Marketing Execution

Before moving to the Marketing Execution part of my project, I just want to reiterate that I’m pursing an “Acquisition -> Stimulate Demand” Big Picture Marketing strategy. The category is “drinking water crisis” especially in the developing world. It is essential to mention these crucial facts of my plan so that you can validate the consistency of the execution plan.

The first thing I have to do is to define some of the search, experience and credence attributes of Charity Water:

Search Attributes: The search attributes in this case are two-pronged. First, it revolves around all the facts surrounding this issue. For example, 1/8^th of the world population don’t have access to drinking water and similar other facts which I discussed in my first blog. The next set of search attributes are related to Charity Water’s performance so far. Attributes such as, its financial performance, the list of projects it has funded, the socio economic impact in the project areas, its volunteer strength and so on.

Experience Attributes: I think Charity Water has done a great job by building the technology infrastructure through which donors can evaluate some of the experience attributes. As I mentioned before Charity Water provides features in its website via which donors can track their charities irrespective of the amount. There are numerous testimonials, case study, etc which can definitely help donors to make an informed decision.  

Credence attributes: Because of Charity Water’s strong social media presence, extensive PR coverage and above all a dynamic founder has really contributed significantly to an image of savvy, efficient and modern non-profit organization.  

Marketing Communication: To be consistent with the Big Picture framework the communication obviously has to focus on raising the basic awareness on this issue. Although, most of Charity Water’s competition in this category communicates similar facts on drinking water crisis I think someone has to do a better job in increasing the importance of this issue in people’s mind. It becomes especially difficult when the crisis is happening at a geographical distant place from the donors. However, I think Charity Water is in the best place to raise awareness on this issue by executing some of the innovative and creative communication strategies. If you visit the website of Charity Water you will find that it tries to promote a message of hope and possibilities. This is consistent with the philosophy of promotion vs. prevention and its impact on donor’s behavior. When most organizations in this category show gloom and doom scenario Charity Water tries to provide a positive spin on this issue.

In addition, Charity Water has to differentiate itself by providing some of the informative message that it is the only organization in this category which is a symbol of transparency and efficiency.

Channel: Lastly, in terms of channel, Charity Water is getting the donations via its website (direct), via volunteer hosted affiliate website, twestivals and some brick and mortar fundraising bash. Except the volunteer organized fund raising Charity Water can control and monitor its channel very well which is essential for acquisition -> stimulate demand campaigns.

Today, I look forward to the discussion on volunteers in social marketing. Like many non-profits, Charity Water has to reach its donor base with very limited resources. However, you lose certain degree of control with volunteers. How would you make sure that your volunteers are executing your strategy effectively?

I will be also looking forward to the pricing discussion. How much should I ask for donations? What is the best way to price discriminate based on my fundraising campaigns? I’m not a great fan of – give us what you can – pricing plan. As a donor I tend to respond better when I was asked a definite amount such as $5 a month will allow a child to attend school.