I've been reading through the forum.. Great stuff, I think ECA is an awesome idea. Definately needs some revamping however.
First off, just a mere seal on your website for membership... Hrm, not that inviting. Just donation spots for non-members? Ok, not so great either. How about a tact at marketing which will appeal better to the average person that would like to appeal to this cause?
I heard shots at NRA membersihp being $35 and other types of membership where people might get a free hat or t-shirt with their membership.. Great idea! Add a bit of marketing to this whole thing. You need multiple level of membership.
1) Merchant Membership(perhaps make fee a formula based upon a certain percentage of their sales profit would equal their level of membership, with of course a higher amount denoting the base $ amount.. Be creative! A flat fee price structure won't attract everyone)
Benefits: Recognized member of the Electronic Cigarettes Assosciation, vaping to the consumer, and supporter of our legal writes to continue vaping. A seal great, yes, ability to offer discount Consumber Memberships with sales. If enough money could be gained through this process perhaps a testing method of their liquids in comparision to FDA results so that they can throw their own statement on this as well slating they are free of "X". The ECA needs to be the lobbying, spin, and advertising arm of the industry. Suppliers need to treat is as such for it is fed the right fuel it needs it very well keep our industry alive and so that is not a thing of the pass. If the FDA ban does come, if the ECA is funded enough perhaps the ECA will be responsible for bringing us back after the ban happens.
2) Consumer Membership(should be considerably lower than merchant membership, perhaps even only onetime anual payment for Basic membership)
Benefits: Again, a recognized member of ECA. Though being a consumer, consumers may want a little more than just lobbying ability. Perhaps minimum 5% discount on all products of ECA merchant members. That does 2 things, promotes Merchant Members products and makes members more likely to buy from ECA affiliated suppliers and attracts more member donations to the cause. Works for all of us. Give them a card stating they are an ECA member with an id assosciated it that can verify membership as well. People like official things like this as well! Hell, an additional level of money contributed at membership throw in a t-shirt, hat & what not. There are many novelty suppliers that can do this at a very reasonable price to make this profitable for our lobbying cause!
3) International Membership) Based upon level of international membership, china, being the root suppliers should feed into this as well considering the US is a big consumer of their products as well as other manafactures and suppliers over there. They should contribute as well, and ECA should reach out to them so that they fund this project so that the vaporizers may continue coming over here and if a ban does happen in the interim the ECA may strive to continue to fight for the relegalization of them. Other smaller countries, perhaps based upon their economy their fees may need to change to denotate their currency differences.
This is a fight guys, lets treat it as so. We must all help in anyway we can, these are our rights at stake. If any ECA board member wants to contact me. I have plenti other ideas that may definately help out the cause to see that it survives and can rightfully appeal membership to people and go on with the fight.
-- RLB
First off, just a mere seal on your website for membership... Hrm, not that inviting. Just donation spots for non-members? Ok, not so great either. How about a tact at marketing which will appeal better to the average person that would like to appeal to this cause?
I heard shots at NRA membersihp being $35 and other types of membership where people might get a free hat or t-shirt with their membership.. Great idea! Add a bit of marketing to this whole thing. You need multiple level of membership.
1) Merchant Membership(perhaps make fee a formula based upon a certain percentage of their sales profit would equal their level of membership, with of course a higher amount denoting the base $ amount.. Be creative! A flat fee price structure won't attract everyone)
Benefits: Recognized member of the Electronic Cigarettes Assosciation, vaping to the consumer, and supporter of our legal writes to continue vaping. A seal great, yes, ability to offer discount Consumber Memberships with sales. If enough money could be gained through this process perhaps a testing method of their liquids in comparision to FDA results so that they can throw their own statement on this as well slating they are free of "X". The ECA needs to be the lobbying, spin, and advertising arm of the industry. Suppliers need to treat is as such for it is fed the right fuel it needs it very well keep our industry alive and so that is not a thing of the pass. If the FDA ban does come, if the ECA is funded enough perhaps the ECA will be responsible for bringing us back after the ban happens.
2) Consumer Membership(should be considerably lower than merchant membership, perhaps even only onetime anual payment for Basic membership)
Benefits: Again, a recognized member of ECA. Though being a consumer, consumers may want a little more than just lobbying ability. Perhaps minimum 5% discount on all products of ECA merchant members. That does 2 things, promotes Merchant Members products and makes members more likely to buy from ECA affiliated suppliers and attracts more member donations to the cause. Works for all of us. Give them a card stating they are an ECA member with an id assosciated it that can verify membership as well. People like official things like this as well! Hell, an additional level of money contributed at membership throw in a t-shirt, hat & what not. There are many novelty suppliers that can do this at a very reasonable price to make this profitable for our lobbying cause!
3) International Membership) Based upon level of international membership, china, being the root suppliers should feed into this as well considering the US is a big consumer of their products as well as other manafactures and suppliers over there. They should contribute as well, and ECA should reach out to them so that they fund this project so that the vaporizers may continue coming over here and if a ban does happen in the interim the ECA may strive to continue to fight for the relegalization of them. Other smaller countries, perhaps based upon their economy their fees may need to change to denotate their currency differences.
This is a fight guys, lets treat it as so. We must all help in anyway we can, these are our rights at stake. If any ECA board member wants to contact me. I have plenti other ideas that may definately help out the cause to see that it survives and can rightfully appeal membership to people and go on with the fight.
-- RLB
