(The following is in response to a survey MENSA e-mailed me, asking why I haven’t joined. I promise I don’t write a blog post like this for every survey I get. As a preface, I qualify for MENSA because of a standardized test I studied my butt off for and not because of an innately high IQ).
The only unifying factor between MENSA members is a score in the top 2 percent on an IQ or other qualifying test, so you can guess what stigma comes with MENSA membership: elitism, social awkwardness, etc. From a marketing standpoint, MENSA poses a unique challenge: how to brand the organization in a way that cultivates respect instead of ridicule and contempt.
I’m not making the whole “ridicule and contempt” thing up. Just Google whether to put MENSA on a résumé and you’ll see what I mean. Fiery people come out of the woodwork. Maybe the only reason I don’t feel the same as the detractors is that my high school calculus teacher was a Mensan. I have a great deal of respect for the man and his genius. He was a great ambassador for the org, from my perspective.
More than anything, MENSA has a problem with messaging. A few examples:
1. The first letter you get after qualifying reads:
“CONGRATULATIONS! … It is with great pleasure that we extend you an offer of membership in the society. Your membership card will be forwarded within ten days of the receipt of your dues payment…”
2. Follow-up e-mail #1 from Admissions Manager:
“I noticed that you qualified but hadn’t joined. If you call and pay your dues ($59) with a credit card, your membership packet will print tonight and mail tomorrow.”
3. Follow-up e-mail #2 from Membership Director:
“In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Mensa in North America, I’ve been reviewing lists of members who’ve qualified but haven’t yet joined. I noticed your name on the list, and while you may not have made the decision to become a member before this, I hope that you’ll accept my personal invitation to join at this time. You can join online…”
Do you notice a trend? Their focus on membership and dues is front and center in every message. Any mention of purpose or value in their proposition is subverted by the focus on money or membership for qualification’s sake. They certainly may not have intended this, but you can’t argue with what’s written. This approach may have been acceptable a decade ago when networking was less organized and less fluid than it is today, but I don’t feel like MENSA poses much competition to today’s free business/interest networking groups facilitated by social media.
They need to start viewing it as a competition or risk being marginalized in the networking space. Smart people have jobs, are busier than ever, and have plenty of people, events, etc. jostling for their time. MENSA needs to do more and BE more than it currently is. What is it exactly? Check out this very interesting Q & A with Pam Donahoo, executive director of MENSA. A few selections:
How do you keep younger members involved, and interested?
Our Gen-X SIG [Special Interest Group for members in their mid-30s to mid-40s] wanted to plan the convention. These younger folks are planning it for the first time, but I’ve gotten great attendance. There’s really a young spin on things.With members like yours, do you use a lot of technology at your meetings?
If we’re behind the curve, that’s where it is. It’s mainly because our price-points are low. There’s not as much technology used mainly because of the cost of it. We certainly have our own community. We have fan pages on Facebook. We have a Twitter account. Like everyone else, we’re realizing there are lots of opportunities that are there. We considered using handheld technology for a media event: an ask-the-geniuses session. But it was too expensive.Does Mensa have a broader message or mission?
To the general public, we’re saying, it’s OK to be smart. Today you see movies that depict the smart person as the protagonist instead of the antagonist, the hero instead of the nerd that gets beaten up. We promote intelligence as a valuable asset.
Wow! Since when did a “young spin” mean mid-30′s? And when was basic technology cost-prohibitive? That’s so sad to me.
MENSA really needs to re-brand, re-position, and re-invent itself if it hopes to have a credible, growing, vibrant organization that does more than rest on its own laurels.
I don’t want to be pegged as a sideline critic here. I’d greatly desire to see MENSA succeed. But I want the group’s collective genius to be leveraged for more than just board game development (also just the impression I get). I want to join MENSA when it makes more sense than the other free groups competing for my time that appear to offer more value.
Here are 5 of my many ideas on what they should do:
1. Inclusivity through partnerships. Right now, MENSA feels too exclusive. They should be trying to get as many qualifying people in as possible. They should be partnering with test-administering organizations like GMAT, LSAT, etc. to automatically notify people when their scores qualify them for admission.
2. Open and social web presence. The American MENSA website puts some of the most interesting content like “Meet A Member” or “Member Primer” that could be critical to the “member conversion funnel” behind a members-only login! Why? (The website could also do with a makeover) In social media, while they’ve gotten better with Facebook recently, their Twitter account has been used twice this year. Missed opportunities for engagement.
3. Message and purpose refinement. I mentioned this at the beginning. They need to know what they represent and what they’re trying to achieve before they know what the membership benefits are, and before they can communicate those externally. If they focus on qualification being a core reason for membership, then they’re playing right into the elitist label they’d hopefully like to avoid. I envision MENSA potentially being more like LaunchUp, where the collective knowledge of the crowd is leveraged to benefit a cause, solve a problem, enrich a community, etc.
4. Technology integration. The smartest people aren’t going to MENSA. They’re flocking to TED and Fora.tv communities, rallying around very basic technology that allows them to learn together, collaborate, and make change in the world. Without technology as a facilitator, MENSA, or any other group for that matter, will always be two steps behind the curve. Using basic technology for presentations/discussion at meetings isn’t costly. Ask anyone.
5. Local empowerment & promotion. I’m getting e-mails from the national people that run MENSA, not the local “rubber-meets-the-road” leadership that would really be responsible for providing the bulk of the group’s value. Talking to the person who is technically the local chapter leader here, he confided, “I’m still not sure why I joined, but it wasn’t for the socializing.” Leaders need to get excited about what they’re leading, right? In this case, it’s hard to get excited when (1) the leader doesn’t have any training, guidance on running a meeting, direction on the contents of the meetings or best practices and (2) the leader doesn’t have a list of members/potential members in the area that could be contacted to get the chapter off the ground. That’s the case, from what I understand.
So to conclude what will be my longest blog post to date: get it in gear, MENSA! Be something amazing, then give me a call.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Scott,
Good comments, and from what I’ve seen as a member of Mensa you are absolutely correct…they are WAY behind the times.
Also, from what I’ve read in their monthly publications, they actually seem to cultivate the elitist standpoint. I’ve seen articles along the lines of “Should a Mensan Date a Non-Mensan”, and other very US vs. them type comments.
Personally, I joined Mensa for one reason and one reason only…to see if I could. I’ve been told I was a genius from the time I was a toddler, and I believed that to be true, but I wanted to take their test and see if I actually made the cut…which I did.
What does being a Mensan actually mean to me? Not a thing. I paid the dues the first year, and I probably won’t ever pay again. Taking the test and seeing if I qualified was all I was really interested in :) If the 98th percentile is the marker, then there are well over 100 million people in the world who would qualify…hardly a small, elite group :)
Alas, being a genius means absolutely nothing unless you actually accomplish something with that brainpower. I put Mensa on my résumé, but I expect it to count for very little compared to my actual work/life experience and accomplishments.
- Sam McRoberts
Huh, my Cusins a member.
And he never said anything what Sam was talking about!
So was this lady that was going to college with me
awhile back.
Interesting.
Scott,
I just recently joined – and I agree with much of what you have said here.
However – that is exactly the reason you SHOULD join – so that some new and younger blood can come in and help Mensa reach it’s full potential!
I am currently exploring the feasability of creating a Mensa Credit Union – a non profit financial institution that could become a new avenue for profitably re-investing in the Mensa community.
We could really use more intelligent, progressive, and visionary minds such as yours to help make Mensa the world class organization it’s founders always intended it to be!
I challenege you to give it a try – the World truly needs more insightful leaders like yourself to help bring forth a new age of reason and prosperity for all Humanity!
And $59 bux? You spend more than that on an average night on the town I am sure.
I couldn’t agree more. I took the Mensa pre-test just to see if I could pass. It’s not so much that I wanted to be a member, but (sounds like same as you) just to prove that I could. Once you have your membership card, or even just proof that you COULD have been a member, the game is over. You won. Actually, is it even more elitist to qualify for Mensa and NOT join? :-)
I think Scott made some very poignant comments. I qualified for Mensa and chose not to join as well. An email from Mensa today got me thinking about my reasons for not doing so- one conclusion I came to is that they’re poor at marketing themselves.
To add to what Mensa could do I have a few things to say:
1. The public perceives Mensa as an elitist group. Despite the fact that public opinion is rarely based in bias-free, deep reflection, I am less likely to want to join a group if I will be perceived as possessing negative qualities for it. I think it would serve Mensa well to try and change public opinion regarding that. This is actually a minor point, but I feel that it may turn off those who may qualify from even considering the prospect.
2. If I were convinced that are are good networking opportunities in Mensa, I would join today. I’m 22 and almost out of school, so finding a job in my chosen field (in my case, physics) is important to me. Given that most soon-to-be college grads will be looking for jobs, Mensa has a rich source of potential members. I’m somewhat surprised that Mensa hasn’t used this to their advantage, given that they are in an especially good position to do so.
I cannot agree more, Scott.
Nearly every National Mensa group does rest on its own laurels. Everyone in Caythorpe needs to wake up before they all become as old and comfortable as their Rotary Club counterparts, i.e. in two to five years.
Being ten years behind today’s affordable technology and near-free online networking is not very intelligent, is it? People who were still refusing electricity in the fifties were not exactly progressive (or smart). Two Tweets don’t start viral revolutions! Any similarities?
I think Mensa had its chance to become a meaningful organization located somewhere between Kiva.org and Ted.com; philosophy-wise at least — too late for those two ideas now. Since those organizations are well established and copying ain’t cool, which future direction(s) would you suggest (in addition to hiring a marketing pro or two and decentralizing things)?
A LaunchUp II type of activity? Something brand new? Maybe a fresh-idea-generating brainstorming session with international, national and local Mensa members?
How about this? A strategy-planning conference where all I’m-not-bothered-to-join people share their points with current Mensans. Doable?
Please keep this discussion going guys.
Maybe role/game playing and futureless (senior) geek socializing might be skipped for a short while. At least until everyone agrees on how to fix the current Mensa crisis. If even giants like Kodak and Google+ fold because they cannot addapt, what makes Mensa so bulletproof? (Kodak has already requested bancruptcy protection, Google+ is just my prediction.)
When members who are 35-45 effectively become ‘the youth’ within Mensa, something 2012-like is definitely approaching. It might not be as sinister as a meteorite or God’s wrath or whatever, it could simply mean that a fine organization from 1946 will die… of old age.