Archive for November, 2005

November 30, 2005

Giving It Away

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At the ASAE conference last summer, speaker Scott McKain made the point that members want “reciprocal loyalty” but often what they get is “endless prospecting.” In other words, many associations spend most of their effort deluging prospective members (and, if they aren’t careful with their lists, current members) with special offers and discount deals on dues.

We act like cellphone companies (”Act now and save XX!” “Special 14-month plan if you join by December 31″ etc.) by expending all our energy on new enrollments — and, tell me, who *loves* their cellphone service provider? I’m guilty as well as I’ve also done, on rare occasions, discount first-year dues offers, and cringe every time I do.

Now, Scott’s point was that we should refocus most of our efforts on retention by rewarding those who stay with us (not just monetarily) and not those who are new. I agree, but hesitate slightly, because honestly don’t we need to prospect as well?

Via Nick Senzee, I discovered this post from Garr Reynolds, where he argues that discounting is bad, but “giving it away” for free can be valuable when done right. He’s talking about professional service providers, but raises an interesting question for organizations as well:

“My thinking is that discounting my services, say, to an investment firm, may indeed cheapen my brand. So I don’t do that. However, I do not think doing some (sometimes more) work 100% free of charge cheapens what you have to offer, depending on the circumstance. Discounts cheapen, but free is free — and some of the best things in life are free. (They don’t say, ‘Some of the best things in life are…discounted 50%’). Selling yourself (too) ‘cheap’ is different from ‘giving it away.’ For example, Starbucks is not going to discount their drinks, but maybe they’ll give free hot chocolates on Christmas Eve evening in certain stores for tired, procrastinating shoppers.”

However, as one commenter to Reynolds’ post wrote, “Free stuff seems to be attractive to a market only when it’s perceived to be good enough to pay for.” If you have an association brand and service package that is worth a lot of money, then there may be value in a highly targeted, controlled and tracked free offer to get people over that initial joining hump.

(The harder part is giving something away for free without that brand, buzz or track record. It’s like the dot-coms in the 90s — “we’ll give it away now and figure out how to make money later.” You see something similar happening with Web 2.0 startups now, a primary difference being that dot-coms aimed for IPOs, which require profits to happen sooner or later, and Web 2.0 folks seem more interested in acquisition. I can’t think of one Web 2.0 startup that started out giving it away that has successfully monetized their product, though please let me know if I’m wrong.)

Imagine that you have that valuable brand, and did what Scott McKain talked about and created an aggressive package of valuable services, and focused pretty much all your attention on the care and nurturing of existing members so that they continue to renew. In that case, wouldn’t it make financial sense to give that first year away for free to never-before-members? What if we were to throw “member acquisition” out the window altogether?

Just a few thoughts as I lay here in bed.

November 30, 2005

Blogging Tragedy

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Via Paul Chaney: small business owner and blogger Patti Thompson lost her jewelry store to a fire on November 1, the start of the holiday shopping season. They’ve set up temporary quarters thanks to the generosity of a local tire store, have begun rebuilding, and she’s been blogging through the whole experience. Reading through the posts that go from shock and surprise to persistence and optimism, you truly get the sense of the power of businesses and organizations to connect with their customers and communities, person to person … the power of blogging done well.

November 30, 2005

Bedridden

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Unexpectedly I’ve been forced to stay in bed and off my feet the last few days which means I am missing the IAEM show and the panel on blogging being held tomorrow. Not to put too fine a point on it, but this sucks — not only because it’s bad to be stuck off my feet but because I was really looking forward to IAEM, hate letting them down, and was really looking forward to finally meeting Rich Westerfield and Toby Bloomberg.

Hope you guys have a great panel! I’ll be there in spirit.

November 25, 2005

More on Competition

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Is competition in the association world a force for innovation, or a wasteful spinning of wheels?

In comments a few days ago to my post on the positives of association competition, Jeff said:

But competition can also be quite wasteful as well, particularly when the size of the total market is relatively small … [By this, I] mean the size of the market the associations themselves create.

… I’m also a bit more concerned these days about our use of the word “nimble.” What exactly do we mean by nimble? … My interpretation of a “more nimble competitor” is an organization that is able to more quickly create new value for customers. But I’m not sure if that is your intended meaning …

First: Jeff’s definition of “nimble” is exactly what I meant. Nimble is not a governance structure, but a mindset. (Though governance can have a lot to do with enabling that mindset.)

Second: Jeff’s right, two (or more) associations serving the same industry or profession offering the same types of meetings, publications, etc. is pretty wasteful. Eventually that industry or profession is going to get tired of it and demand a merger of some sort. So you wind up with one association offering the same types of meetings, publications, etc.

Third: Associations’ primary competition, in my opinion, is not coming from other associations, but from for-profit companies offering innovative services to the association’s market. There are a few choices an organization has in this situation:

1) Hold meetings to talk about it.
2) Try to sign a deal with them.
3) Try to duplicate what they’re doing.
4) Create new services and products that don’t already exist.
5) Or some combination of the above.

I like #4 — which ties in with Jeff’s remark about “Blue Ocean Strategy.”

Fourth: Without competition, associations are unlikely to create new products and services. Even getting to that point, however, requires associations to recognize that it’s okay to be competitive. Many association execs have collaboration and consensus hardwired into their genes, and need to understand that a desire for those very-admirable-goals does not preclude a desire to create in order to compete. It’s okay to want to win, as long as you’re doing so by creating value and not through political bickering and one-up-manship (which does not serve any market well).

Fifth: Let me repeat, I’m not denigrating collaboration. Jeff’s comment about the three C’s — “cooperate where appropriate, collaborate where possible, compete where necessary” — is a reasonable mantra, for all organizations, not just associations.

Sixth: All this said, associations’ biggest competitors are not other companies or associations, but “doing nothing.” (Of course, the same is true for all organizations.) To grow and to better serve our members, associations will need to create new products and services that are surprising and fulfill needs that customers may not even know they have. Coming up with a new slogan to sell the same “stuff” is not a strategy for thriving, or even surviving.

November 23, 2005

Thank Your First Commenter

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This is a great idea — for Thanksgiving, “Thank Your First Commenter.” Since this also happens to be my blog’s birthday, I thought it was an especially appropriate thing to do. And so, a special thanks to … the first commenter on this blog in its original incarnation at Blogger … none other than Jeff De Cagna, an early booster and supporter who also added the first comment to a post on November 29, 2004.

Because I screwed up transferring data, the comment is no longer available on this blog, but it was a post about blogs and how I don’t think they really “replace” anything, and Jeff — in the first of many thoughtful and interesting conversations — wrote, “I both agree and disagree with this post.” Now, that sounds familiar …

Thanks, Jeff, for that first comment and all the others, and to everybody else. I should sign off now because I’m coming dangerously close to pimping for comments….

November 23, 2005

The Year of Living Dangerously

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A few weeks ago I wrote a post called “I hate birthdays” (which, oddly enough, is driving a lot of traffic — you’d be surprised at how many people search for the phrase “hate birthdays” on Google) but today is a better kind of birthday, one I don’t hate at all — this blog was launched one year ago today with a post entitled “What’s Blogging? Sounds Painful!”

Back then this blog was built to go along with a workshop on blogging I was giving at the first Great Ideas Conference, and afterwards I just kind of kept it going — more in some months than others, and through a couple of incarnations (and more changes are coming soon with some new features and things I want to give a try).

It’s been a lot of fun, I’ve had a lot of good discussions, met a lot of great people, and I’ve learned a lot from each of you.

It’s that discussion that makes this such a worthwhile endeavor — your participation in this site is more valuable than mine, which is why I’m committed to keeping comments open and unmoderated (and thank God for WordPress and its anti-spam tools).

Thanks for reading, and here’s to lots more posts. Have a great Thanksgiving!