Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog

4 Essentials of Cause-Related Marketing

Photo by sadalit, flickr.

If you are a company or nonprofit teaming up to do cause-related marketing in 2008, take heed: slapping charitable branding on a product is not enough. Today’s consumers are socially conscious but they are also savvy—and skeptical. Cause-related ventures are held to high standards, and vague claims of social good are scrutinized. So, in support of Cone’s What Do You Stand For? project, here are the four things all cause-related ventures should stand for:

1. Suitability
Does the partnership pass the sniff test for suitability? For example, even if the company donated all of its profits, Hummer would never be a good partner for Greenpeace. Sounds obvious, right? But I’ve seen some partners that seemed poorly suited this year, including Trident promoting Save the Children nutrition and literacy programs. Gum doesn’t fit with nutrition—or literacy, since it’s not even allowed in libraries or schools. Operation Smile would have made more sense as a partner. You want a fit that makes sense to the consumer - it’s stickier that way (pun intended). You also want a fit that makes sense to the partners, who should look for a deeper win-win. An ideal partnership is one where the cause and company’s objectives reinforce each other.

2. Authenticity
A close cousin of suitability, authenticity is about the company walking the talk of the cause. A nice example is the Pure Prevention campaign, which my organization helped plan and support (so I’m biased). Luna Bar walks the talk of health concerns and nutrition, so it makes sense for them to support a cause that focuses on the environmental causes of breast cancer. Check it out here.

3. Transparency
This is HUGE. It’s not enough to say, we’re partners and a portion of proceeds benefits xyz charity. Both the company and the charity need to say what amount of money is going where to do what. Very, very clearly - on everything. Put it on price tags, marketing materials, everywhere. Err on the side of openness. The RED controversy shows there are people out there watching! (PS: RED has done a good job on reporting - check out their site.)

4. Selling Point
Lots of research, including from Cone, shows consumers will buy cause-related products over those that don’t have a charitable tie-in, PRICE AND QUALITY BEING EQUAL. So don’t think alignment with a cause is a unique value proposition, unless you have the same price and quality. If you don’t, you need other selling points. The Susan G. Komen partnerships make things pink, which believe it or not, is a selling point—people went crazy for Campbell’s cans in pink because they looked neat (and were different and unexpected). So color can actually be a selling point. What value can you add to you add to the product in question that extends and supplements the charitable merits it presents? Figure it out. You want people to buy into this!

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to follow these principles - and don’t just take my word for it. From Cause-Related Marketing Blog, here’s a great analysis of what happens when you don’t.

Posted by on 01/07 at 09:21 PM

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Comments

Hi Katya,

What’s your take on just how much longer the pink ribbon (and all the ribbons) will work as an icon?

I’m personally really weary of them now. It seems like they are on absolutely everything, which diminishes their effectiveness, I think.

Posted by Kivi Miller on 01/07 at 11:03 PM

Good point Kivi - I agree there is quite a degree of saturation there. However, it can and does still work when well conceived, matched to the audience, and paired to the right product. The Campbell’s promotion doubled sales, for example, because of the iconic nature of the cans and soup-buyers being an excellent target audience for the breast cancer cause. Pink baseball bats also have that iconic, unexpected status.

Posted by Katya Andresen on 01/08 at 10:26 AM

Very useful list, especialy the third point!

Posted by Infants on 01/09 at 03:02 AM

Hi Katya,

I think that the Trident gum promotion with Save the Children was very cool and it seemed that they were celebrating the fact that support Save the Children. Obesity, a programmatic focus of Save the Children’s US Programs, is such a rampant problem that is hard to “treat”. Perhaps children and parents would not overeat if they are otherwise occupied chewing deliciously flavored sugarless gum in the privacy of their own home. In addition, studies show that chewing gum can improve concentration -perfect for homework time, maybe that can help with literacy improvement in the long run.
I don’t that alignment has to be 100% PERFECT as you suggest to help a cause. Brand awareness and indirect benefits are of value too.
Cheers, Casey

Posted by on 01/10 at 09:28 AM

Hi Casey,
Do you by any chance work for Trident? I like to encourage that people disclose any affiliations relevant to their comments, and I see via a quick Internet search that there’s a Trident brand manager named Casey. Is that you? If you are with Trident, I’d love to hear how the program is going - or if the program results suggest that I’m wrong about fit. (PS: for more on why it’s important to disclose affiliations, check out the GiveWell post preceding this post.)
Katya

Posted by Katya Andresen on 01/10 at 10:27 AM

PS “Casey” responded to me via email and said she did not work at Trident. She did not tell me her affiliation, only calling herself a spectator. But her email address had her name and there’s someone by that name at Save the Children (which has the partnership with Trident).

Posted by on 01/17 at 01:52 PM

Hi Katya:

Thanks for the nice mention about my posting and analysis.

Maybe I haven’t dug deep enough in your excellent blog, but I have wondered how CRM plays in countries outside N. America, Europe, Australia and Japan.

Given your time abroad, I for one would like to hear your perspective.

Thanks!

Posted by Paul Jones on 01/21 at 12:47 AM

Thanks Paul. I can only really speak to three countries where I’ve lived—Cambodia, Madagascar and Ukraine—and there was very limited CRM there. In developing countries, the things that drive CRM aren’t yet there. That said, there’s incredibly innovative work to market healthy behavior by PSI - like their soap operas in Madagascar and their condom sales in Cambodia. Not surprisingly, they’re ahead of the CRM curve with partners like Proctor & Gamble—http://www.pghsi.com/.

Posted by on 01/21 at 06:04 PM