Constituency-based marketing

Ross Woods, July 2007. rev Apr. '13

What is it?

Your constituency comprises people who already know you personally, know your organization, or recognize your brand. Members of the constituency often have something in common that creates an affinity, and usually already have some kind of loyalty. For example:

• A club or association markets to its members.
• A small, dilapidated Asian shop, hidden in back street, builds a constituency of loyal repeat customers by word of mouth and pesonal trust.
• A franchise markets to its franchisees.
• A retailer develops a loyalty program (perhaps called a "membership") to give discounts and special deals to repeat customers.
• A professional builds up a loyal clientele before starting out on his own business.

 

Why this approach compared to others?

The first reason is that you probably already have a particular constituency.

It's easier to sell to a defined constituency. Members of a ready-made constituency can respond to your marketing effort much better than a cold audience. Marketing is simpler, the response rate is higher and perhaps more predictable, and once on board, new clients are more likely to stay. Your marketing budget is smaller and better focussed. If it is mainly word of mouth, it could be very powerful and cost very little.

In some industries, such as education and life insurance, the best buyers are those that already buy, because those are the people who are already convinced of the benefits of the product.

 

Implementation

As a definable group whom you already know, you can probably describe them fairly accurately. While you could describe many characteristics, you only need to describe those that will help you in marketing. For example:

• age
• class, wealth, or disposable income
• interests and priorities
• cultural characteristics (conservative, trendy, niche culture, etc.)
• preferred means of communication
• where they live or work
• what kind of transport they use
• how much time they have on their hands

Most constituencies have their own communication channels, so you should choose the media that will work best to get your advertizing materials to them and to get their attention.

Other than that, marketing to your constituency is mainly about tapping into existing loyalties, meeting a need, and providing good service. In some cases, it's as simple as good personal networking.

Ethically, you have a place of trust where you cannot exploit or manipulate people. People disappear quickly if they feel used.

You can run out of constituents, especially if the constituency is fairly small. Most constituencies go through natural attrition with some people moving away, retiring, or otherwise changing circumstances. Consequently, you still need to work to at least maintain its size. The problem is more complex when the recruitment pool is itself shrinking. You then need to pioneer a different constituency without estranging your old one.