NAFA Marketing Report

October 2014

Executive Summary

The National Air Filtration Association (NAFA) is a non-profit trade association and has assembled the Long Range Plan for the next five years from 2015 – 2020. As a part of this process, NAFA engaged with BD-PRo Marketing Solutions for a market study to provide overall marketing direction and goals to help NAFA increase brand visibility in the market resulting in increased membership.

This report provides evaluation of the current marketing processes and recommendations for next steps. Methods of analysis include a survey of NAFA members, Board Member phone interviews, marketing assessment as well as a SWOT analysis.

Results of data analyzed show that NAFA has done a lot to effectively engage and communicate with existing members. In addition, there are several areas of opportunities to address that will result in continued future growth for NAFA.
Recommendations discussed include:

Increasing visibility and brand awareness through a revamp of NAFA’s brand messaging and the development of a more results-driven public relations strategy.
Increasing new member lead generation through a combination of public relations, social media and website engagement techniques,
Nurturing and continued engagement with prospects and members through a more consistent email strategy.

The report also points out that the implementation of a more comprehensive marketing strategy has limitations including the lack of internal NAFA time and resources currently available to execute on a consistent basis.

NAFA Member Survey Results

The purpose of this survey was to obtain feedback from NAFA members and gain a better understanding of how the current marketing programs are being perceived by the members. This information was used to validate what’s working and to receive feedback to help shape the future direction of marketing for NAFA. 121 NAFA members completed the survey.

Question 1: How long have you been a member of NAFA?

About 70% of the respondents have belonged to NAFA for over 5 years. This demonstrates that once someone becomes a member of NAFA, they continue to stay members for a long time and are advocates of this association. It is clear there is significant brand loyalty, so by implementing a marketing program that will attract new members will most likely lead to long term sustainable growth.

Question 2:How did you originally learn about NAFA?

Primarily, respondents originally heard about NAFA via word of mouth which is not surprising in a niche industry like air filtration.

Other ways that NAFA members have heard about NAFA include the following:

Work – they were employed by a company that is/was a member of NAFA
Through customers and distributor
Because their fathers were members (2)

Social media, internet searches, and email are currently not key vehicles for increasing brand visibility for NAFA with the current membership population. This indicates that these are areas of opportunity for NAFA to reach more people. A tool like social media will be especially useful in gaining visibility with the younger generation to attract new members. Younger members are necessary to build a foundation for future growth within NAFA.

How did you originally learn about NAFA?
Answer Options / Response Percent / Response Count
Other (please specify below) / 19.8% / 24
Word of mouth / 62.8% / 76
Tradeshow / 9.9% / 12
Social Media / 0.8% / 1
Internet search / 3.3% / 4
Email / 0.0% / 0
Trade periodical / 3.3% / 4
Other (please specify) / 37
answered question / 121

Question 3: What type of company membership do you have?

68% of the respondants are active member companies. The “other” responses included two professional individuals and one consultant.

Networking is one key area of value for the members. NAFA needs to evaluate historical membership ratios to determine what the right mix of active to associate members are. In addition, NAFA needs to articulate the value proposition for each member type to encourage more new members.

What type of company membership do you have?
Answer Options / Response Percent / Response Count
Active Member Company / 67.8% / 82
Associate Member Company / 25.6% / 31
Affiliate Member Company / 4.1% / 5
Other (please specify below) / 2.5% / 3

Question 4: What is the approximate number of employees in your organization?

An informational question that demonstrates there is a mix of organizations based on size. There is an opportunity to better understand if there are ways NAFA can market differently to the smaller organizations with less than 11 employees. If there are a significant number of these smaller organizations then NAFA could possibly offer a special lower price to attract more members.

What is the approximate number of employees in your organization?
Answer Options / Response Percent / Response Count
1-10 / 13.2% / 16
11-25 / 24.0% / 29
26-50 / 21.5% / 26
50-100 / 8.3% / 10
Over 100 / 33.1% / 40

Question 5 : Overall, how satisfied are you with how NAFA communicates with you about news, events and information?

Overall, NAFA members are satisfied with how NAFA comunicates about news, events and information. Over 80% are either very or extremely satisfied.None indicated being unsatisfied or slightly satisfied. For the current demographic, the current communication strategy is working. The main challenge NAFA faces in this area is to not become complacent. As new communication strategies like social media and other new forms of digital marketing become more popular, NAFA will need to adjust accordingly to stay in the game.

Overall, how satisfied are you with how NAFA communicates with you about news, events and information?
Answer Options / Response Percent / Response Count
Extremely satisfied / 24.8% / 30
Very satisfied / 58.7% / 71
Moderately satisfied / 16.5% / 20
Slightly satisfied / 0.0% / 0
Not at all satisfied / 0.0% / 0
What changes could NAFA make to increase your satisfaction? / 11

Suggestions from the members to improve communications include:

Try and get the CAFS designation recognized nationally ... i.e. To be included in Bid-Specs and RFP. Promote the NAFA Procurement Guidelines, etc.

Quality & quantity of conference presenters.

Perhaps offer NCT II in Canada and announce early enough to see if there is interest, say for the Toronto area - easier for Canadians to fly domestically

More manageable website navigation

I think it would be good to know more about the filtration standards and the change in the standards.

Magazine comes out too infrequently.

Great job at communicating conventions. NAFA should leverage the membership size to become a social media "kingpin" for filtration. Allow members to engage in meaningful industry topics.

We need to encourage newer members (and particularly internal members of our organizations - not just the primary voting member) to more frequently use NAFA website.

More email updates.

Question 6: How well do you think the NAFA website does in describing the NAFA mission, program and benefits?
Overall, NAFA members feel that the NAFA website does an effective job at describing the NAFA mission, program and benefits. Suggestions for improvement from the members include:

Just stay current

More manageable website navigation

More info links

Excellent website. The redesign was outstanding.

More direct input from Distributors on individual basis. Mfg. on how they can help distributors.

When searching for members include countries. It only has states.

Separate logins for other members of distributor organizations.

Online resources - e.g. pdf's of critical charts and tables - could be better

Contains a lot of information but slow. Could be more user friendly.

How well do you think the NAFA website does in describing the NAFA mission, program and benefits?
Answer Options / Response Percent / Response Count
Extremely well / 21.5% / 26
Very well / 57.0% / 69
Moderately well / 20.7% / 25
Slightly well / 0.8% / 1
Not at all well / 0.0% / 0
What could NAFA do to improve the website? / 11

Question 7: To what extent do you value these opportunities to engage with NAFA and/or receive information?

Overall, NAFA members are engaging with NAFA in several ways and find value in the different opportunities available to them. NAFA members find email announcements and updates from NAFA to be the most valuable opportunity to engage with NAFA followed by industry education.

Networking and interacting with other NAFA members is also important.

One area for potential improvement is conferences. Although conferences are a way for members to network and reinforce relationships, there are opportunities to evaluate ways to engage further with the members through interactive sessions.

To what extent do you value these opportunities to engage with NAFA and/or receive information?
Answer Options / Not valuable for me / I find this somewhat valuable / I find this extremely valuable
Email announcements and updates from NAFA / 1 / 49 / 70
Networking with other members / 5 / 33 / 82
Conferences / 11 / 32 / 77
NAFA website / 3 / 74 / 43
Air Currents newsletter / 12 / 64 / 44
Air Media / 6 / 55 / 58
Education about industry topics / 4 / 36 / 81
Certification programs / 6 / 43 / 69
Share other ways you engage with NAFA or new ideas

Some specific suggestions offered by members include:

Camaraderie with like-minded people is readily available that far exceeds simple networking. Education comes directly from teachers with hands-on experience - there is always someone willing to share who has worked through the problem that challenges me today.

I typically let my customers and clients know that there are Certification & Educational Programs that are offered by NAFA, i.e. NCT, CAFS, and NCT II we use NAFA as a resource for our customers for staying up to speed with the FGI 2014 Guidelines, ASHRAE Std. 52.2, and 62.1 as well as NAFA recognition Programs, i e. Clean Air Awards, etc.

Interested in having a few members of our staff complete NCT II

Online CAFS certification/continuing ed

As an individual professional member, I am unable to attend many of the training conferences. However, I am extremely grateful that NAFA finally lists the power points of their presenters online now.

I'm interested in case studies and other success stories that I can use to train my team and share with customers.

Take surveys and publish the results!

Communication face to face at conferences helps to gain new ideas and hear about new products of technologies. Helps to reinforce relationships when we don't otherwise get together.

Even though some of the topics at the NAFA convention are related to filtration, many times the presentations are boring or too detailed. Need to make it fun, memorable, more interactive.

Board Member Interviews:

Six board members were interviewed to provide feedback and insights about NAFA marketing. The board members that were interviewed included:

Jim Rosenthal
Harry Allen
Jeron Downing
Leslye Sandberg
Trey Fly
Kevin Delahunt

What does NAFA do well in marketing?

Technical writing/seminars

Education, training and certifications - NAFA is top notch

Provide opportunities to network

Air media publication
Actively used by membership
Can handout to customers
Opportunity to buy advertising
Members can put information in digital publication and remove competitors’ ads for customer distribution which makes this a valuable way market to customers.
Good articles, content and trend information
Combination of members + NAFA contributors
Contains valuable NAFA sponsored research – how effective filtration in decreasing risk of infection (colds, virus, etc)

ASHRAE – biggest show in the industry, create awareness.

HVAC networking – they know who we are in the industry

Clean Air awards –not a revenue generator but provides ability to connect and build goodwill with customers. Can nominate customers and help to submit.
Good for building maintenance management if building labeled NAFA and building occupants are safer
Great PR that equipment runs better and manager doing a good job
Better reputation in the market
Increase filter efficiencies
Challenge - People don’t want information sharedbut if have good relationship with customer, it shouldn’t matter.

What could NAFA do better? Why?

Brand NAFA, become clear about message
Need branding and execution strategyto increase brand visibility outside NAFA members.
Need to better articulate value proposition. Air filtration is not considered a “must do”.Filters are an afterthought – Need to create compelling message

Speaking Engagements
Trey spoke at American Duct Cleaners Organization 200 – 300 people
Increased visibility - minority knew about NAFA
Very interested in topic
Topic: History of Air Filtration
Community colleges – get exposure to students and build young membership
Building operations - information about how air filtration is important in running a building

Website - SEO - Content is king – drive more traffic to website. More outside hits and links to site
Put Air Media online as separate website with backlinks to NAFA
NAFA air media.com 500 hits in 6 months, no link back
Need PR to increase visibility and increase website hits

Marketing committee meets 2 times a year for 1.5 hours but no time to do the nuts and bolts

Untapped markets – Need to market more to anyone that deals with filtration
Online distributors
HVAC product distributors, supply house, they sell air filters and assessor products to filters like HVAC belts. They want to go to where the air filter companies go to sell to them.
Other associations/groups – in air filtration, not tech organizations
Facility directors
Hospitals
Old people
Overlap industries like duct, mechanical contractors, commercial and industrial air handling/cleaners, OEM manufacturers that make equipment that filters go into
Consulting engineers that specify types of filters, go into building for new construction

Social media –
Do more with NAFA LinkedIn account
Increase following
Create a strategy to engage online

Getting large operations to include NAFA information in education manuals when addressing filtration and air quality

Use of constant contact for email marketing
Stay in front of members and prospects and industry about upcoming meetings, new publications, update to guidelines, valuable content that is available

Press releases
Increase exposure
Become more global
Show capabilities/educational, expertise in other parts of the world
Show NAFA Is the expert,
CDC involving NAFA makes org. more credible, involved NAFA because of expertise

Make certification programs more visible, increase members involvement

Need dedicated calendar for articles/content for media/PR/social media/blog and get out X every month. Manage touches.

Need a marketing resource

Need to grow database

Do regional events (can be hard nationally), monthly regional meetings
Golf tournaments
Skeet shoot tournaments
Happy hours

What could NAFA do to increase membership?

Look into new target markets – fastest growing are
Online distributors of air filtration
Selling to residential customers
Untapped categories (see above)

Increase membership will be easier if increase visibility

Associate members will come if increase members

Educate/call/email to filter companies, invite to meeting, waive fee

SWOT Analysis

Purpose: To describe NAFA’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats based on surveys and interviews.

Strengths – potential internal capabilities that help NAFA objectives
Weaknesses – potential internal capabilities that inhibit your NAFA’s ability to reach its objectives
Opportunities – potential external factors that can be considered to be a strategic advantage
Threats – potential external problems that could impact your NAFA’s performance

This SWOT analysis has provided the basis of a number of recommendations for the future direction of marketing for NAFA.

Positive Influences / Negative Influences
Internal Capabilities / Strengths

Reputation in market
Industry expertise
Education
Certifications
Board members are passionate about NAFA
Regular publications and annual conference are well regarded.
Large percentage of air filtration professionals are members.
Well established position with a well-defined market niche

/ Weaknesses

Not currently doing much marketing
Limited time for marketing
Limited budget for marketing
No dedicated marketing resource
Branding/messaging
Not known in complementary industries
Lack of strategic networking with other groups.
Not a big percentage of other industry professionals are members.
NAFA’s lack of local presence and local visibility - many non-members have never been approached to join up and may be unaware of the organizations full range of benefits.
No online newsletter is available

External Factors / Opportunities

Increase visibility in new markets
Opportunities to engage with members and prospects through social media.
Opportunities to grow younger generation.
Develop email strategy to nurture members and prospects.
Stronger public relations strategy for increased visibility and to drive website traffic.

/ Threats

Economic situation – companies are cutting back on spending
Decrease in membership as older members retire and younger generation is not aware of NAFA. Need newer and fresher marketing to engage with this group.

Marketing Recommendations

Overall Marketing Goals

Achieve an overall 10% growth per year over 2014 Current Member Companies
Raise NAFA brand visibility throughout the HVAC&R industry and related industries

Summary:

Overall NAFA has an excellent reputation in the market with a strong value proposition. The main challenge is how to best market NAFA in a way that will increase visibility in the market to attract new members.

NAFA has done an excellent job at getting traction in the market through various marketing activities including email marketing, certification programs, conferences, publications and networking. Now NAFA needs to develop a sustainable marketing process and to do that requires a dedicated resource. NAFA has found that although the organization has a strong group of volunteers to support NAFA activities overall, there are barriers that are encountered in executing marketing strategies on an on-going basis mostly due to time constraints.