All membership organisations claim and promote a list, often an entire catalogue, of so-called membership benefits. Some will be true benefits, but many are just features, and some pure “stocking fillers”.
We define benefits as those things (or feelings) that the member perceives as being of personal value to them. It is individual member perceptions of the value of joining and remaining in membership that really matter, not the items in the “catalogue”, or what they might be titled.
Our benchmarking evidence and our day-to-day experience confirms that amongst membership bodies as a whole, benefit take-up is already very low, and showing signs of declining further. It also suggests that the traditional professional body benefit package, based upon peer group recognition, keeping informed, and stock offerings, is becoming less and less attractive.
Increasingly, the basic “what’s in it for me” is the only question of any major significance in the mind of the member, prospective member, or lapsed member considering re-joining.
We establish what members really want and help our clients to develop a fresh, current, and attractive membership value proposition and target each discrete member cohort with relevant benefits that meet their specific needs.