Maine State Grange

The following article was originally part of a handout from Walter Boomsma’s presentation at the Northeast Leaders’ Conference in 2013.

If you don’t help with the milking, you’ll forget the cows’ names.

Amish Proverb

Your members are an untapped market! We tend to think of “markets” as customers. Those in business are aware of the tremendous strides made in understanding what motivates customers. Businesses spend a great time of time, energy, and money marketing products and services to their customers. But we tend to deal with people differently when we think of them as “members.”

We’d like to think that members should love and promote our organization. Well, customers should buy products and services, but companies still work hard to get them to want to! As Grange Leaders, we can be equally good at getting members excited about the Grange. After all, it doesn’t “cost” much to belong to and love the Grange.

Successful marketers know their customers’ values and get the business by offering obvious satisfaction (benefits, rewards, consequences). Successful Granges and Grange Leaders get motivated members by using exactly the same approach. Grangers, like customers, are motivated by outcomes and the amount of value placed on those outcomes.[1] This is a basic premise for all marketing: the price a customer will pay for a product is equal to the amount of expected benefit.

This simple formula (effort = outcome + value) is the basis for every choice we make. Usually, it takes place on an almost unconscious level. You choose a restaurant based on what kind of service and food (outcomes) you expect. The place just down the street may be cheaper, but the service is almost non-existent. You’ll drive the extra miles if you value the service more than the few extra dollars you’ll pay and the extra effort required. But notice this is about what YOU value.

There are hundreds – perhaps thousands – of tools available to excite and motivate. But we may need to change our thinking a bit. Member relations and member-centered publicity mean that we don’t preach. It means we don’t “sell” the Grange; we excite and influence people. For example,

• The way you package your Grange includes the building, the grounds, and the material you print and publish. What does that packaging say about the Grange? Does it communicate caring and pride?
• Companies work hard at “customer service.” What about “member service?” Are you modeling fraternity? Does a member feel a sense of Grange Community? Should we rename “good of the order” “good of the membership?”
• Can you write an advertisement for one activity your Grange does? Will it be something that screams to others “you just have to be part of this?”
• Are you making news? “It’s easier to make news than it is to write press releases!”

These programs are not as important as the thought process. Consumer marketing works when the product has real value. Member-centered publicity works when you value your members and offer them intrinsic benefits.

Customers buy products because those products do something for them. People will join the Grange if the Grange does something for them. Your current members contribute energy because they get something in return. As a leader of your Grange what are you giving those members?