What Integrated Marketing Means to Me -- Mike Johnston
	Posted by Mike Johnston at Feb 29, 2012 07:02 AM CST

Integrated Marketing is so much more than a process. It’s about the end result. And that result is, at a minimum, about meeting the consumers’ expectations.

And people expect an integrated relationship. We live in a time of choice, convenience and customization. People have this experience every single day, multiple times a day even, as commercial consumers. Their expectations have been constructed by their consumer experience.

In the charitable sector, the donor is the consumer (the "philanthropic consumer") and the product they are purchasing is rarely tangible. Rather, it is a feeling and the knowledge that they are making the world a better place, that they are making an impact and making a difference.

It is up to us to craft the whole experience for the philanthropic consumer. You know that people are not one dimensional. You know that people have emotions and feelings, motivations and fears, senses and expectations. When someone decides to make a donation to an organization, they are actually buying an extension of their values, goals, beliefs, etc.

Our challenge is to use our resources in the best way possible to connect these for the donor and to create an entire experience, an experience that they expect. This begins the moment a person is introduced to an organization and does not stop when they make a donation. When organizational departments work together, we can create more meaningful interactions that go far beyond touching on a single aspect of the donor experience.

That is integrated marketing.

Working backwards, we need to identify the philanthropic consumer’s expectations and needs. Our primary goal has to be at the minimum, meeting these. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish with the IMAB. We’re out to help nonprofit organizations catch up to the philanthropic donor’s expectations in integrated marketing. The nonprofit sector has limited resources, a change resistant culture, and an amazing ability to keep marketing channels and functions in concrete hardened silos.

It’s time to finally figure out integrated marketing for our sector -- before it’s too late.