In brief
- Clusters has been working with the IoD for over two years, previously carrying out a segmentation of members as well as a tracking study and a members’ survey.
- Following this, IoD wanted to test their membership pricing and also the appeal of three different membership options.
- The findings were used to set the pricing for IoD’s new pilot membership programme, IoD Advance.
- Upon launch, the new programme was oversubscribed and generated much positive interest from existing members, non-members and the media.
Challenge
IoD is the UK’s longest-established organisation for professional leaders, encouraging entrepreneurial activity and promoting responsible business practice amongst its members.
Due to growing competition, IoD wanted to look into how they could grow their business and attract new members. They’d devised three membership packages and wanted to discover how attractive these different membership options were, and whether they needed refining.
As well as this, IoD wanted to uncover the optimal price for each type of membership that allows them to keep current members and attract new members, yet retain the same levels of profitability.
Chris Cowan, Managing Director at Clusters commented, “IoD were looking to really shake up their membership offer but first needed to gain some further insights into what their members really valued in a membership proposition.”
Solution
IoD appointed Clusters to run a pricing and proposition testing study to look at the appeal of each proposed membership proposition, plus uncover acceptable price points for each.
Both current and potential members were asked questions on the appeal of each proposition, their level of interest in each offering, and their likelihood of joining or remaining members of IoD as a result of the outlined propositions.
Respondents were also asked questions designed to estimate an acceptable pricing range for each type of membership. This allowed Clusters to create a price sensitivity model which outlined how much members would be willing to pay for each type of membership.
This model was mapped back to the existing IoD member segments, previously uncovered by Clusters, building a stronger picture of IoD target members.
Chris Cowan, Managing Director at Clusters commented: “Carrying out a price and proposition testing study really allowed us to dig into what IoD members believe is good value and what they are looking for in a membership with the IoD.”
Results
As a result, IoD has been able to create a new membership product, IoD Advance, which better meets the needs of the three key target segments that they were most interested in engaging.
The findings were also used to set the pricing for IoD Advance, and the response from the market so far has been very positive, with IoD’s three target segments most highly represented among its new members.
On launch the new programme was oversubscribed and generated a significant amount of positive interest from existing members, non-members and the media.
Suzanna McGloin, Head of Marketing at IoD: “I would absolutely recommend working with Clusters as a research partner. Their friendly, collaborative approach coupled with their data expertise ensures that the results are not only insightful but also actionable.”
