Services Marketing

Massachusetts Audubon Society

Case Study
GROUPMEMBERS
AimenAzam
TabreekYounas

MehakAfzal

RameezSheikh

JameelSaddqiue

2
COMPANY BACKGROUND

Founded: 1896
Headquartered: Lincoln, Massachusetts

Not associated with more famous National Audubon Society

65372 members (2001).

Operate 58 wildlife sanctuaries: 41 opened to the public, 23

staffed
 INTRODUCTION
The Massachusetts Audubon Society, founded in 1896 by
Harriet Hemenway and headquartered in Lincoln,
Massachusetts, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to
"Protecting the nature of Massachusetts." Mass Audubon is
independent of the National Audubon Society, and in fact
was founded earlier.
Massachusetts Audubon Society (MAS) seek to develop a
strategy to increase the loyalty and involvement of its
current members.
Communication strategy to be developed to increase the
member value.
 ABOUT MASS AUDUBON

Mass Audubon works to protect the nature of Massachusetts for people and
wildlife.
Together with more than 100,000 members, we care for 34,000 acres of
conservation land.
Provide educational programs for 225,000 children and adults annually.
Advocate for sound environmental policies at local, state, and federal levels.
Mass Audubon's mission and actions have expanded since our beginning in
1896 when our founders set out to stop the slaughter of birds for use on
women's fashions.
Today we are the largest conservation organization in New England.
Our statewide network of wildlife sanctuaries, in 90 Massachusetts
communities, welcomes visitors of all ages and serves as the base for our
work.
 SERVICES

The main services can be categorized as below:

Wildlife Sanctuaries
Environmental summer camp
Natural history travel programs Lectures, guided nature walks and
educational programs for children.
Stores focus on natural history merchandise.
Advocacy efforts work to protect the nature of Massachusetts through public
policy.
 Other Players in the Environment Movement

293 registered national levels environmental organization

based in United States.
Major player: Friends of the Earth, National Audubon Society,
Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy, Wilderness Society
National Audubon VS Massachusetts Audubon = similar
agenda
104 regional player in Massachusetts
Work together to advocate political agenda
Compete for member, land and MONEY!
Public sector: National Park Service, Commonwealth of
Massachusetts preserved land for recreational purposes
 Evolution of Mass Audubon

Initial focus on bird protection, MAS embraced a variety of

conservation issues, including protection of land and habitat
especially wetlands.
In 1916, Americas first private wildlife sanctuary
In 1952, Louise Ayer Hathaway bequeathed to MAS her
Drumlin Farm Estate
Gerard Bertrand (1980-1998) MAS acquired many threatened
locations through gift or purchase
Membership grew from 26,600 to 67,000 in 1998 while area of
land protected from 11,600 to 28,000 acres

,
 New Leadership

In January 1999, Laura Johnson as the Society new President

Develop a clear sense of direction
What are we and what do we want to be?
 The Resources Division

10

The organization structure consisted of 4 functional areas,

each of which was each headed by a vice president reporting
to Laura Johnson
 Used to be under program
division.
After findings of the Science
Review Committee, it was
separated to form new division
in order to sharpen its focus
and raise its stature.
11 There were five scientists
employed under this division.
 MASs operating Revenue increased
458% within 21 years

12
 MAS has a group of experienced and
competent top management.
The head of Resource Division, Steven L.
Solomon, previously was VP of resources at
the Museum of Fine Arts, as well as Harvards
Graduate School of Design.
The director of Membership section, JanONeil
has 12 years experience with New Boston
Group, a telemarketing firm that made
fundraising calls for nonprofits, many of them
in the environmental area.
13
2 years working experience in detailed
analytical studies for nonprofit clients.
As of 2001, MAS was operating 58 wildlife
sanctuaries across the Commonwealth, of
which 41 were opened to the public and 23
were staffed.

The area of land protected by the Society rose

from 11,600 (in 1980) to 29,100 acres in 2001.
 Embraced an annual fund to raise
unrestricted gifts and capital campaigns
to finance specific projects.
Nora Frank, director of Development
believed strongly in the need to keep
donors and members informed and
involved about the usage of donations.
However, MAS has no common vehicle
outside of solicitation that communicates
to people about the usage of donations
15 and tells them how they can get further
involved.
 The director found insufficient
information in the database to enable
for creating detailed profiles of the
membership.
Re-validated membership strategy,
invested new membership and
development software, etc.
The number of membership was 65,372
in 2001.
16
About 70% of members renewed at the
same rate, 20% upgraded, and 10%
downgraded.
 Susannah Caffry, the director found that not
everybody in the organization understood or
appreciated the value of marketing
perspective.
It took her some time to get the staff
members to involve on scheduling, pricing,
and service features.
Worked in aligning the objectives of MASs
communications activities without
undermining the strengths of the
organization an important one being the
18 commitment and feeling of ownership
demonstrated by the Sanctuary directors
and other program staff.
EDUCATIONPLAN
Existing education programs lacked common focus and
connection to Mass Audubon themes and Mission
New Education Plan
Leverage unique strengths
New plan emphasized on creating significant outdoor
experiences
To meet varied learning styles, the plan called for a mix of
live programs, nature center exhibits, and self guided trails,
plus opportunities for learning through publications,
audiovisual media, interactive pages on the MAS website,
and articles in local Newspapers.
 CONT..
Society mailed 500000-700000 letters/year at an average

8/22/17
cost of $0.39 each.
Response rate was only 1%

Society predicted that 55% of existing members would

renew their membership but it was 35% only
At renewal time, members were encouraged to migrate to
higher levels of membership: Supporting ($60), Defender
($75), Donor ($100), Protector ($150), Sponsor ($250),
Patron ($500) and leadership friend ($1250)
MEMBERSHIP

8/22/17
Insufficient information in the database to create profiles
of the members
Initial task was to find ways to validate which
membership strategies worked and which did not.
$4,00,000 were being invested in new membership
software
Between 1997-1999, MAS membership had surged from
54,400 to 67,400 which included a $400,000 advertising
campaign
 MEMBERSHIP,CONT..
o Members declined to 65,000
o Society faced a churn of 20% each year
o Membership cost was $47, initially it was $25 only
o 45% of the members were recruited at the sanctuaries and
42% through direct mail solicitation
o Admission charges to the sanctuaries for non-members
from $3-$6 for adults and $2-$4 for children
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS INTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
-- SWOT and TOWS Analysis --
Strengths
Strong sanctuary system
Scientific expertise capability
Advocacy capability
Having a group of passionate staff
Higher renewal rate for new members compare to other
organization.
Competent and experienced management team.
High quality
23 of education program.
Have large area of sanctuaries across Massachusetts.
 SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS INTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
-- SWOT and TOWS Analysis --

Weaknesses
The existing education programs lacked a common focus and
connection to Mass Audubon themes and mission.
MAS has no common vehicle to keep donors and members informed
the usage of the donations.
MAS members confuse about the relationship between MAS and
National Audubon Society.
Lack of a common communication strategy among sanctuaries,
programs and events conducted, with the primary objective being to
increase member value.
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS INTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
-- SWOT and TOWS Analysis --

Opportunities
Demographic change with shifting to high tech industry attracts
higher educated immigrants to Massachusetts.
Economy growth with higher living standards provide better fund
raising opportunities
Climate change has raise awareness of public on preservation of
environment
Internet provides an excellent marketing tool to communicate
with member.
Government policies in protecting wildlife provide more chances
for land preservation for MAS.
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS INTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
-- SWOT and TOWS Analysis --

Threats

Change in kids behavior: involve in computer game and soccer.

Only 5 main sanctuaries account for 70% of all visitations.
Loss of habitat to development and disruption of natural
ecological cycles through human activities
CHARACTERS
SusannahCaffry(Newdirectormarketing

communication)
SteveSolomon

AlfredChandler(Boardmember)

LauraJohnson(President)
MARKETINGAND
COMMUNICATION
INTRODUCTIONOFCAFFERY

Caffery developed interest in working for non profit

sector after she went for a canoeing trip with Outward
Bound
Later she joined Outward Bound as vice president

After the previous director left Caffery was recruited by

Steve Solomen for newly defined position of director of
marketing communication
Caffery was attracted to MAS because of its
commitment to marketing among the leadership
PROBLEMSIDENTIFIEDBYCAFFERY

After gathering information about how people on staff,

board and council felt about marketing related issues,
Caffery found:
Many said; We dont like the M-word!
They had widely divergent views:
Those who loved Sanctuary magazine because the saw it

as pure and free from overt marketing.

Those who regarded it as elitist and arrogant

Similar variations were found for newsletters and

website
 Conflicting opinions concerning objectives of Mass
Audubons different communication activities
No consensus at all as to what was the purpose of
Sanctuary magazine
Annual report was not meeting the need of development
office
OVERALLOBJECTIVEIDENTIFIED
BYCAFFERY

Bringing together communication activities without

undermining the strengths of the organization
COMMUNICATION
STRATEGYTASKFORCE
 Absence of explicit strategy prior to Solomons arrival
Alfred Chandler started Sanctuary magazine as an
independent journal
It has articles about Societys mission as opposed to
stories about Mass Audubon
 In-house publishing efforts produced books and field
guides
Staff members wrote press releases

Public relations efforts by development office

Chandler promoted need for integrated communication

strategy
Board approved creation of communication strategy task
force to work with a consulting firm and MAS staff
PURPOSEOFCOMMUNICATION
STRATEGYTASKFORCE
Oversee a review
Analysis of current external communication activities

Preparation of communication plan

Its scope extended to membership, education, public

relations, marketing and publications
FOCUSANDOBJECTIVES
 Develop communication strategy for existing
membership to increase member value
Reinforce MASs role and positioning as the leader

Establishing a clear image for Society

Communicate more cost-effectively

MEMBERSURVEY
REASONSFORCONDUCTINGSURVEY

To identify channels for future communications

To understand how members perceive MAS

To determine difference between demographic groups

 Members were segmented according to the reason for
joining Audubon
i. Believe in the organization and mission
ii. To protect the environment
iii. To visit the sanctuaries
QUESTIONNAIRE
Questionnaire was mailed to 62,000 members
More than 8000 completed them

4,448 questionnaires were viewed as more than enough

responses for proposed statistical analysis
RESULTOFSURVEY

As compared to the first two groups ,those who joined

primarily to visit the sanctuaries tended to be younger
and had children under 18.
Over 90% visited a sanctuary within the past year ,
compared to about three-fourths of those in other
segments
THANKYOU!