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by Jodi Rudick, M.A.S.
If you've ever taken a high school or
college marketing class, you probably learned
early on about the "Four Ps of Marketing." Since
the 1940s these Classic Ps (Price, Product, Placement,
and Promotion) were used to steer communications
activities for businesses and organizations.
However, over the course of my twenty plus years
working primarily with public agencies, nonprofit
organizations, and small businesses, I've
found that there are at least four more Ps that
need to be added to this classic mix. These additional
Ps include Philosophy, Perspective, Planning,
and (go, figure) People.
The Eight Ps of Marketing
 As the American Camp Association (ACA) moves
toward the goals of its 20/20 Vision (see
the article by ACA National President
Peter Surgenor describing ACA's 20/20 Vision),
these Eight Ps of Marketing serve as a practical
model to investigate this initiative. Over the
next few issues of Camping Magazine, this column
will explore the 20/20 Vision using a marketing
lens focusing on each of these Eight Ps of Marketing.
1. Product
What do ACA and its members "sell"?
What does the word "camp" mean or
imply to today's target audience? Does
the word "camp" conjure up positive
or negative images for today's parents?
Do we need to redefine camp to better communicate
benefits to culturally diverse audiences?
2.
Price
ACA-Accredited® camps price their programs
across a wide spectrum ranging from free to very
high end. As an overall industry, do we do a
good job attracting campers from all economic
backgrounds?
3. Placement
Camps can be geographically
found all over the world — in urban, rural,
and suburban environments — from beaches
to mountain camps. Do we excel at communicating
how varied the camp environment can be?
4. Promotion
Are camps using a suitable mix of publicity,
promotion, and advertising based on each one's
ability to efficiently reach the chosen target
audiences?
5. Perspective
Do we resource other
youth-serving organizations to gain their perspective — how
do they define "camper?"
6. Philosophy
ACA's current mission statement is "enriching
the lives of children, youth, and adults through
the camp experience." How does this apply
to the work we do at camp?
7. People
Internal — How are we engaging
people who work in the camp profession? Could
we be doing more to keep alumni staff connected
to the camp brand for a lifetime?
External — While
perspective campers make up the bulk of external
customers, what is our definition of a camper?
Have we become too youth-based in a society with
more than 78 million baby boomers reaching retirement
age? What are we doing to bring community members,
with and without personal camp experience, into
our organizations?
8. Planning
A marketing plan
is not a luxury item, but rather a critical tool
to guide both internal and external communications
activities. How are camps using this critical
tool to reach their goals?
Let's Make a
Plan
Using my 8 Ps of Marketing it only makes
sense to start at the top — the Marketing
Plan. We need to see the world like a marketer
does — as a set of objectives, strategies,
and outcomes that can be achieved with a well-executed
marketing plan. At its core, this plan asks.
- What
are we trying to accomplish? (objectives)
- How
will we get there? (strategies)
- What
will success look like? (outcomes)
ACA's 20/20
Vision is no exception. ACA has outlined some
exciting, yet lofty, goals in its 20/20 Vision
and, when looked at through a marketing lens,
these goals create a new kind of focus that will
benefit every facet of the industry — from
strengthening the overall worldwide "camp
brand" to increasing registration at your
specific camp.
However, a marketing plan itself
is more than an idea. It must be a written document,
similar to an architect's blueprint. This
blueprint helps everyone in your organization — whether
they work on the other side of the room or the
other side of the globe — understand what
you and your organization are trying to create.
Whether you are building a state-of-the-art,
multimillion-dollar facility or attempting to
create a more loyal customer base — a blueprint
is an essential part of the process. Without
this marketing blueprint, you are likely to waste
precious time, money, and energy on ineffective
promotional tactics. By taking a few hours, or
even minutes, to plan your promotion, you're
guaranteed greater return on your overall marketing
investment.
The Q and A Marketing Plan
Whether
working with an organization as large as ACA
or as small as an individual camp, the marketing
planning process remains the same. A strong marketing
foundation is constructed using a series of questions
and answers that ultimately lead to marketing
activities. In its simplest form, a marketing
plan can be developed based on the following
information:
- Product: What are you selling
with this marketing plan? Are you selling camp
registration, volunteerism, sponsorship, jobs?
Each of these camp "products" may
deserve its own plan. Rarely does a one-size-fits-all
plan work well to fit any organization's
needs.
- Objective: What are we trying to
accomplish with this marketing plan? Marketing
objectives must be realistic, measurable/quantifiable,
and obtainable in a specific time frame.
- Target
Audience: Who must be reached to meet the objective?
There are several types of target audiences
which must be included in the plan:
- End-user
targets — Potential
campers/volunteers/donors/staff/ sponsors/etc.
- Gate-keeper targets — Those people who,
by nature of their jobs, influence, or power
can open (or close) gates that lead to our target
audiences and amplify wordof- mouth. (Teachers
are gatekeepers to youth; doctors/therapists
are gatekeepers to special needs campers, etc.).
- Internal audiences — Those who serve
your end-users (counselors, registrars, front-desk
staff, Web designers, etc.).
- Decision-makers — People
within your organization such as board
members, committee members, financial managers.
- Market
Research: Four Key Areas to Explore - The Competition — Who
are your competitors? Don't just think
in terms of other camps. Think globally about
the ways noncustomers spend time — video
games, malls, family vacations, watching television,
summer school, etc.
- Customer Needs Assessment — What
are our customers' needs, concerns, problems,
and desires?
- Market Factors — What outside
factors might impact the customer?
- Trend Analysis — What
trends are affecting our customers, camp,
community, or industry?
- USP (Unique Selling
Proposition) — This
is like your DNA, your winning formula.
- What
makes you the best choice for your customers
and prospects?
- Knowing what you know
about your competition, trends, and target
audience needs, what makes you the very
best choice?
- With all the other options
available to this target audience, why
will they choose your product (camp)
to fulfill their needs or solve their
problems?
- Motivating Message
- What will
you say to motivate action from your target
audience?
- How will you use theme, copy, and
graphics to attract and hold attention?
- Media — Media
refers to any and all communication channels
such as publicity, advertising, on and off-line
social networking, face-to-face sales presentations,
promotions, trade shows, direct mail, digital
media, and hundreds more. The question for you
is which media will best reach your target audience?
- Budget — How
much will we invest in time, talent, and money
to reach the chosen target audience?
- Timeline — When
will activities take place? Think in terms
of before, during, and after camp activities.
While
working through this simple Q and A Plan is a
good first step to improving your results, marketing
is also about taking action. The word "promote" literally
means to "move forward." So, all
the ideas, research, creative concepts, and brilliant
brainstorming are worthless without putting ideas
into action.
Become Part of the Vision ACA's
20/20
Vision is about the future of the camp
experience and the future of your camps. Although
a national initiative, to be successful, it must
also become a grassroots movement. In order to
increase participation, involvement, support,
and public perception, ACA at the national level
will certainly introduce marketing strategies,
launch promotional campaigns, engage the media,
and build profitable partnerships.
However, ACA
can't do this alone. Aggressive goals,
such as those outlined in the 20/20 Vision, will
take patience, persistence, consistency, and
collaboration. While ACA can lead the charge,
it will take a collective of its members and
leaders to carry out local activities. Individual
camps, campers, parents, and alumni must also
get involved — as storytellers and spokespeople.
Together we can set our sights on the 20/20 Vision.
Originally published
in the 2008 September/October issue of Camping Magazine.
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