Thursday, January 19, 2012

Present Third-Party Endorsements

Step 33.

When you present endoresments of your organization from well-known people, as well as, independent articles from the news media endorsing your organization, it helps build trust and provides enormous credibility.

Image of Third-Party Endorser Example

Harris recently conducted a poll that concludes celebrities have little or no impact for charities. Here is my written response to The Chronicle of Philanthropy who ran the story.

This article is a classic example of how qualitative research can not stand on its own.

All qualitative research should be quantified, which celebrity endorsements have been quantifiably tested and proven to help lift response in fundraising efforts for decades. We are only a week out from Idol Gives Back, which raised over $76 million in a manner of hours. Idol Gives Back is the glaring quantified differentiating data point to the mentioned survey.

What people say they will do and what they will actually do when faced with a particular situation can often be drastically different. Remember "New Coke?" Many surveys are often constructed poorly, which lead people to a specific conclusion . . . and if a marketer takes those ill-advised conclusions to the bank, they’ll be left feeling robbed, or worse yet, shipped off to Brazil like the mastermind behind New Coke.

Unfortunately, this article will misguide many charities. Mostly emerging nonprofits that can not spend the time or resources on quantifying this new data point therefore, they will take this as truth and their fundraising will suffer.

In this particular case, I suspect people responded to this survey like they did because they don’t want to come off looking shallow so they downplay celebrity influencers in their life. However, the proof is in the pudding as they say . . . therefore qualitative research must be proven by quantitative research.

You see it is true . . . New Coke did win out over Classic Coke in taste tests but when people actually had to make a purchase, they wanted their Classic Coke. But the mastermind made a whole sale change and Classic Coke was no longer available in stores and people were mad, revenue was lost, and the mastermind spent a decade or so speaking Portuguese.

The best idea is never that easy to come by . . . never.



It's impressive to see all of the celebrities who are involved with you.

Step 34. Start Your Own Network
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