The End of Membership as We Know It by Sara Sladek

Author:Sara Sladek
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2013-08-21T16:00:00+00:00

The New Recruits

One of the key components of any growth plan is a thorough understanding of the target market. You must know who is most likely to buy your product and why and must plan how you will reach them.

Herein lies the first challenge. Most associations know exactly how to provide value to Baby Boomers and how to market to Baby Boomers, but they have failed miserably at providing value for and marketing to other generations.

In my 2007 book The New Recruit: What Your Association Needs to Know About X, Y, & Z, I said:

Generations X and Y have completely different values, interests, needs, and wants from the generations before them. Their worldview, their priorities—everything about them is different as a result of their social experiences.

Generations X and Y will not respond to the recruiting efforts of the past. An entirely new approach is required. That’s why I refer to the younger generations as New Recruits.

There’s no such thing as a quick-fix solution here. A membership association can’t just go out and launch a blog and expect the younger generations to come running. Everything about the membership association has to change....

There are two types of associations evolving now. The Boomer-centric associations will refuse to change or fear change. These are the associations that are considered endangered species and likely will be extinct by the year 2020.

The New Recruit associations realize the need to recruit and retain younger members and invites younger generations in to help them make the change. These are the associations that will succeed and survive.”

Four years later, and associations have made minimal progress in engaging the New Recruits. Why has progress been so difficult? I suspect that one of two things is happening: either associations don’t fully understand the needs of their target market or associations don’t fully understand the potential of their target market. Or maybe it’s some of both.

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