A Message from Marketing

As I undertook the VP of Marketing role, I decided to crack open my dusty text books and refresh myself with the Four P’s – Product, Price, Place (Distribution), and Promotion. Chances are if you are reading this posting, you have admired the Chapter’s promotions and products on a fairly regular basis. Additionally, you should be familiar with our fantastic programming, our high quality membership population, and our ability to remain current and ahead of the curve. But what about those individuals who barely have time to peruse through the site or open their ASTD emails? Or those who prefer to receive a good old-fashioned mailing? Or those people whom we have not reached out to in the past?

Hmmm…my confidence began to wane as I scratched my head while pondering these questions. Our Business Manager, Kathleen Bergquist, has already done an amazing job reaching out to our membership. So how can we continue to advance the chapter’s marketing techniques?

1) Build a team with really, really smart people

The 2006 Marketing Committee (a brand new committee to the chapter) met for the very first time in January 2006. As a Training/Organizational Development professional, I recognize the importance of building a team with really smart, extremely passionate people. And that is exactly what we are, a committee that meets on a four to six week basis to work on plans and projects. We bring a wide breadth of marketing experience and industry background (Nike, Via Training, PSU, Planet Productions, DDI, OakTree Digital, to name a few, plus many seasoned consultants). What a mix! Plus, we are always looking for a few good men and women…marketing experience not mandatory, nor even necessary…

2) Never set dumb goals

You probably are familiar with the acronym SMART, used to guide a goal setting process. The committee partnered together to brainstorm Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based objectives. These goals further developed into a strategic plan, outlining quarterly objectives, marketing strategies and metrics, and the committee’s role descriptions and resources. The document is currently posted on the ASTD Cascadia Website - click on the following link to take a gander. You will be impressed with the quality of our ambition and next steps for 2006 and beyond. Guaranteed.

3) It is not rocket science - create strategic partnerships

It truly makes sense – marketing should reach out to all of our VPs and their respective committees. And it certainly is not rocket science. Yet there is a science to creating a clean, user-friendly process. For the first time, we are piloting the concept of Marketing Account Managers – individuals who function as a consultant between Marketing and their VP area. The role of the Account Manager is to listen to the program description/committee’s needs, and subsequently create a marketing plan, detailed timeline, and customized marketing materials.

4) Listen to our members…YOU!

Certainly we need to hear from you, our membership population. How do you want to be communicated with? What topics interest you? What communication would really catch your eye? How can we make the most of your membership dues? In our strategic plan we highlight how to reach out to our membership and the community through various methodologies. One way is to quickly survey our membership; the Marketing Committee has created some creative, thought provoking questions to include in the general membership survey to be sent out in the next few months. We would encourage you to take about 15 minutes out of your day to complete the survey and let us know how we can not only meet, but exceed, your marketing (and general) expectations.

Have I caught your eye? Do you want to join an exceedingly dynamic, thoroughly industrious committee? Or do you simply want to share a marketing tip or technique? It would be a pleasure to hear from you either way…that is part of our strategic objectives, after all!

Liza Greene
VP of Marketing
liza.greene@providence.org

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