SSP Boston 2005

1
Building a Total System Marketing Model
Presentation to INFORMS Board of Directors
Presented by Ann ODaniel and Gary Bennett
August 1, 2007
2
Strategic Objectives

• Create a cost-effective and sustainable Marketing
  Plan that integrates marketing initiatives for
  all INFORMS products and services
• Enhance INFORMS value proposition through
  customer knowledge-based marketing strategies and
  tactics
• Use Marketing as a Growth Engine for INFORMS
  organization not just Operations Research
  profession

3

• -Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline
• We tend to focus on snapshots of isolated parts
  of the system, and wonder why our deepest
  problems never seem to get solved.
• Systems Thinking is a conceptual frameworkto
  make the full patterns clearer, and to help us
  see how to change them effectively.
• Sound familiar?

4
The Total System Approach

• Phase One
• Analyze all Critical Factors
• Phase Two
• Create Customer-Centric Relationship Marketing
  Model
• Phase Three
• Operationalize a Sustainable Integrated Marketing
  Plan

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Phase One Analyze all Critical Factors

• Activities
• Interviewed Key Stakeholders including Board
  Members, Staff and select INFORMS Members
• Conducted Market Analysis Including Industry
  Trends and Emerging Opportunities
• Reviewed and Analyzed all INFORMS Products and
  Services
• Reviewed all Customer/Member Research
• Researched Sister Society Offerings and other
  Competitive Threats

6

• The Critical Distinction
• We separated Marketing Opportunities from
• Business Opportunities

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Phase One Situation Analysis

• We evaluated all INFORMS
• Strengths Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

8
(No Transcript)
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Phase One Opportunity Analysis
We shifted our focus from INFORMS Products to
Key Customer Segments Then prioritized Segments
based on current revenue value and potential
Lifetime Value (LTV)

• Librarians and Agents
• Academic PhDs
• PhD Students
• Practitioners
• Military/Government and Consultants to

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Phase One Opportunity Analysis

• From our Situation Analysis
• What is the emotional need all customer segments
  have in common?
• Establish/Enhance Professional Identity

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Phase One Opportunity Analysis

• The INFORMS Value Proposition
• INFORMS is THE association that will help you
  Establish and Enhance your Professional Identity
  
• Umbrella Value Proposition applies to all
  products, services
• and segments throughout all stages of
  professional development
• (Can be customized for communications to
  different segments)

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Phase One Opportunity Analysis

• Librarians
• INFORMS helps you enhance your professional
  identity by providing you with valuable
  information and tools to help you be as efficient
  and effective as possible
• PhDs
• INFORMS helps you establish and enhance your
  professional identity by providing a host of
  latest best-in-class research information,
  resources, networking, publishing and mentoring
  opportunities in your special interest and field
  of study, roadmap for volunteer opportunities
• Masters Students
• INFORMS helps you establish your professional
  identity by providing mentors and assistance in
  finding the best career or higher education path,
  internships, research opportunities and
  networking among the best in your potential field
  of interest
• Practitioners
• INFORMS helps you establish and enhance your
  professional identity by providing you with
  career planning tools, networking opportunities,
  jobs and candidate listings best-in-class
  Journals, and case studies of applications that
  are relevant to your profession, roadmap for
  volunteer opportunities
• Military and Government
• (Not enough known yet about their needs that
  differentiates them from Academics or
  Practitioners)

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• We Made a Critical Paradigm Shift
• from Product-Centric to
• Customer-Centric Marketing Model that
• incorporates existing as well as new
• programs and tactics

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Phase Two Create Customer Relationship Marketing
Model
Build Brand Awareness Consistent BrandingPublic
Relations and OR Advocacy Word of Mouth
Reward Loyalty Recognition of Value Tier
Progression Recognition Optimize Ease of
Renewal
Optimize Acquisition Targeted TestingSegmented/Ti
ered Offers Data Capture-Bounce Back HVC Profiling
Build Interdependence Personalized Engagement
Tools Targeted Fulfillment Affinity
Segmentation Intellectual Social
Capital Creation
Refine Customer Knowledge Data Analysis Customer
Value Assessment Data Mining LTV Profiling
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Phase Two Create Customer Relationship Marketing
Model
TheGrowth Engine of Member Relationship
Marketing Model

• Targeted, Data-Driven Direct Marketing
• Public Relations and Outreach
• INFORMS Grassroots Network of Highly Engaged
  Members and their WOM

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Phase Two Create Customer Relationship Marketing
Model

• 90 of people cite Word of Mouth (WOM) as one of
  the best sources of ideas and information
• -eMarketer Word of Mouth Report 2005
• Consumers are 50 more likely to be influenced by
  WOM than traditional ads
• -Intelliseek September 2005
• Whether the connection is long or short, the
  person-to-person information exchanged online
  carries a weight that traditional corporate
  messaging simply cant match.
• -eMarketer Word of Mouth Report 2005

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Phase Two Create Customer Relationship Marketing
Model

• The Power of the Customers Voice
•  
• Satisfied customers become, in effect, part of
  the companys marketing department, not only
  increasing their own purchases but also providing
  enthusiastic referralscustomer loyalty provides
  companies with a powerful financial advantage - a
  battalion of credible sales and marketing and PR
  troops who require no salary or commissions.
• 
  
• 
  - Fred Reichheld, The Ultimate
  Question

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Phase Two Create Customer Relationship Marketing
Model

• The Trend is our Friend
• Major Advertisers are re-allocating marketing
  investments to more measurable programs and
  channels better ROI
• PG is beginning to build relationships across
  brands to cohort segments
• INFORMS has active, highly intelligent,
  technically savvy WOM network in place
• INFORMS Strongest buzz agent may be the
  Academic Advisor
• INFORMS has strong brand reputation built on
  quality service and best-of-breed products
• For both Academics and Professionals, key
  motivation is
• Establish/Enhance Professional Identity and Build
  Social Capital

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Phase Two Create Customer Relationship Marketing
Model

• Fred Reichhelds Net Promoter Score
• Promoters Loyal enthusiasts who keep buying and
  urge friends to buy (actively promoting)
• Passives Satisfied but unenthusiastic and can
  be wooed by competition (not actively promoting)
• Detractors Unhappy Customers trapped in a bad
  relationship (actively detracting)

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Phase Two Create Customer Relationship Marketing
Model

• The Ultimate Question
• How likely is it that you would recommend
  INFORMS
• to a friend or colleague?
• On a scale of 1 to 10
• 9 or 10 is considered Promoter
• 7 or 8 is considered Passive
• 0 to 6 is considered Detractor
• Discount Passives and calculate of total
• P D NPS

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Phase Two Create Customer Relationship Marketing
Model

• Begin by asking the Ultimate Question of all
  members in a Member Satisfaction Survey
• Establish a benchmark for monitoring NPS score
  YOY
• Then track and analyze individuals promotional
  ACTIONS (not just stated intentions) as critical
  growth engine of MRM
• Encourage, Recognize and Reward actual engagement
  in and promotion of all INFORMS products and
  programs

22
Phase Two Create Customer Relationship Marketing
Model

• Test Tactics to Increase Member Engagement
• Segment and refine targeting for Current DM
  programs
• Test new incentives to join, promote and become
  more active in all INFORMS products and services
• Create an ongoing Recognition and Rewards Program
  throughout member lifecycle utilizing all
  communications channels
• Test different communications messages to
  emerging international and ethnic segments with
  approaches customized to reflect their styles and
  values
• Measure results by tracking individual member
  engagement

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Phase Two Create Customer Relationship Marketing
Model

• Marketing Strategies by Segment and Life Stage

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Phase Two Create Customer Relationship Marketing
Model

• Measure all Marketing Efforts through
• Ongoing Data Analysis
• 7 Measures of Success What Remarkable
  Associations Do That Others Don't
• The Center for Association Leadership found a
  clear correlation between successful associations
  and those that built the organization around the
  collection and use of data
• (4 of the 7 Measures was Dialog and
  Engagement)

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Phase Two Create Customer Relationship Marketing
Model

• Member Engagement Improves Retention as well as
  Acquisition Efforts
• In a recent regression analysis conducted by
  Marketing General, Inc. for one association, an
  interaction or transaction was a positive
  predictor of renewal in every case
• Research also showed that an important predictor
  of membership retention is behavior. An
  association that actively seeks to engage
  members-at almost every level-is more likely to
  enjoy higher levels of retention

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Phase Two Create Customer Relationship Marketing
Model

• Become a Testing and Learning Organization
• No Silver Bullet. Commit to systematically
  building on success and learning from failures by
  employing fact-based analysis
• Continually test and refine acquisition and
  retention tactics to all segments
• Test a Tiered Membership Marketing concept with
  tiered benefits and tier migration incentives
• Continually evaluate Long Term Value of customer
  segments

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Phase Two Create Customer Relationship Marketing
Model

• Employ the Total System
• Customer/Member Relationship Model
• as a Strategic Advantage,
• not just Expense

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Phase Three Operationalize MRM

• Organize and Appropriately Staff to
• Mine existing customer/member data
• Consistently capture and continuously analyze
  ongoing transactional and behavioral data
• Create Member Dashboard to continuously track
  all activities
• Manage, analyze and refine ongoing marketing
  tests
• Continuously refresh and enhance IOL as MRM
  portal
• Design and analyze ongoing member research by
  segment

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Phase Three Operationalize MRM

• What will happen if we dont ?
• Traditional forms of push advertising will not
  improve INFORMS Customer Experience,
  Satisfaction, WOM and Relevance to members
• Without testing and learning systems built into
  the plan, marketing programs will be harder to
  sustain cost-efficiently
• Non-members (like Practitioners) who are not
  aware of INFORMS and Non-engaged members will
  continue to be at high risk of joining other
  societies
• Low regular usage of IOL (25) will not improve
  Customer Experience and help INFORMS become a
  web-centric organization

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2007 Action Items
Align Products with Customer Segments
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2007 Action Items

• Begin to transform IOL into a primary marketing
  portal with user experience testing and user
  needs evaluation.
• Begin to research and validate ideas for enhanced
  features and functions from member user and
  visitor perspective
• Create new user and visitor-centric information
  architecture for wireframe testing with users
• Recognize High-Value Customers/Members
• Mail a Targeted Act of Kindness note or reward
  from the President that thanks them for their
  continuous engagement with INFORMS and gives them
  a preview of some of the enhancements planned for
  2008
• Augment staff to mine existing data and begin
  identifying and profiling high value members
• Validate assumptions
• Identify new segments
• Revisit PR and Advocacy Program Plans
• Determine appropriate measurement and tracking
  criteria
• Integrate New Business Initiatives with Marketing
  Plans
• Identify key segment opportunities
• Create additional marketing budgets, testing
  strategies and timing

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2007 Action Items
Establish consistent evaluation practice for all
tactics
Importance to Customer
Value to INFORMS
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2007 Action Items

• Leverage Edelman Awards in Marketing
• Short term tactics Place short Edelman related
  videos on YouTube
• Dr. Marco Zaiders acceptance speech (Sloan
  Kettering, 2007 winner)
• Introductory video about field of OR and Edelman
  Competition
• Video of Anatomy of an Edelman winner
• Video Profile of Warner Robbins, 2006 winner
• Other Edelman DVD ideas for development in 2007
• Grow Practice Meeting attendance
• Mail Edelman DVDs in high-impact package with
  response device to register for Practice Meeting
• Include DVD with January issue of Interfaces with
  early bird offer for Practice meeting
  registration
• Market the Profession
• Mail 3 dimensional package with DVD to rented
  list of CIOs with invitation to Gala along with a
  call for entries to be passed on to Quantitative
  Department

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2007 Action Items

• New Member Outreach
• Mail previous years Edelman DVD packaged with
  January issue of Interfaces and membership or
  subscription application
• Strengthen Readership of Interfaces
• Split test mailing a copy of Interfaces
  shrink-wrapped with subscription application
  against Interfaces packaged with Edelman DVD and
  application
• Add links on HighWire Interfaces page to Edleman
  Acceptance Videos and summary written
  presentations on IOL
• Strengthen membership renewal
• Create new Members Only benefit on IOL. Post
  Edelman videos on Teacher specific areas of IOL
  and encourage others to post videos. Announce via
  email links to members
• Position DVD as premium for early renewal on
  membership renewal area of IOL
• Mail DVDs as Thank You for being loyal member
  with letter from the President and membership
  renewal application

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2007 Action Items

• Short-term Marketing Tactics for Publishing
• Enhanced Librarians section of INFORMS Online
• Demonstrates we value their business and are
  dedicated to providing them with
• all the information they need to do their job
  efficiently
• Recruit a librarian advisory panel for INFORMS
  Journals
• Demonstrates we value their input, recognizes
  them to their peer community
• and builds ongoing dialog channel with this key
  customer segment.
• Publish Ahead of Print Initiative
• Helps reduce the backlog of accepted manuscripts
• Policy and Pricing for Legacy Archival Product
• New Cover Development for Operations Research