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Essentials in
Board
Marketing and the future of the Society
The Society's Future
Updated: 9/26/2002 4:31:00 PM
byJohn Krizek, Chairman, International Marketing Committee, and
Gary Stamm, Director of Marketing, international office
What is this thing called marketing? Is it the salvation of our Society, or just another buzz word for things we’re doing anyway? Why do we need it?
To begin with, the Society’s overall decline in membership over the past few years tells us we need to do something differently than we’ve been doing. We need to figure out new ways to bring barbershopping to more people, if we hope to turn that trend around and grow and thrive in the years ahead. As a result of our many efforts and educational programs over the last several years, our musical product is outstanding. But, if not enough people are buying it, who’ll be around in a few years to care?
Times have changed. People’s approach to leisure time has changed. We have a wonderful product, but there are growing competitive pressures all around us. We’ve got to figure out how to be a little smarter about attracting people to our cause.
There are those who view marketing as the driving force that keeps any organization going, with public relations being a tool to help achieve marketing goals. There are others who view public relations in the broader sense of an organization’s contacts with all of its publics, including its marketing contacts.
In February of 1992, the International Public Relations Committee—Bill Moreland of Dundalk, Md.; Bob Arnold of Dallas, Texas; Tom Toftey of West Towns, Ill.; Dee Paris of Washington, D.C.; and John Krizek, of Los Angeles, Calif., plus staff member Ray Heller (ex officio)—devoted a good portion of its meeting to these issues. Its recommendation: that the Society reorient itself from being primarily a product-driven organization to being primarily a marketing-driven organization. The Executive Committee agreed with that concept.
Therefore, as part of the recent international staff reorganization, Executive Director Joe Liles created a marketing department, headed by Gary Stamm (formerly manager of media and performance). The department will encompass the areas of public relations, publications, merchandising, audio-visual services and endowments. Stamm and his staff, aided by advice from the International Marketing Committee—Krizak, Moreland, Frank Hrach, Steve Rafe, Dick Nyikos, Royall Geis and Stamm himself—plus input gained through market research, will formulate a marketing plan for the Society.
This plan will look at all Society products, including membership, for potential improvement and better packaging. It will also look at pricing and promotion of those products. The plan may offer only minor modifications to what we are now doing or it may suggest sweeping changes—whatever is needed to preserve our Society and barbershop harmony for generations to come.
Target Marketing
Some initiatives already are underway. For example, we are beginning to “target market” ourselves to specific audiences. The “product” we offer to seniors is vastly different than what we offer youth. Seniors are more likely to be interested in the recreational and health benefits of barbershoping, and less interested in the competitive aspects of the hobby. Young people are more likely to seek self-improvement, explore new horizons, and enjoy competition.
The senior market may represent a short-term “fix” in relation to the youth market, but it is a huge and growing segment of the U.S. population. Seniors have more leisure time, more money to spend, and they are more likely to be familiar with our music. At the same time, everybody agrees that attracting more young people is crucial to our long-term success.
A Senior Outreach Committee is being formed, under the chairmanship of Dee Paris. This committee will be tasked with developing strategies, and recommending and coordinating programs for greater Society involvement in the senior market.
Meanwhile, a Collegiate Quartet Competition Committee has been formed, with Larry Monson of Nebraska as chairman. Bill Rashleigh has been assigned as the staff liaison for all youth outreach services. Each of our youth-oriented programs—the Collegiate Quartet Competition, the Harmony Explosion college and high school clubs, YMIH songbooks and tapes, and even elementary outreach activities—needs to be encouraged, coordinated, and guided with the Society’s best interests in mind.
We are not alone
Our Society is not alone in facing some of these issues and challenges. Service clubs and arts organizations, in general, are struggling. According to one leading consultant to musical organizations, 25 symphony orchestras in the U.S. are expected to go under in the next year. These are hard times, and some things have become expensive relics of yesteryear.
We know we’re different. We know what a wonderful array of “products” we have to offer, including the barbershop lifestyle. We see it in the happy faces and the hugs and the joy shared by people of all ages at our conventions. We see it in the electricity generated at our high school and college quartet contests. We know we have something that appeals to the young, if only we can make it available to them. We see the contagious hospitality and love extended to and by barbershoppers across oceans and continents. We know how much we have that’s worth preserving. The world needs us. It’s time we got more sophisticated about helping it have us.
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