The True Value of Joining a Chamber

Advocates of chambers of commerce have long believed that when a company is active in its local chamber, it is doing the right thing not only for the community but for its own success as well. While there is plenty of evidence to show the impact of chambers of commerce on their communities, it is much harder to find data that quantify the impact of belonging to a chamber. A project that was commissioned by the American Chamber of Commerce Executives as a replication of its 2007 study of the same name, is designed to do just that: determine the real value to companies in terms of consumer outcomes of joining and being active in their local chamber of commerce. Do consumers really support businesses because they are chamber members?

Just as in 2007, data for the study come from a web-based survey of 2,000 adults nationwide. What makes the study unlike a typical survey is that almost every question on it is part of one of several imbedded experiments. This means that respondents were randomly assigned to different groups at several points during the survey. Each group reads something slightly different—like a description of a company that changes only a little for each group—but then everyone is asked the same questions thereafter, regardless of which company description they just read. Therefore, when there are statistically significant differences in how different groups answered the same questions, we know exactly why it happened.

This approach yields powerful results because it bypasses the subjectivity of most opinion polls. This approach yields powerful results because it bypasses the subjectivity of most opinion polls. A sampling of some of these results proves this to be the case.

 
• Being active in the local chamber of commerce is an effective business strategy. It communicates to consumers that a company uses good business practices, is reputable, cares about its customers, and is involved in its community.
• If a company shows that it is highly involved in its local chamber (e.g., sits on the chamber board), consumers are 10% more likely to think that its products stack up better against its competition.
• When a consumer thinks more favorably of a company because the company is highly involved in its local chamber of commerce, it is because he or she infers that the company is trustworthy and caresabout its customers.
• When consumers know that a restaurant franchise is a member of the chamber of commerce, they are 68% more likely to eat at the franchise in the next few months.
• When consumers know that an insurance company is a member of the chamber of commerce, they are 36% more likely to think favorably of the company.
• When consumers know that a small business is a member of the chamber of commerce, they are 49% more likely to think favorably of it and 80% more likely to purchase goods or services from the company in the future.
• The positive impacts of chamber membership have remained the same and even increased over time.

Source-The Schapiro Group Study from the ACCE and the American Chamber of Commerce