, the sample firms employed mainly commercial criteria when choosing CRM projects, that selections were frequently influenced by employee opinion, and that most of the evaluation techniques conventionally used to appraise commercial sponsorship and advertising were also utilised to assess CRM programmes. Companies were reported to demand close and obvious links between their products and the activities of partner charities. Typically, they preferred to affiliate with well-known charities and tended to dislike “controversial” causes. In the main the respondents held low opinions of their charity partners' marketing abilities. The article concludes with a number of recommendations regarding the ways in which charities should formulate proposals when inviting businesses to participate in CRM programmes.     

An Entrepreneurial Perspective on the Marketing of Charities

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses marketing activities within charities, with specific reference to the applicability of an entrepreneurial approach, and cause marketing. The efforts of these institutions in recent years to apply the tools of conventional marketing to the services they provide in the markets which they serve is laudable. However, it is argued that in times of environmental turbulence, this is necessary but not sufficient, and that an entrepreneurial perspective on marketing needs to be adopted particularly in relation to cause marketing efforts. Here are elements of risk-taking, proactiveness and innovativeness, and a more recent notion of “network-spotting” or object-orientation. The concept of entrepreneurial intensity in this regard is introduced, as well as a process which can be applied to entrepreneurial marketing in charities. Finally, the obstacles to entrepreneurial marketing by charities are identified.     

Charitable Giving: Towards a Model of Donor Behaviour

The need for the development of a comprehensive model of giving behaviour has never been greater. In the UK, the proportion of households electing to support charity is continuing a twenty year decline. This factor, combined with the accompanying and sharp increase in the number of registered charities has contributed to the creation of an ever more hostile fundraising environment. If they are to survive, charities seeking funds from individual donors will have to refine both the quality and targeting of their fundraising campaigns. It is the purpose of this article to develop a comprehensive model of giving behaviour to assist them in this process. The article draws on literature from the fields of marketing, economics, clinical psychology, social psychology, anthropology and sociology. The implications of the resultant model for fundraising strategy are discussed and opportunities for further research delineated.     

The regulatory challenge to branding: An interpretation of UK competition authority investigations 1950–2007

Abstract

Branding is a necessary and important business tool. This study, however, examines whether branding can constitute an anticompetitive act. While most markets and firms do not undertake anticompetitive actions, being identified as such can result in a wide range of negative outcomes. To explore this low-frequency yet high-risk outcome, this study assesses how branding has been perceived to be anticompetitive by the UK competition authorities. This assessment is undertaken by examination of all UK competition law regulatory decisions undertaken over the period 1950–2007 by the UK competition authorities. From this assessment, it is observed that branding can facilitate excessive pricing, requires vertical restraints, and can lead to consumer confusion; all potentially anticompetitive acts. The competition regulatory decisions focused on branding issues are demonstrably different from regulatory decisions without branding concerns and involve larger, often manufacturing, firms, which operate in more concentrated markets. It is concluded that comprehension of competition law needs to be disseminated more widely amongst marketing communities and greater reference to business and marketing theory should be made by competition law agencies to assist the comprehension of marketing techniques such as branding.     

Charitable Donations as Social Exchange or Agapic Action on the Internet: The Case of Hungersite.com

SUMMARY

Donations to charity have long been of interest to marketing academics seeking to understand the relationships between nonprofit organizations and their customers. A key area of concern is that of motivation-why do individuals donate time, money and other resources to charities in general or to particular charities? While marketers in particular, and social scientists in general, have explained donation and gift giving in terms of the exchange paradigm, more recently consumer researchers have introduced the notion of agapic (or unselfish) behavior to explain some aspects of gift giving. Using the case of a successful charitable Internet site, Hungersite.com, this paper attempts to contrast the exchange and agapic paradigms of donation behavior, with the re sulting strategic implications this may have for charity marketing strategy.     

Some Insights into the Background and Training of Marketing Executives in the UK

A paper of interest to both marketing practitioners and marketing educators, it reports some of the findings of a recent survey undertaken for the Institute of Marketing on the background and training of marketing executives in the UK. Selected findings and their implications are discussed, specifically the respondents’ educational qualifications, level and marketing content; participation in training courses, their attitudes towards future training and career development. The final section of the paper looks at the respondents’ expressed needs for further marketing training to better equip them for both their current jobs and their future career.     

Strategic social marketing to foster gender equality in Indonesia

ABSTRACT

Gender equality is still facing many challenges in Indonesia; this also includes a prominent problem of gender-based violence. Social marketing approach has been used to promote gender-equality programmes tackling gender-based violence. MenCare+ is one of the examples of programmes in Indonesia that engage men with multicomponent, strategic, involves campaigns, education, training and policy advocacy with a number of objectives including improving access to services, increasing sexual and reproductive rights, and fostering gender equality. Some achievement has been made such as MoU with local government to promote male involvement in the use of contraception. However, gender-equality movement is still needed in order to change the mind set and paradigm towards gender equality, and social marketing can become a powerful tool to do it.

Abbreviations: MoU: memorandum of understanding; NGO: non-government organization     

Strategic and organisational determinants of sophistication in deployed sales force automation systems within three industry sectors in the UK

Abstract

This paper investigates strategic and organisational context determinants of the sophistication of adopted sales force automation (SFA) systems in three UK industries: financial services, pharmaceuticals, and building/construction. Sophistication of adopted systems is associated with the organisation placing greater emphasis on information orientation, which is itself driven by an increased integration of IT and sales coupled with increased organisational slack. Increased integration of IT and sales is itself driven by increased strategic importance of sales coupled with increased use of internal communication networks. Importantly, a firm's marketing orientation, although also driven by the strategic importance of sales, has no impact on either information orientation or SFA sophistication. We discuss the implications of our findings to aid understanding of SFA implementation failure.     

JBBM at 21: Variety of Theories,Methods, and Countries While Giving Further Voice to Emerging Markets Within Africa

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The articles published in the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing (JBBM) are reviewed for three themes: the varieties of theories used and tested, the methodologies of choice, and most pertinent to this article, the countries from which the data were obtained in the empirical studies.

Methodology/approach: Literature review of the JBBM issues, all inclusive.

Findings: The JBBM has had papers involving surveys 74%; case studies 11%; interviews 6%, experiments 4%, and networks 3%. There is a tremendous breadth of country representation, more than most other marketing journals.

Research implications: The authors encourage more frequent investigations into emerging markets, using African countries as exemplars.

Practical implications: To begin to understand marketing phenomena in the variety of African countries, the authors encourage researchers to establish partnerships, with African scholars and global multinationals whose marketing managers may have interest in understanding these markets and who may have data to share.

Contribution of the paper: Although a seemingly infinite number of marketing questions still exist even in well-developed markets, and scholars have begun to recognize opportunities in developing markets, future research will prove useful into emerging and nascent markets.     

Signaling Quality in an E-Commerce Environment

Abstract

“Quality” is a unique concern in food marketing with powerful strategic connotations and consumer emotion. Consequently, retailers, with the help of food processors, have built their industry around communications with consumers which compare the value of one product over another using key quality attributes as carriers of that value. This involves both simple and complex signaling techniques that consumers have grown accustom to. With the onset of online food sales, many of these signaling techniques are less effective. This research evaluates food quality communication signals, presenting findings from three related E-Grocery studies, linked through a meta analysis.     

Personal legitimising: A perspective of marketing management

This paper explains the basic social process of “personal legitimising” and illustrates its influence on marketing activity. Personal legitimising is the process by which individuals manipulate situations to suit their own agenda. The link between personal legitimising and an organisation's marketing activity was discovered using a grounded theory research strategy within a UK management consulting firm.

Personal legitimising has two groupings of behaviour, namely “obstructing existing marketing activity” and “driving new marketing activity”. Within the former are the categories of “stigmatising”, “pseudo endorsing” and “smokescreening”. The latter incorporates the categories of “latching on”, “self indulging” and “bragging”.

The paper has three parts. The first explains the basic social process of personal legitimising. The second shows how grounded theory methodology was used in this context. The third develops the possible contribution of personal legitimising to the understanding of marketing.     

The adoption of direct banking services

The adoption of new products and services is of increasing importance to many industries. This is especially so for those organisations that are marketing technological innovations. In this paper a model of the perceived innovation attributes and the personal characteristics of adopters and non‐adopters was developed, based on literature and consumer research. These are then tested using a questionnaire concerned with the UK market for direct banking services. The results are presented in detail which indicate that the model presented is an excellent predictor of adoption behaviour. From these results a number of interesting implications have been highlighted for marketing practice.     

Editorial

The relationship marketing paradigm is gaining increasing credence in consumer markets. Marketers need to get close to their customers to establish exchange relationships, and this “intimacy” is achieved using database technology and direct marketing communications. However, in implementing relationship marketing in this way, the potential exists for the use of technology to result in invasions of individual consumer privacy. The literature on relationship marketing and privacy are reviewed, and the findings of six exploratory focus group discussions, conducted in the UK, are presented. The study suggests that what some consumers define as “intrusion” is similar to what has been called “intimacy” by marketers. Nine propositions are presented which reflect the implications of current approaches to relationship marketing in consumer markets. In particular, the integral elements of meaningful relationships are absent or inhibited as a result of consumer concerns over intrusions of their privacy. Thus, marketers need to adapt their attitudes, behaviours, and processes in order to accommodate the participation of the consumer in the relationship. The implications for marketers are identified, and directions are offered for future research.     

NSPCC: Marketing the “solution” not the “problem”

In private sector companies, marketing philosophy and their accompanying portfolio of tools and techniques have long had a strong and shaping role in the creation of a market‐led corporate strategy. This is because in most cases there is an obvious and direct link in the economic transaction which takes place, between the consumers of the product and the suppliers of the product. In such a relationship, consumer preference and consumer sovereignty are meaningful and explanatory concepts. In contrast, in the Charitable Sector, the situation arises where a consumer receives a product or service which is supplied by a charity, but paid for by a third party, which may be a private sector organisation, a public sector organisation or a private individual. This arrangement has often meant that charities have only selectively applied those marketing techniques which are primarily concerned with attracting income from funders to the organisation. Thus a marketing philosophy and all that it implies for the development of an interactive and consumer responsive marketing system, has not been significantly developed.

This paper will argue through use of the illustrative example of the NSPCC (National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children), that charitable organisations can enjoy substantial benefits through the wider application of marketing principles to their activities.

It will show through its narrow emphasis upon its relationship with the funders, that the NSPCC has created a brand image based upon the problems encountered by the NSPCC, rather than upon the “solutions “ to those problems. This has had the further consequence that the resource allocation and resource attraction systems within the NSPCC has remained separate. A simple model is presented which facilitates examination of this relationship.

It will be suggested that this dichotomy within the NSPCC can be bridged through the Introduction of a marketing orientation which will enhance understanding of the relationship between the NSPCC and its funders, and which above all will provide the stimulus to the creation of a communication system between the funders and the children who are beneficiaries of the NSPCC activity.     

The Contingency Effects of Supplier Influence Strategies and Their Implications for Retailer Cooperation

Abstract

The success of manufacturers' consumer marketing programs often hinges on whether they are implemented at the retail level. Manufacturers use various influence strategies to persuade retailers to adopt their marketing programs. We investigate how well those influence strategies shape the retailers' positive attitudes toward their suppliers' marketing programs. We find that the effectiveness of those influence strategies depends upon the extent of uncertainty in the retailers' market. We also find that the manufacturer's investment in specific assets to support its relationship with the retailer strongly affects the retailer's attitude toward the supplier's programs.     

Customer service—the missing dimension in marketing management

Although several writers have drawn attention to Customer Service as a vital ingredient for success in marketing there is still confusion over what is, how to measure it and hence how to manage it. Yet examples continue to emerge which suggest that Customer Service is the essence of the marketing concept in practice and therefore a source of differentiation and competitive advantage.

It is also suggested that the way firms deal with customer service is a more accurate reflection of their marketing orientation than organisational or other characteristics. A useful reminder that business is about creating and providing customer satisfactions would therefore seem appropriate and ways to improve Customer Service are suggested based on several case study examples.     

China's regulated marketing mix: The role of the state administration Bureau for industry and commerce

China is the most populous and the fastest growing major economy in the world. Although still a centralized economy, free enterprise and foreign investment is now encouraged. Many regulations have recently been introduced to control the new trade based economy. These are policed by the State Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce, a huge bureaucracy with thousands of local offices. This paper reviews how it manages trade and particularly the marketing mix in China. The power of the local offices is discussed and a distinction drawn between “the rule of men” and “the rule of law”. It provides recommendations for trading in China.