2 posts tagged “non-profit marketing”
So here's a book update now that the semester is over and I've been able to get my desk in order and found some time (elusive though it is).
In one of my earlier postings I wrote about Robin Hood Marketing, a book that I had selected to use in my Non-Profit and Social Marketing class.
Well now that the course is over, I can look back and reflect if it was the right decision to include this book in the curriculum, and if I should continue to use this book as the springboard in the course.
Students were asked to read the book in the first three weeks of class. We held discussions on specific themes and they all participated. However, it wasn't until the final reflections that I got a better sense of how some felt about the book:
"My views started to change a little bit when I started reading Robin Hood Marketing. Some of the concepts in that book were very inspiring. The one that I relate to the most is the concept of checking your assumptions at the door. This is a concept that I need to work on very hard in my life. This class was a great example of the concept in my life. I thought it was a waist of time but as time went on I was able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This chapter in Robin Hood Marketing changed my view on the class and is now a really big part in my life. I still snap judge situations but never endeavors."
"Although reading isn’t one of my favorite activities, the reading we did in this course was very helpful. In the first half of the semester we read “Robin Hood Marketing”, written by Katya Andresen. Katya preduced winning marketing campaigns to ten essential rules that are needed to either motivate people to take action, give money, or advance your worthy cause. I have read a lot of other marketing books and they have all seemed similar to each other, but this book helped me understand how to be successful with something you are passionate about, whether your organization is non-profit or for-profit. Katya made it clear that in order to get people to take action; you need to get the message not only into their heads, but into their hearts."
To start off the semester we read “Robin Hood Marketing” by Katya Andersen, which was about “Stealing corporate savvy to sell just causes.” This book was an introduction to the challenges that non-profits face with marketing and how they can overcome them[1]. One example of this is how many non-profits make the mistake of educating their audiences too much. Andersen makes the point that this is ineffective, and you are better off connecting with them in other ways like through their emotions. The examples throughout the book enforced the concepts of having a passion, knowing your market, and overall they just plain showed us that: Anything can be done!
1] I liked this book so much that I immediately emailed my mentor from my summer internship at a non-profit community center and recommended she and the marketing director read it!
There were some students who expressed that they didn't really like the book, however, what I observed was an overall better grounding in the material throughout the semester -- a great improvement from the several other times I've taught the course. It shows that adding this book to the curriculum has certainly made a big difference!
So, will I keep using Robin Hood Marketing? Yes I will. I think next year, though, I will add a blog reading requirement throughout the semester so that students get the foundation from the book, and then keep on reading more from Andressen.
It's a WINNER!
At the moment, my VOX blog seems to be the place where I post information about the books I am using in my Champlain College class rooms. I like to move beyond the traditional text book and bring in books that resonate with students (and with me). My Blogger blog, (yep I've got two!) is more about classroom interactions, and random stuff that impact marketing in general. Of course, this too may change! Anyway...
Some classes are just not textbook friendly. For example, my Non-Profit and Social Marketing class is one of those classes. I've taught this class for two semesters -- I'm in the third one now -- and one of the biggest challenges has been trying to find a book that reflects the main themes of the course: THE POWER OF ONE and PASSION. Traditional textbooks about non-profit work are boring. There is no life and there is no passion. With all due respect to the professors and authors, you've taken something that requires passion and beat it to death so there is no life, no engagement and no interest.
The past two times I've taught the course, I've cobbled together a host of different readings and articles. It's worked, but not to the level I had hoped.
What makes this course even more challenging is that it is a Service Learning Course -- one that requires students to work with Non-Profit organizations on a marketing challenge. I needed something that would really set the context...something they could read and refer back to and connect and make meaning out of.
About a month before the semester began, I hit Amazon and did a quick search...just in case. It was then that I say the book from Katya Andresen. The description was very interesting, so I ordered the book. When I received it, I begain reading and knew within one chapter that I had finally found THE BOOK for this course.
Andresen has captured all of the main pieces of non-profit marketing that I have incorporated into the course. The power of one, the passion, and the marketing imperatives that drive the best marketing decisions -- whether they be for profit or not for profit are outlined in this book.
The students read it in three weeks. It has set the context in a way that I have been unable to do before.
I believe it has made a huge impact on the focus in the Non-Profit course and that impact has been beyond positive. It has been affirming for the direction I have taken in the course, and it has provided students with a point of view that a traditional text would have NEVER done.
Thanks Katya!
