Association Management, Nov 1991 v43 n11 p55(4)
Brokering Partnerships
by Derrick A. Crandall
You and I are deal makers. We act as intermediaries between members and government, the media, and others, bridging differences in terminology and temperament, doctrine and philosophy.
Usually we deal in policy. But as the American Recreation Coalition (ARC), Washington, D.C., and other associations are proving, we can broker tangible products and services as well. Creating relationships between federal agencies and for-profit companies serves the association's public policy agenda and member needs.
The logic of partnerships between government and industry is often strong. In recreation, for example, the private sector provides the products - boats and bikes and bats - but government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels often provide the places for their use, from national parks to municipal golf courses. More than one in three surface acres of the United States is federally managed.
The logic of partnerships applies as well to trade fairs and tariff negotiations or scientific research and development. Associations coordinating public-private partnerships can produce important economic and social benefits.
But before 1988, when a landmark agreement with the U.S. Forest Service broke new ground, public-private partnerships were hamstrung by statutory, philosophic, and operational impediments.
What's in the way?
The low. Park concessioners are obvious candidates for cooperative marketing: They have provided overnight accommodations and food service in national parks for more than 100 years. ARC could produce a dynamite free National Park Service guide if we could sell advertising. But the federal government does not endorse specific products.
Even photos of any federal employee in an agency uniform with an identifiable product brand concern federal ethics officers. Other legal limitations include bans - or near bans - on the use of federal funds for advertising and marketing, prohibition of any advertising materials within the boundaries of federal areas such as parks, and an inability to offer exclusivity to any private partner. Until very recently, we found the term marketing sent bureaucrats running, even if they were responsible for managing hundreds of millions of recreational visits to parks annually.
Conflicting philosophy. Partnerships change functions and roles, which entails risks and uncertainties. Public agency employees are rarely risk takers, in my experience, because their system rarely rewards innovation and invariably punishes failure. Large organizations try to standardize everything with procedures and manuals. For the partner relationship, though, there is no standard procedure. The association, as change agent, encourages bureaucrats to behave more like entrepreneurs.
Operating "I. The greatest impediment, though, has been the lack of common goals. The for-profit world measures success by profit made on goods and services sold. Public agencies have a diverse set of service objectives, ranging from protecting the environment to aiding the economically disadvantaged. A partnership between two entities using different yardsticks to measure success is almost guaranteed to be fractious and susceptible to an early demise.
Associations can find a common language because they understand both mind-sets. Ten years ago I brought together representatives from the Disney Company and the New York State Park Service. With two intelligent, imaginative people in the room, I expected an animated conversation. But they spoke different languages; we had an awkward 15 minutes of stilted, unproductive talk.
Since then, I have taken a more active role translating in these meetings. In recent discussions, for example, a senior national parks official referred to private concessioners' half billion dollars in profit. I pointed out that the figure represents gross sales.
The private sector is also not blameless. It could serve society's needs more assertively - for example, through recycling. In brokering, associations find ways to broaden the private view and sharpen the public focus. We help develop common goals.
Mutual self-interest
Relationships labeled "recreation partnerships" during much of the 1970s and 1980s involved private sector gifts to public entities. Individual national parks compiled gift catalogs' for prospective partners, listing needs from research money to interpretive facilities. The resulting thank-you letter or special treatment accorded a company's executives ignored some wisdom expressed by Norwalk, Connecticut, Mayor William Collins at a 1986 hearing of the President's Commission on Americans Outdoors: "The most successful partnerships involve mutual self-interest, not charity."
Then in 1988, an agreement between the U.S. Forest Service and the Forest Education Foundation (FEF), Anaheim, California, set a new precedent. The Forest Service wanted visibility and financial support for its initiative to designate and improve selected automobile routes as "scenic byways." FEF, which represents and is affiliated with recreation organizations, set out to answer that need by finding a partner in the recreation industry. It courted the Plymouth division of Chrysler Corporation, Highland Park, Michigan. Plymouth sought to be associated with the fun of driving and to reinforce its leadership in the minivan field.
Significantly, FEF's negotiating changed the rules for public-private partnerships. The agreement provided for a major automobile company to take an active, visible part in a public program. The Forest Service symbol has appeared in Plymouth's national advertising, and Forest Service employees regularly appear by a Plymouth vehicle at displays about scenic byways at state fairs, recreation shows, and other public events.
Negotiations took six months. Despite enthusiasm from the leadership of the Forest Service, finalizing details for the partnership proved arduous. FEF President Edward McArthur made numerous trips to Washington, D.C., to meet with Forest Service attorneys and tackle bureaucratic inertia. To clear copy for advertisements and brochures, McArthur created opportunities by not taking no for an answer. Refusal meant coming back with a new twist. The Forest Service said it could not display the Plymouth logo on an official Forest Service sign, for example. Fine, said FEF. How about putting it on a different sign right below?
FEF's brokering role also meant shielding Plymouth executives from some negotiation details - another case of the association acting as interpreter and ambassador between two cultures. Corporate executives are presented with a dozen marketing ideas; when they finally say yes, they expect action right away. The federal government doesn't work that way.
Even so, McArthur says he wishes he "had invested more time shaping the partners' expectations of each other. Each side was too unaware of the very different organizational constraints and philosophies. Tensions about delays in clearing materials and sensitivities about use of certain symbols have arisen," he says. "More than anything else, this successful program continues because we act as a buffer and facilitator, preventing the two partners from being forced to work together too closely."
In its final form, the program extends over three years and is renewable. It includes Plymouth funding for joint exhibits at large consumer shows and fairs; a national contest featuring an automobile and recreation items as prizes; an advertising supplement describing the byways program in Reader's Digest Magazine, an annual cash contribution from Plymouth for scenic byway enhancements; signs noting the Plymouth involvement in the byways program along the routes; and a visible Plymouth-Forest Service linkage in paid advertising, consumer shows, and printed materials.
Another success story
That same year, ARC contracted to find prospective partners for a similar byways program at the Bureau of Land Management. BLM manages the largest block of federal lands - more than 270 million acres - but is restricted to a dozen western states and has little visibility and thus less attraction for companies as a partner.
To find potential partners, ARC looked, market by market, at the advertising budgets of companies focused on the West. Careful analysis identified several large regional and national companies with roots and special interests in the region.
ARC; too, discovered that bridging the interests of private companies and public agencies can prove challenging. Several prospective corporate partners expressed optimism for months but never came through with a commitment. A willing partner in the tobacco industry was ruled out by the federal agency as inappropriate for image reasons.
After six months, ARC finally secured two private sector partners for the BLM program: Farmers Insurance Group of Companies, Los Angeles, and American Isuzu Motors, City of Industry, California. For Farmers Insurance, the attractions were a strong correlation with its prime marketing territories; an outdoors theme linking the environment and its leading product line, automobile and truck insurance; and a mechanism for building good relationships with state government officials, important for a company in a state-regulated industry. Still, ARC made four major presentations and several small ones before the chair signed an agreement.
Isuzu's interest was caught when it learned we were courting Chrysler's jeep Division. Executives saw the program as a showcase for Isuzu's sport and four-wheel-drive vehicles, ideal for scenic but low-standard roads. Like the Forest Service, BLM was attracted to the partnership as a means to provide on-the-ground resources otherwise unavailable in tight budgetary times.
Isuzu, however, wanted an exclusive agreement - no other car companies in the program. The difficulty there is the federal government can't say no; if another car company asked to join the partnership, BLM would probably have to say yes. ARC was able to "disinterest" the other companies we had approached by not encouraging them. The partnership is a de facto exclusive.
The BLM Back Country Byway Program is now off and running. A full-color brochure on the program was incorporated into the Farmers Insurance magazine, mailed to 5 million policyholders, and provided to BLM and state tourism agencies for free distribution. Isuzu has furnished vehicles for several byways dedication events. The two companies sponsored a national design contest for an attractive, low-cost information kiosk and launched installation of the winning design at each of the BLM byways. Farmers will also feature stories on the byways in each issue of its magazine and encourage its network of more than 30,000 employees and agents to become actively involved in adopting local byways.
Lessons learned
The experiences of FEF and ARC underscore the need for careful analysis of prospective partner needs - to flag irreconcilable differences early as well as to identify good opportunities. Inadequate analysis, for example, failed to alert ARC that the regional orientation of BLM would prove unacceptable to the vehicle manufacturer initially approached.
In new partnerships, ARC will also budget more association costs into the deal. Keep the price presented to corporate partners as low as you can, but be honest about the management time and other indirect costs contributed by the association. ARC, for example, recovers some of its expenses in the per-unit cost of BLM's kiosks, and by 2000, when 1,000 structures will have been built, will have saved the government $12 million.
Ambitious partnerships with major corporations are likely to involve public relations and advertising agencies retained by these firms. The agencies can be very helpful to your project management, especially if you make clear that you are sensitive to the overall themes of their campaigns. ARC has been extremely careful to include agency representatives in all high-visibility meetings and to use the agencies as conduits for much of the information flow between partners.
Both FEF and ARC have benefited financially through brokering, and they have increased public visibility for each organization. just as important, the two organizations have used brokering to pursue their fundamental purposes and satisfy member needs.
Whether in the field of recreation or health care, education, transportation, or trade, public-private partnerships can progress beyond public service announcements and charity on the part of corporate America. Dynamic, innovative marketing efforts can be initiated - and association executives can be the brokers who design and manage these very productive partnerships.
Derrick A. Crandall, CAE, is president of the American Recreation Coalition, Washington, D.C.
A Brokering Checklist
1. Start with your proposed public sector partner and a program compatible with your organization's purposes. Understand the legal limitations you face - such as an agency's preclusion from distributing materials with advertising - as well as traditions and attitudes that might make certain companies inappropriate partners.
2. Outline attributes of the agency that are of potential value to corporate partners, from technical expertise to public image to land resources.
3. Conduct a brainstorming session with your staff, key members, and others to identify potential corporate partners. Look for links between activities, products, and services. Sometimes regional identification will suffice - a bank, for example, may welcome the chance to improve its local image.
4. Research your prospect list, seeking out information on each company's products or services, customers and markets, and corporate structure. At the American Recreation Coalition (ARC), Washington, D.C., we look at annual reports, press releases, Moody's business guides, and magazine advertising.
5. Develop a primary prospect list of two to three noncompeting companies. For example, ARC selected an auto company, an insurance company, and a telecommunication firm for the Bureau of Land Management project. We prefer working with nonmember companies; be sure not to play favorites if you make offers to members.
6. Simultaneously prepare an attractive, persuasive, written presentation and a strategy for delivering the proposal to a high-ranking corporate executive. Remember that your proposal is unsolicited so it must sell the concept first, then the specifics of the program. Use board members' corporate connections, or consult colleagues at associations to which your target company belongs. Try to present the proposal to an executive who does more than allocate the advertising or public relations budget.
7. Prepare agreements for all parties to sign - government agency, corporation, and association - so that the roles and responsibilities of each are clearly laid out. Governmental and corporate players change constantly, a signed agreement overcomes failing memories and unrealistic expectations. Your role is that of managing partner.
ARC draws up contracts in plain English without relying on legal counsel - we don't want to lose a partner in lawyer-to-lawyer negotiating. Our intent is to involve not bind, so we include a comfort zone of escape clauses.
8. Stroke the partners as often as possible, with reports and planted news stories, letters of thanks, and VIP events. Maintain their interest in the project, especially during periods of low partner involvement.
9. Make your full membership part of the partnership through reports stressing the achievement of your organization's goals through the partnership and the heightened esteem for your organization in the eyes of the involved government agency.
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