Quote:
Originally posted by Rudey
The only way, in my always right opinion, for a smaller GLO to increase their numbers with limited resources is to fill a niche. That way there is a sorta natural attraction that lowers their costs of expansion and marketing. If the resources are fixed, the costs are fixed, some competitors have larger endowments and resources, then you can only compete by changing the product.
-Rudey
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I do agree with this to an extent. I think that from a marketing standpoint, it may have been a mistake for SDT and AEPhi to try to distance themselves from their "historically Jewish" roots. On the surface it makes sense: if you're not historically Jewish, you appeal to a much larger section of the population, thus you should attract more members. But now, without a niche to appeal to, you don't have anything that sets you apart from the rest of the sororities, and you're competing with Kappa and Chi O who have the bigger numbers and more money.
And if TPA was still thought of as being a "Catholic sorority," it would automatically have a point in its favor when Catholic-based schools were considering expansion, because school officials would hope that it would be the best sorority to promote the Catholic ideals that they were founded to teach.
Of course it can have the opposite effect too: schools turning down AEPhi because they don't think Christian women would be attracted to a sorority that plays up its Jewish roots. So maybe the issue is just knowing when to play up what sets you apart and when to play it down. Surely it doesn't make sense for AEPhi to show the same presentation if they're trying to expand to a school in New York and to one in Mississippi. That's a given. Aside from the religion issue, the cultures are completely different.
Part of this is that the NPC sororities are all virtually identical these days -- some of them were founded for different reasons but all of them have moved away from those reasons. When schools are considering a new sorority, there really isn't a way to say "Oh, that sorority would fit in well here" because all of the sororities are more or less the same when it comes to ideals and what kind of members they hope to attract. All that the expanding Panhel can go on is the size, alum support, money, perceived strength of the organization -- and all of that will tend to fall in favor of the larger groups.