Marketing Task Force Report
v 3.5 Hitsu, Franzi, Sean
Background : On November 26, 2008, in a Local Committee Meeting, AIESEC Bremen Local Committee President Ioana Huluta presented a simulation game where people formed small groups. These groups assumed themselves to be Executive Boards, took a certain issue and brainstormed about AIESEC Bremen's Problems, Solutions, and Development related to the issue. The group that picked up the marketing issues was consisting of Hitsu, Franzi and Sean. There was no Finance Team Member in the group. They brainstormed and presented their ideas. These ideas and perspectives are liable to be partial, incomplete, and even wrong. Therefore all input is welcome. However, acceptance of all input is not guaranteed.
Vision : The group started executing with a clear vision of AIESEC, and the topic. The vision is documented below.
1.AIESEC is an organization. 2.AIESEC system, in order to survive and remain active, needs interaction with people and society. 3.AIESEC can not survive as a passive platform, which the members can exploit in the way they wants. The topic given was 'Marketing', ie, tempting the society and people to interact with AIESEC [This is same as saying 'making them aware about the necessity of Aiesec' - we do not hand out false temptation. We provide what we tempt to]. AIESEC NEEDS:
1.Members: They will drive the system 2.Raw material: To convert to products 3.Consumers: They will compensate AIESEC in exchange to products, the compensation will be used to collect new raw material and to compensate members in turn 4.Stakeholders: Steady support, even in crisis condition, when consumers are absent Now, all of the people, who, somehow or other, drives the AIESEC system MUST be compensated.
1.Members: They get (or they can get) oSoft Skills oLeadership Experience oIntercultural experience oFun oIntegration of organizational goal and personal goals, in other words, a platform for sharing their personal goals and finding like minded people oA challenge to play with oFeel good factor 1.Consumers (companies that provide support, in terms of money and equipment, but short term in general) get: oAIESEC members. After a certain time, members are AIESEC products, with soft skills oAIESEC intercultural expertize, and experience. The Members who has intercultural experience can provide the company the ethno-geographical expertize necessary to expand to a new territory oConsultancy by AIESEC members, who have expertize [case study competition] oMarketing to members, by putting an advertisement to fliers or virtual platform, or sending reps to converse with then face to face oIntercultural learning, some companies want their employees to have the same. oTax deduction oGood image (impression on press and media) 1.Stake holders (everyone who provides long term support, even in crisis, including members and companies) oAIESEC is a non profit organization. Therefore all profit should stay in the organization, and can not be transferred to any other party. So stakeholders can not make profit from AIESEC. However, LARGE amount of product, with low compensation rate perhaps, can be offered to them oAlso, there is the feel good factor AIESEC should be represented to the above mentioned sectors, in such a way, that their is a material reason to interact with AIESEC. The abstract reason to support AIESEC is not that attractive to society. If everyone in society were that attracted to AIESEC, because of it's mission statement, there would have been soooooo much positive impact on society, that there would have been no necessity of Aiesec. Therefore, material temptation is required. Also, material output show the truth behind AIESEC activities, such as, if AIESEC members are truly proven to have better soft skills, it increases trust on AIESEC.
Task briefing: •Identify sectors •Identify Medium to reach them •Represent AIESEC •Continue
Recommended Methodology: There should be a core material for all representation. We do not change the core. We just change the outer appearance depending on the sector we want to reach. The 'core' is 'wholistic AIESEC identity' (for representation) and the outer appearance is 'interface' to suite the sectors. NOT A LEGO TOY, an INTEGRATED system:
AIESEC is a complete system, and we should NOT display AIESEC as a Lego toy, each team being a brick. The representation must be a wholistic overview of AIESEC, with how the teams integrate and support each other. Example: We should not say, "hey, I am TM team, and I do blah... and she is ER team and she does blah..." The representation should be: "AIESEC system provides blah... blah.. blah .. . In the cycle, it is ensured that everyone is integrated well into the system, and that is the responsibility of TM. TM uses the knowledge of people who went to an exchange. OGX supports TM for that.... blah". This will indicate all resource and product flows (internal and external) of AIESEC, and this will bring the impression of high productivity of AIESEC. Not a alien, lots of like minded people: There is a certain alienation of AIESEC in the outside world. It is reported that often students say "oh, AIESEC, the bunch of ELITE ... ". The associated emotion is not really appreciation of AIESEC. Somehow this has to be changed. A wholistic view of AIESEC should address this issue. Example: The possibility of finding like minded people using AIESEC platform can be stressed while representating AIESEC to students, by showing examples.
Little bit of seriousness: Fun factor is an important factor. But 'contentedness' and 'sense of satisfaction' should be stressed more. Example: There are lots of presentation which shows wild fun. Some presentation can show contentedness, and satisfaction of people who went through AIESEC system. There can be interesting and uncommon pictures, showing a person 'AT WORK' during an internship, such as, a person, in an AIESEC internship, working, with a window showing the skyline of Nairobi.
Sectors: Member: Students Consumers: Companies that provide support Stakeholders: those who are willing to
invest,
time,
money
and
effort
Media to reach them: Physical Passive: Fliers, Posters Face to Face: Reps Virtual: Homepage, online advertisement, multimedia, streaming media, newsletter
Current situation and recommendation: Fliers and posters - Too vague: It should clearly indicate what newies can do with AIESEC ('this is your platform and you can do whatever' does not make no sense, even implied. I can not recruite an army to train them thermonueclear warfare) - be clear and precise what one can do, for example, one can learn from intercultural environment. People who do not know about IAESEC will not be motivated to do "whatever" from a
platform alien to them. The posters should carry precise information about possible 'opportunities' (see example just mentioned) and 'mission statement of AIESEC'. The posters of project should clearly indicate how they are related to AIESEC's mission statement, or why AIESEC takes the project. The description should not be indirect in any way, always use your primary reason to take up the project, because this practice is concise and ethical. Face-to-face: There should be more face-to-face interaction between current AIESEC members and non-member students. Homepage: The homepage have a long block of text, unformatted. People who are not familiar to AIESEC will not read that by any means. Moreover, it is in german language. The homepage should have more media. We have media, but are not utilizing it. There MUST be a newsletter sign-up widget right in the first page, and clearly visible. Also, a news display widget and a event timetable, indicating all projects and meetings must be there, to induce curiosity among visitors. Moreover, a timetable is helpful to members also. Language should be international. Somewhere there has to be a clear explanation of why AIESEC knowledge and experience is an asset. For example, there should be examples, presented to students, where the AIESEC experience can be applied. Streaming Media: It is possible to stream an AIESEC project/meeting/action live over the Internet. According to various surveys, a good number of people views such live media. Video of action can increase curiosity or 'envy' factor among them, and they can be tempted to join. So far, no streaming media is never considered in LC Bremen. Companies and organizations: We already stated that a wholistic approach is required. Generally, we go to companies and we invoke them to accept an intern. However, it is also possible to find out organization, who needs people, and who are willing to pay, though the intern will not have that lavish life. http://www.idealist.org is a database for such organizations. We can explore this possibility. This is also in accordance with AIESEC vision, we integrate with other people who wants to create a positive impact, on earth as a whole.