Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e
Back Matter Video Cases © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002Video Cases 705overseas travel and adventure exist, the international link is
still being developed and is not nearly as strong as the link be-
tween GSUSA and the local councils.
As is true for many nonprofit organizations, the Girl
Scouts organization operates on two levels. At the corporate
or headquarters level is Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., located in
New York. A board of directors, a national president, and a
national executive director run GSUSA. From these offices,
plans are made for the national parent and for the local coun-
cils. These local councils may be thought of as strategic
business units (SBUs) for the Girl Scouts. Over 300 local
councils serve to direct the activities of the more than
226,000 troops in the United States and overseas. A local
board of directors and an executive director manages each of
these local councils. To become a part of GSUSA, each of
these local councils must go through a type of accreditation
review by the national organization. Every four years each
council is reviewed, and if it continues to meet the estab-
lished criteria, it will be rechartered. This chartering process
provides GSUSA with a strong weapon to maintain some
level of consistency for the strategies and actions of the mem-
ber Girl Scout councils.
Strategic marketing planning clearly is necessary to run
such a large organization. GSUSA does extensive corporate-
level planning and also provides the local councils with
assistance for their own formulation and execution of plans.
Strategic marketing planning at the corporate level is the re-
sponsibility of the president and the board, with input from
board committees, board task groups, community leaders, and
community groups. Four steps are involved. The first step is a
SWOT analysis, a review of internal strengths and external
trends. This includes using the database maintained by
GSUSA that details membership, program attendance, finan-
cial and development data, and similar benchmarks. The study
of external trends results in the Environmental Scanning Report,
which uses social, economic, political, and technological data
from a variety of sources. This document is then made avail-
able to corporate- and council-level planners. One result of
this SWOT analysis is the identification of a set of critical is-
sues facing GSUSA. These issues are then used in the second
step: to develop corporate goals covering a six-year period.
These goals are reviewed at the midpoint of the planning pe-
riod. In the third step, the group develops strategic guidelines,
strategies, and long-range projects. Finally, the group develops
long-range resource strategies that are needed to support the
projects identified in the third step.
Staff and volunteers involved in implementing the strate-
gic plans are responsible for the development of one-year plans
(tactical planning). At this fourth step, priorities are estab-
lished; specific operational goals are set; action plans are
developed, including decisions about who, how, what, and
when; and the operational budget is determined.
The completed corporate plan shapes all efforts and pro-
grams at the national level. However, local planners can
exercise some discretion in planning for their markets. To
accomplish local planning, some councils hold planning
retreats with local board and community experts; some hold
planning sessions for just staff; and some limit the efforts to
a committee of the board. Whatever the process, the council
board develops a set of five-year goals that it reviewsannually. While these usually mirror national goals, each
local council has the opportunity to change priorities or to
add other goals peculiar to their local efforts. Using these
goals, the staff develops proposals for specific objectives and
action steps for board approval. These approved objectives
and action steps form the basis for the local council’s annual
operating plan.
During the year, results are measured, compared to objec-
tives, and subjected to corrective actions. Also during the year,
the staff has the opportunity to reevaluate the goals that have
been set by the board for the coming year and may provide sug-
gestions to the board. The board then meets again early in the
following year to plan for that year and to add goals for the
fifth year in the current plan. Thus, the local council board al-
ways has a plan that looks five years ahead.
Marketing plans and efforts must be directed at three dis-
tinct groups. First, plans must be developed for recruiting
and marketing efforts directed to the target market for
Scouting: girls and their families. In addition, marketing
plans also must target volunteers. Scouting could not func-
tion nearly as effectively without its giant network of
volunteers, both at the local and national levels. There are
over 880,000 adult members of Girl Scouting and most all of
them are volunteers. Many of these volunteers were in-
volved in scouting when they were young. Others are
parents of current scouts.
Finally, the community at large represents an important
stakeholder group. This group includes donors, both corporate
and individual, who provide financial and other resources;
schools and school counselors; church organizations and the
like. During the SWOT analysis, all three groups are studied,
and this provides input for recruitment plans and for the on-
going marketing efforts.
Quite clearly, young girls in the target demographic are the
most important marketing target. Marketing efforts aimed at
this group include recruitment efforts as well as retention
efforts (keeping existing Scouts delighted with their experi-
ences).
Plans of both types must consider the competition faced by
Girl Scouting. All organizations face competition of various
sorts, but Girl Scouts planners face an unusual situation. Es-
sentially, the competition for Scouting is other activities that
compete for a girl’s time. This includes school clubs and other
school-related activities; sports; private lessons such as piano,
ballet, and music; church; and other social activities, includ-
ing dating boys. However, the thinking about competition at
Girl Scouts is different. Girl Scouting does not attempt to de-
feat the competition. Instead, Scouting embraces many of
these competing activities and offers them as part of their
product mix. If it finds that a certain activity is becoming
more important to young girls, then Scouting looks at the
possibility of incorporating that activity into its product mix
of activities.
As girls mature, this kind of competition grows more in-
tense. Older girls have more choices, making retention in
these categories more difficult. As a result, there has been a
growing concern that the programs and offerings of Girl
Scouting, especially in the older age categories, is not suffi-
ciently contemporary. Retention of these older girls is a
problem. For instance, analysis of the U.S. membership shows