3
Marketing in a Fisheries and
Wildlife Organization
One of the best lessons on marketing comes from a surprising
source: the book Walden, written by Henry David Thoreau. In Walden
(1854), Thoreau describes a man who went to sell baskets to his well-todo neighbor. Having seen the neighbor so well off by owning his own
business, the man said to himself: “I will go into business; I will weave
baskets; it is a thing which I can do.” The man then went to the well-todo neighbor and said, “Do you wish to buy any baskets?” “No, we don't
want any” came the reply. “What!” exclaimed the man as he left, “Do
you mean to starve us?” Thoreau continues: “Thinking that when he had
made baskets he would have done his part, it would be the neighbors turn
to buy them.” Thoreau concludes: “The man had not discovered that it
was necessary to make a product worth the neighbors' while to buy, or to
make something else which would be worth his while to buy.”
Thoreau was offering an important lesson in marketing. The lesson
is that it is necessary to make a product or offer a service worth another
person's while to buy. Here's the difference: there are two ways a fish
and wildlife organization can develop a program, product or service.
The first is to develop, and to then look and hope people will use the
service or buy the product. This is a selling approach. The second
approach is to find out what different user groups want and need and
then develop programs, products and services based on those needs.
This is a marketing approach. A marketing approach is infinitely more
effective than a selling approach because programs, products and
services are based on real needs, not perceived needs. The difference
between a marketing approach and a selling approach is often the
difference between success and failure.
Fish and wildlife organizations are quickly learning that it is wise to
use a marketing approach and develop programs, products and services
with Thoreau's philosophy in mind. This is because, in the end, it is the
citizen, not the agency, who decides whether he or she will take the
children fishing on Saturday morning instead of to the video arcade. It is
the citizen, not the agency, who decides whether or not to donate to the
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Wildlife and the American Mind
state fish and wildlife agency’s nongame wildlife program. It is the
citizen, not the agency, who decides whether or not to pull the lever at
the ballot box to support a 1/8 of 1% sales tax increase to increase
funding for the Department of Parks and Tourism and the Game and Fish
Commission.
If fish and wildlife agencies’ and organizations’ programs, products
and services are not developed with the public’s needs in mind, products
will be neglected by constituents and customers, program support will
decline, and agency and organization staff will sound like the man in
Thoreau's story: “Do you mean to starve us?”
Marketing Defined
The term “marketing” is by far one of the most misused and most
misunderstood terms within the fish and wildlife management
profession. Often equated with hard selling, cheap selling, trickery, or
just simply promotion, many fish and wildlife managers and
administrators shy away from learning what marketing really is and how
utilizing a marketing approach can contribute to the health of their
organization, their outreach efforts, the management of hunting, fishing
and nonconsumptive activities, and even their conservation goals.
Marketing is not hard selling, as detractors think. It is not even
selling. In fact, it is the very opposite of selling. As marketing expert
Phil Kotler (1980) notes, selling focuses on the needs and desires of the
seller (the organization or agency). Marketing, on the other hand,
focuses on the needs and desires of the constituent and customer. As
business manager Peter Drucker observes, “Marketing is the whole
business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the
customer's point of view” (Kotler 1980). And whether fish and wildlife
agencies are attempting to increase donations to nongame wildlife
programs, influence voters at the ballot box for conservation purposes,
enhance angler satisfaction, minimize hunter conflicts, attempting to
teach publics the importance of habitat acquisition, alter deviant behavior
such as poaching or public property destruction, educate publics on
wildlife, or increase the number of wildlife-related recreationists, a
marketing approach will make efforts toward these ends more effective.
Marketing is a deliberate and orderly step-by-step process that begins
with people (markets) and ends with programs, products, services and
strategies. Note that this is the opposite of how many programs, products
and services are often developed -- starting with a program, product or
service, and then looking for constituents and customers to use them; the
proverbial “product in search of a market.” Too many times, problems
are identified and solutions immediately developed. But how does one
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3
know that the chosen solution is the best solution? And as importantly,
what kind of thinking and process went into that solution? For every
problem, there are hundreds of potential solutions and hundreds of
variations on a program, product or service. How is the best solution
chosen; how is the best, most effective product, program or service
developed?
The marketing process assists organizations in making the right
decisions because it takes them through a series of smaller decisions and
information gathering processes that assist in reaching bigger decisions.
By following a marketing approach, the “what to do” part (strategies,
programs, products and services) “fall out” of the process. Solutions
don’t have to be pulled out of thin air. A marketing approach takes out
the guesswork. It leads to the most effective decisions and the
development of the most appropriate programs, products and services.
Within the context of fish and wildlife management, marketing is the
deliberate and orderly step-by-step process of first defining what it is -exactly -- that is trying to be achieved; understanding and defining
different groups of constituents (markets) through research; and then
tailoring programs, products and services to meet those needs through
the manipulation of the marketing mix -- product, price, place and
promotion. The purpose of marketing in a fish and wildlife organization
and agency is to both better meet the goals of the organization and to
better meet the needs of its constituents, in order to provide them with
quality programs, products and services.
There are five important points about marketing inherent in this
definition. First, and perhaps most importantly, although marketing is
customer driven, it is always within the context of the organization’s
mission statement and goals. Within the context of fish and wildlife
management, it should be understood that marketing is always within the
constraints of resource protection and ethical human behavior toward the
resource. Marketing is not, and should not, be viewed as “giving
constituents what they want” regardless of the ramifications on the
resource.
This is why the marketing process begins with the
organization’s mission statement as well as its objectives. Second, there
is the inherent understanding within this definition of marketing that
assumes that different groups of Americans (publics) require different
programs, products and services. Clearly, fly fishermen have different
needs than cane pole anglers. Highly specialized birders perceive
wildlife differently than those viewing wildlife for the first time.
Research bears this out. Throughout this book there are numerous
examples of the diversity of opinions on and attitudes toward the wildlife
resource as well as the varying rates of participation in wildlife-related
recreation among the American public.
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Wildlife and the American Mind
Third, this definition in no way implies that marketing always means
“doing more of something” or “getting more people to do something.”
The marketing process is simply an effective systematic planning process
that assists in achieving the goals and objectives as defined by the
organization. For example, marketing can be used to decrease certain
types of behavior, such as unethical wildlife viewing practices; wildlife
viewers who get too close to wildlife. Through marketing, an
organization can develop a more effective outreach program by first
understanding why certain wildlife watchers get too close to wildlife, and
second, tailoring programs to this market’s needs through the marketing
mix. Consider the use of marketing to assist an agency in better
managing anglers. Marketing could be used to A) increase the number
of total anglers; B) provide a higher quality fishing experience; and C)
protect the aquatic resource; all at the same time. In most cases,
overcrowding among anglers is isolated geographically and temporally;
that is, overcrowding usually occurs only in a few of the best fishing
spots at certain times of the day, or certain days of the week. Marketing
can be used to better manage demand through the manipulation of the
marketing mix -- product, price, place and promotion. For example,
demand could be managed by making the fishing at the more popular
lakes more expensive at peak times (price manipulation), making less
popular lakes less expensive (another manipulation of price), developing
alternative fishing areas (product and place manipulation) or by
emphasizing other alternative fishing spots or species (promotion
manipulation). The point is that the marketing process can and should be
used not only as a tool to enhance constituent and customer satisfaction,
but also as a conservation and management tool. The science of
marketing is in no way antithetical to fish and wildlife conservation goals
and objectives, but can and should be used as a means of conserving
America’s fish and wildlife resource.
Fourth, this definition of marketing should be used as a structure for
and process in decision making in a variety of contexts; from spreading
out the demand on the fishery resource to allocating the antlered deer
resource to different markets of hunters, such as bowhunters,
muzzleloader hunters and modern firearms hunters. Marketing is simply
a process, and the process and structure are extremely flexible.
Finally, marketing is sometimes viewed as synonymous with
promotion. However, promotion is only a small part of the entire
marketing process, and comes at the end of the process. This is because
many different decisions need to be made before one gets to decisions
about promotion: What is it that is trying to be achieved? Who is this
trying to be achieved with? And specifically, what is the product (or
program or service), price and place that has been developed to meet this
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market’s needs? In this context, promotion simply becomes informative
and educates a specific market that you have a program, product or
service that meets their needs.
The Basic Marketing Tasks
Demand State
Marketing Task
Formal Name
1. Negative demand
Reverse demand
Conversional marketing
2. No demand
Create demand
Stimulational marketing
3. Latent demand
Develop demand
Developmental marketing
4. Faltering demand
Revitalize demand
Remarketing
5. Irregular demand
Synchronize demand
Synchromarketing
6. Full demand
Maintain demand
Maintenance marketing
7. Overfull demand
Reduce demand
Demarketing
8. Unwholesome demand
Destroy demand
Countermarketing
(Kotler 1980)
Questions and Answers about Marketing
Marketing is a fairly new concept to many fish and wildlife
managers; thus there are many questions about the use of marketing
within fish and wildlife organizations and agencies. For example, one
commonly asked question is “Should fish and wildlife organizations and
agencies market?” The answer is yes. More precisely, fish and wildlife
agencies should take a marketing approach when interacting with the
public. Another commonly asked question is “Should agencies meet
wildlife recreation demand or create demand?” It seems that agencies
should both meet demand and create demand. It is in the best interest of
the fish and wildlife profession to have many active users (consumptive
and nonconsumptive). Active users are active constituents. In the past,
fish and wildlife’s most active constituents have been fish and wildlife’s
most active users -- anglers and hunters. In the future, fish and wildlife’s
most active constituents will be the nonconsumptive user in addition to
hunters and anglers. As Cheryl Riley notes, “Reverence and respect are
hard to teach...we cannot expect the voters of tomorrow to support
conservation measures if they are not active users of our natural
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Wildlife and the American Mind
resources” (Riley 1985).
Research indicates that children who participate in wildlife-related
activities know more about wildlife, appreciate wildlife more, are less
fearful of wild animals, and exhibit less anthropomorphic tendencies
toward wildlife than children who do not participate in hunting, fishing
or wildlife watching (Duda 1987). Future active constituents of fish and
wildlife management will be the active users. They will not be the
television watchers of today. The fear that promoting fish and wildlife
use will place undue stress on the resource has little merit. Professional
wildlife managers can mitigate potential conflicts through creative and
intelligent wildlife and people management through the use of the
marketing process. The benefits of creating active users clearly
outweigh any potential disadvantages.
Some critics of marketing in fisheries and wildlife agencies claim
that marketing and promotion are the realm of private industry; that
public agencies and nonprofit organizations have no right engaging in
these activities. However, public agencies have a long history of
marketing and promoting a variety of activities and products. The State
of Florida actively markets and promotes tourism, the consumption of
Florida seafood, and park visitation, to name a few. The State of
Virginia actively markets and promotes Virginia’s history as a tourist
destination and the State of California actively markets its wine industry.
Another commonly heard comment is that “Marketing costs too
much; the money should be spent on more tangible programs... Agencies
have more important activities to spend money on.” Financial planners
are quick to point out when investing, “It’s not what it costs, it’s what it
pays.” Relatively small amounts of money invested in marketing can
reap relatively large amounts of money by increasing political and public
support for programs, increasing donations to nongame programs, and
increasing hunting and fishing license sales. Additionally, utilizing a
marketing approach can make more efficient use of funds that are
available. Money spent on ill-conceived public programs is money
wasted.
It has also been stated that “Market research is often unreliable;
people say one thing, then do another.” Market research, usually in the
form of a public survey, is a profile of public opinion and attitudes at one
point in time. And public opinion changes. Fish and wildlife
organizations and agencies that conduct surveys and do little follow-up
are setting themselves up for a fall. For example, an agency that finds
out the public would support a referendum for a one-eighth of one
percent sales tax increase and decides to pursue this course for additional
funding needs to track public opinion vigilantly until the day of the vote.
The initiation of such an effort would need to be followed by a carefully
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designed and implemented marketing and public relations plan. Public
opinion on voting day would be different from public opinion the day of
the initial poll. The media, and proponents and opponents of the
referendum, would mold public opinion and voting behavior from
something very different than was identified initially.
It has been stated that “Public opinion should not dictate policy.”
Engaging in marketing and public opinion surveying does not mean fish
and wildlife organizations and agencies should let public opinion dictate
fish and wildlife policy. For example, market research may reveal that
public attitudes on issues are quite different from agency attitudes. If
public attitudes are detrimental to the resource, the agency now has
baseline data upon which to base educational and public relations efforts.
The survey research will allow the organization to base education and
public relations efforts on a solid foundation of fact. If survey research
reveals that public attitudes toward an issue are different from current
regulations or policies, and public attitudes and desires are within the
boundary of resource protection, policy and regulation changes could be
initiated as positive public relations, as well as managers’ duty as public
servants.
Marketing denotes a product, program or service can’t be all things
to all people. Yet government agencies were set up to serve all people.
On face value, there is an inherent dilemma with public agency
marketing. This argument holds a grain of truth in a perfect, theoretical
world. However, government agencies have always had to choose
among projects with various levels of benefits to different groups. It is a
fact that with limited resources, agencies must pick and choose
programs, products and services. Agencies can’t do all things; they also
can’t be all things to all people. Good planning coupled with a
marketing approach compels agencies to choose highest priority projects
and to choose target groups. Marketing will make the limited dollars for
limited projects more effective by using a rifle approach instead of a
shotgun approach.
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Wildlife and the American Mind
THE MARKETING PROCESS
Situation Assessment (Where Are You Now?)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Mission Statement
Goals
Business Identification
Identify Publics
Choose Publics
Choose Markets
Current Conditions
 Opportunities / Threats
 Strengths / Weaknesses
 Trends and Trend Identification
• Marketing Objectives (Where Do You Want to Be?)
Marketing Strategy (How Will You Get There?)
• Market Segmentation
• Understand Market Segments through Research
 Awareness to Action/Attitudes/Public Opinion
 Demographics / Life Styles / User Groups
• Marketing Mix
 Product / Service
 Price
 Place / Placement
 Promotion
Strategies and Implementation
Field Testing and Evaluation (Did You Get There?)
Customer Service
The Marketing Process
Successful marketing begins with the development of a quality
marketing plan. A marketing plan spells out the goals, strategies, and
tactics that will be used in reaching the organization’s objectives. The
marketing process follows the standard format for good planning. It
asks: 1. Where are we now? (This is a situation assessment); 2. Where do
we want to be? (This means developing precise objectives); 3. How will
we get there? (Marketing strategies); and 4. Did we get there?
(Evaluation).
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Situation Assessment (Where are we now?)
A situation assessment makes the organization take a careful look at
where it is now. Here are the elements of the situation assessment:
Mission Statement
Every organization and agency should have a mission statement. If
it doesn’t, it should. Mission statements let people know why the
organization exists and what it is trying to achieve. Everyone in the
organization should be familiar with the mission statement and it should
be posted throughout the organization’s building(s). Everything that
follows in the marketing plan is based directly on the mission statement
of the organization.
Goals
Goals define the management philosophies within which objectives
are pursued (Crowe 1983). Goals are broad and lofty statements about
the desired program outcome. For example, the goal of an organization
that wants to increase the number of anglers might be to “Increase the
number of newly recruited anglers nationwide.” The goal of a raptor
education program may be: “To inform and educate the public about
raptors.” Anything more specific will come in the objective-setting
portion of the marketing plan. Committing goals to paper becomes more
important as one gets further into the marketing plan.
Business Identification
What exactly is one’s business? It’s such a basic question, it often
gets overlooked. In the past, however, organizations that did not fully
understand the business they were in have suffered severe consequences.
Theodore Levitt, in a landmark article in Harvard Business Review
(1965) pointed out that market definitions of a business are superior to
product definitions of a business. He stated that products and
technologies are transient, while basic market needs generally endure
forever. Products, services and programs are transient; but basic market
needs endure. A business should be defined based on a market need and
not on a product that serves that need. For example, people will always
enjoy listening to music. This desire is a market need. A product, such
as a record or a CD, is the result of how that market need is filled.
Several years ago, record companies that focused in solely on how to
make a better record were immediately outcompeted by companies that
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Wildlife and the American Mind
developed CDs. When thinking strategically, focus on market needs, not
on products.
Identify Publics
There is no such thing as a general public. Research throughout this
book indicates that how people relate to fish, wildlife and natural
resources is affected by a variety of factors--their age, race, gender,
income, level of education, and a variety of other variables. A list of
one’s publics is important and helpful in identifying one’s place in a
particular market.
Choose Publics
A commonly heard phrase in marketing is that “You can’t be all
things to all people.” Marketing means making choices and making
choices means deciding specifically what groups will be targeted. At this
juncture, choices are made as to whom to target. Once a public is
targeted, it becomes a market. This is, of course, easier said than done.
Here’s why. In most cases, it’s fairly easy to choose a market, until one
realizes all of the other potential markets that are getting “left behind.”
But an important premise of marketing is that a program, product or
service can’t be all things to all people. But this is why the marketing
process is so powerful. All the decisions that follow in a marketing plan
are based on the selection of this market. In fishing promotion, for
example, it’s clear that efforts to introduce fishing to America’s youth
are different from efforts to promote fishing to senior citizens. Different
markets require different strategies. It’s alright to choose more than one
market to focus on, but it’s important to keep in mind each group may
require different strategies.
Current Conditions
This trend-identification portion of the marketing process allows an
organization to become proactive rather than reactive.
Current
conditions can be assessed by stating opportunities and threats -- an
organization’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, an important
trend in hunting participation has been the increase in the percentage of
women who hunt.
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Marketing Objectives (Where do you want to be?)
Once a business identifies where it is, the next step is to decide
where it wants to be. Objectives are directed toward the accomplishment
of goals and are specific and measurable statements of what, when and
how much will be achieved (Crowe 1983). It is important to note where
this objective setting is placed in the marketing process: at the end of the
situation assessment. This is because realistic objectives can’t be set
until there is a thorough understanding of where one is presently. Many
programs and initiatives fail from the start because objectives are not
agreed upon and written down by those involved. Perhaps the best
example of obtuse objectives occurs when it comes to “informing and
educating” a market about fish and wildlife. Informing and educating a
target market is a laudable goal, but not a laudable objective. In the
objective portion of the marketing process, “informing and educating”
the public needs to be refined to something more specific, such as
increasing factual knowledge, increasing concern, altering opinions,
changing attitudes or altering behavior.
If the objectives are not defined at this point, the process will break
down. For example, consider a plan that wants to increase the number of
anglers. Though those involved may agree that this is an important goal,
it needs to be refined further as an objective. This is because there are
multiple ways of going about increasing the number of anglers. One way
would be to recruit people who have never fished before. Another way
would be to get back the people who dropped out. Another way would
be to start by retaining current anglers. All of these could be objectives,
but a point in every direction is no point at all. The key is to decide what
exactly is going to be done and then develop an objective that
communicates it.
Additionally, by writing down objectives, an
organization is compelled to talk about these types of issues before the
implementation phase, not after strategies have been implemented.
Overall, taking the time to complete a situation assessment is
extremely valuable. After all, if an organization does not know where it
is or where it wants to be, how will it get there?
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Wildlife and the American Mind
Marketing Strategy (How will you get there?)
At this point, the plan has identified where the organization is, and
where it wants to be. The “marketing strategy” section of the marketing
plan identifies how it will get there.
Market Segmentation
First the market should be segmented. Markets have already been
chosen; this section of the marketing plan identifies the specific market
segment. Who are they -- exactly? There is no such thing as a general
public. There is also no such thing as a general hunter, angler or wildlife
watcher. There are many distinct types of anglers: anglers who fish for
the challenge, for relaxation, to be with friends and family, to catch fresh
fish or to catch large fish. There are senior citizens and youth. There are
fly fishermen and bait fishermen. There are many types of hunters: bow
hunters, muzzleloader hunters and modern firearm hunters, hunters who
hunt twenty times a year and hunters who hunt once every other year.
Some wildlife watchers are interested only in watching wildlife around
their homes while others take long extended trips to view certain species.
These recreationists have different motivations for participating, and
seek different experiences and rewards. Research and trend data indicate
that distinct groups of recreationists exist within the generic categories of
“hunter,” “angler” or “nonconsumptive” viewer.
Additionally, what are the demographics of the market segment?
What do they want and what do they need? What are their attitudes and
opinions about the product, program or service? Social science and
market research is the key to better understanding these markets. There
are numerous ways of better understanding these markets, including
focus group research and opinion and attitude surveys.
Marketing Mix
Once a market has been identified, a program, product or service is
tailored to the specific market. Marketing mix -- product, price, place
and promotion -- is the set of controllable variables that are used to tailor
the program, product or service to the target market.
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13
Product
Product is the most important element in this mix. A product or
service is what the organization offers the market--from watchable
wildlife to game to information on wildlife and habitats. It is important
to recognize that an organization has many product lines.
A
muzzleloader hunting season is a different product than a modern gun
season; fishing with a bobber in a city park is a completely different
product than fishing with a fly rod on a remote wilderness stream. These
are different product lines and should be managed as such. The key to
success is matching the product to the market.
It is also important to differentiate between a product’s features and a
product’s benefits. A feature is the makeup of the product or service; a
benefit is what the constituent or customer receives. Focus on the
benefits of the product, not the features; sell the sizzle, not the steak. For
most people, the drill is not as important as the hole it makes. Identify
the most important benefits the product has to the market and
communicate those benefits.
Price
Price is another variable in the marketing mix. Although viewed as
less important for public agencies than private businesses, price issues
can have profound effects on fish and wildlife agencies. Miscalculated
and mismarketed license fee increases can result in the loss of both
revenue and constituents.
Price can be manipulated in a variety of ways, the most obvious is
the actual cost. What does the product cost? Does it cost the same to
fish on a lake or stream during the week as on the weekend? Does it cost
the same to buy a fishing license and fish once or twice a year as it does
to fish one hundred or more times a year? Price is an excellent way to
tailor the overall product to a market to achieve an organization's
objective. Using the example given in the introduction, if there is a
crowded lake on weekends, but not crowded during the week, price
could be used to better balance crowding; the manipulation of price can
be used to better balance demand. Manipulating price to manipulate
demand by airlines is a good example. If a traveler stays over on a
Saturday night, the ticket is less expensive. Why? Because most travel
is business and peak business travel is Monday through Friday. To offset
this, airlines offer cheaper tickets with a Saturday night stay, thereby
promoting Saturday and Sunday travel.
There are many other ways price can be manipulated. For example,
can a product be purchased with a credit card or only with cash?
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Wildlife and the American Mind
Accepting or not accepting credit cards is another important
manipulation of price. There are many others to consider as well, such
as sales, discounts, and layaways.
Place
Place refers to the physical location where the product or service is
offered. Are licenses sold only at bait and tackle shops? Does this affect
demand and sales? Are birdwatching areas located near large urban
centers or are they located far from an individual’s residence? How
about public meetings? Are they located in areas that are easy to get to?
Identify where the product is located (or promoted or “sold”) and ask
if it meets the needs of the target market. Hours of operation is a “place”
variable. For example, are nature centers open only from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m.? If they are, what market are they catering to? Senior citizens?
People who work at night? A conscious decision regarding these
variables are crucial to a product’s, program's or service’s success.
Promotion
The fourth “P,” promotion, is the final aspect of the marketing mix.
The promotion mix includes magazines, newspapers, brochures, direct
contacts, and television coverage.
Promotion options are nearly limitless and it is vital to keep in mind
the target market. At this point in the marketing process, the market -who they are, what they want, and their opinions, attitudes and values
have been identified. A product, program or service has been developed
and tailored that precisely fits their needs. The benefits of the product,
program or service have been identified. Because of this, the medium
most likely to reach the target market can be selected effectively. Ads
targeted at children are rarely seen on CNN; ads targeted at adults are
rarely seen on Nickelodeon.
When developing promotional materials, keep in mind the difference
between the tools of promotion and the goals of promotion. Just because
an agency has developed full-color advertisements, radio ads or a World
Wide Web site does not automatically mean it has increased knowledge
levels, changed attitudes, or increased participation. Real success should
be measured in quantified attitude changes, total sales, increased
awareness and knowledge levels and real increases in fishing, hunting
and wildlife viewing participation. The objective is not to develop
advertisements or brochures, but to foster awareness, change attitudes or
increase factual knowledge. Again, it is important to separate the means
and the ends of programs, products and services.
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Strategies and Implementation
By developing a marketing plan, an amazing thing happens.
Program, product and service strategies, the “what should be done” part,
emerges naturally from the process. This is because important decisions
have been made during the marketing process, such as what the goals
and objectives are, and who the target markets include. By proceeding
through the marketing process in an orderly, step-by-step process, the
organization has moved through a process of wise decision making. The
organization has thought out what it is it wants to do and has committed
it to writing. Yes, developing a marketing plan takes time, but it is well
worth it. It’s not what it costs; it’s what it pays.
Field Testing and Evaluation
One reason fish and wildlife managers monitor fish and wildlife
populations is to evaluate the effectiveness of different management
techniques. Programs that involve the human element should also be
evaluated.
As fundamental and basic as evaluation is, it is often overlooked or
not given the importance it deserves. Evaluation, however, is one of the
most important components of the marketing process because it will
answer the fundamental question, “Did the program, product or service
work?” Evaluation should be based on the goals and objectives initially
set.
Perhaps one of the most important aspects of evaluation is how it is
perceived by organization personnel. Evaluation should not be seen as
threatening, and should not focus solely on whether it was a “success” or
“failure,” but how the program, product or service can be made better in
order to not waste scarce resources. The marketing process is
continuous and organizations should learn, and improve, from their
efforts.
One should expect that all efforts won’t work. However, as Peters
and Waterman (1982) noted in their book about excellent companies:
A special attribute of the success-oriented, positive and
innovating environment is a substantial tolerance for
failure...You need the ability to fail. You cannot innovate unless
you are willing to accept mistakes. Tolerance for failure is a
very specific part of the excellent company culture -- and that
lesson comes directly from the top. [Companies] have to make
lots of tries and consequently suffer some failures or the
organization won’t learn.