Jay Lipe, the blogger behind Smart Marketing, has just confirmed the power of peer pressure in a recent post titled “Peer pressure: A strong marketing motivator” where he recalled his experience with a very clever fundraising piece: a Printer’s Proof of donors to his MBA class at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Stenciled across this newspaper formatted document are the words “Proof”, and the sentences “Is your name not listed and you would like it to be? It is not too late!” are found in the mouse type further down page 1.
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All in all, this is a very effective opt-in approach for a marketing effort. The subtle strands of peer pressure work their way into my brain. I end up thinking to myself thoughts like “Hmmm, Steve Johnson gave and I know he’s looking a job” or “Alice Needham gave? I thought she was in the Peace Corps.” For me there’s no greater motivational force than peer pressure.
Guess I’ll have to dust off that checkbook and do like Steve and Alice.”
It might be a good idea to share this post with your favorite person in the Annual Fund Office.
You’re not the only one who’s trying to back up all your initiatives with external data. Lipe’s blog post makes a great real-life example to back up the peer-pressure approach.
An interesting alumni giving strategy my alma mater used involved sending an assemble-it-yourself cardboard box for collecting money. They then had a “counting day” on campus. It served as a physical reminder to give, and if you lived far away it added to the pressure to mail a check.