Background

The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) is the leading professional body for management, with over 80,000 individual and 400 corporate members.

CMI's core purpose is the promotion of management and leadership excellence. It helps its members to become better managers through continuous professional development and provides qualifications, recognition and a wide range of other resources to its members.

The Challenges

Membership attrition had been increasing, particularly amongst the newest members of the Institute, with the average member age being around 58 years of age. Core membership numbers were falling and the Institute was therefore looking to strengthen its value proposition in order to maximize its market share.

In addition, order to achieve its key objectives, CMI needed not only to grow its overall membership base, but also achieve a critical mass of Chartered Managers - its most prestigious grade of membership.

CMI therefore needed to quickly establish understand factors that were affecting membership growth and retention, and the potential barriers preventing more members from achieving Chartered Manager status.

Our Approach

The research consisted of online surveys of:

- Lapsed members - to understand why they left the Institute and what might persuade them to re-join
- Non-members - to gauge awareness of the Institute and potential interest membership
- Current members - feedback on membership benefits, understanding key issues to members
- Current Chartered Managers - feedback on the accreditation process and the benefits of accreditation
- Non-Chartered Managers - awareness of benefits / potential barriers to applying for accreditation

The Benefits

CMI was able to use the findings to:

Re-engage with lapsed members

We were able to provide CMI with a list of "warm targets" of lapsed members interested in re-joining CMI

Target marketing to non-members

We established there was signficant interest in CMI membership amongst non-members (63%) and were able to identify the main benefits of interest to them with which to target marketing efforts.

Improve membership retention

CMI was able to identify improvements to member communications and delivery of existing products and services.

We also identified that the main reason for members not renewing their membership was retirement. CMI was therefore able to focus efforts on increasing awareness of the "retired" membership category amongst older members.

Refine its membership offering

The results showed that the issues members were facing changed as they progressed through their careers. We therefore used this to identify new areas of support CMI could provide and to tailor its marketing messages to different groups.

Raise the profile of Chartered Manager accreditation

We were able to provide CMI with a prospect list of members requesting to be contacted regarding Chartered Manager status. The results also showed that the vast majority of Chartered Managers valued their accreditation and were prepared to act as a case studies for accreditation which was important for promoting the benefits of accreditation.

Engage more effectively with employers

Whilst the majority of members valued their membership, they felt recognition of the benefits by their employers was poor. This confirmed CMI's own thoughts on the need to continue to engage effectively with employers and raise awareness of the benefits of CMI membership.

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	Home > Case Studies > Membership Organisations > CMI Membership Review Background The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) is the leading professional body for management, with over 80,000 individual and 400 corporate members. CMI's core purpose is the promotion of management and leadership excellence. It helps its members to become better managers through continuous professional development and provides qualifications, recognition and a wide range of other resources to its members. The Challenges Membership attrition had been increasing, particularly amongst the newest members of the Institute, with the average member age being around 58 years of age. Core membership numbers were falling and the Institute was therefore looking to strengthen its value proposition in order to maximize its market share. In addition, order to achieve its key objectives, CMI needed not only to grow its overall membership base, but also achieve a critical mass of Chartered Managers - its most prestigious grade of membership. CMI therefore needed to quickly establish understand factors that were affecting membership growth and retention, and the potential barriers preventing more members from achieving Chartered Manager status. Our Approach The research consisted of online surveys of: - Lapsed members - to understand why they left the Institute and what might persuade them to re-join - Non-members - to gauge awareness of the Institute and potential interest membership - Current members - feedback on membership benefits, understanding key issues to members - Current Chartered Managers - feedback on the accreditation process and the benefits of accreditation - Non-Chartered Managers - awareness of benefits / potential barriers to applying for accreditation The Benefits CMI was able to use the findings to: Re-engage with lapsed members We were able to provide CMI with a list of "warm targets" of lapsed members interested in re-joining CMI Target marketing to non-members We established there was signficant interest in CMI membership amongst non-members (63%) and were able to identify the main benefits of interest to them with which to target marketing efforts. Improve membership retention CMI was able to identify improvements to member communications and delivery of existing products and services. We also identified that the main reason for members not renewing their membership was retirement. CMI was therefore able to focus efforts on increasing awareness of the "retired" membership category amongst older members. Refine its membership offering The results showed that the issues members were facing changed as they progressed through their careers. We therefore used this to identify new areas of support CMI could provide and to tailor its marketing messages to different groups. Raise the profile of Chartered Manager accreditation We were able to provide CMI with a prospect list of members requesting to be contacted regarding Chartered Manager status. The results also showed that the vast majority of Chartered Managers valued their accreditation and were prepared to act as a case studies for accreditation which was important for promoting the benefits of accreditation. Engage more effectively with employers Whilst the majority of members valued their membership, they felt recognition of the benefits by their employers was poor. This confirmed CMI's own thoughts on the need to continue to engage effectively with employers and raise awareness of the benefits of CMI membership.		Testimonial "Through the research conducted by AHC, we have been able to quickly identify areas of opportunity to grow and enhance our membership proposition." "The results of the survey have played an important part in enhancing our proposition allowing us to address the key issue of retaining members, targeting non members and engaging with employers much more effectively in order to win business." "AHC's experience and understanding of membership organisations was without doubt important allowing them to identify with our issues." Huw Hilditch-Roberts Director Membership and Business Development