Meeting Intangible Client Needs
A few days ago I finished a book called The Marketing Imagination, which I started reading mainly to help me market my consulting business (not something I’m naturally comfortable doing!). I quickly realized that many of Levitt’s ideas are very relevant to nonprofit organizations.
While the book was put together in 1983 by former Harvard professor Theodore Levitt, many of his essays were written as early as 1960, and have had a profound impact on the way businesses look at their customers.
One of Levitt’s key premises is that to be successful a business must go beyond creating products and services that simply meet their customers’ tangible needs to also address their intangible needs: to feel frugal or extravagant, sexy or sophisticated.
Companies must, in a sense, court their customers. They do this not only through their packaging and advertising, but also through their distribution methods and company culture and even the way its sales force dresses. By consciously doing so, companies make customers not only feel good about products or services they buy, but also good about themselves.
Think about the bath soap that you use at home. Is it a no-nonsense, heavy duty, unscented soap? Or is it fragrant, full of lotions, and good for the skin? Or all-natural, with no chemical additives, and free of testing on animals? Often our choices as consumers reveal much about how we think of ourselves!
So, how would Levitt’s idea apply to non profit organizations? Most nonprofits are competent at providing the products or services that meet their clients’ tangible needs, be they in health care, education, training, or some other form of assistance.
Now, imagine the impact on the agency and its clients if the organization also thought about how their clients see themselves. Are they frugal, self-reliant, on-top-of-it, caring, giving? How can the organization be structured to reinforce and support client perceptions? Does the physical space of the organization support this? Does the way staff interacts with clients support this? Does the way programs are structured support this?
Of course, this concept can go beyond clients, to staff, volunteers and funders. How do these stakeholders see themselves, and how can the organization support them in all of its interactions?
Some may see this as crass marketing and manipulation, which it may be if undertaken insincerely. But if organizations use this concept with a deep interest in the well-being and satisfaction of their clients, it is simply a deeper and more holistic way of meeting stakeholder needs that can have a tremendous impact on their level of satisfaction with the organization.
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