Marketing has been described as ‘the science of creating a desire in potential and existing customers for the products and services that an organisation supplies’. This is equally true whether your customers are general consumers or other businesses.
However, for a trade association like BASDA (Business & Accounting Software Developers Association), there is an added dimension. One of the main services we offer our members mainly SMEs developing and supplying business software to other organisations is a marketing resource which many of them cannot generate for themselves. So, marketing them and the issues which concern them is the only effective way for us to market ourselves.
We do this in a variety of ways: providing marketing information, government lobbying and major PR campaigns to highlight issues which impacts on members and their customers. BASDA’s activities are promoted on its website (www.basda.org) which produces information on all of the associations activities and publications as well as listing details of all the members’ products, services, accreditations and news stories.
The BASDA Marketing Group enables members to pool resources and their marketing teams to share expertise and experiences. For a small start-up supplier of a specialist business application it is invaluable to have an opportunity to talk to and maybe learn from the marketing teams of world class suppliers like Microsoft, Sage or SAP.
We can invite speakers who are happy to have an opportunity to pass on information to groups of companies. Recent speakers have included Colin Lloyd, chairman of the Telephone Preference Service and Joel Harrison, editor of B2B Marketing.
With some 250 members, who between them represent some 90 per cent of the industry, we carry out regular surveys which identify the media that produces the best responses in advertising and PR. We recommend the most successful exhibitions and we influence the attitudes and development of the media.
However, perhaps BASDA’s most important role is to highlight the issues which impact on our members customers. Over the years we have spearheaded a number of media campaigns which have drawn attention to particular issues. From the crazy scheme that would have required every accounting software developer to invest tens of thousands of pounds to achieve a British Standard Kitemark (which meant nothing to our overseas customers), to the introduction of the new VAT scheme which came into effect in 1994 where every regional VAT office in the UK was issuing different instructions.
BASDA’s most successful campaign ever was its work surrounding the introduction of the euro. We began work in 1997 by approaching the Bank of England and the Treasury to ask for advice, to find that no-one in government was aware that this might be an issue for financial software developers. We developed what was to become one of the definitive white papers on how to prepare a business for the changeover.
During 2004, we were able to establish that the two biggest issues for businesses were the introduction of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the ever-growing government red tape, particularly in the shape of the imposition of compulsory electronic transmissions to government departments.
A BASDA IFRS white paper supported by seminars and articles is already in place. Initially, the information will only be required by listed companies but, in time, more medium sized organisations will need to understand the requirements and members will have an opportunity to reproduce the text of the document under their own logos for their customers. This is another example of how joint marketing within a trade association can benefit the smaller members who would never have the resources to produce their own white papers on such a complex subject.
BASDA’s ‘Red Tape’ campaign took advantage of a very high profile issue which is causing serious concern to our members’ customers. The campaign drew attention to the need for users to keep their software up-to-date and also helped to promote another booklet published by BASDA Upgrading, Why, When and How also available as a piece of PR/marketing collateral for members to use.
