AARP Wins Highest Marketing Prize: Trust
We've been consultants to AARP for many years. Whenever we talk to their (40 million) members, we hear the same thing again and again. People really trust AARP. They may not know exactly what AARP does or what policies AARP supports, but nonetheless they trust AARP to do whatever is in the best interest of older Americans. Which I see as AARP's essential value proposition.
This was confirmed in a poll that NPR reported on today. Several politicians are attacking AARP's stance on healthcare reform (which would be better framed as Health Security Reform), claiming that profit motives are driving AARP's policy agenda. Here's how the "under-voiced" public sees it:
"The poll by NPR and the Kaiser Family Foundation listed seven of the biggest players in the health care debate and asked which one would recommend "the right thing for the country." AARP easily led the list among Democrats and independents. Among Republicans, it tied for first with an option titled "health insurance companies." So it's hard to tarnish AARP, in part because it's not seen as serving an ideology or a narrow economic agenda."
AARP is not perfect, but they have earned the public's trust through years of hard work, and tuning into what their members want and need, then delivering on their promise. I believe trust is the ultimate prize in marketing. It cannot be bought, it must be earned.
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