Page 48 - Sustainability and entrepreneurship for CSO's and CSO networks Cambodia 1 November 2018

CHAPTER 12: MARKETING
Marketing has been defined differently, as getting across the right message towards the right customers via the right channels (Kennedy, 2011), retaining existing customers and attracting new ones (Swaim, 2011), or: ‘a human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange processes’ (Armstrong, Kotler, 2008).
Marketing requires you to:
Inform stakeholders about your organisation, your dreams and beliefs, your products, services or projects, with one or several special created messages, communicated through different channels for each group of stakeholders.
• Be aware in what way your products, services or projects are different from those of other suppliers, or: what your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is.
Retain customers and relevant stakeholders by keeping them informed, providing pre- and after sales services.
Every organisation engages in marketing activities. Projects and services are delivered to stakeholders, products and services are being sold and budgets are mobilised by attracting funders. Furthermore, organisations communicate what they are doing, by using their website, newsletters, flyers, posters, a blog, free advertising, radio/TV, social media.
Challenges
Many non-profit organisations can do better when it comes to marketing.
Non-profits need to communicate their subject / message /service strategically and perform marketing activities beyond lobby or fundraising purposes.
To be successful stakeholders have to be addressed in a tailor made approach. One-size fits all marketing won’t work; one group of customers or stakeholders can’t automatically be compared to the other. Make a segmentation of your customers and stakeholders by using geographical criteria (country, region, and city), demographic criteria (gender, age, education, income, lifestyle).
Society
Cambodia has changed dramatically over the last 20 years: mobility increased, economy developed, government institutionalised and technology changed at an almost vertical curve. Norms, values and social cohesion in the rural areas may still remain more or less the same, but city dwellers and youngsters invent new forms of social and economic interaction. Today, especially young people are more individualistic, seeking personal benefits, possibilities to travel and to explore global opportunities. Meanwhile social media are intensively used to link up to peers all over the world.
We increasingly live in a perception economy dictated by feelings, gadgets and fast changing networks. Buying food, drinks, shoes, clothes, and mobile phones is buying a lifestyle, rather than a product. A lifestyle product is a feel good product to satisfy a longing for happiness and maybe to compensate feelings of insecurity. Ones’ lifestyle relates to groups or communities you can identify yourself with. Society is a dynamic compilation of individuals, groups, preferences, needs, etc.
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