NSF International, a $140 million global not-for-profit based in Ann Arbor Township, is expanding its auditing and certification brand to include a wide range of industries.

The organization, which has more than 400 employees locally, offers services including substances certification for major sports leagues, food and water quality auditing, greenhouse gas emissions certification and environmental sustainability assessments.

To provide marketing for NSF is to manage a brand with a variety of tentacles throughout the economy. That's now the responsibility of Elizabeth Jones,NSF's new vice president for marketing.

Jones, a military communications veteran with civilian experience at Quicken Loans, said NSF has an opportunity to continue expanding its role in the economy. She recently spoke with Ann Arbor Business Review’s Nathan Bomey.

Business Review: Why NSF?

Jones: NSF is a fascinating organization because it’s a nonprofit with a very important mission, in terms of protecting and improving public health and safety. But it also is an organization that is not necessarily content with the status quo.

It’s very important for the leadership here to continue to grow the organization and find other ways to serve the public.

Whereas historically the organization’s roots are in food safety programs and water safety programs, they have now many, many initiatives.

There’s a whole wide scope that NSF has launched.

Since NSF is such a wide-ranging organization with so many different arms, how do you effectively handle marketing for a group of operations like that?

We have marketing managers who are working with each group. Last year the company reorganized itself into five core business areas. One of them is dietary supplements and pharma, one is food, one is water programs, one is sustainability programs and one is systems registration.

We have a team of folks that work in each one of those areas in terms of helping to not just market the existing programs but to see where there are emerging trends, emerging needs that we might also be able to provide a program.

With greenhouse gas regulations likely from Congress at some point, do you think at some point there could be a heightened attention on NSF’s role in the process?

There is increased attention on that, so the fact that we offer such a variety of (sustainability) programs is certainly going to benefit the marketplace. Every day in the news you see organizations announcing their serious commitment to environmental sustainability, so I think we’re only going to see that area continue to grow.

You have a military communications background. How do the skills you learned there transition to a role like this?

I’m a firm believer that every experience, every position you hold helps prepare you for the next one. I was active duty for 11 years and a Naval Reservist for 12 years, so I did a total of 23 years active duty.

That gave me a good solid foundation in terms of communications, marketing, advertising and I’ve developed on that since then.

Michigan faces major economic problems, but it almost feels like Michigan’s image problem is a greater issue. Any thoughts on how Michigan can improve its image?

That’s a tough one. I’ll tell you, from a tourism standpoint, the “Pure Michigan” campaign is one of the best I’ve seen. I’m getting calls and e-mails from people around the country who have seen those spots and they’ve been extremely imnpressed from a tourism standpoint.

And I think the (Michigan Economic Development Corp. is) doing the right things.

Is NSF embracing social media tools and various online technologies to communicate its message?

We’ll be doing all those things. We’ve set up a couple of Twitter accounts and we’re educating folks on the benefit of social media. We’ll be creating a few blogs in a few key areas, some Facebook pages. In the next 30 days or so you’ll see us start to roll out some of those things.

As a marketing professional, do those tools also scare you a little because of the power that someone has to hurt your image?

No they don’t scare me. I think they’re an important element of marketing and communications, and the immediacy of it as a means of communicating and educating is key.

Anybody who isn't embracing social media is missing an important opportunity to communicate with clients, and consumers, and all their stakeholders.

Photo: Elizabeth Jones

Nathan Bomey writes about innovation, technology and other topics for Ann Arbor Business Review.