Expand Cause Marketing with Humor

Traditionally there has been a target market and a designated route for cause marketing. MediaPost’s Perry Allison sums it up well with the phrase Charitable Commerce Consumers http://bit.ly/GIhtVv. A survey shows these are consumers with a median household income of $125,000 a year and median net worth of $375,000. 90% of Charitable Commerce Consumers say they are likely or very likely to shop with a business aligned with a charitable cause. 75% of them have served an active role in a local school, community or national charity and 12% have served on corporate boards. For Charitable Commerce Consumers, supporting businesses that take a serious approach to charities is the norm. Yet, while these consumers have a lot of disposable income and word-of-mouth influence, they don’t represent all of the people out there who donate or would donate to a worthy cause. There are more people to reach and different ways to reach out to them. It’s time for cause marketing to expand its scope and lighten up a little with a dose of humor. David Hessekiel cites Kenneth Cole, Ben & Jerry’s and Chipotle Mexican Grill as examples of companies who raise profits for causes through their humorous and playful takes http://bit.ly/GIhtVv.

Kenneth Cole is known for his tongue-in-cheek ads that use clever wording to get the word out about issues like AIDS, homelessness, gun safety and women’s rights. For example, a 1997 ad addressing abortion is accompanied by the tagline “It is a woman’s right to choose. After all, she’s the one carrying it.” Above this text is a picture of two handbags. Ben and Jerry’s has used its ice cream to generate awareness, coming up with unique flavors and donating profits from their sales to various causes. Phish Food is one notable flavor, a chocolate and marshmallow one named after the band Phish, and its profits go towards environmental efforts in the Lake Champlain, N.Y./Vt. area. In 2002 One Sweet Whirled, named after a Dave Matthews Band song, emerged and partnered with SaveOurEnvironment.org to fight global warming and get people to reduce their CO2 emissions. Hubby Hubby, a 2009 flavor renaming of their popular Chubby Hubby, celebrated the legalization of gay and lesbian marriage in the brand’s home state of Vermont and raised awareness of this issue across the country. In addition to brand partnerships there are event partnerships. 

Chipotle Mexican Grill, for the last two years, has hosted a Boorito event, encouraging people to show up on Halloween dressed as one of the worst kinds of junk food imaginable. Participants received the opportunity to purchase $2 Booritos with profits going to healthy and sustainable food operations. This year’s Comic-Con International features a “Course of the Force” five-day event leading up to Comic-Con http://bit.ly/GH5qEo. An Olympic-style torch relay from Santa Monica to San Diego is the focus of this event, allowing participants to celebrate their love of Star Wars and support Make-A-Wish Foundation at the same time. Each quarter-mile will raise $500 for Make-A-Wish Foundation.

These are only some of the ways in which a brand or event can use humorous and playful promotions to raise money for charitable causes. Approaching cause marketing in this way draws in another demographic all together, one that is not seen through other efforts. Bringing this demographic into the fold means more supporters, more interest and more money for the cause. All of which are essential to keeping charitable causes financially healthy and meeting their goals. Basically, you stagnate probable growth when you only focus on a narrow area of cause marketing. Similar to musicians like Madonna, who constantly reinvent themselves, cause marketing has many different approaches and outlets. Why not utilize them all? The results may surprise you.

Rebranding Cause Marketing

Cause marketing often gets a bad reputation. Some people see it as an empty association where only dollars are exchanged, others, as shallow support with no real investment. Cause marketing gets its fifteen minutes of fame very easily with commercials and the like, but it lacks follow through, consistency and measurable foot traffic sales. How do we change that perception? By changing the way we form our association with cause marketing. Measurable foot traffic sales are one way to counter this negative perspective. Companies are constantly caught up in the ‘like this or send that and we’ll donate x amount of funds to blank’ mode. In other words they spend more time measuring and emphasizing the outcomes of ’likes’ and items received, and not enough on measuring what really counts. Facebook ‘like’ promotions typically fall into this category. Joe Waters reports that in November Kraft initiated a “Fight Hunger” Facebook page http://bit.ly/AqDpjV. Liking the page was a meal donation equivalent with more meals donated through a football and food-related trivia question game. Although it generated 25 million meals for food banks across America, it is another example of how Facebook likes do not equal long-term engagement. Let’s be real here, there was no follow-up with those contributors and they most likely haven’t visited that page since. They aren’t contributing any money to the cause, because they already contributed and it didn’t cost them anything. On the flip side you have Ikea and their Save the Children event, also mentioned in Waters’ article. Ikea hosted a “Bring Your Own Friends” event with in-store deals and giveaways. On the side, inviting friends on Facebook triggered the donation whether those friends showed up or not. The difference between the two? Ikea’s actually generated foot traffic, and placed the focus on the deals and the giveaways. Donations to the charity were secondary, but by no means diminished their cause marketing efforts.

In addition to generating foot traffic, Paul Jones shares three more ways that cause marketing can rebrand itself positively http://bit.ly/zPl8SI. The first is activating cause marketing on packaging. Coca-Cola made the mistake of making their cans white to support their ‘save the polar bears’ cause, and in doing so ruined their customers’ product association. Traditionally, a red can equals regular coke and a white can equals diet. Customers mistook the white cans for diet and complained. As Jones shares, brands could benefit hugely from showcasing their efforts on packaging. Right now they just look lazy and like they neglected to complete the product tie-in. His second point is employees forming deeper connections with the cause. Basically this points to one key phrase: get involved. Nothing shows more solid support and commitment than getting involved and the results are much more mutually beneficial for both cause and employees. Last is keeping consumers in the loop. They want to know they made a good choice, they want to know how it turned out, and they want acknowledgment. As of right now, companies rarely disclose reports about how their efforts went to consumers and they rarely say thanks. They are missing out on a big opportunity, because consumers are more likely to continue supporting a company that does those things on a regular basis. More long-term support and engagement with a company are the outcomes here. Overall, companies are missing some crucial elements to their cause marketing campaigns. They are not taking the opportunity to generate foot traffic, and they are not following through by activating cause marketing on their packaging and actively supporting the cause through volunteering. They are not being consistent by making consumers aware of results, acknowledging their efforts and giving them a reason to participate in the future and stick around as long-term customers. Changing these things could revamp their own images. In revamping their own images and their association with cause marketing, cause marketing will be redeemed and rebranded. Sounds like a win-win for everyone.

Giving, Getting and Cause Marketing

Giving and getting, two words used interchangeably throughout the holiday season. This is the time of year when people, more so than any other time of year, think about what they can do for others. Cause marketing to the rescue! This year, some of the same ones return, while others are venturing into the mix. Some are focused more on giving, while others are more about giving to get something in return. Examples of the first kind from this year are listed in a recent USA Today article and are as follows:

- Hasbro and generationOn: Every time a child or teen pledges to volunteer with youth service organization generationOn, Hasbro will donate a toy through Toys for Tots up to 100,000 toys.

Wal-Mart - Wal-Mart is empowering consumers to nominate non-profits and show the good being done in their local community, with winning non-profits receiving a portion of a $1.5 million grant this holiday season. Through November 30th they’re excepting submissions to their “12 Days of Giving” Facebook campaign with winners being announced daily from December 12th to December 23rd.

-Macys continues its involvement with Make-A-Wish Foundation, with $1 donations going to Make-A-Wish Foundation for every letter to Santa dropped into its red mailbox. Part of its “Believe” campaign.

-JCPenney teams up with the Salvation Army for the third year in a row with its “Salvation Army Angel Giving Tree Online” campaign, allowing shoppers to provide children and seniors in need with Christmas gifts. This year consumers also have the option to make a mobile or iPad donation.

Unfortunately, there are also some causes that feel the need to provide rewards in return. USA Today’s Christie Garton covers these and hints at the interchangeable meaning of giving and getting, as the focus on “what’s in it for me?” begins to take on a more tangible feel http://usat.ly/vXYVs0. Two of the websites she names focus on this kind of cause marketing. Charitybuzz.com calls its campaign “Gifts That Give Twice Holiday Auction”. Here people bid on celebrity experiences, like hanging out with Jonah Hill or meeting Christina Aguilera, and proceeds support various non-profits around the world. Another, from eBay called “eBay Celebrity” is similar, with people bidding on dream holiday gift options like meeting Brad Pitt. Kind of makes you rethink what charitable giving should be all about, which is another way of saying this kind sounds more selfish than selfless. There is a saying that points out you should give expecting nothing in return, but these examples are just giving in order to get something. Not the type of cause marketing I’d like to be associated with, and I would hate to see cause marketing continue down this route. It shouldn’t take bribing people with a reward to prompt them to donate. The only type of rewards cause marketing campaign that should exist is one that’s tied to an existing element of the company, like Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola is getting into the act by capitalizing on their iconic use of polar bears, promising $1 million to World Wildlife Fund upfront and matching up to $1 million in additional donations made with package codes through March 15, 2012 http://bit.ly/vmelTx. Naturally this involves the MyCokeRewards Program, but here it makes more sense. With Coca-Cola you’re getting something good for supporting actual good works, the difference here is that Coca-Cola’s campaign is more about good works with rewards being a bonus. Giving and getting shouldn’t be interchangeable here, the first shouldn’t automatically beget the other. It’s time to bring cause marketing back to its roots, which is using creativity and creative campaigns to motivate people to give. Doing good should reap its own rewards; any other rewards should be a bonus and not a focal point to justify these actions. Whether you’re a consumer or a marketer, don’t take the ’cause’ out of cause marketing. Support cause marketing for what it is, the chance to utilize your skills, in one case, and your pocketbooks, in both cases, to do some good in the world. Ultimately, a way for everyone to give back and feel good in return.

The Art of Social Giving…Cause Marketing Style

With so many ways to give this holiday season, and so many advertisers clamoring for attention, an alternative kind of giving often blends into the background. That alternative kind of giving is what is known in the advertising world as cause marketing. This year more than ever, cause marketing is clamoring to be heard above the din by connecting with its donors in new ways. One way involves a unique venture by a co-founder of Facebook, who seeks to index charities via a website and make them more accessible to donors. As Google indexed knowledge so is Jumo attempting to index charities and revolutionize the way people donate. Jenna Wortham http://nyti.ms/gj37Pz points out that he is in fact capitalizing on an underserved niche, as only 6% of 300 billion donated to charities in 2009 was donated online. Sure there are other sites that attempt to do the same, such as Global Giving, but Jumo takes it a step further. Perhaps an extension or upgrade of the Causes Facebook application, Jumo attempts to utilize the principles of Facebook to deepen donors ties with causes and unite donors by giving them a means to post about their donation and therefore inspire others to donate. Interesting concept, although there are always those who choose to remain anonymous (which in this case would defeat the purpose of this particular site). Adding to this movement of socializing cause marketing and donations are Geoff Livingston’s ”5 New Creative Social Good Campaigns for the Holiday Season” http://on.mash.to/eyuagy.

First there was Black Friday and Cyber Monday, now there’s Small Business Saturday and Green Gift Monday. Small Business Saturday is blossoming this year from its American Express roots to arrive on a Facebook platform with media support (Mayor Michael Bloomberg helped launch this year’s effort). American Express matched fan page ‘Likes’ with a $1 donations to Girls, Inc., partnered with Facebook to give 10,000 small businesses $100 worth of social advertising services, and supported a Twitter contest via promoted tweets offering $100 giveaways. The Nature Conservancy, proponents of Green Gift Monday, invited people to submit tips and tricks to make the holidays greener via Facebook and Twitter. Additionally they appealed to bloggers and other interested parties to spread the word through social channels, particularly on Cyber Monday, all to encourage people to purchase green gifts on Cyber Monday. Next is Yahoo, whose ‘How Good Grows’ initiative sounds like the social version of the movie “Pay It Forward.” The premise being that Yahoo provides $100 seed money to encourage acts of kindness by 400 internal and external influencers, who then reflect this in their status updates on Yahoo, Facebook and Twitter to encourage more acts of kindness. Even the Salvation Army is getting in on the action, continuing their Online Red Kettle program with the addition of mobile texting donations and an iPhone app. Last but not least, Kevin Bacon’s Six Degrees partners with Choose Haiti to show how purchasing H.E.L.P Bracelets made by Haitians helps fund job creation. All of these are intriguing, but how measurable are they and have they made a dent in increasing online donations? Now that is an ROI report I would be interested to read. If anything, cause marketing is venturing into social territory and its expansion could be a very good thing.

Personalization and Localization

A very interesting trend is afoot, one that could spread and become the norm if its success continues. It all originates from personalization and localization of mobile media. For example, take Starbucks, who is now tempting customers with more than just delicious coffee and tea (not that they don’t already). Starbucks unveiled its revamped landing page, a digital mecca of sorts geared directly towards its customer base. A very smart move. Caroline McCarthy’s article “How Starbucks is Trying to Change the Media” http://bit.ly/cx1NKq discusses the content of the ‘Starbucks Digital Network’ and references a quote by Adam Brotman, senior vice president of digital ventures, which pens it as “the digital version of the community corkboard.” A very interesting reinterpretation for sure, with its offerings of free local information, downloadable music and quick bites of news and video. All of this content is geared towards a very specific customer in a very specific place. Now take this concept and spread it to other stores, restaurants, hotels, vacation destinations. You walk into an Albertsons and you have access to information on the originating source of any food product in the store, or you have a special network composed of recipes made from items all available within the store. Then you take a vacation to Hawaii, and you get instant access to visitor guides and food, entertainment and activity sites where you can just as instantaneously book your reservation.

A similar concept is an expansion on cause marketing that ties in the importance of place. Building on the success of Foursquare and those checking in, groups like Earthjustice have made it possible for people at transit stations where their ads are posted to check in. Every time they check in an Earthjustice donor donates $10 to protect endangered species. That is the premise of Todd Woody’s “Ads That Let You Check in At Your Favorite Billboard” http://bit.ly/cWagOf. Take this concept one step further and you have stores tied to causes. Using Starbucks again, their RED program makes a contribution to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa every time a customer buys a Starbucks RED product or uses their Starbucks RED card. Customers could check in at a Starbucks RED ad in Starbucks and a contribution could be made. There are many companies that have ties to a particular cause, why not tie that in with an ad that adds to and strengthens their contribution from check in’s too, all while in that particular store? Possibilities abound when you focus on personalization and localization.

Cause Marketing Endures, Remains Popular

Cause marketing is the topic that attracted my attention this past week and, specifically, the report from Cone LLC strategy/communications agency. The marketingcharts.com article “Americans Seek Cause Opportunities”  inspired this post and has no visible author, but can be read here http://bit.ly/bSPohv. Even before the recession cause marketing was gaining speed and it is still popular now; perhaps even more so than before. Recent statistics from the report mentioned above show that 8 in 10 consumers (81%) want companies to provide them with the opportunity to buy a cause-related product.  88% say that a purchase of this type would not replace traditional donations they make otherwise. When many products in the same category support a cause,  87% of consumers say the social/environmental impact of the whole program influences their product choice. 86% say the amount per product sold that is donated (within the whole program of the product) is the determining factor in their purchase. Other high rankings include social/environmental impact of individual purchase (85%) and total amount given to the cause (83%).  

Perhaps two of the most prominent and widely publicized cause-related products are Tide (Loads of Hope) and Yoplait (Save Lids to Save Lives). $1 per bottle of Tide cap registered and $4 of every Tide T-shirt purchased goes towards providing free laundromat services to families in disaster areas http://bit.ly/R9fO4. Yoplait donates 10 cents per pink lid sent in to Susan G. Komen for the Cure up to $1.6 million and guarantees a donation of $500,000http://bit.ly/982WpH. Retail customers are always in search of an incentive, whether it’s a discount, a rebate or a cause to support. From a psychology point of view it goes back to the phrase “what’s in it for me?” If there is something associated with a product that can boost a person’s status quo amongst their peers, such as contributing to a cause, it makes the product more likely to gain support and sales. Also more people can emphasize with others who need help, not only because of similar situations they have been through, but because they know what it feels like to need help due to the recent recession. These psychological gains and emotional impacts make it likely that cause marketing will continue its prominence for a long time.