102B - Marketing Rotary for Non-Professionals - 'Them' - Present and Future

In this series, Rotary refers to the enterprise of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation.

Please review Marketing Rotary for Non-Professionals 101 - Introduction and 102A.

How can Rotary improve its present and future Retention, Attraction, and Growth Rates?  Simple.

Internal Marketing!

   Rotary's purpose is to create Rotarians by advancing the Object of Rotary.  That should also be Rotary's mission.  The goal of Internal Marketing (IM) is to align every aspect of Rotary operations to assure that each delivers value toward achieving Rotary's purpose and mission.

   The Siegel+Gale research findings clearly showed that the perceptual gap between what Rotary is and what Rotary's target audience perceives it to be is two to three times larger than it should be.  It also discovered that Rotary leaders do not have a clear vision of what Rotary is because, when asked, most responded with Ummm.  The only way these types of issues can be solved is through implementing a permanent IM initiative. 

   When examined with a critical eye, Rotary's purpose passes annually through the President of Rotary International, 550+ Secretariat employees, 17 Directors, 15 Trustees, 34 Zone Rotary Coordinators, 34 Zone TRF Coordinators, 34 Zone Public Image Coordinators, the Web Site, Monthly magazines and newsletters, 530 District Governors, 530 District Trainers, over 4,000 District Committee chairs, and countless blogs, tweets, Facebook postings to almost 35,000 club officers and committee chairs and over 1.2 million Rotarians.  No wonder Rotary messaging, as demonstrated in the children's party game played around the world, Chinese Whispers or Gossip, has little resemblance to Rotary's purpose when it finally reaches local clubs and Rotarians.

   IM's perpetual goal would be to make sure that every associate knows that Rotary's purpose is to create Rotarians by participating in Rotary's Circle of Life, the Object of Rotary.  Are all operations listed in the adjacent graphic necessary?  Are they centered on helping Rotary associates deliver value supporting Rotary's purpose?  When asked, "What is Rotary?" how will present and future Rotary associates, including directors, district governors, and zone coordinators respond?  Will the perceptual gap between Rotary and present and future target audiences close, remain the same, or widen?

An effective IM program could narrow the gap.  Without such a program, Rotary associates cannot continually deliver consistent value toward achieving Rotary's purpose - creating Rotarians - simply because they do not know, or buy into, Rotary's purpose.  Not only will resources expended on external marketing be wasted, Rotary's future will be in jeopardy.

Next is Marketing Rotary for Non-Professionals 103 - More Internal Marketing