108 - Marketing Rotary for Non-Professionals - Market Segmentation Existing Member Segment

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

Please review Marketing Rotary for Non-Professionals 107 and this Marketing Rotary Schematic.

Rotary and its member clubs have two market segments from which to sustain membership - existing members and potential members.  Similarities exist, but each segment must be treated differently.  Two issues of prime importance in doing so is recognizing that:

1.  Rotary membership is a niche market; it is not for everyone.

2.  Both segments are motivated by personal desires.

   For marketing purposes, each primary segment must be separated into four secondary segments - Behavioral, Demographic, Psychographic, and Geographic. 

www.thehomeofknowledge.com

   To improve retention rates, it is vital that Rotary and its member clubs understand that existing Rotarians, particularly those who have been members for three or more years, are loyal Rotarians.  Loyalty is a Behavioral characteristic and is gained, not because of what Rotary or clubs do, but because of the satisfaction Rotarians receive by being members of local clubs.  Data indicates that Rotary and its member clubs have between one and three years for new Rotarians to evolve into loyal Rotarians.  Issues like the time Rotary takes and how being a Rotarian affects their family, business, and/or personal activities are important.  The recognition, prestige, honors, and other benefits accorded them, particularly in their local settings, helps them justify to themselves and others the reasons for their loyalty.

  Demographic segmentation addresses members' age, race, religion, gender, political affiliation, family size, ethnicity, income, and education, all of which closely tie to members' wants and needs.  When clubs center on members' wants and needs, it is easier to retain them.  It is a serious marketing breach to believe that each demographic has the same Psychographic profile.  They don't.  Demographic differences often affect members' Behavior.

   Psychographic segmentation addresses members' personality traits, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles.  This is perhaps the most difficult of all segments for Rotary to address. Rotarians (and clubs) participate in activities and attributes according to their interests and attitudes.  Conflicts frequently arise within clubs because members have different specific interests, attitudes, traits, and understandings but almost always want to improve their lives in general.

   Geographic segmentation addresses land masses and transportation distances.  Geographic issues are of minimal importance in retaining Rotarians, but are quite important in creating new Rotarians.

The characteristics of each secondary segment continually interact to some degree in all Rotarians.  Rotary and its member clubs should tailor their attributes and activities to deliver value satisfactory to all Rotarians regardless of their years in Rotary.  And the only accurate measure of whether or not clubs are effective at doing so is their ability to retain and create loyal members!

109 - Marketing Rotary for Non-Professionals - Market Segmentation

Potential Member Segment

107 - Marketing Rotary for Non-Professionals - Rotary's Prime Target Audience.

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

Please review Marketing Rotary for Non-Professionals 101, 102A, 102B, 103, 104, 105, & 106

ROTARY'S PRIME TARGET AUDIENCE - EXISTING MEMBERS!

RIPE RAVI'S PRESIDENTIAL CITATION GOAL TO INCREASE THE ANNUAL RETENTION RATE BY ONE PERCENTAGE POINT IS A VISIONARY STEP IN IMPROVING MEMBERSHIP.

    Meaningful data pointed Rotary's leaders to why membership had stagnated - declining retention rates throughout the world.  Data cannot determine solutions - only people can.  And that requires critical, objective inward examination because Rotary's greatest challenge is internal.  Rotary has encouraged its customers - member clubs - to look internally, but it must also; it must be proactive at finding solutions or membership will continue its present trend.  The Siegel+Gale Research Report was a step up the ladder to solving membership issues, but Rotary must continue climbing.  The next logical step would be for Rotary to acknowledge that its prime target market is existing Rotarians and prioritize helping clubs improve retention rates.

    Rotary must understand that Rotarians' needs haven't changed since 1905, but Rotary and the world have. Please refer to Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs.  Rotarians' needs reside primarily in the lightly shaded area.  All Rotarians want better qualities of life for themselves, their families, and everyone else.  They aspire to live to their full potential, to make themselves better: better persons, better members of their social fabrics, better at helping others climb Maslow's hierarchy.  The Rotarians who founded Rotary International; who were involved in starting the United Nations and UNICEF; who originated Easter Seals; and who led the initiative to eliminate polio were all motivated by the desire to satisfy these personal needs.

   Few Rotarians are inspired or motivated to do things almost all of the world's 7.6 billion people can do, like picking up trash, but all aspire to live in cleaner, healthier, and safer communities and to help others do the same.  Most Rotary clubs are small.  Very few have the desire or resources to maintain routine data and/or pioneer solutions.  Rotary could and should be proactive in producing and delivering services its customers - clubs -  need.  To do so, it has to ask introspective questions, critically examine its hierarchy, and improve the support to and education of all associates - staff, directors, coordinators, governors, etc.  Creating Rotarians should be EVERYBODY'S top priority!

THE CHALLENGE

In 2009, the Membership Coordinators of Zones 33 and 34, using data furnished by Rotary International, calculated that if annual retention rates improved by less than two percentage points, the Zones would return to the growth state.  I challenge Rotary to calculate realistic annual retention rate increases that each District, Zone, and Region should have to sustain a steady growth state.  After doing so, Rotary should publish, promote, and pioneer ways and means to help each reach these targeted retention rates. 

Marketing Rotary for Non-Professionals 108 - Market Segmentation

106 - Marketing Rotary for Non-Professionals - Producing and Capturing Value.

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

Please review Marketing Rotary for Non-Professionals 101, 102A, 102B, 103, 104, & 105.

Rotary captures value in the form of dues from Rotary clubs, therefore Rotary clubs must produce something of value for which a few community citizens are willing to exchange value by paying dues and committing time and talent.  To do so, any Marketing Rotary initiative should be designed to assist clubs in determining answers to this question:  Why would a person in any community be interested in joining and paying dues to any Rotary club?

In order to respond appropriately, Rotary and its member clubs must be conscious of basic organization and market fundamentals, some of which are:

·   Rotary clubs are social welfare (civic) organizations, not charitable service organizations.

·   Less than one percent of the people in the world, or any community, is interested in joining a Rotary club, which, by personal selection, makes them an exclusive group.

·  Those who are interested in joining a local club make a commitment involving time, treasure, and/or talent.

·    They, and only they, judge whether or not they are receiving sufficient value in exchange for the commitment they have made.

·   Rotary clubs (and all member-supported organizations) are exclusive; i.e. they exclude everyone that, for whatever reason, is not interested in becoming a member.

In marketing terms, segmenting and recognizing those who may be interested in joining a Rotary club is referred to as identifying target audiences.  The challenge Rotary and its member clubs face is identifying those that may be interested, determining what values they seek, and producing those values.  When identifying and communicating with target audiences, consider that, in North America, most people volunteer to do some type of community service activity.  Even most of the 85% that live above the poverty line contribute something to charitable service organizations.  Confusing exclusivity with elitism and referring to Rotary clubs as 'service' clubs hinders public image initiatives and reinforces the need to re-establish a universally acceptable brand statement and marketing philosophy.

Rotary's strength lies in how much value clubs deliver to the few who choose to join clubs. To meet this challenge, Rotary needs to center on serving its clubs. This requires an extensive internal marketing initiative, consistency in messaging, critical examination of how messaging is delivered, and centering on target audiences - particularly its prime target audience.

Marketing Rotary for Non-Professionals 107 - Rotary's Prime Target Audience

WHAT IS ROTARY?

   If you do not answer this question within thirty seconds with a response that piques the interest of the person asking, you probably have lost their attention. Don't believe it? Cast aside your adopted Rotary biases and consider these questions: 

• How long are the TV commercials, sound bites, and headlines that trigger your enterprising mind into wanting to learn more about the topic?
• Why do you think Twitter has become so popular?

   The answer to 'What is Rotary?' whether it is a question, a sign, a TV spot, a headline, a sound bite, or a newsletter has only one goal: to entice people to want to learn more.

    Every person in a Rotary leadership position should be encouraged to develop an effective ten to thirty second response to What is Rotary? because creating and embedding one would require them to get up close and personal with what Rotary really is. If Rotary leaders cannot, from their heart, deliver an effective differentiating response, be it referencing their local club or Rotary International, why are they a leader? (Click here for a PETS, GETS, or Assembly exercise that could accomplish this objective.)

    One response, incorporating a tag line suggested by Siegel+Gale, is:  "Our Rotary club is an organization of local people with enterprising minds connecting for good."   Another, paraphrasing conventional Rotary wisdom, could be: "Our Rotary club is an organization of local active or retired business, professional, and community leaders".  For Rotary International staff and leaders, each could lead off with "Rotary International is a worldwide association of over 34,000 local clubs whose members are  . . . " 

    Even in a slow drawl, each response takes less than fifteen seconds, answers the question, differentiates Rotary from the ordinary, and communicates Who Rotarians Are.  Both work for me - and on my mental attitude.  And I question whether or not we can begin doing what RIPN Germ desires, ". . . enthusiastically and effectively market who we are" if we don't know and understand who we are.        

 

What would be your response?

Rotary's Target Audiences

Sources indicate that the average Rotarian's age has remained at 58 for the last one or two decades.  Some say this is not good for membership; that the average age should be lower.  Others disagree. This is a critical issue because it relates to the demographics and psychographics of Rotary's target audiences and where resources should be dedicated if Rotary wants to return to a steady growth state.  So let's examine Rotary history and North American demographics.
     In 1905, when Paul Harris founded Rotary, he was in his 37^th year.  According to the US Bureau of Statistics at that time, the average 37-year-old could expect to live another 30 years - or to age 67 (Paul Harris left Rotary and the world at 79-42 years after founding Rotary; 12 years beyond life expectancy.) Today, a 37-year-old male is expected to live 42 more years - or to age 79.  Female life expectancy is four years longer.  So what would be the expected Rotarian Lifetime Value (RLV) of a 37-year-old should they be retained in Rotary until health required them to leave? Retained Rotarians, if properly appreciated, become loyal Rotary advocates.  Word of mouth is the best advertising any organization can get.

   What about non-Rotarian target audiences?  Sound business acumen must prevail when projecting Rotary's public messaging and images to any target audience.  In the United States, when identifying non-Rotarian target audiences, one must, among other issues, examine the work force. According to this graphic, eighty-seven percent of its employed citizens are over 26 years old.  Rotary's Messaging Guidelines suggests that Rotarians should be leaders who are defined, not by labels or titles, but by mindsets and approaches.  Developing these personal psychometrics generally takes time and experience, as does generating expendable time and resources.  So today, Rotary's prime U.S., non-Rotarian target audience most likely begins somewhere in the upper portion of the X generation, perhaps slightly older than Paul Harris when he founded Rotary.  What would be their RLV should they join and remain in Rotary until health issues determined otherwise?

Rotary's prime target audience has to be its existing members.  Resources must be dedicated to retaining and helping them become Rotary advocates.  This initiative, accompanied by consistent Rotary messaging communicating who Rotarians are, will help return Rotary membership to a steady growth state.

Thoughts on Engagments

Are Clubs Engaged to their Members?

           

Can Rotary clubs become Bigger, Better, Bolder, and more effective at retaining members without becoming engaged to existing members?  To continue reading, please click here. . . . 

Value Rotarians and use Attributes

Happy New Year.  

This time of year, many people take a bit of time to review, and sometimes reestablish, where they place their values.  

Perhaps it is time for Rotary to do the same.

To read Jim Henry's Rotatorial on how where Rotary places value has a critical affect on membership, click here.

Are Rotary's Actions Hindering Diversity?

Proposition:  

Rotary's addiction to the elixir served up in Rotary's Diversity Grande has actually hindered diverse representation and contributed to our overall membership stabilization.   

To gain a greater understanding of this proposition click here:

Joining a Rotary Club May Threaten a Person's Security?

Why won't generation X or Millennial business, professional, and community leaders join local Rotary clubs? Rotarians frequently do not realize that, to many of them, joining something like a Rotary club threatens their security!  Why?

An April, 2009 Rotatorial discussed this issue, so I thought that heading into the Rotary Training Season would be a good time to resurrect it.  

To read this slightly modified rerun, click here.  

Are Rotary Clubs Connected to their Members?

A Rotary Club should be interconnected with the gravitational pull of its STAR like our Earth is interconnected with the gravitational pull of its STAR.Is your club interconnected with its STAR?




To read why interconnection is necessary to have a strong local identity, and how a club and STAR could interconnect, please click here . . .

Are P.E.T.S. Focused on Presidents-Elect?

ARE P.E.T.S. FOCUSED ON 
PRESIDENTS-ELECT?

In North America, the now eighteen-year drop in membership, and the over twenty years of organized Presidents-Elect Training Sessions (PETS) is too close of a relationship to be considered a mere coincidence.  From this observation, two propositions could be debated:

            1:  PETS slowed the rate of our membership decline.

            2:  PETS contributed to our membership decline.

To read more about P.E.T.S. and PEs, click here... 

If you are afraid to think about present and future Rotarians, do not click here! 

Or here if you are afraid to improve your club's MEMBERSHIP RETENTION HEALTH!

Rotary in North America - Part IV

For eighteen years, Rotary In North America has been mired in the captivating ruts of declining membership!  

Other Rotary regions should be wary and steer clear or they, too, will be captured by similar travails.  

Together We IN NORTH AMERICA Can GET OUT AND STAY OUT!

           

To get out, and to stay out, Rotary clubs must be on roads paved with leaders 
. . .to read the final Rotatorial of Jim Henry's Rotary in North America series . . . click here

Who Knew How Many Rotarians Were Walking Out?

Annually, More Than 157,000 

Rotarians Have Been Walking Out Clubs’ Doors Taking With Them Over

US$7,500,000 

Of Rotary International's Dues Revenue.
To read about what could and is being done about it, please click here.

Rotary In North America - Part III

Rotary's Public Information

If Rotary's public information contains substance, is it being digested by those most likely to support your local Rotary. . . to continue reading, click here 

Rotary In North America - Part II

Rotary's Image and Public Information!  

A LinkedIn discussion regarding Rotary’s image raises two vital questions:  What is Rotary’s Image?  To whom should Public Information be directed?  To read Jim Henry's Rotatorial discussing these questions, please click here. . .

Rotary in North America - Part I

Rotary – Born by Commerce, 1905.   

Is Rotary in North America capable and willing to avoid being

Buried by Commonplace 

this century?  

To read or download Jim Henry's Rotatorial, click here.

FOUR STEPS. . .

Who is Rotary?  RI Director John Smarge
If anyone can become a Rotarian, there is no reason for anyone to become a Rotarian.  Four Steps . . .

Click here to read Four Steps . . . Jim Henry's final Rotatorial as Zone 34's Rotary Coordinator

ROTARY'S PROGRAM-PROJECT PROPHECY

Rotary's Program-Project Prophecy - This prophecy sounds like a self-fulfilling journey to the Promised Land of Membership Retention and Growth.

BUT, it will only come to pass . . . . To continue reading, please click here

Reversing A Membership Freefall

Last year RC Jim Henry published a series of eight articles on Reversing our Membership Freefall. After this year's Zone 34 Seminars, both regional and local, we believe that the thoughts and concepts discussed can shed light on steps clubs and districts should take. The easy-to-read articles could be most useful to all levels of 2011-12 Rotary leaders.

Click here to view or download the complete booklet.