Gerry Griffin explains why following the corporate sector allows non-profits to be ahead of their game without the leap of faith

Working with Tales of Things in May 2010, an Oxfam store in Manchester added a digital overlay to how it markets the items in its charity shops. It attached Quick Response (QR) codes and radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags to premium items. When scanned by a smartphone, the QR codes and RFID tags opened audio and imagery which told the back story of the object. One particular vintage dress, revealed Annie Lennox telling the viewer about the time she wore it to Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday party.

Rich media content; pop-up shops; celebrity endorsement – these are the types of manoeuvres which would be a distant dream for many consumer brands. So if the so-called third sector is already going toe-to-toe with the big consumer brands in these areas, what can we learn?

The commercial sector is envious of the action which the non-profits can trigger. Causes can yield considerable dividends and not just good PR. Employee engagement, a sense of passion and commitment, access to decision makers – sitting at the top tables can be very energising and lucrative. As the saying goes: the world is run by those who show up. 

Storytelling 

Tales of Things is really about the age-old art of storytelling, steering people away from thinking of an item's value purely in financial terms. Corporates are now fully behind the use of stories to get their stakeholders to engage with their sense of value.

If anything, corporations can learn from NPOs in this instance. Storytelling has the potential to transcend the more mundane principles of supply and demand. This is what Apple computers were doing when they burst onto the personal computing scene in the 80s.

The weight of emotional response that can be generated by philanthropy has seen the rise of cause-related marketing, which involves the co-operative efforts of a for-profit business and a non-profits for mutual benefit.

The divide between the for-profit and non -profit sectors is unclear, in a recent conversation with a start-up social enterprise they cleverly described what they do as not-for-loss. Similarly, they had resisted venture capital involvement as they wanted as much wriggle room as they could muster to do things their way.

Second mover advantage

The successful use of QR codes to boost retail performance is no revelation, though. A number of profitable organisations, including Tesco and US telecoms giant Verizon, have run successful campaigns using the technology. A recent study involving the latter even reported a sales increase of 200 per cent as a result of one such campaign.

Oxfam benefited from second mover advantage. This is the phenomenon that describes the low-risk, high-gain advantage of organisations that wait for others to shoulder the burden of attempting new ideas, and then quickly implement the strategies that have success.

Brand ring fencing

Commercial organisations are often well-placed to take on riskier projects through an umbrella brand. Unilever, for example, used Lynx to launch the controversial Lynx Effect campaign, which had several advertisements banned before eventually winning widespread acclaim. Non-profits simply cannot afford to risk their reputations in the same way. Commercial businesses can have their cake and eat it. The corporate entity can have one set of values – for Unilever, it is a stable, long-term entity which pension funds can trust with some of their portfolio – a very different bouquet to that delivered by Lynx effect.

This doesn’t mean that non-profits should be wary of new technologies. On the contrary, there are a growing number of non-profit examples that have successfully employed the latest tactics as part of their fundraising efforts. But time and again, we see those same organisations waiting for the strategy to first be shown as successful before implementing them.

Equally, non-profits must have the self-confidence not to jump on the bandwagon of every new opportunity. Trends will come and go. Second Life, anyone?

It’s often better to do a few things very well than try and be involved with everything. It’s imperative that non-profits stay abreast of the digital world, but their involvement must be part of a well thought out plan. They do not have the resources or brand profile to take a punt. So caution is not a bad thing.

The participation age

We have moved into the participation age where many of us now use technology-enabled networking to connect. Blogging and social networking are very much at the forefront of any marketing planning session. Many consumer brands are keen to see how they can get consumers to have deeper relationships with their product – be it a snack bar or a printer cartridge. And these channels can be lucrative; a full two years ago, Dell was racking up millions of dollars of revenue through Twitter.

Let’s realise though that with the many volunteers which non-profits can command, there is a massive seam of value which can be mined with the right approach. This is not to say that many are not already doing so, but it’s still early days for the participation age. We have yet to fully de-bundle the link between new media and the Arab Spring – but let’s be in no doubt as to the potential to marshal the power of the crowd.

The right opportunity

Finding the right opportunity is not a simple as picking the strategies that prove successful in the commercial sector, though non-profits invariably command more modest resources than the equivalent profitable companies, and this must also factor into the equation. The latest digital kid on the block is augmented reality (AR). Essentially, when you view an object or location landmark via your phone, extra information, imagery or video can appear and be available to interact with.

Although examples of AR being used successfully exist, it is a high-end and experimental technology at present. The investment required can be considerable, with big players such as Qualcomm and Autonomy driving early adoption and usage.

Not that this should be a cause for envy or frustration. The grass is not necessarily greener; often large budgets can distract from true creativity and the underlying passionate message that should embody all great marketing campaigns.

Something more realistic is using social networking to reach a wider audience and initiate conversations with donors and others that support your cause.

It’s now clear for all to see that the marketing value of social networks like Facebook and Twitter is genuine and here to stay. What’s more, it’s very low cost.

The RSA has generated over 22.5 million views on their YouTube channel by introducing a signature style of animation to bring to life a handful of speeches from their live events. Sir Ken Robinson’s now famous keynote on changing the paradigms of education has, by itself, made 5.5 million people aware of the RSA’s cause.

Analysis paralysis 

When you do select the right opportunity that has proven a success in other fields and is cheap and easy to implement, action is imperative. Don’t hang around waiting to make sure; true second mover advantage means letting other organisations take the risk whilst still implementing quickly enough to be an early adopter.

Gerry Griffin is founding director of Skill Pill

This article first appeared in The Fundraiser magazine, Issue 11, November 2011