The Board of Directors of a “benefactor-centered” Pregnancy Help Center (PHC) has decided, based on market share data that reveals the PHC is losing its competitive battle against Planned Parenthood, that it must bring in new leadership to transform the PHC into an organization that can compete successfully, as measured by market share.
The Board itself is not currently made up of marketing experts, so it decides to establish a Business Advisory Committee (BAC) and recruit marketing experts who can help the current Board members decide the types of talent they should recruit to be new Board members.
Should they recruit for the BAC marketing generalists, specialists, both?
Jack-of-all-trades, Master of One
I believe the answer is specialists.
However, the 4 Ps of marketing are so interrelated, that I’m not aware of any experienced professional marketers who are experts at one of the 4 Ps, but know absolutely zero about the other three.
I don’t think that’s possible.
That being said, marketers do tend to have a major strength in one of the 4 Ps.
I think it’s fair to say that a professional marketer is a specialist at one of the 4 Ps, and a generalist at the other three.
For example, my specialization as a marketer is Product.
Compared to my strengths in Product, I would say I am a generalist at Price, Promotion, and Placement (Distribution).
That doesn’t mean that I don’t know a lot about those three Ps.
I do.
It just means that if I was a candidate to be selected for a PHC’s BAC, the Board members would slot me as a Product specialist.
In the same way, the Board would look for BAC candidates who were proven specialists at Price, Promotion, and Placement (Distribution).
The Two Sides of Promotion
Within the Promotion category of the 4 Ps, I would recommend two different types of marketing experts – one for Direct Response, and the other for Brand Marketing.
Direct Response marketers are experts at persuading prospective customers to take action now.
Brand marketers are experts at creating for the organization an image that attracts new customers, and then maintaining and continually enhancing that image in the minds of the organization’s existing customers so that they continue to purchase from the organization.
Strong programs for both Direct Response Marketing and Brand Marketing are essential for the success of a PHC in its market share battle against Planned Parenthood.
As I have asserted in many other articles, no matter how amazing a PHC’s product is, without strong Direct Response and Brand Marketing programs, the PHC will not make progress in winning market share away from Planned Parenthood.
Double the Impact
Once all the specialists roles on the BAC are filled, those marketing experts can help find the right Board members who can create marketing programs that will win market share away from Planned Parenthood – meaning more lives saved from abortion.
The new Board of marketing experts can then recruit the Executive Director who has the proven skills and experience to execute the plan, and who can hire the frontline team that is qualified to help the Executive Director make it happen.
Here’s some additional good news for a Board of Directors that is creating a Business Advisory Committee (BAC).
The marketing experts on the BAC can not only help with getting the right Board members in place who can affect change with effective marketing programs directed toward women facing unexpected pregnancies.
Those same experts can also help select the right Board members who can create the marketing plan, based on the 4 Ps, that will be implemented to attract more “investors,” meaning pro-life benefactors, into the PHC’s business.
The more success gaining market share, the more investment money that comes in.
And the more investment money that comes in, the more the PHC can deploy those funds with proven-effective programs that increase market share.
A virtuous cycle indeed.
Regards,
Brett