132 Relationship Marketing
policy work, especially that with a European Community dimension.We will continue to see pur-
chase of reserves as one of the important ways of protecting sites and habitats and will acquire
land to a level of £2 million per year, and more in exceptional circumstances. It will be important
to collaborate with other conservation organisations where possible to get maximum impact.
International conservation
We will treble our expenditure on international work over the next five years. In particular we
will develop our already substantial work in European conservation and will take on an increas-
ing role in Africa.
Again we are setting, in collaboration with the BirdLife International network of bird conser-
vation organisations, some specific ‘ends’ objectives for safeguarding priority species, habitats and
sites.We will adopt the same framework as in the UK for choosing priorities in the rest of Europe
and Africa and will help support selected BirdLife International priorities elsewhere in the world
as funds permit. We will work as part of BirdLife International, the global network of bird con-
servation organisations, and play a key part in its development.
As we take up a serious position in the global conservation community, we will have to develop
a view on global policy questions such as trade and aid.Other important areas of work
There are similar objectives for all the other important areas covered by the strategy; in human
resources, in infrastructure and accommodation, in information and financial systems.Growth
To achieve all these objectives and meet the growing challenges to birds and conservation, the
RSPB must grow. Our plan is to increase the RSPB’s growth rate so that in six years’ time we will
have increased our spending by over £15 million a year and will be growing at a rate that would
double our income in the five years after that.This is a major increase in our growth rate and will
depend on how quickly the country recovers from recession. However, the current recession
does not invalidate our growth plans. It may simply take us a year or two longer to achieve them.
A detailed marketing strategy is being developed, to increase the membership, to get more help
from each member, and to develop new sources of support.Positioning
The strategy requires the RSPB to be seen as the foremost bird conservation organisation
with expertise and standing in broader nature conservation and environmental policy within
the UK, but increasingly in the rest of the world, especially in the rest of Europe and Africa.
But we know there is a gap between what we do and what the public thinks we do.As we grow,
we must continue to measure the gap and manage it. We must test how much the gap between
perception and reality impacts on our effectiveness in delivering our conservation objectives and
in raising the funds on which they depend. We must manage positively the gap in presenting our
work to the public, in order to decrease it while retaining the support of our loyal membership.
Our position should be ‘mission led but market modulated’.
There is no simple solution to achieving the public positioning that the strategy requires.
But every mail-shot, every conservation policy, every appeal, every edition of Birds magazine, must
contribute to clarifying our position to the membership, the public and other key
audiences.Youth and education
One of the most important groups we seek to influence and inform is young people.We will con-
tinue to implement the already agreed strategies for our educational work, and for our youth
work through the Young Ornithologists’ Club.Figure 2.6.1 (continued)