Was the headline lead of a business column in today’s paper by Molly Selvin of the LA Times.
Selvin wrote about the “looming tsunami” of Boomers retiring - as well as the lack of future leaders trained and ready to step up.
Interestingly, the stats shared in her column were in alignment in many ways with the results […]
This should be a tweet (twitter - whatever), but I haven’t had time to get into setting up Twitter here (or anywhere) yet, so I’m just dropping y’all a line to let you know I will be at the Decision to Join conference tomorrow (Monday). If anyone else is going, find me! : )
Hope to hear some new (deeper) information about the study. If this is just a rehash of the introductory session at the Chicago annual meeting, I will be disappointed.
Will report back anon.
With all the hooplah on generations X and Y swirling about in the association management profession these days, it was refreshing to receive a copy of a book about the baby boomer generation and how to market to them. A friend gave me a copy of Boomer Consumer: Ten Rules for Marketing to America’s Largest, Wealthiest and Most Influential Group
The book is an outcome of the Boomer Project, a joint venture between Matt Thornhill, an advertising executive, and John Martin (no relation), the CEO of SIR Research, a Richmond-based market research firm (full disclosure: VSCPA was an SIR client while I was employed there).
For me, this book echoes much of the advice I’ve heard from marketing consultants for years. There were, however, a few points that I feel merit special attention:
Thankfully, the book does a great job of steering clear of generational stereotyping. Only once did I notice something that just struck me as being a stereotype against generation X.
All in all, this book opened my eyes to a few new learnings, but also reinforced my confidence in some assumptions I’ve made over the years through observation and experience.
The book is available from Amazon.com for $16.47 and is 206 pages, excluding the index.
The authors maintain a pretty good blog.
Tagged: Association Management; Associations; Baby Boomers; CAE; Certified Association Executive
Want to improve the quality of your life? Get a new mattress. When started getting back pain assumed related to age, weekend athlete, working too many hours, lifted something wrong, etc. — but first question doctor asked - “how old is your mattress?” Apparently life-span is 9-10 years; and common reason for back pain; definitely reason for mine.
New means quality mattress that supports your sleep and back - not cheapest can find that haven’t owned before. Great mattress makes huge difference. Follow up buying quality mattresses for kids too — don’t hand down your old one. Love our mattresses, and our backs — and you should too.
And if you have really old pillows — those need replacement too. I don’t have allergies, but apparently mites, etc. lurk in that pillow — which further contributes to problems.
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Tried to hunt down electronic version of a brochure for a member this week. There wasn’t one. Reason: Print brochures income source - if send electronic version won’t buy print version. That’s true - member didn’t want print version - her client’s in Asia and looking for info now. Result: Member has no ability to send PDF file to clients who need it. Some associations won’t make electronic versions of their legal forms available because don’t want to lose income from print versions.
Good e-publishing examples:
1. Just give file/link to document free. If the point of developing a brochure is to improve public info then how about making it easier.
2. Create e-synopsis to promote paid brand. Hotel in Europe gave us free daily synopsis/digest of NY Times (photocopied news that had clearly been emailed in a template on four pages — a mini print newsletter from electronic version). Really liked the NY Times for doing that.
3. Allow purchasing limited electronic rights to a document to further distribute in limited manner. Like electronic forms as part of dues.
4. Provide paid subscriptions to get electronic version, such as Daily Racing News with daily horse race information. Earlier this week spoke at facility with self-contained Daily Racing News print terminal, so user could select race track, pay nominal fee, and get customized news created/printed.
Bad e-publishing example:
Not allowing any electronic version because want to force purchase of printed brochure or form.
Don’t know how associations decide their print material profit outweighs serving members and their customers/clients working in a clearly wired world.
Tonight at 6 PM Apple’s new operating system - called Leopard - had a world debut.
As long-time Mac lovers, James and I decided to join the party.
By the time we arrived at the mall, we were numbers 106 and 107 in the line!
The Apple store was closed.
A guard stood at the door as the crowds […]
There’s staggering amount to be learned from those who blog - and one to highlight is Beth Kanter (pic). Describing herself: “She is a professional blogger and writes about the use of social media tools in the nonprofit sector for social change.”
She recently did online fundraiser to raise $1000 to help fund junior year of college for Cambodian woman. Hoped to raise it in 3 weeks, did it in under 24 hours. Used everything from widgets showing progress, to video, to urging friends to promote the campaign via Twitter and other blogs. And I gave because believe online philanthropy is going to be more extensively used by associations, and appreciate how much learning from her.
Here’s info about “Wired Fundraisers“: Beth explains details that make wired fundraising work, and not work. Her experience: it’s the messenger even more than the message. Giving sense of urgency - combined with widgets and social media - increase opportunities for success.
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It’s time for yet another installment of the Blog Watchdog, a monthly column I write for McKinley Marketing. Sign up for their newsletter to get this column and articles written by their expert consultants. As usual, I have the irresistible urge to make full disclosure that I am a paid freelance writer for McKinley.
In last month’s Blog Watchdog, we discussed potential business uses of social networking sites, linking to the blog of Lee Aase, a communications professional at the Mayo Clinic who has some of the best Facebook for business tips around. One of the objections I most often hear from association professionals is “how do measure our return on investment in a social networking strategy?” This objection is not easily overcome. It’s quite difficult to draw a straight line from a social media strategy to tangible results, not to mention dollars and cents. The online nonprofit tech community NetSquared recently leveraged the wisdom of their crowd to begin answering the question, “What is the Return on Investment of the Social Web for Nonprofits?“
We witnessed a firestorm about the value of marketing in the association blogosphere over the past month. Myriad responses from across the association industry were posted in response to an entry on Acronym by Scott Briscoe: “Tipping points, evangelists, sneezers, mavens, etc.” In it, Briscoe assails what he sees as the fatal flaw of traditional marketing. You know what he means… The “50-gazillion dollar flashy 500-page annual meeting brochure” that consumes precious human and capital resources which might otherwise be used to substantially upgrade the annual meeting experience, thereby producing a more remarkable experience that is infinitely more likely to be evangelized in member-to-member word of mouth. This is one conversation you can’t afford to miss.
A remarkable product certainly makes marketing easier. Mickie Rops at the We Have Always Done it That Way blog provides a real life scenario on how reallocating design, print, and mailing expenses into product development can show tangible results. For example, “an association has been offering a certificate of training program for the past six years. It spends very little on promotion - a listing on its website, occasional e-blasts, and a simple printed flier included in select mailings. Yet, almost all programs have sold out - many with a long waiting list. How? They spent their time wisely and generously on program concept and design. The program meets a real need, and exceeds participant expectations… Evaluations data show that over 95% of participants would recommend it to a colleague…and they do.”
Re-engineering products, services, and even the association membership offering itself may be the best hope for marketing to consumers of the future. A-List blogger Guy Kawasaki recently moderated a panel comprised of students and young adults to gain insight into their daily reading, computing, working, communicating and socializing routines. The panel reveals some stunning information, including a pervasive fascination with social networking, an equally pervasive disdain for advertising, and text messaging habits that would bankrupt some parents. Check out the video for an enlightening peek into the minds of tomorrow’s association members.
To continue the discussion on any of these topics, post your comments.
If you have feedback or a tip for me, email bkmcae-at-gmail-dot-com.
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