Country: United States
Organization: The Sensible City
3) Strategy Summary:
Our organization teaches businesses how to make social
responsibility and 3rd sector involvment profitable. This
approach to community building has an expansive snowballing
effect that has proven itself to create millions in
monetary and social capital for its host cities. But more
importantly, it brings people together and provides an open
minded, compassionate platform for business/community
development that benefits everyone involved.
4) How the Strategy Works:
1. Assess Strengths And Put Them To Work:
The first task at hand is a self-assessment of strengths.
This can apply to an individual or a company of 1,000. Are
you influential? Connected? Are you a communicator or
leader? This list doesn't have to sensibly tie directly in
with marketing. Just start listing as many resources and
strengths - personal and/or business - as possible. If you
are working with a team, ask the same of each of them. You
are doing this so that you don't create a plan that calls
upon weaknesses. If you don't work well in groups, you
don't want to foist an identity of 'teacher' upon
yourself. If you prefer to manage a program rather than
design it, don't step up to the plate as a 'planner.'
2. Define Your Roles In The Community:
To follow are some example roles you might assume. If you
have a clearly defined market, two roles are plenty. If
you have a department store, go with three. Focus in first
on the best roles which suit your values, and then decide
what techniques match your roles. For example, if you have
important information to share that makes a strong impact,
be an Educator in your community. If, however, you are
stage-shy, perhaps it would be better to simply host other
educators in your space and be a Host.
Educator - Empower your communities with important, in-
demand information. This includes presenting, writing and
more.
Caretaker - Empower your communities with volunteer
programs and renewal projects that improve lives. As well,
this role can include environmental programs, hospices and
more.
Motivator/Catalyst - Get people together and start
something that will improve your community.
Leader/Pioneer - Assume and enact a leadership role with a
3rd sector organization which provides high visibility to
your market (notice-this is much different than writing a
check and displaying your logo).
Host/Entertainer - Use your place of business or organize
a space to host other educators, caretakers, motivators
and leaders in their activities.
Connector - Become a referral & networking maven in your
target market's communities.
While assessing strengths, be sure to also take an
inventory of your weaknesses. Your weaknesses can
potentially lead you into activities and roles that have a
negative outcome. If not careful, you could end up with a
poor reputation within the community you have targeted.
Roles To Avoid:
Martyr: "I work so hard to help people and nobody cares."
Butterfly; "This didn't make me any money, so I am off to
the next garden of flowers."
3. Create A Vision For Your Roles In Community Empowerment:
What are your roles and how will you deliver them? Are you
a landscaping company that focuses on environmentally
responsible projects (Caretaker)? Or maybe you are a
coffeehouse owner who wants to host literacy projects and
underground arts (Educator - Host)? Whatever your
profession, you should be able to create a vision for how
you are going to apply these roles in the community.
4. Thorough research into your market means answering the
following questions:
- What is my target market? What are their values and
roles?
- Where do they network? Socialize? Form support groups?
Donate? Volunteer? Live? Eat?
- What organizations are already in communication with my
target market's community?
- What social causes does my target market support? Which
ones are in need of the strengths I can offer through
these role(s)?
- How is my competition failing to address the needs and
goals of my target market's communities?
- Start Building Your Network and Establish Contacts
7. Identify Needs and Opportunities to Enact Roles for
Community Empowerment
Who needs you? Is it an association? A neighborhood? An
orchestra? An animal shelter? A theater company? A
community center? A school? A homeless shelter? A crisis
hotline? An outdoors group? A running club? City Hall?
Hospice? Make a list, check it twice and narrow it down.
8. Create Your 12 Month Action Plan
- Map out the next 12 months and define a different major
community empowerment focus every 2-3 months.
- Define ongoing community-oriented marketing-related
events and enact a corresponding schedule for
communicating with the media.
- Institute specific activities that occur monthly. I
know
a chiropractor who takes her clients and colleagues hiking
once a month as a fundraising effort for her favorite
charity. It is an opportunity to provide an emotional and
memorable experience, as well as enjoy casual social
contact.
- Establish specific community-related actions for each
day of each week. These tasks should be considered sacred
in your calendar and never be rescheduled.
- Be realistic. New contacts will arise, new
opportunities
will present themselves. Make your plan flexible, but
commit to following through with your goals.
This is highly summarized from Chapter 4 of our book,
Community-Oriented Marketing. To learn more:
www.sensiblecity.com
5) Key Strategy Elements:
i. Mobilizing Citizen Support:
The only way this approach works is through the
mobilization of individual community members. Community-
Oriented marketing mobilizes: increased membership,
increased awareness, increased human participation in
events and volunteer efforts, increased hope and positive
thinking, etc. This, in turn, creates more media attention
and public awareness of both private and public efforts
involved.
ii. Generating Financial and Nonfinancial Resources:
Businesses gain more customers. 3rd Sector alliances gain
more memberships and funding, both from community and from
business sponsorship. Because events are key, more
community events take place that cater to broader human
audiences to build awareness. As well, our clients produce
scholarships, fellowships, media attention, neighborhood
regeneration and mentoring programs for the young.
iii. Establishing Relationships with Strategic Partnerships:
In every case, this approach to business development
creates increased capital, community awareness and
resources for all parties involved. Donations. Sales. The
list goes on.
iv. Engaging and Managing Volunteers:
Volunteerism is a necessary component to about 80% of all
community-oriented marketing projects. This ranges from
corporate volunteer programs to individual volunteering.
Allied 3rd Sector organizations immediately gain
additional volunteer resources simply by pairing with
community-oriented businesses.
v. Developing Information and Spreading the Message:
In about half of all community-oriented marketing
programs, a new form of media is created (often community
newsletters) or reinvented. Other less-noticed methods of
communication are taken advantage of. And finally, all of
our clients are asked to redevelop their internet presence
as an information/resources/community portal (rather than
a sales-generation tool).
6) Increasing Self-sufficiency and Social Impact:
Or focus with all projects is to create systems that are
self-sustaining. This does not always happen, but it is
always the design behind programs. For example, when a
doctor teamed up with a martial arts center to create
scholarships for children who could not afford martial
arts training, a program was put in place for a different
local business to step in each month and contribute the
scholarship funds. That way, if a company went out of
business, the program was not disabled. Another example:
When we pair up communities and for-profit organizations,
we have members of the community do half of the
volunteering, while the business provides the other half.
That way, again, there is always a body of committed
persons.
8) Organization Mission and Vision:
The Sensible City's vision is to improve the quality of
life in human and business communities by incubating a
more socially responsible, financially abundant, values-
based business ecosystem in America's cities.
Looking Forward to the Next Three Years:
We are hoping to get other companies competing with us so
that this form of business can spread nationally.
Contact Information:
Ian Bryan
President
The Sensible City
1440 N. Lake Shore Drive #3H, Chicago, IL 60610
United States
Tel: 773 344 2110
Email: ianbryan@sensiblecity.com
Website: www.sensiblecity.com
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