Principled Innovation LLC

Marketing & Membership Conference: Day 1

June 27th, 2006

So the first day of the ASAE & The Center Marketing & Membership Conference is in the books. (One too many ampersands in that sentence…) To be honest, it was not the compelling learning experience I was expecting and very much hoping to have. I attended part of the morning general session and two concurrent sessions and I was not really wowed by any of them. But while the sessions themselves may have lacked oomph, I think the conversations in progress did raise some important questions worth exploring. Here are three:

• What is the role of branding in association marketing?–Before exploring the question directly, let me observe that it is more than a little ironic that so many associations are comfortable embracing branding, yet find it difficult to accept the necessity of innovation because it is the latter term that seems like a corporate sector buzzword. Branding is one of the most enduring buzzwords/ideas in the management lexicon and, once again with a full appreciation of the irony, some of the greatest brands around are also among the greatest innovators, e.g., P&G, Google, Starbucks, 3M and so forth. As for the question itself, I think there is room to consider 1) whether most association members think about their organizations in terms of brands, 2) whether most associations have sufficient resources to create robust brand identities and 3) whether a brand orientation to association marketing creates a strategic disconnect between organizational aspirations and capacity. I’m not opining on any of these three points, just suggesting they should be considered. I will say, however, that a brand without a commitment to innovation is an empty and most likely unfulfilled promise.
• What is the new premise of association membership?–For the last few decades, the premise of association membership has centered on providing the information that individual and organizational members need to do their work better. In a fluid, mobile and Web-enabled world, however, this premise is no longer valid. Information is now a commodity offering, available in large amounts anywhere and everywhere we go. In many cases, individual members no longer have the same job for decades at a time and, even when they do, the rate of flow of critical knowledge is accelerating dramatically, far outstripping the ability of associations to keep pace. For organizational members, the strategic context is often very unsettled, creating a need for near real time intelligence that many membership organizations simply cannot deliver. If this is the world in which associations are going to operate for the next decade and beyond, we must be able to identify more than just another standard value proposition in order to thrive. From my perspective, one of the most compelling directions open to us is the association as an insurance policy against irrelevance. Membership dues, rather than serving as a fee-for-service transaction, become a premium paid to enhance member value through continuous innovation.
• What are associations going to do to gain a larger share of their members’ attention?–Associations appear to have faded so far into the woodwork of American society these days, that it is extremely hard to see how we’re going reassert ourselves and gain greater traction in the time-starved, attention-fragmented and energy-limited lives of our members. It is possible to approach the attention conversation with members in new and interesting ways, such as through the use of social media, but our success will depend on whether we can do that in an open-minded and experimental, i.e., not cynical, manner.

I will share further thoughts tomorrow. For now, let’s reflect on these questions, as they are very important to the long-term success of our organizations and our community.

Entry Filed under: Principled Innovation Blog, What's New?, Social Media, Innovation, Associations, Extreme Makeover, The Association Innovator