How do we Market EuRA?

Helmut Berg - Chair of the EuRA
Marketing Committee and
CEO of RSB Deutschland

  We all are aware about marketing as a notion.  We are pretty certain, that corporations of the calibre of GE, Daimler Chrysler, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Mitsubishi etc. do have very powerful marketing departments.  If asked what “Marketing” means, most people assume that it is advertising, some say it is Public Relations.    

Well, advertising is not a wrong assumption, since it can be a major part of marketing as PR can be.  But marketing is much more than advertising and PR.  And marketing is not only a major activity in corporations.  Every organisation – even every individual - has a marketing strategy – may it be consciously or unconsciously.    

Marketing is the craft of linking the producers of a product or service with customers, both existing or potential.  In short it can best be described with the 4 “P’s”:  Product, Pricing, Promotion and Place.     So, does Marketing apply for EuRA as well?  Yes it does. 


  • EuRA is a “Product”.  It offers features and benefits, it has certain qualities, it has a profile.  It has external and internal customers, existing and potential.  We need todecide what we want to offer them.
  • Like  any other producer or service provider EuRA has to think about Pricing, e.g. what fee is attractive to the ‘client’ and is covering the costs at  the same time.  In addition we have to think about further sources of income.
  • Promotionincludes advertising, publicity (PR), word of mouth and personal  selling.  It refers to the various methods of promoting a product, brand or company.  For EuRA this can be – but is not limited to – the website, the newsletter (or both)  PR, the corporate identity (and the protection of it),  identification by members, stationary and other promotional means.
  • The Place of distribution refers to how the product gets to the customer, for example, point of sale placement or retailing.  For EuRA distribution can be done mainly via the internet, trade papers, exhibitions and personal contacts.
The Marketing strategy is part of an even bigger plan, the Business plan, displaying the company strategy which includes other areas such as finance and HR as well.    

Such plans – and that includes the marketing plans – do have all the same structure:   1. Target   2. Strategy   3.  Tactics   4. Activities   5. Budget.    

Let me give an example: The target could be to become the market leader in Europe for language training.  The strategy is to reach this target by performing superior quality asking for comparably high (and profitable) fees.  The tactic is to use only highly qualified trainers and make no compromises in this field.  The activities are the training as such.  And the budget will allow to promote the activities.  This description is very short.  It would need more explanation which is not possible in this article – may be in a later edition.    

The most important activities in the marketing for EuRA are:   

  • Market research.  We ask various target groups such as our existing and potential members as well as corporations and transferees.  It is essentially important that we know ourselves and the market and the clients.  Some results of the researches will be used for PR-purposes as well. Internal activities (towards members); some examples;  The EuRApean with information on development in the market and in EuRA (council, committees, personalia) etc.   
  • Website with information about EuRA as well as useful industry and market information, trends, change of practices etc.
  1. –        Web-based forums, open discussions
  2. –        Competitions
  3. –        EARP matters
  4. –        Meetings, AGM, Members Day  <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> 

  • External activities
  1. Website
  2. Public Relations (trade press, etc.)  
  3. Appearance on conferences (speaker, facilitator, booth, etc.)
  4. Offer to Corporations
  5. Round table, dicussion forums 
  • Special Activity - Corporate Membership. We need to talk to and with our clients as the demand group in the relocation market (that includes HR as well as procurement).  They pay our salaries and costs, but do we really know them, their real needs and what they expect from us?  The closer the dialogue the better.

The implementation of a corporate membership will – among others – have the following results for EuRA:  Increase of image, more income, broadening of knowledge base, improvements of services towards members.  EuRA will really become the “spokesman” of the industry. 

Eventually we want to offer:    
–        Benchmarking opportunities 
–        Reports 
–        Research (can be tailor made) 
–        Dialogue 
–        Policy Consulting
–        EARP Seminars 
–        Literature Hints 
–        Library    

So where does the power come from in Marketing?  The power comes from the fact that is it a planned and targeted activity and not a trial and error attempt.  That does not mean that it is all “right” what we are doing and that all activities result in success.  But only if you know where you want to go you realize whether you have reached the target or not.  And to know where you are is the real power of marketing.