{"id":388,"date":"2012-11-05T09:33:49","date_gmt":"2012-11-05T09:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.naylor.com\/associationadviser\/index.php\/2012\/11\/05\/newsletter25003_388\/"},"modified":"2012-11-05T09:33:49","modified_gmt":"2012-11-05T09:33:49","slug":"newsletter25003_388","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.naylor.com\/associationadviser\/newsletter25003_388\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Shows Branding, Integration Keys to Communication Success"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-style: italic; font-size: 10pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px; width: 85px; height: 82px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.naylornetwork.com\/NAY-ADVISER\/assets\/hank%20berkowitz%20resized.jpg\" align=\"left\" \/>By Hank Berkowitz<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">With a perfect storm of economic, demographic and technological forces bearing down on trade associations, the pressure to retain members and maintain their status as relevant industry thought leaders has reached a new sense of urgency. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Data from our <span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.naylornetwork.com\/NAY-ADVISER\/assets\/2011%20association%20communications%20benchmarking%20executivesummary.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-style: italic; text-decoration: underline; font-size: 10pt;\">2011 Association Communications Benchmarking Survey<\/span><\/a> indicates that associations of all shapes and sizes are communicating with members more frequently and on more platforms than ever before\u2014but not necessarily more effectively. For instance, 90 percent of the 674 association leaders who took part in our comprehensive survey said they were communicating with members more frequently than they did pre-recession, yet fewer than half (45.8%) believed members would say they\u2019re communicating more effectively with them. What\u2019s more, almost two-thirds (62%) believed members were ignoring at least half of the communications sent their way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">How much longer will time-pressed, information-overloaded members accept this disconnect?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.naylornetwork.com\/NAY-ADVISER\/assets\/takeaways.png\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; margin: 5px; border: 1px solid black; background-color: #dcdcdc;\" width=\"\" cellspacing=\"3\" cellpadding=\"3\" align=\"center\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border: 1px solid black;\">\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Despite the tough economic climate, now is an opportune time for association publishers to get a leg up on their for-profit competitors.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Two-thirds of associations have changed their communication flagship in the past three years.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Associations with well-integrated communications programs are outperforming those operating in silos.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">The days of &#8220;Let\u2019s join the association because it\u2019s the right thing to do&#8221; are long gone.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: italic; font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt;\">READER NOTE: <\/span>Fellow Association Adviser <\/span><span style=\"font-style: italic; font-size: 12pt;\">e<\/span><span style=\"font-style: italic; font-size: 10pt;\">news columnist Charles Popper will be speaking about breaking down silos and building association brands at next month\u2019s ASAE <\/span><a style=\"font-size: 10pt;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mmcconference.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-style: italic; font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; font-size: 10pt;\">Marketing, Membership &amp; Communications Conference<\/span><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-style: italic; font-size: 10pt;\"> in Washington, D.C.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">At the end of the day, the communication buck stops with executive directors, who may have one of the hardest jobs in business, observed Alex DeBarr, Naylor\u2019s president &amp; CEO. &#8220;They\u2019re extremely busy, with lots of competing interests, lots of outside forces. They\u2019ve got members, the board, volunteers, the travel schedule and the day-to-day responsibilities of running a business in a tough economy all bearing down on them. It\u2019s no picnic,&#8221; he said. &#8220;On top of that, they\u2019ve had to reduce their resources at a time when membership communication has never been more important.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Fortunately, most well-run trade associations have built up tremendous brand equity that connotes trust, credibility and prestige. So, while short-staffed associations may occasionally stumble trying to adapt to the fast-changing media consumption patterns\u2014and expectations\u2014of their members, experts say they\u2019ll be permitted some leeway as long as they keep the lines of communication clear with members, suppliers and their board. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Change is scary,&#8221; observed Charles Sadler, <span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">executive director of the 4,000-member <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sgmp.org\" target=\"_blank\">Society of Government Meeting Planners<\/a> (SGMP) &#8220;but as the old saying goes: \u2018If you don\u2019t stand for something, you\u2019ll fall for anything.\u2019&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"> Our latest research shows there\u2019s been no shortage of changes on the association media horizon. For instance, a resounding two-thirds (66.5%) of associations have changed their organization\u2019s flagship communication vehicle during the past three years. The member magazine is no longer the association flagship by default. Nearly one in four associations (24%) cited their primary e-newsletter as their organization\u2019s flagship and more than 20 percent told us their website now serves as the primary member communication vehicle. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">&#8220;The toughest part is keeping your eye on your organization\u2019s core mission,&#8221; said SGMP\u2019s Sadler, whose organization serves 1,800 federal and state government meeting planners and 2,200 supplier members. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">&#8220;Sometimes I think to myself: \u2018Wow, I\u2019ve got a lot of people to please,\u2019&#8221; shared Phil Newsum, executive director of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adc-int.org\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; font-size: 10pt;\">Association of Diving Contractors International<\/span>, Inc<\/a>. (ADCI) which has 500 member companies and furnishes services and support for the conduct of safe underwater operations. &#8220;Sometimes I feel like a public school teacher who has so many kids to help and so little resources to do it with. I\u2019m juggling so many balls in the air\u2014and they\u2019re all made of glass.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"> &#8220;Unfortunately, some of the loudest voices in the E.D.\u2019s ear are from those not necessarily best qualified to give advice,&#8221; quipped DeBarr.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt;\">Great time for associations to be aggressive<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Despite the tough economic climate, DeBarr said now is an opportune time for associations to get a leg up on their for-profit competitors. Many trade publishers are grappling with painful reorganizations and strategy shifts without the relatively stable cushion of membership dues and professional education revenue that many trade associations have. In sum, there has never been a better time to build out the association brand. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">&#8220;I used to run a multitude of brands for a large for-profit trade publisher,&#8221; recounted Naylor\u2019s DeBarr. &#8220;It used to be very easy to run circles around the association in each of our markets. Not so much anymore.&#8221; <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">As DeBarr and other experts shared with us, there\u2019s a big opportunity for association publishers to fill the gap while their for-profit competitors are struggling to get their bearings in this &#8220;new normal&#8221; communications era.<\/span><\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">&#8220;One of the most exciting new outcomes of our two-year rebranding strategy is SGMP-TV, coming next month to celebrate our 30<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary,&#8221; said Sadler. &#8220;We\u2019ll be posting conference happenings and keynote speaker outtakes on our website as well as <span style=\"font-style: italic; font-size: 10pt;\">\u201830 to 30,\u2019<\/span> a year-long videography of our first 30 years as an association.&#8221;<\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt;\">Integrating communication to weather the storm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>DeBarr said associations that weathered the recent economic storm the best were the ones that had well-integratated communication strategies\u2014i.e., each communication vehicle had a clearly defined content owner, with a clearly defined audience, frequency and purpose that wasn\u2019t being duplicated by another group within the same organization. Our recent benchmarking survey data supports this hypothesis.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">For instance, our data suggests that associations with integrated communications programs are more than three times as likely as non-integrated associations to rate their communications initiatives best in class (23% to 7%); twice as likely to say they were above average (52% to 28%); four times as likely (24% to 6%) to say members were reading at least 75 percent of the publications sent to them regularly; twice as likely (57% to 29%) to say their communications efforts have improved significantly over the past three years. They\u2019re also four times as likely (28% to 7%) to say they have frequency\/recency rules in place to monitor the volume of member touch points; and one-third less likely (12% to 36%) to have an administrative person handling their online presence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; width: 554px; height: 356px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.naylornetwork.com\/NAY-ADVISER\/assets\/april%202011%20lead%20story%20graph.jpg\" align=\"middle\" \/><\/p>\n<p>According to Sadler, SGMP tries to ensure that everything it sends to members\u2014regardless of the channel used\u2014has true value to the recipient. &#8220;Let\u2019s say there\u2019s a new ruling out about per diem limits for government meeting planners,&#8221; said Sadler. &#8220;After verifying the story is true and that it\u2019s relevant to members, SGMP will consider how long the story\u2019s going to be relevant and which channels are best suited for disseminating that information. We\u2019ll use our alerts right away to get out a short notice about the rule change to members. We\u2019ll also put the news on our website so members can drill down for more information and then start developing a full story, with analysis, for our magazine.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Why, then, can\u2019t more associations integrate their communications? Staffing challenges, for one. Our latest data shows that while most associations have dramatically increased the<span style=\"font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt;\"> number<\/span> of communication vehicles in their arsenal, <span style=\"font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt;\">staffing<\/span> hasn\u2019t increased commensurately. More than 90 percent of associations have fewer than five full-time employees on their publishing\/communication teams and more than half (51.5%) have only one. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">&#8220;We have nine different irons in the fire,&#8221; said ADCI\u2019s Newsum. &#8220;You have the board, members and vendors. Everyone has an agenda. It\u2019s very hard to keep everyone happy. There\u2019s so little time to sit back and reflect on what we\u2019re doing&#8211;so little time to focus on strategy.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt;\">The power of the association brand<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">&#8220;Associations have a responsibility to be the leaders in their industries and they need to develop a leadership brand to make their voices louder and stronger,&#8221; said Naylor\u2019s DeBarr. &#8220;Associations tend to think: \u2018If I\u2019m saying it, people will listen.\u2019 That\u2019s just not so. They shouldn\u2019t assume they have members\u2019 attention just because they have their dues. They shouldn\u2019t take any member for granted just because they\u2019re the main association for their industry.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"> SGMP recently did a substantial branding overhaul to emphasize that it speaks for the government, said Sadler. What prompted the new branding? &#8220;Lots of people didn\u2019t get what we stood for. The logo, magazine and website looked tired. Some of our branding hadn\u2019t changed since the association was founded in 1981. We changed the name of our member magazine from <span style=\"font-style: italic; font-size: 10pt;\">Advantage<\/span> to <span style=\"font-style: italic; font-size: 10pt;\">Government Connections<\/span> to emphasize how we\u2019re the voice of government workers. It has a good, simple logo and is all about travel meetings, trends and best practices specifically for government meeting planners, most of whom are on tight budgets,&#8221; said Sadler. He added that the magazine has really strengthened relationships with state chapters and helped recruit new members. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>In the past year alone, Sadler said SGMP\u2019s membership has increased 19 percent, the staff has grown to seven from four, revenue is up 33 percent and four new state chapters have been added.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 568px; height: 366px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.naylornetwork.com\/NAY-ADVISER\/assets\/aa%20april%202011%20feature%20story%20graph.jpg\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>As the communications director for a mid-size teaching association shared with us in our <span style=\"font-style: italic; font-size: 10pt;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/http:\/\/www.naylornetwork.com\/NAY-ADVISER\/assets\/2011%20association%20communications%20benchmarking%20executivesummary.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">2011 Association Communications Benchmarking Survey<\/a>: <\/span>&#8220;Our members are very busy, so our biggest challenge is to present our information as concisely as possible for those who have very little time to read it.&#8221; Not surprisingly, 53.6 percent of associations said information overload was their top communications challenge, more than 20 percentage points ahead of the next biggest concern: communicating member benefits effectively.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Membership retention is SGMP\u2019s biggest challenge, according to Sadler, and &#8220;standardizing our branding and messaging between the national organization and all the state chapters. It\u2019s very important that all the chapters give members the same type of education experience, the same messaging, the same look and feel.&#8221; <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">According to ADCI\u2019s Newsum, the biggest challenge for his organization is not just communicating with members on the right frequency, but communicating accurately. &#8220;We\u2019re in a very liability-driven industry. We can\u2019t just make assumptions. For members, you have to make them feel you have their best interests in mind. For regulators, you have to assure them that safety is at the top of our list. For end users\u2014like oil and gas producers\u2014they\u2019re very savvy. They have very high expectations. It\u2019s very important getting folks to understand that more isn\u2019t always better.&#8221; <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Nearly 30 percent of associations said maintaining their status as the No.1 voice of their industry was the top communications challenge. &#8220;If you come with good content\u2014real, valuable information, and promote your status as a leader in the industry and exclusivity\u2014key content that members can\u2019t get anywhere else\u2014that translates to member value,&#8221; said DeBarr. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">SGMP\u2019s Sadler agreed: &#8220;Trust and guidance is very important to our members, many of whom have been thrust into their demanding jobs with little or no professional training. We always want to be the place they turn to first.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt;\">Thinking and acting like a brand<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">&#8220;The days of &#8216;Let\u2019s join the association because it\u2019s the right thing to do\u2019 are long gone,&#8221; added DeBarr. &#8220;If you don\u2019t constantly pay attention to your brand, you fight an ongoing battle for diminished membership.&#8221; Other leaders agreed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">&#8220;Our brand not only implies trust, it implies that a member company has been vetted for equipment, operations and personnel standards,&#8221; said Newsum. &#8220;Believe me, whenever there\u2019s an unfortunate incident involving underwater objects\u2014the Minneapolis bridge collapse or trouble with the aqueducts that supply New York City with water\u2014every news media outlet is calling me for a quote.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">&#8220;The power of the our brand is that when we give information to members and the industry, it\u2019s the most objective, unsanitized, apolitical timely news about standards and codes you can find if you do business in the Northeast,&#8221; said Larry Caniglia, executive director of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nespapool.org\" target=\"_blank\">Northeast Spa &amp; Pool Association<\/a> (NESPA). &#8220;If you can help members win business and consistently keep them out of trouble, then you won\u2019t have a hard time convincing them to keep coming back at dues renewal time,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever lost a member who\u2019s used our Help Line in a pinch.&#8221; (See profile of NESPA and Larry Caniglia in today\u2019s <a title=\"Association Spotlight: Northeast Spa &amp; Pool Association (NESPA)\" href=\"http:\/\/staging.naylornet.com\/associationadvisor\/index.php\/newsletter25003_390\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; font-size: 10pt;\">Association Spotlight<\/span><\/a> column.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><a href=\"mailto:hberkowitz@naylor.com?subject=April 2011 Association Adviser feature story\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-style: italic; font-size: 10pt;\">Hank Berkowitz<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-style: italic; font-size: 10pt;\"> is the moderator-in-chief of Association Adviser <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-style: italic; font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">e<\/span>N<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-style: italic; font-size: 10pt;\">ews.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center; font-weight: bold;\">\n<div style=\"font-style: italic;\">\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; margin: 5px; border: 1px solid black; background-color: #dcdcdc;\" width=\"\" cellspacing=\"3\" cellpadding=\"3\" align=\"center\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border: 1px solid black; text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Rate this article 5 (Excellent) to 1 (Poor). Send ratings and comments <\/span><a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" href=\"mailto:associationadviser@naylor.com?subject=April%20lead%20story\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">here<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With a perfect storm of economic, demographic and technological forces bearing down on trade associations, the pressure to retain members and maintain their status as relevant industry thought leaders has reached a new sense of urgency.<br \/>\n<em>By Hank Berkowitz<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Research Shows Branding, Integration Keys to Communication Success - Association Adviser<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.naylor.com\/associationadviser\/newsletter25003_388\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Research Shows Branding, Integration Keys to Communication Success - Association Adviser\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With a perfect storm of economic, demographic and technological forces bearing down on trade associations, the pressure to retain members and maintain their status as relevant industry thought leaders has reached a new sense of urgency. 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