Foundations of Marketing
- Definition of Marketing
- Components of Marketing
- Our Mission
- Titles
- Telephone/Voice Mail
- Acronyms
- Affirmative Action Statements
Marketing Cooperative Extension is the process of:
- Identifying New Hampshire’s current and emerging educational issues and customer needs.
- Creating educational programs to meet those issues and needs, consistent with the mission of the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension.
- Creating an awareness of our organization, its capabilities, and the impact of its programs.
- Developing constructive relationships with our customers.
Since the early 1900's, there have been Cooperative Extension programsin New Hampshire. The Extension professionals who created, implemented and taught curriculum to answer questions and solve problems marketed these programs. The need to market our quality programs continues to be everyone's task. We can always do a better job of marketing.
Marketing is an integral part of the program planning process. Marketing creates awareness of our organization's diverse capabilities and demonstrates the value of our educational contributions. An effective marketing effort creates, maintains, and enhances constructive relationships with people who can influence our future.
Our key marketing objectives are to:
- Increase visibility of UNH Cooperative Extension
- Maintain and enhance UNH Cooperative Extension's credibility and commitment
- Continue support from private and public sectors
Marketing involves:
- Creating an appropriate and consistent image for UNH Cooperative Extension and communicating that image to decision-makers, clientele, the media and general stakeholders
- Planning and directing programs based on identifiable needs of target audiences
- Communicating impacts and results to appropriate publics
- Understanding that a good, consistent organizational image is tied to good, consistent programs and effective staff
- Designing and constantly improving educational programs to satisfy the needs of New Hampshire residents
- Developing, maintaining, and expanding constructive relationships with key decision makers, community leaders, volunteers, clients, staff and the media
- Marketing the Organization: Creating an awareness of the organization, its capabilities, and the impact of its programs. Marketing efforts must:
- Promote UNH Cooperative Extension along with each program area. Always promote the organization first and program areas second. Many past marketing efforts, while very successful in raising the visibility and credibility of different programs, failed to promote UNH Cooperative Extension as the parent organization.
- Involve all educators and volunteers in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of the marketing program. A plan is only a road map. The success of any marketing effort relies on the commitment and involvement of key volunteers. The keys to success are positive, open leadership and the willingness to participate in the marketing program. The marketing program must be viewed as an investment in the future, not an unnecessary responsibility.
- Encourage enthusiasm, creativity, and flexibility in the marketing effort. Individuals use their creativity and imagination to try new approaches in meeting customers' needs and promoting UNH Cooperative Extension.
- Marketing the Educational Programs: Designing and constantly improving educational programs to satisfy the needs of our customers, consistent with the mission of the organization.
- Educational programs are our organization's products. We exist to meet the needs of our customers. Our success depends upon effective programs and a well-planned marketing effort.
- Good product marketing must be a part of the overall plan. Integrate marketing principles into program planning and evaluation. Develop educational programs with:
- An understanding of the major forces and trends affecting issues and customers.
- Identifying target customers with their needs in mind.
- An awareness of competition and what may be our advantages.
- A positioning strategy that includes educational product, price, place (location), promotion, and people (who deliver the program).
- An evaluation and impact assessment component.
- Developing Relationships: Developing, maintaining, and expanding constructive relationships with key decision makers, community leaders, volunteers, customers, staff and media representatives.
- Put relationships to work. While many marketing efforts promote visibility with new customers through media exposure, don't overlook building individual relationships. By putting relationships to work, we stay in touch with individuals and organizations that play pivotal roles in Extension's future. These key individuals and organizations will develop a commitment to UNH Cooperative Extension by learning more about our capabilities and impact.
- Develop a program marketing plan with specific objectives and clear target customers in mind. Components of a good program marketing plan include:
- Clearly identified target customers.
- The response desired from the target customers:
- Specific messages with measurable objectives. Consider:
What is your educational goal?
How will it be achieved?
When results do you expect?
How often?
Who is responsible? - Choose the educational technique appropriate to the plan. The technique may include a planned series of face-to-face meetings, group meetings, mass mailing, publications, web-based material and/or electronic media.
Mission Statement
Formal mission statements are the basis of a good marketing plan. UNH Cooperative Extension's mission statement reflects the strengths of our organization.
Mission Statement
"UNH Cooperative Extension provides New Hampshire citizens with research-based education and information, enhancing their ability to make informed decisions that strengthen youth, families and communities, sustain natural resources, and improve the economy."
Display the mission statement in your office, and on written materials, where appropriate. The simpler tag line of "Helping You Put Knowledge and Research to Work" can be used for factsheets, news releases and brochures.
Titles
Always identify yourself using the title associated with your specific program area. Use Extension with the additional information of Educator, Faculty Designation/Specialist, Specialist, Program Assistant or Associate, or other designations, accompanied by the program, such as Forest Resources, Agricultural Resources, Food and Nutrition, Family and Consumer Resources, Sea Grant or 4-H Youth Development.
Do not abbreviate, shorten or change the program-specific areas when using your title. It is a key component of showing our relationship with the University of New Hampshire.
Phones
The telephone is a "service tool" directly impacting the image of UNH Cooperative Extension. Phone contact is often the public's first significant introduction to UNH Cooperative Extension. Each time you answer the phone, you become UNH Cooperative Extension. There are several ways our clientele usually evaluate us during our phone contact:
- by our reliability,
- our responsiveness to their needs and concerns,
- our assurances (that who they're calling will get back to them in a timely fashion,) and
- our empathy.
When answering the phone, use the following to identify yourself:
UNH Cooperative Extension and the county, department or program name.
Voice Mail
Phones preferably need to be answered in person, but voice mail is a useful took when appropriately used. Voice mail should be succinct and useful. Keep your message at a minimum with your name, the organization, and information relating to how someone can contact you.
Update your voice mail as appropriate, but always change it if you are going to be away from the office. If you are on vacation, put your phone directly on voice mail and indicate when you'll be away from the office. Make sure you change your voice mail on your return. Let the caller how to reach support staff if immediate assistance is needed. Return voice mail calls promptly when you return.
Some tips:
- Change your message daily. Some days, you may be in your office but involved in meetings. Let the caller know when you will return calls.
- Offer an alternative number or the option of hitting "zero" to reach someone in your office who can help.
- Let your callers know what type of message they should leave. For example, if your system doesn't automatically indicate the date and time of the message, ask your caller to do so.
- Keep your message simple.
- Office voice mails should always note holidays and other events that close the office completely and provide an opportunity for the caller to leave a message.
- Shorten the rings over holidays or ensure calls go directly to voice mail. Return the calls in a timely fashion.
UNH Cooperative Extension uses a variety of acronyms. When referring to these various programs, such as IPM for Integrated Pest Management, always use the full program name first. A brief explanation also may be helpful. This is of particular importance on exhibits, brochures and news releases, but is of equal importance when talking to your clientele. Always use full names when talking to new audiences.
Affirmative Action Statements
For complete information, refer to our Diversity, Civil Rights and Equal Employment Opportunity web page.
All UNH Cooperative Extension materials must include affirmative action statements.
Use the full version on newsletters, curriculums and other large projects.
UNH Cooperative Extension programs and policies are consistent with pertinent Federal andState laws and regulations, and prohibits discrimination in its programs, activities and employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran’s, marital or family status. New Hampshire counties cooperating.
Use the shower version on letterhead, brochures, videos and factsheets.
The University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension is an equal opportunity educator and employer. UNH, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and New Hampshire counties cooperating.
Forestry and wildlife program publications must include the reference to the N.H. Division of Forests and Lands, as per the Memorandum of Understanding with DRED, along with NH Fish and Game and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The forestry disclaimer reads:
UNH Cooperative Extension programs and policies are consistent with pertinent Federal and
State laws and regulations, and prohibits discrimination in its programs, activities and
employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political
beliefs, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran’s, marital or family status. College of Life Sciences
and Agriculture, County Governments, NH Dept. of Resources and Economic Development,
Division of Forests and Lands, NH Fish and Game, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service cooperating.
