Discuss about the Marketing Strategies for Nonprofit Organizations.
Every organization develops several new products and services so that it can achieve higher growth and sustainability whether it’s a profit organization or a NPO. Oxfam is a charitable organization which made several efforts to eradicate poverty and to support the livelihood of individuals. The purpose of this report is to develop a marketing plan for a new product for the Oxfam shop. The new product is the paper bags which will be made by those individuals living below poverty line so that they can earn their livelihood. The report will provide information of the company through its situational analysis by using SWOT technique. Further the report will highlight the target market, competitors, marketing mix, financial planning and the issues related with the launching of the product.
Oxfam is a globally recognized association which has its presence in around 94 nations through outs 17 affiliates. The association was established in the year 1942 by Cecil Jackson-Cole. The purpose of existence of this organization is to provide a solution to the rapidly increasing problem i.e. poverty. The association help the individuals living below poverty line to have a safer and secure future and livelihood and have an equal access to their human rights. There are several events and charitable programs organized by the association to support the individuals and provide them with monetary support (OXFAM International, 2016).
Supporters and network: The organization possess international network of great supporters and affiliates which are highly effective and provides huge brand credibility to the organization.
Goals and Values: The goals and values of the organization are clearly defined which helps in enhancing the motivation of the buyers to have trust over the brand. The organization makes its objectives and functioning clear through its defined goals and values (Oxfam International, 2015).
Organizational History: The history of the organization is considered as one of its assets as the organization has undertaken several programs and realized huge success in its earlier period.
Diversified Portfolio: The organization has a diversified portfolio which helps in catering the needs and requirements of extensive customer segments (Neuman, 2014).
Safety Concern: It is one of the biggest weaknesses of the organization that it does not possess appropriate volunteer and employee safety concerns. No adequate measures have been taken b y the organization to provide an improved and safer environment to the volunteers and employees.
Accountability and Consistency: Oxfam as an organization as well as the affiliates both highly lacks in maintaining accountability and consistency in the overall operations.
Increased Competition: There are many other retail organizations as well as NPOs in the which gives a tough competition to Oxfam. This competition is considerably one major weakness of the organization.
Crisis Planning: the organization has no adequate crisis plans for any non-happening event. There are no appropriate strategies or crisis planning by which the organization can manage the state of crisis (Lambell, et al., 2008).
Presence as Retail Store: The organization is mostly recognized for its working as a not for profit organization rather than its retailing business. The retail presence of the organization is much less in comparison with other retail organizations.
Safety commitment: the organization has an opportunity to grow and have higher trust of the individuals by improving and committing towards the safety of the volunteers and the employees. The organization can implement appropriate strategies so that the employees as well as the volunteers can have a safer environment at the work place and at several events (Raworth, 2012).
Guidelines establishment: the organization can have much effective operations by implementing several guidelines regarding the accountability of the organization and affiliates.
Increased advertisements: the organization must enhance its advertising as Oxfam is only recognized for its charitable work thus it is necessary that to enhance its presence there must be taken use of more advertising strategies and promotional activities (Lawson, et al., 2008).
Brand recognition in retail sectors: in the retail sector Oxfam is not well recognized because of the fact that the organization is recognized as a not for profit organization. Thus to have higher sales and revenues and to accomplish the goals in a much faster way it is necessary for Oxfam to improve its brand image in the retail sector.
Community Support: The community support is one of the most vital things which are required to have continuous growth and future sustainability. But in case of Oxfam the organization lacks this support which is substantially a threat for the organization.
Commitment of volunteers and employees: Both the volunteers as well as the employees do not have a reliable commitment towards the organization. This is one of the major threats as without their commitment the organization cannot grow and succeed in longer time frame. There are high chances that the employees and the volunteers can switch to another organization if they found it much better and safer place to work (Lewis, 2010).
Higher market competition: the competitors mainly in the retail sector are able to provide the customers with more quality products and services. Thus it becomes difficult for Oxfam to retain its customers. And this increased competition brings number of threats for the growth of the organization.
If the competitor analysis is performed of Oxfam it can be clear that Amazon and eBay are the two biggest competitors of Oxfam in the retail sector. And in the charitable i.e. NPO sector the competitors of Oxfam are Human Rights Campaign, Feeding America, American Red Cross etc. These are the big charitable organization that work for social welfare and gives a striving competition to Oxfam (Aldashev and Verdier, 2009).
The purpose and objective of Oxfam is to reduce and eradicate poverty in the entire world. The organization strives hard to develop solutions so that there cannot remain any injustice of poverty in the global world. The organization helps individuals to have a sustainable future which is completely secure and free of poverty. The primary and chief goal of Oxfam is to develop an optimistic change and modification in the individuals’ lives that are experiencing poverty. The organization has participated in several events and programs to uplift the people and provide them with basic amenities and a secure livelihood.
The goal and the objective of this marketing plan is to eradicate and reduce poverty by providing g some business to the people who live below poverty line and provide them a source of earning. And for this the organization is planning to launch a new product in the Oxfam shop. The new product is the paper bags with quotes and paintings. These paper bags will be developed through machines but with the efforts of those individuals who cannot earn their livelihood. Thus it is the objective of the marketing plan (Chew and Osborne, 2009).
The paper bag product is one of those products which have a very straight forward market. There is hardly any supermarket, grocery, departmental or pharmaceutical store which will not be taking use of the paper bags for their products for the purpose of carrying goods and groceries by the customers. Oxfam has its renowned presence cross the globe and there will be several potential clients for the companies such as the various retail organizations, corporations and supermarket chains. The organizations which are related to fast moving consumer goods are one of the make target market for this new product of Oxfam (Oxfam Trailwalker, 2016). The individuals also prefer using the paper bags more in comparison with the plastic bags. Hence all these are the target market of Oxfam for its new product i.e. paper bags.
Oxfam is known for its charitable services more than the retailing business, hence it is required that the new product can help in providing justice to the people and help them in improving their livelihood. The paper bags are the products which have an increasing demand in the societies as in various countries the Governments have banned the use of plastic bags. In that situation companies are moving towards the use of cloth-made or paper bags. These are easy to made and require no technological so that the individuals living under poverty line can make it easily with basic trainings (McLeish, 2010). The product will be for several uses such as food storage bags, bags for grocery, merchandise bags, packaging and customized bags.
The promotion and publicity is the key stone to make the product well recognized in the market and help the individuals in earning a source of livelihood. To make the product i.e. paper bags popular there are several promotional strategies which will be used by the organization (Davies, 2012). Promotional techniques such as suing word of mouth promotion from the several faithful customers, advertisements on community based TV stations, radio stations and newspapers. The social media platforms are another source of promotion such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube etc. The organization can also take use of billboards and banners (Winston and Kinzey, 2013). There can also be distribution of free samples to several customer groups for fascinating customers. The various stores as well as corporate organizations can also be approached for taking use of these paper bags.
Aside from the promotions price is another vital element which depicts the future sakes of the product. As Oxfam is a charitable organization thus the product will be made available at the most cheapest price in comparison with other organizations that perform similar business. The starting price of the paper bag will be $5.00 and with the change in size the prices will vary. Thus it is one of the most feasible price at which the individuals will be able to get the paper bags and give support in the achievement of the aim of uplifting the societies and individuals living in poverty. The price is the main factor which can attract number of customers and companies to buy these paper bags.
The place is another important factor over which the sales of the paper bags depend a lot. The organization will promote and sell its products on both the platforms i.e. online and physical stores. The physical stores can be at various supermarkets, departmental stores, electronic stores, and pharmaceutical and groceries stores. These are the potential and target places for the products to get higher sales and brand recognition in the market (Pope, Isely and Asamoa?Tutu, 2009).
The total budget for developing the marketing plan is $100,000 which is substantially a good amount for the set objective. The plan is creative, fun as well as practical as the individuals are required to develop a basic learning to make a paper bag which is a practical idea for the development of product. The fun element is the artisan or the painting work which children can enjoy by making drawings on the paper bags. It’s a chance to those individuals to show their creativity by making those drawings.
Following is the distribution of the budget amount in various operational activities:
There are few potential problems with the making and the launching of the product in the market such as:
References
Aldashev, G. and Verdier, T., 2009. When NGOs go global: Competition on international markets for development donations. Journal of International Economics, 79(2), pp.198-210.
Barber, C., 2008. Notes on poverty and inequality. Oxfam International Series: From.
Chew, C. and Osborne, S.P., 2009. Exploring strategic positioning in the UK charitable sector: Emerging evidence from charitable organizations that provide public services. British Journal of Management, 20(1), pp.90-105.
Davies, T.R., 2012. The Transformation of International NGOs and Their Impact on Development Aid. In International Development Policy: Aid, Emerging Economies and Global Policies (pp. 48-59). Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Lambell, R., Ramia, G., Nyland, C. and Michelotti, M., 2008. NGOs and international business research: Progress, prospects and problems. International Journal of Management Reviews, 10(1), pp.75-92.
Lawson, M., Mazengera, S., Nkhoma-Mbawa, F. and Noel, T., 2008. Malawi essential health services campaign. Oxfam International.
Lewis, D., 2010. Nongovernmental organizations, definition and history. In International Encyclopedia of Civil Society (pp. 1056-1062). Springer US.
McLeish, B.J., 2010. Successful marketing strategies for nonprofit organizations: Winning in the age of the elusive donor. John Wiley & Sons.
Neuman, S., 2014. Oxfam: The World’s Richest 1 Percent Control Half of the Global Wealth. NPR: The Two Way, January, 20. Accessed on: 18th January, 2016. Accessed from: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/01/20/264241052/oxfam-worlds-richest-1-percent-control-half-of-global-wealth
Oxfam International, 2015. Our Commitment to Human Rights. https://www.oxfam.org/en/our-commitment-human-rights
OXFAM International, 2016. Our Purpose and Belief. Accessed on: 18th January, 2016. Accessed from: https://www.oxfam.org/en/about/what/purpose-and-beliefs
Oxfam Trailwalker, 2016. About Oxfam. Accessed on: 18th January, 2016. Accessed from: https://www.oxfamtrailwalker.org.nz/about/oxfam
Pope, J.A., Isely, E.S. and Asamoa?Tutu, F., 2009. Developing a marketing strategy for nonprofit organizations: An exploratory study. Journal of Nonprofit & public sector marketing, 21(2), pp.184-201.
Raworth, K., 2012. A safe and just space for humanity: can we live within the doughnut. Oxfam Policy and Practice: Climate Change and Resilience, 8(1), pp.1-26.
Winston, W. and Kinzey, R.E., 2013. Using public relations strategies to promote your nonprofit organization. Routledge.
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