4Ps Now the 4Rs

Everyone that has ever had an introductory marketing class has heard of the 4Ps, product, price, place and promotion.  This methodology has served marketers well since developed by Jerome McCarthy in 1960.  The 4Ps places importance on getting your message seen by the potential customer.   

However, many marketing experts including eMarketer are advocating the 4Rs model of consumer-centric marketing.  Through social networking, consumers interact with each other to learn about and evaluate products.  The 4Rs consist of reveal, reward, respect and retain. 

Click here to access Webtrends’ presentation on this new marketing paradigm:

https://admin.acrobat.com/_a162502/the4rs/

In listening to this presentation, I kept thinking that the 4Rs model would probably be even more advantageous to associations.  In the presentation, a brand focused around potato chips moved beyond the world of salty snack enjoyment into social commentary on environmental sustainability by building true die-hard customers and brand evangelists.  Would it not be easier for an association brand initially focused on social commentary and public activism to simply deepen this relationship by allowing members to share their personal stories and viewpoints?

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Social Networking and Control Discussions

A fellow association blogger (Jamie Notter) has been leading an interesting conversation into associations fears of social networking capabilities such as blogs, forums and communities of practice. 

Check out Jamie’s thoughts and user comments in these two posts:

http://www.getmejamienotter.com/getmejamienotter/2008/02/myth-of-control.html

http://www.getmejamienotter.com/getmejamienotter/2008/02/the-myth-of-con.html

Here are a few of the fears I have heard expressed:

Our members do not blog or participate in discussion boards.

We can’t allow document sharing because viruses will be shared.

We won’t be able to edit all of the postings to ensure they are grammatically correct.

It will be just a place to complain about the association.

It will require too many resources to monitor all of the postings.

What sort of content would we be authorized to remove?

Do we ignore negative comments or respond to them?

How do we capture and bundle peer-to-peer learning from the forums?

Bundling peer-to-peer learning opportunities with traditional learning vehicles is the only constructive issue mentioned above.  The rest are fears that handcuff associations and continue to drive members and potential members to the Facebooks, MySpaces and Nings of the world.  Content should flow two ways in a successful association from the BoD and headquarters to members as well as from the members to the BoD and headquarters.  It is time the members have a chance to drive for awhile.

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Podcasting and Vodcasting Strategies

There are many business models that associations are exploring with their podcast and vodcast initiatives.  Below is a discussion of the plusses and minuses for each strategy that I have heard of.

Exposure/Recognition/Branding Strategy-  In this model, you place all of your podcast or vodcast content entirely free and completely accessible through the iTunes store. 

There are other podcast aggregators out there, but iTunes is by far the largest.  The good news is that iTunes tells its podcasting partners that they can conservatily expect 4 times the visitation your content would normally see on your own website thanks to its global marketshare.  The bad news is that the iTunes store displays only free podcasts and do not collect payments like they do for music or audio book content.  If your association has a post test requirement for CE on your own online store you could still charge for a post test related to the free content.  If you do not operate under this CE format, it is a free for all. 

Your success in this model is measured in increased brand awareness, increased name recognitition, and hopefully stemming from this, new members joining your association.  If Apple ever begins advertising for pay for viewing podcasts, this strategy completely changes.  Right now, the exposure/branding strategy is an indirect revenue stream.

Tie-Ins/Add-Ons-  This strategy goes hand in hand with the exposure strategy.  Your podcast and vodcast content appears for free on iTunes, but you sell related products on your own online store.  Articles and webinars that are similar in scope to the free podcast are advertised at some point within the podcast content.  Most of the time, these advertisements are place in the middle or very end of a podcast. 

Sponsorship-  This is another model possibly linked with the exposure strategy.  If you can prove that your podcast is attracting a large audience, your vendor community may be willing to sponsor your podcast or vodcast.  Their ads would appear in the middle or end of a particular podcast or within a related series of podcasts.  As your audience grows, your sponsorship rates can also increase.  Outside of the association world, this has proven to be the most successful business model for most podcasters.   

Teasers/Snippets-  In this strategy, you pull out one really interesting or exciting segment from a larger podcast.  This interesting segment is launched for free on iTunes.  At the end of the podcast, you instruct the viewer where and how they can purchase the rest of the podcast in its entirety.  The inherent value of your podcast content is maintained.   

The association I am employed with is pursuing the Teaser/Snippet strategy.

What are your associations doing?  I would like to hear what your associations are doing.  Please comment below.

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