New and used Jaguars contain a coupon in their Passport to Service booklet, that when mailed to me, elicits a letter, a JCNA brochure, and instructions as to how to join JCNA. If they include $5.00, they are entered in the system and receive one Jaguar Journal about 3 months later.
In 2003, 900 inquiries were processed costing $500.00 in postage and supplies, and consumed 90 hours of my time. In that period, only one membership chair reported back that (2) new members joined resulting from this expenditure of resources.
Conclusion:
1. As a membership program, this program is ineffective as structured.
2. Waiting 3 months for their Journal, causes loss of interest in JCNA.
Recommendation:
1.Change the Passport coupon, directing any membership information inquiries to jcna.com.
2. Retain the option of allowing the $5.00 purchase of the Journal.
3. Eliminate the 3 month wait by allowing me to make and send a monthly set of mailing labels to Nelson, who in turn, will mail the inquirer a Journal from our supply of extras.
Respectfully, Sue Hagopian
Submitted by pascal@jcna.com on Wed, 02/25/2004 - 10:40
Submitted by SE12-31380CJ on Sun, 02/22/2004 - 20:53
Re.:
Sue- Don't be so hard on your efforts, and I agree with Steve about more effective 'outreach mechanisms'.
At each of our supportive dealerships, we have at least one member of the sales and tech teams that we've enticed to become active club members. We have also gained several new members from purchases of new and 'previously-enjoyed' Jaguars. That said, we also have club members who have purchased new Jaguars, who because they are already NCJOC/JCNA members probably don't show up on your rosters. So these 'members' may not show up on your count.
I do think its important for each club to develop relationships with dealerships (who are willing) to foster the Marque in mutual interests.
There is another new dealership in our area that we approached and they also have expressed interest in supporting our club with tech sessions in their bays - when their new facility is completed.
I will keep the 'Passport to Service' program in mind as we continue dialogue.
Sherman D. Taffel, Pres.
Columbia, MD
NCJOC
'72 E Type Ser III Coupe
'76 XJ12C
'89 XJS Convert
'96 XJR
Submitted by jturk@westol.com on Sun, 02/22/2004 - 01:19
Re.:
Hi Sue,
I think your proposals are sound, although perhaps you are being harder than neccessary on the current arrangement. I would guess that more memberships are resulting from the mailings, but the tracking system is not efficient. You might compare the overall membership numbers from before the program was instituted to after. If there is a notable increase, you might reconsider how effective the program really is.
Jack Terrick
Jaguar Club of Pittsburgh
Submitted by NE52-32043 on Mon, 02/16/2004 - 15:42
Re.:
Sue,
I think that JCNA is missing out on a major source of new members -- new and used car purchasers at Jaguar dealerships all over North America. I know from my own experience in buying cars, I never took the time to read all the of literature that came in the glove box. Most especially, I didn't pay attention to "coupons" in the manuals.
JCNA needs to find a more effective way of communicating with new Jaguar owners. Perhaps some inovative marketing person out there can come up with a better way of getting information out there and making new owners aware that we exist -- on both a national and local basis. While I'm sure that most buyers aren't interested in a "club", there must be some who are. We need them to know what JCNA and its affiliates offer -- concours, rallies, slaloms, tours, parties, outings, fun, etc.
As a club, I think we should make it a priority to seriously look at better ways to get our message out there to this important target audience.
Steve Weinstein, JTC-NJ
Sue
how many send in the coupon with and without the $ 5 for the journal.
why the 3 months wait? if they pay the $5 they should receive it right away... 3 months means the club in not active and not really interested in their membership.
900 inquiries is a fairly high number, are you sure the membership report is accurate? it would be very interesting to actually look in the roster to see if there are more. If you have a list of names and city, maybe Nelson can look it up in the roster.
Pascal Gademer
South Florida Jaguar Club