Marketing to Kids, Circa 1988

The Lumina Foundation, the American Council on Education and the Ad Council want to persuade more middle and high schoolers to make proper preparation for college. And so to reach them they put an PSA in GamePro magazine.

Terrific idea, if this was still 1988.

The year 1988 was pre-World Wide Web and smartphone. Sonny Bono was mayor of Palm Springs. It was the year Aloha Flight 243 lost several yard of its upper fuselage while in flight. In 1988 the Red Army started to withdraw from Afghanistan. And boxer Lennox Lewis, fighting for Canada, beat American Riddick Bowe at the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea in the Super Heavyweight division.

1988 was also the year GamePro itself debuted and it may have been the last time a PSA like this, which I found in the Alden Keene Cause Marketing Database, had any chance of actually reaching kids.

Look at the boxing glove visual, for instance. There are exactly 153 kids in the 12-18-year-old age range in the United States who have seen a real boxing glove more recently than they’ve seen an MMA glove, which has an open palm. The algebra on the blackboard in the background harkens back to The Dead Poets Society (shot in 1988 but released in 1989).

This is classic ‘interruption advertising,’ to use Seth Godin’s felicitous phrase. Kids read GamePro to get screenshots, reviews, tips and the like, not read lame ads. If I recall the issue correctly, there wasn’t even that much advertising in it. So this PSA stuck out like a sore thumb. And not in a good way.

The call to action is to send the game young reader to www.knowhow2go.com, which is certainly content heavy, even if it lacks a genuine voice. It looks and reads looks like it was designed and written by an old guy like me trying to be young and cool. “Learning how to kick flip six stairs takes determination. So will getting into college,” one of three rotating graphics on the front page tells us.

Know How 2 Go strikes me as a natural for Facebook. But since the summer of 2008 the corresponding Facebook page has garnered a grand total of 527 fans. Where's the Facebook or smartphone app that helps kids plan for college? MIA, it appears.

Someone’s trying here. They’re just doing it in a way appropriate for kids in 1988, not 2011.

How would you reach kids in 2011 in a way that doesn’t violate any laws or breach privacy? How could you make better use of Facebook and social media?

Impious Cause Marketing?

I saw a recent post on Just Means critical of Kellogg’s new cause marketing campaign called ‘Share Your Breakfast’ and I wondered, should sinners or the impious be permitted to pray?

Should teachers wait until their students know the alphabet before allowing them to speak? Should I, as a man, wait until I’m emotionally available to my wife before I listen to something she’s telling me? Is Nobelist Al Gore the only person who can legitimately donate to Greenpeace or the Sierra Club? Or, while we're on the topic of charitable donations, could any company ever be morally upright enough to make donations to a good cause via cause marketing?

The post in question was written by staff writer Akhila Vijayaraghavan, whose beat at Just Means is corporate social responsibility.

She writes:

“Some of the products that Kellogg has been promoting as part of its campaign includes Frosted Flakes and Nutri-Grain bars. However both products have been criticized for the high levels of sugar that they contain. Frosted Flakes mascoted by Tony the Tiger contains 11gms of sugar per three-fourths cup serving. In addition to sugar, it also contains high-fructose corn syrup.

“Nutri-Grain bars which are promoted as a healthy breakfast or snack option contain more than 30 largely synthetic ingredients. Again, it contains HFCS and 11 gms of sugar. It is advertised containing 'real fruit,' 'made with real fruit' and 'good source of fiber.' However it only contains fruit puree and 3 grams of fiber.”

If sugar and low fiber is the hangup with Kellogg’s, what about a company that actually makes low-fiber sugar, namely C&H, as seen at the top left. C&H is generating a $50,000 donation for hunger through its participation in Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale. Since hunger in the developed world is often characterized not by low weight but by obesity which leads to malnourishment, I’m sure Ms. Vijayaraghavan would say that C&H has some cheek to donate to an anti-hunger cause. I mean talk about low-hanging fruit.

But Ms. Vijayaraghavan doesn’t just see bad nutrition in Kellogg's Share Your Breakfast, she sees wholesale corporate hypocrisy, and cheap hypocrisy at that:

“Marketing itself as the purveyor of healthy food items for children and actively targeting them however, is a different story. At the end of the day, regardless of the CSR spin Share Your Breakfast is an advertising campaign. According to a New York Times article, it is their largest integrated marketing effort, with ads in broadcast, print, digital and social media. The Times reports that Kellogg spent $464.9 million on advertising from January through September 2010 alone, which pales in comparison to the $200,000 they spent towards feeding hungry school children.

“The food industry is full of examples of companies saying one thing and doing another. But really: Put your flakes where your mouth is Kellogg, and come up with a CSR initiative that we can believe.”

By rights, Ms. Vijayaraghavan should have put a link to a place where Kellogg's has claimed to be a purveyor of healthy food items somewhere in those two paragraphs. But she didn’t.

The simple fact is, Kellogg's does purvey healthy food. It also makes and sells unhealthy food. But should Kellogg's wait until its whole product line is sugar-free, high-fiber, low-fat and chock-full of good cholesterol before the company engages in cause marketing?

Hmm.

There is one implication there in the last sentence of Ms. Vijayaraghavan’s post with which I have no argument. We do want to believe in the goodness of companies. My question is, do they have to be ‘sinless’... whatever that might mean... before we can believe in them?

‘Seal’ Campaigns and Cause Marketing

‘Seal’ campaigns defy easy categorization in cause marketing. They’ve been around forever. Witness the American Dental Association (ADA) Seal of Acceptance which dates from 1930.

Strictly speaking seal campaigns are a kind of licensing deal. Generally they involve pre-set criteria and or testing.

(The even older Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval was begun by the eponymous magazine in 1900 and the Underwriter’s Laboratories first opened their doors in 1894. Both were founded as for-profit entities).

If your product or service meets the criteria and passes applicable tests you are eligible to apply to display the seal of approval/acceptance. Usually the license involves a fee, sometimes a hefty one.

And like sponsoring the Olympics, all paying the licensing fee does is give you the right to spend more money on activating the deal! If most cause marketing is a kind of partnership, seal campaigns are more like a business deal.

For the most part if you meet the criteria and pay your fee, what you get from the provider of the seal is a contract, a logo, and a usage guide.

The handful of seal providers that publish magazines might also periodically list the companies or products that received their seal. Interestingly, the Campbell's Healthy Request ad at left appeared in Arthritis Today, the official organ of the Arthritis Foundation, which itself offers a seal of approval to products that meet its criteria for ease of use by people with arthritis.

If you’re a sponsor, you have to decide what it’s worth to display a seal from a reputable provider. But if you’re a charity or an association, especially in the health field, it might be worth it to develop a seal campaign.

The ADA, Underwriter’s Laboratory and, to a degree, Good Housekeeping maintain laboratories and physically test items. The ADA tests to see if items in question do what they profess to do. UL famously tests for safety. Since items that bear the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval carry a 2-year warranty, Good Housekeeping tests for efficacy.

But your seal campaign needn’t require a laboratory. I’d bet that the American Heart Association certification only requires that Campbell’s contractually assert that its Healthy Request soups fall within the guidelines the organization has set for sodium, cholesterol and fat per serving. I’d be surprised to learn that the Heart Association actually tests Campbell’s Healthy Request soups.

Likewise, the certification of the Burt’s Bees toothpaste from the Natural Products Association probably only requires the company to legally declare that the ingredients in the toothpaste meet the Association’s criteria as natural.

This is not to say the certifications from the Heart Association or Natural Products are unscientific or illegitimate in any way. You can bet that the American Heart Association has spent tens of millions of dollars determining acceptable amounts of sodium and fat and cholesterol in food. The American Heart Association’s seal campaign helps them leverage that research.

Could your nonprofit launch a seal effort? Does it possess key scientific understanding that could be monetized with a seal? Feel free to share you thoughts on seal campaigns.

More Instant-On Cause Marketing for Japan Relief

Horrifying natural disasters, especially when they happen to people that are geographical close and/or culturally similar… have great built in affinity, a necessary element to cause marketing.

The Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan have already led to what I’ve termed “instant-on cause marketing.” What follows are two other examples of instant-on cause marketing efforts meant to benefit the people of Japan.

In New York City, NBC Universal, the New York State Restaurant Association, among others, are leading a cross-town effort to benefit Japan through the American Red Cross. The campaign ‘Dine Out for Japan Relief’ asks restaurateurs to donate 5 percent of each meal during from March 23-30 to the Red Cross.

At this writing the website listed more than 65 participating restaurants.

On the West Coast in San Rafael, California, eco e-tailer VivaTerra offered 10 percent of all online sales during a 24-hour period to the Red Cross for Japan relief. An email, seen at the left, gave advance notice of the effort to VivaTerra customers. The offer extended from midnight on Friday, March 25 to midnight on Saturday, March 26. The home page says that “over $5,000 was raised.” VivaTerra specializes in eco friendly merchandise for the home.

Are there some notable efforts I missed? Please comment below or email me directly at aldenkeene at gmail dot com.

Tip of the hat to cause marketing pioneer Jeff Atlas.

The Importance of Affinity in Cause Marketing

Implicit in any successful cause marketing campaign is the idea of affinity. Absent affinity, no cause marketing campaign is likely to soar

Think about it, if children with cancer don’t affect you emotionally, intellectually or otherwise, then you’re not likely to support any cause marketing campaign on behalf of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

And it has to be the right kind of affinity. I may love American Idol and Randy Jackson, seen in the FSI (Free-Standing Insert) on the left. But if I don’t have a cat then his endorsement of 9Lives isn’t likely to convince me to buy a bag of dry cat food.

So consider the case of this mailer from the Alden Keene Cause Marketing Database that mailed circa October 2004 from the cooperative marketing group for the Toyota Service Centers in my market. I get mailers like these about once a month. This one promoted a lube, oil and filter service featuring genuine Toyota parts.

In the red burst on the left side is the cause marketing offer. Buy this service for $25.95, and the Toyota Service Center will make a $2 donation to Weber State University automotive training programs, which the mailer points out, were negatively affected by State budget cuts.

The text of the burst makes it clear that the local Toyota Service Centers have some skin in the game.

“Weber State University trains our technicians to stay current with the ever more complex systems in your state of the art Toyota vehicles.”

But beyond owning Toyotas, I don’t have any skin in this game. While I admire Weber State University, I’m not an alumnus, nor is any immediate family member. Weber State’s campus is about 50 miles away, so I don’t have any particular affinity based on proximity. Moreover, the training of automotive technicians, while important, strikes me as exactly the kind of program that ought to be heavily funded by Toyota, its dealers, and service centers anyway.

In other words, I don’t have any affinity with the school or its automotive training programs. Ergo, the $2 donation represents no special incentive for me.

Who might have special affinity? That’s a tough one. Certainly graduates of Weber State’s automotive training programs, but almost by definition those people all change their own oil. What about other Weber State students, graduates, vendors, donors, faculty or staff?

They certainly have affinity for the school, but does that extend to any special affinity to an automotive training program? Difficult to say without surveying those groups.

In short, the Toyota Service Centers in my local market used a cause marketing ploy on a lot of people (myself included) that don’t have any natural affinity for the ‘cause.’

I don’t know what the results of the campaign were, but I do know that in the years since I received this I haven’t seen any other offer like this from my local Toyota Service Centers.

I’ll bet the campaign didn’t pay off.

Terrific Paper Icon Cause Marketing from Whole Foods

We’ve all seen paper icons that sell for $1. A few sell for $5 and fewer still for $10. But how’s this for ambition from Whole Foods Market? The top listed price for their paper icon is $180.

Talk about ‘whole paycheck!’

Sorry that was a cheap (and irresistible) shot at Whole Foods which has turned out a very well-thought out and well-executed paper icon campaign. Probably the best one I’ve seen in the last five years.

The campaign benefits the microcredit effort of Whole Foods’ Whole Planet Foundation. The Foundation partners with microfinace partners in 29 countries in the developing world, with an emphasis on regions that supply product to Whole Foods. By design most of the microenterprise loans go to women.

The fit, therefore, is very clear. Microfinance when coupled with microenterprise, has a good success record at lifting people out of poverty worldwide even if it isn’t a panacea, and remains widely respected in America.

The icon uses both sides, which I always recommend. In the copy on the back they use the persuasive principle of ‘social proof’ by reporting that customers have given more than $6 million in the past to the campaign, while Team Members (employees) have donated $2 million and vendors another $1.2 million.

Too bad the social proof is relegated to the back, where people are likely to see it only after they’ve already purchased the icon. It would be a simple matter to use the social proof as the headline and call to action; “Join the six million Whole Food shoppers who have already donated…”

I like that the icon tells a story and it depicts people who are being benefited, also a smart choice. They could have closed the loop by saying that the loans have helped Aree (the woman in the photo), become self-reliant or that she now employs a staff of 4 or whatever.

The suggested $180 donation amount actually helps tell the story. While $180 is a lot to add to your grocery bill, it’s a very small sum when you consider that might be all it takes to launch a new entrepreneur like Aree. I’d love to hear how many Whole Foods customers choose the $180 option.

The icon was placed in an easy-to-spot plastic holder at the checkout stand.
The colors are bright and the design is smart. There was a matching poster and tri-fold brochure on a nearby bulletin board. The cashier didn’t mention the icons as I was checking out, but she did warmly thank me for buying it.

Kudos to Whole Foods on a wonderful paper icon campaign.

Instant-On Cause Marketing for Japan

The horrendous 2011 Tōhoku earthquake struck Japan at 2:46 pm local time on Friday, March 11, 2011. On Thursday, March 17, 2011, not even six days later when you consider that Japan is a day ahead of North America, I received the appeal to the left in my email box.

This is instant-on cause marketing, and I applaud it. We saw similar efforts after the Haiti Earthquake in January 2010.

I can imagine how challenging this was to put together so quickly. Infiniti had to figure out an amount they could afford and would be meaningful. The choice of the Red Cross was probably pretty easy. The Red Cross is almost the default choice in the case of natural disasters like this. But easy choice or not, arrangements had to be made with the Red Cross.

Then Infiniti had to figure out who to send it to. I’m on some kind of email newsletter list because I once test drove a G Convertible, but it probably also went to Infiniti employees, dealers, car owners, members of the press, etc.

The last piece of this was probably the actual communication. Thank heavens Infiniti didn't use an actual photo of the devastation left by the earthquake or the tsunami. I’m not opposed to using pictures to depict need, but in this case, that would have been in poor taste.

I’m sorry Infiniti didn’t spend a little more time on the wording of this appeal because it’s potentially confusing.

It says that Infiniti has made pledge to the Red Cross of $1 million. So far so good. Then the copy says:

“We made an immediate cash donation of $500,000 to the American Red Cross. And we’re asking employees, owners, fans and friends to join us. When you give through this email, we will match your donation, dollar for dollar, for the first $500,000 in contributions.”

I’m almost always in favor of matching donations, but the wording makes me wonder whether Infiniti is giving $1 million (as per the pledge) or (potentially) $1.5 million. Or did Infiniti tell the Red Cross that it would give $1 million no matter what individual donors give?

Aside from parsing out the semantics of the offer, I’m glad Infiniti put this campaign together so quickly and I hope it generates a substantial donation.

Park and Read Cause Marketing

Outdoor advertising companies have an expression about signs that are so busy the message can’t be taken in one glance. They call such signs, ‘park and reads.’

The usual rule of thumb for billboard is that they have no more than 8-10 words and fewer than 4 lines of text. Total.

But of course many people either don’t know or think the rule doesn’t apply to them. You see such signs all the time, although the one below probably has a subject matter you’ve never before seen on a billboard.

The ad above, from the March 31, 2011 Fortune magazine, is a park and read from the fashion designer Geoffrey Beene. The ad features Ann and Nancy Wilson of the 70s and 80s rock group Heart along with two cancer researchers, Marion Knott, MD, PhD and Raymond DuBois, MD, PhD.

There’s no arguing with the intent of this PSA campaign or the sincerity of GBGB (Geoffrey Beene Gives Back) from Geoffrey Beene, LLC. All profits from operations fund a wide array of philanthropic endeavors. GBGB is basically Newman's Own, only for fashion. Over the years, the company has generated right around $150 million in charitable donations. Geoffrey Beene, the man and designer, died of cancer in 2004.

Worthy as the effort is, the Geoffrey Beene ad is a park and read, less so because of the amount of words then because of the layout and art direction. There’s just too much going on.

I get the Rock Stars of Science thing with the rock star celebrities asserting the Rock Star qualities of the researchers and their credentials.

But bringing in the Stand Up to Cancer subhead… “This is where the end of cancer begins”… confuses more than it enlightens. Why not just put their logo at the bottom of the ad?

I suspect that Stand Up to Cancer, which can call on so many celebrities for support, provided Ann and Nancy Wilson. But let’s be honest, Heart’s best days as a rock band and as a celebrity draw are behind it.

To be fair, the Rock Stars of Science PSA has other versions with acts including Timbaland, B.o.B, Keri Hilson, and Jay Sean. But they also feature versions with Debbie Harry and Bret Michaels.

Finally, I struggle with the way they draw equivalency between the cancer researchers and the rock stars. I mean if you’re a talented cancer researcher, do you want to be compared with a rock star like Bret Michaels, the former lead singer of the band Poison, who has reached the point in his career when he's mostly famous for being famous? Are you a former punk rocker of a researcher (like Debbie Harry) who eschews the medical establishment? Or are you an up-and-coming R&B artist of a researcher (like Keri Hilson), still awaiting your first real hit?

I have nothing but love for what Geoffrey Beene has done for cancer and heart and Alzheimer’s causes, and many more worthy and deserving causes. Only the redoubtable Newman's Own has given more. But bad art direction and layout makes Rock Stars of Science a cool idea, but a 'park and read' as an ad.

Implementing Your Cause Marketing

The cause marketing blog is, in large measure, an idea blog. It’s meant to help you, my faithful readers, to come up with ideas for better cause marketing. But ideas are easy. You gotta ‘ship’ as Seth Godin says, quoting Steve Jobs.

Godin talks about ‘shipping’ in his recent book Linchpin. In one sentence it means that you must finish what you start, get it out the door, deliver your product or service, implement. In Godin’s case, he ships when his books hit the stores. I ship every weekday when a new post goes up on the cause marketing blog. Failure to ship is the usual reason why Donald Trump fires someone every Sunday night on The Celebrity Apprentice.

Shipping is what Tom Hanks did at the end of his movie Castaway. Hanks' shipping in Castaway is lampooned in the video at the left.

How can you ‘ship’ your cause marketing more effectively?

There’s a lot of models out there, Godin’s included. The book Making Ideas Happen, from Scott Belsky has some ideas and tools on shipping.

For my part, I’m partial to the model from IDEO, the hotshot Palo Alto, California design firm. Belsky quotes Sam Truslow, a senior member at IDEO, as saying; “What makes us tick is not just having good ideas, despite what clients think.” Instead, says Truslow, “When people want new ideas what they are really saying is that they can’t execute.” Ouch.

Here’s the five-step IDEO Way, as summarized by BusinessWeek:

1. Observation
2. Brainstorming
3. Rapid Prototyping
4. Refining
5. Implementation

IDEO’s take on Observation is notably rigorous, but you can probably figure it out based on the examples from the BusinessWeek article. You already know how to brainstorm. So let’s pick up the IDEO Way starting with Rapid Prototyping.

Rapid Prototyping means you start making mockups of whatever survives the brainstorming sessions. IDEO has a fancy shop that can work up darn near anything from the physical world. But IDEO teams might prototype with a video, or something cut from cardboard or foam and marked up with a Sharpie.

What’s the point of a prototype so elementary?

The fact is, even imaginative people can’t understand ideas until they can see and touch them. For a new cause marketing campaign, even a quickie paper prototype is better than a bulleted list in Powerpoint. Once an idea is rendered in three dimensions or on video, it helps everyone understand what the cause marketing campaign can really do and be.

In Making Ideas Happen, Belsky tells the wonderful story of movie development at the old Disney Studios, which involved three different rooms. In the first, everything was possible and no idea was a bad one. In room two the ideas from room one aggregated and organized, then storyboarded. In room three, aka ‘The Sweat Box’ the creative team would review the storyboards and ideas without critical restraint. This is the essence of IDEO’s refining process.

You could employ a similar approach in developing new cause marketing. It might even make sense to physical move the team from one room to another and then to a third. Or, if using the same room, change its complexion in some way, perhaps changing the orientation of the furniture. Do it all at the same time and place and you risk inhibiting ideas.

The BusinessWeek piece makes the implementation phase seem like it’s just a matter of hiring smart people with a broad range of backgrounds. That’s a little facile. Instead, says Belsky quoting Diego Rodriguez, a senior partner at IDEO, the company looks for and hires ‘T’ people, who have both a breadth of experience, along with deep expertise in one area.

Nonprofits, in particular, commonly hire young people who might have deep expertise, but are lacking in broad experience. Or vice versa. Consider the ‘T’ when staffing your cause marketing team.

How do you make sure your cause marketing ‘ships?’ What tips do you have for properly executing your cause marketing efforts?

Bridging the Gaps in Cause Marketing

Pictured at left is a circular for Designerchecks.com from the Alden Keene Cause Marketing Database. The circular, circa 2007, features two cause-related marketing efforts; one for the New York City police officers and firefighters who performed so bravely during 9-11, and the other for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Ignore for the moment the weak and confusing “portion of the proceeds” language on the firefighter check and concentrate instead on what else is in play besides the transaction-based cause marketing.

Everyone that buys either of those checks is identifying themselves as someone who has so much affinity for the New York City firefighters and police officers of 9-11, or for breast cancer research that they’re willing to put a ‘bumper sticker’ on their checks saying as much!

Imagine the value to those two nonprofits to have the list of people who bought those checks. It would be the hottest kind of list.

While for-profits commonly approach non-profits for their lists, it’s less common for the lists to go the other direction. But how hard would it be for Designerchecks.com to provide lists to the respective charities as an element in their sponsorship/licensing agreement?

We’re almost 30 years into modern cause marketing and companies and nonprofits still don’t fully understand one another's needs.

That stems from the fact that on the nonprofit side cause marketers tend to be ‘siloed.’ At one of the big disease charities, for instance, a cause marketer might not even know a direct marketer in the firm. (Although at smaller charities the cause marketer and direct marketer are likely to be the same person).

On the corporate side few cause marketers fully realize how charities fundraise and where the money comes from.

Pop quiz for you folks on the corporate side. On average, how much of the funds raised by charities comes from individuals?

The answer is more than 75 percent.

A big chunk of that comes from major donors, but a lot of it comes courtesy of direct mail efforts. In other words, every charity needs a list. And lists with high affinity are much more valuable than those with low affinity. Duh, right?

On the nonprofit side, few cause marketers know how much pressure their for-profit colleagues are under to keep their brand out in front, even when the partner is a nonprofit.

It’s time we bridge these gaps.

Bridging gaps starts with understanding and understanding starts with lunch. What I'm suggesting is that you call one or more of cause marketing partner and invite them to lunch.

Don't have a cause marketing partner? Find one on LinkedIn and strike up a conversation. If that's too bold for you contact me at aldenkeene @ gmail dot com and I'll endeavor to make a nice warm introduction to someone. I'm only making this offer to for-profits looking to take a non-profit cause marketer to lunch, not the other way around.

If you’re on the corporate side, you’re buying.

If you're an agency, wrangle a meet-up with both parties. Oh, and you're buying.

If you’re a nonprofit cause marketer and an invitation isn’t forthcoming from a sponsor, then you need to call a colleague from the direct mail division, say, or the Major Donors staff.

If you’re from a small nonprofit with few employees, take the boss to lunch and try to get into her head to find out what she wishes you knew.

Either way, I suggest a multi-course Chinese meal served family style on one of those Lazy Susan things; because it will take longer and because sharing a dish family style is the starting point to shared trust.

Raise a Glass Cause Marketing

At the yet-to-open Shebeen Bar in Melbourne, Australia when you order a beer or wine from a developing country, a donation will be made to a cause in the drink’s country of origin.

So toast someone with a Vietnamese beer at Shebeen and perhaps a kid in Vietnam learns a marketable skill. Raise a glass of South African chardonnay and maybe a microfinance donation is made to help someone start a street cart business in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

The social benefit business is the brainstorm of 27-year-old Simon Griffiths, who came up with the idea while traveling through Africa. The idea is not about guilting people into Shebeen bar, Griffiths told the Melbourne daily newspaper, The Age. (The photo of Griffiths at left comes from The Age.)

“We are moving away from the Oxfam tin-rattling approach to retail to a space where we create high-quality products and services and make them non-profit.”

Griffiths is wonderfully ambitious. Using what some call ‘embedded giving’ social entrepreneurs like Griffiths will “be turning everyday consumers into philanthropists and giving charities access to the trillions of dollars that change hands every year in the economy,” he says.

As Griffiths sees it, “our personal mandate is that we support projects that allow individuals to participate in the economy where they wouldn't otherwise be able to.”

What do you think? Can giving embedded into this kind of social enterprise carry this much water (or Ethiopian beer) for charity?

Advocacy Cause Marketing to Teens

This post is about teen sex (or abstinence therefrom), although this blogger is not talking about the sketchy MTV drama series Skins.

Instead this post is about an advocacy cause marketing campaign from The Candies Foundation, “a non-profit organization that works to shape the way youth in America think about teen pregnancy and parenthood.”

Candies, for whom the Foundation is named, is a teen fashion brand.

The Foundation is against teen pregnancy and advocates for both sexual abstinence and protected sex among teens, which is usually set as a dichotomy in the American culture. You can see how that plays out in this PSA from the Foundation featuring teen mom Bristol Palin, who campaigns for abstinence and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino who says he is all about protected sex.

The Foundation’s campaigns run in teen magazines and youth electronic media. The ad above, from the Alden Keene Cause Marketing Database, ran in the May 31, 2010 issue of J14 magazine. That's Bristol Palin and son Tripp. Bristol, now 20, has been the Foundation’s primary spokesperson since 2009.

The PSAs and ads are celebrity heavy: Hayden Panettiere, Beyoncé, Vanessa Minnillo, Ashley Tisdale, Hilary Duff, Ashlee Simpson, Usher, and others. From my point of view the print ads work better than the video PSAs. One of the PSAs depict a teen boy and girl in a car rounding second and heading for home before being ironically interrupted by the realities and responsibilities of parenthood.

Seeing ads like that makes me wonder if they don’t have a counter-effect. I know of a former smoker, for instance, who can’t watch certain movies because the sexy way smoking is portrayed therein makes him crave the wicked weed again. One medical researcher’s study confirms in part that anecdote.

The Foundation’s website says that the campaigns have gotten remarkable attention. “Since its inception in 2001, Candie’s Foundation ads have been seen by millions of teens across America…Our ads have made more than 500 million media impressions in all major teen media outlets…”

Five hundred million media impressions is a very big number over the course of 10 years. Big enough that certain key staffers at the Foundation could parlay that into a pretty sweet job at a big ad agency.

But is the campaign effective?

Here’s what the website says:

“Our campaigns are making a difference. Research has shown that teen girls who have been exposed to the foundation and its messages are more likely to view teen pregnancy and parenthood as stressful and negative, and they are more likely to be skeptical of the media's portrayal of teen pregnancy and parenting. They also think teens should wait longer to have sex than girls who are not aware of the foundation and its messages.”

Ignore the grammatical strain that last sentence is under and concentrate on the claim being made: teen girls who have been exposed to the Foundation’s campaigns see the negatives of teen pregnancy and parenthood more so than teen girls who haven’t seen the campaigns.

Certainly I’m glad for that. But what I really wish the Foundation could claim is that teen girls who are exposed to the campaign are much less likely to get pregnant.

What do you think? Does this campaign work for you? What, if anything, would you change about it?

Business to Business Cause Marketing

Generally cause marketing is targeted to consumers. But there are examples of B2B (business to business) cause marketing, including the one at the left.

There’s a lot of moving parts in this promotion, so bear with me for a paragraph or two of explanation.

When you buy an ad that will appear in a special tabloid-sized insert in both of Salt Lake City’s daily newspapers, 10% of the ad price will go to purchase books for children in low-income homes. The insert drops on Sunday, March 27, 2011.

The insert will be about the “Utah Story Literacy Event,” which is a telethon/radiothon event to be held March 30, 2011 with a goal of raising $1 million.

The money raised from the event will go to the Road to Success program, which will use the funds to place children’s books in low-income homes.

Road to Success was started by the Robert H. and Katherine B. Garff Foundation. Robert Garff, a prominently local community leader, owns the Ken Garff Automotive Group, a collection of about two dozen car dealerships in Utah.

The Ken Garff Automotive Group also sponsors the Road to Success, an early reading program for students in Utah elementary schools. Garff also sponsors Keys to Success which rewards high-achieving high school students with things like iPads and even used cars from the Ken Garff Automotive Group.

Salt Lake City’s two dailies have separate newsrooms and are separately owned but they are operated under a joint operating agreement. Both publishing groups share ownership of Media One, which prints the newspapers and sells all their advertising.

Media One was the earliest media sponsor of both Keys to Success and the Road to Success. With the Utah Story Literacy Event insert Media One has the opportunity to sell a little advertising inventory as well as support the fundraising goal of its long-time partner.

The challenge for Media One will be, who will want to sponsor the insert? Existing sponsors are a likely starting point for Media One. However, I’ve worked on these kinds of newspaper inserts myself and we carved out ad space to recognize big sponsors, although Media One’s arrangement with Utah Story Literacy Event may be different.

What do you think? What are some examples of B2B cause marketing you’ve seen?

Using Cause Marketing to Preserve Retail Pricing Power

The Consumer Wars have been fought, and frankly, Consumers won. In the process, retailers ceded their pricing power and maybe their sustainability. Can cause marketing come to the rescue?

That question came after reading the unsigned editorial at the left in a recent issue of Outdoor USA Magazine, a trade publication of the outdoor retailers and manufacturers industry. The editorial is specifically about the dangers to outdoor retailers of using Groupon. But at a broader level for retailers it's really about preserving brand, margins, maybe even the business itself in this post-Consumer world.

Groupon really isn’t the problem so much as it is the symptom. After-all retailers have had deep-discount sales promotions in their arsenal for generations. Instead, Groupon is another sign that retailers don’t have many weapons left in that arsenal to preserve pricing power. Opines the magazine’s editors;

“At the end of the day, marketing channels like Groupon and Facebook Deals are really just new version of old traffic triggers like the ‘one-day only’ sale. And just like those old-school traffic-driving gimmicks, they tempt retailers into a discount death spriral.”

For all the similarities between Groupon and old-school One-day sales, what’s different is that consumers can now walk into a retail establishment, check the price, pull out their smart phone, scan the barcode using a $5 app and instantly see what the best price online is for that exact item, and then order it. In the post-consumer world retail shops are, in effect, now showrooms first and sales floors second.

Cause marketing can’t necessarily save retail. But it can help.

For instance, both REI and The North Face choose a cause marketing promotions, when using the nascent Facebook Deals, the editorial reports. Instead of offering a discount or a freebie, both companies instead donated $1 to charity when customers checked in.

What do you think? How can cause marketing help retailers remain viable in a competitive marketplace?

Scaling Up Your Cause Marketing

March Madness won’t start for another week or so, but as an adopted Canadian, I’m already thinking about who will win the Stanley Cup, probably some time in June.

The Stanley Cup is the most storied trophy in professional sport in North America, dating to 1893. Unlike other trophies it’s permanent. That is, a new trophy is not made for each championship. It’s also the only trophy that is engraved with the names of the players and management from each championship team.

How do they manage that without making the trophy too ginormous to hoist, even for the Great One as seen at the left?

Well the trophy itself stays the same size; about three-feet tall and 35 pounds. It features a cup at the top with graduated bands or rings below that. Beneath those are five larger bands of the same size. Each of those bands has space for 13 championships. As they fill, the band at the top is removed and displayed at Hockey Hall of Fame and a new blank band is added to the bottom. Using this method, the Stanley Cup trophy could still be around for another 118 years. Even longer.

In short, the Stanley Cup is built to scale up.

But this wasn’t always so. The modern shape of the Cup dates from 1958 or so and the decision to remove the topmost band as the trophy filled with names started only in 1991.

That raises some questions for cause marketers. Is your campaign built to scale up? And if it’s not, what can you do to adjust on the fly, as the NHL has with the Stanley Cup Trophy?

Take some lessons from Lord Stanley’s trophy.

1). “Begin with the end in mind.” The original part of the Cup filled up quickly with engraved names and so the graduated bands were added beneath. As those filled, the first option considered was to continue to add graduated bands. But that would have eventually proved unwieldy. With the five large bands, they lit upon a system that could scale infinitely.

You can learn on the fly in your cause marketing too. But if you want your campaign to be able to grow you need to put in place systems that will enable that growth. Stephen R. Covey put it best, “begin with the end in mind.”

2). Give your campaign some personality. Babies have been baptized in the Cup. Dogs have taken their kibble from the Cup. By tradition winners of the Cup drink champagne from the bowl. The Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger hoisted the Cup high above his head in the classic style when the Anaheim Ducks won it back in 2007. So have countless other non-players. But professional hockey players have a superstition about even touching the trophy if their team didn’t win it.

Maybe you’ll invent the next great cause marketing promotion that will be copied forever after and maybe you won’t. But even if you’re just doing another label or cap or paper icon campaign, you can and should give it some personality.

3). Pass on the lore. Lore is knowledge or teaching that’s been passed on. As it tours the Stanley Cup is accompanied by minders from the Hockey Hall of Fame. Their job is to protect the Cup, make travel arrangements, handle scheduling and the like. But of course they also are the ambassadors of the cup responsible for passing down the dos and don’ts. Charities and agencies commonly suffer from horrendous turnover. But unless there’s a system for passing on the knowledge of how best to run your campaign, that knowledge could walk out the door forever when the key person leaves your firm.

4). Make your campaign transparent. Want to know who was on the Montreal Canadiens with Henri Richard in 1970-71? It’s there on the Stanley Cup for all to see. Likewise your cause marketing campaign will scale better if it’s transparent. That is, if people easily and quickly understand the premise, if they know what will happen with the money and if they know the charity will be a good steward of the money, no matter the amount.

What else can cause marketers learn from the storied Stanley Cup? Please comment below.

Buy One, Give One, Get One Cause Marketing

The Luxury Collection Hotels and Resorts, a unit of Starwood Hotels and Resorts, is offering travelers the classic deal you can’t refuse benefiting UNICEF.

When you book and complete a 2, 3 or 4-day stay before March 30, 2011 at one of their luxe properties you’ll not only get one or two free night stays, but $1 will be donated to UNICEF in support of malaria prevention efforts in Africa and polio, TB and measles immunizations worldwide.

It’s a logical extension of Buy One, Give One (BOGO). Only this one could be called Buy One, Give One, Get One (BOGOGO).

The ad at the left is from November 2009. I found it in the Alden Keene Cause Marketing Database. But the promotion has been picked up again in 2011 and ends this month.

The donation amount…$1… is modest. But high end brands like the ones in the Luxury Collection face a branding and pricing challenge in offering a larger donation amount. A room with two double beds at The Phoenician in Phoenix... one of their 12 properties in the United States... goes for around $437 a night, while a casita with a king bed starts at around $1300 a night.

If Luxury Collection sets the UNICEF donation at, say, 10 percent of the room rate, is that any more likely to get you to extend your stay than if you just took them up on their Linger promotion? I doubt it. Instead the $1 represents a ‘skin in the game’ amount.

That said, I can imagine a few simple ways to extend the promotion and the benefit to UNICEF. Here’s one:

The Phoenician has three restaurants onsite and four other lounges or cause dining places. Imagine that The Phoenician’s chefs were challenged to come up with a drink or dessert… something spectacular and/or unexpected… whose purchase also benefited UNICEF during a concomitant promotional period.

What do you think of Luxury Collection Hotels and Resorts cause promotion? What would you add or do differently?

Your Webmaster Needs to Know About Your Cause Marketing

In the vitamin and supplement business one all-purpose word you see often is ‘support.’

Here’s a few from the Vitamin World website:

• “Helps Support Sugar Metabolism,” about a cinnamon supplement.
• “Supports Bone Health,” about a calcium supplement.
• “Nutritionally supports antioxidant health,” about a resveratrol supplement.

Too bad Vitamin World’s webmaster couldn’t do a little more to more clearly demonstrate the company’s support of the nonprofit charity Vitamin Angels.

Vitamin Angels supports about 20 million children worldwide, usually with Vitamin A and multivitamin supplements. The Vitamin Angels website says that 1/3 of all childhood deaths worldwide are cause by malnutrition. Vitamin A deficiency in particular is a common cause of both childhood mortality and blindness. The lives of millions of children could be saved by easy to administer vitamin supplements.

Supplements are easy to make and deliver to children and mothers at key moments, which in a nutshell is what Vitamin Angels does. Vitamin World, a discount vitamin and herbal supplement manufacturer and retailer is one of Vitamin Angels biggest supporters. If you order online you can add a donation to Vitamin Angels when you checkout.

Alas that is all I could find from Vitamin World about its support of the charity using its site search tool. For that matter, there was nothing in the About Us section that told me about what Vitamin World does in terms of community support. There was nothing at the bottom of any page that said that Vitamin World supported Vitamin Angels’ vital mission.

That combined with this rather modest use of the Vitamin Angel logo in the FSI at the left served to give me a rather dim initial view of Vitamin World’s commitment to the charity.

By contrast, Vitamin Angels recognizes Vitamin World among its Founder’s Circle, its highest level of donors which recognizes sponsors who have donated $200,000 or more.

It was only after I did a Google site search of www.vitaminworld.com that my opinion began to change. The search turned up 1,100 results on the exact words “Vitamin Angels.” For instance, in February Vitamin World offered customers a reusable tote bag with the profits headed to Vitamin Angels, among other efforts.

In short, Vitamin World’s support appears to be both genuine and generous.

Someone just needs to get that message of support to the Vitamin World webmaster.

The Art of Cause Marketing

Today I profile two cause marketing efforts that use art as a vehicle to fundraise on behalf of two different nonprofits.

The first, from the Alden Keene Cause Marketing Database, is sponsored by The New Yorker magazine. When you buy the cover art from Jan. 25, 2010, an evocative piece called “The Resurrection of the Dead” by Frantz Zephirin, The New Yorker will donate profits from print sales to Partners in Health, a charity based in Boston serving health care needs in Haiti, Malawi, Peru, Rwanda and elsewhere.

The prints start at $125 and range up to $445. There's a lot of room in those price points for profit depending on whether or not The New Yorker and/or Zephirin takes a cut. Zephirin’s home was in Mariani, very near the epicenter of the devastating Jan 12, 2010 earthquake. It’s admirable how quickly The New Yorker put together this promotion.

The three characters in the doorway are guede, spirits who guard the space between life and death. In that way they’re similar to the Janus characters in the Alden Keene logo at the top of the far right column of this blog. Janus was the Roman god of transitions and was often placed over doorways or at fence gates in Ancient Rome.

The other featured cause marketing campaign using art is from a charity fundraiser that featured hand-made pottery bowls filled with soup. The bowls cost between $5 and $20, and were filled with soup. The bowls were donated by local potters and the soup came from a local caterer.

The fundraiser, called Bowls for Humanity, took place Friday, March 4, 2011 and benefited the Food & Care Coalition, a nonprofit food bank and resource center for the homeless in and around Provo, Utah.

It’s hard to know if the modest price reflects the local economy or if there’s just a huge oversupply of potters in Provo, but $5 for a hand made bowl that includes soup strikes me as a bargain. For that matter $20 is too.

I like the intersection of art and cause marketing, but I think both campaigns could be profitably extended a little further. The New Yorker ought to offer a limited edition hand-signed signed by the artist Frantz Zephirin, say 100 pieces on canvas. The price ought to reflect the scarcity of the prints. A few could be held out for auctions for Partners in Health fundraising events.

Food & Care Coalition could ask patrons of Bowls for Humanity to use the soup bowl to collect their pocket change throughout the year. Then bring it in either periodically or at the next event. If they donate more than, say, $15 they should get a free bowl of soup at the next Bowls for Humanity fundraiser. Breadsticks would be extra ;).

How would you extend these artful promotions?

Let's Make Cause Marketing Donations Tax Deductible

If you go to a charity gala in the United States the price of the tickets is tax deductible after the cost of the meal and other benefits is subtracted. If you donate used household items or a used car to a 501(c)(3), you get a tax receipt from the charity equal to the fair market value of the donation. Donations of bonds or stock or art or gold or real property are all likewise tax deductible.

But currently cause marketing donations are not tax deductible.

The paper icon at the left benefiting my state's Special Olympics chapter from a local grocery chain made my wonder… again… why Americans can’t get a tax deduction for charitable donations generated through cause marketing efforts?

When you buy the paper icon… available in $1, $3 and $5 versions… the clerk tears off the bottom portion, scans it, and hands it back to you to sign. After you’ve done so, you keep the top portion and bottom half gets displayed in the store, a chain called Harmons.

It would be a simple matter for the back of the top half of the icon to have a letter of deductibility from the charity with a facsimile signature from the executive officer.

Because the paper icon has no value, the deduction would be for the full amount.

I won’t argue that a $1 or a $3 or even a $5 deduction will change the amount that Americans give to charity or increase the likelihood that they’ll give. I doubt it would.

But over the years I’ve see a lot of cause marketing donations that have been for $50 or $150, even $300 and more. That’s real money and it deserves to be treated the same as any other charitable donation.

What do you think? Should cause marketing donations be tax deductible?

Lessons from 4 Big, Successful Single-Element Cause Marketing Campaigns

There are a handful of big ‘single-element' cause marketing campaigns that have been around for decades, and in their longevity they hold lessons for cause marketers everywhere. Today I'll review four of the very best and discuss what we can learn from them.

First some caveats.

I'm going to list four campaigns not because there are only four, but because any more than that would make this post unwieldy. Three-fourths of them are North American because frankly, I'm most familiar with them. The fourth... Red Nose Day... is from the UK. That's some of their publicity material on the left

If you have examples from somewhere else that should be on this list, by all means leave a comment or email me at aldenkeene @ gmail dot com. I'd love to feature campaigns from other places.

Here's how I determined my list. I looked at large-scale campaigns that have been around for at least 10 years, have broad appeal and have raised at least $50 million over their term.

I eliminated all the walks, runs, bike-a-thons, etc. Although those kinds of campaigns frequently have cause marketing elements, they are best characterized as events. Likewise I haven't counted multiple-element campaigns like the Red Dress program, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Thanks and Giving from St. Jude, and the RED campaign.

I'm highlighting only campaigns with a single main element. Because like a single malt whiskey (I'm told), or a single-source chocolate, these single-element campaigns have a purity in their concentration and focus; you're only getting one thing. Having only one major element also makes it easier for me to parse out the lessons.

Without further ado here are four world-beating, large-scale, long-standing, big-money cause marketing campaigns:

1. Campbell’s Labels for Education campaign. In more 30 years Campbell’s Labels for Education has provided in excess of $110 million in school supplies and merchandise. Currently, 60,000 schools and organizations in the U.S. are registered with Label’s for Education benefiting some 42 million kids. More than 250 items among Campbell’s brands… Prego, Pepperidge Farm, V8, Swanson, & Franco American, and some of Campbell’s food service brands… carry a point value of one five or ten points. People are encouraged to bring the required part of the label to a local school. At the school employee or volunteer combines the labels. An online 51-page catalog lists the items available along with the required points. A student snare drum kit is 23,300 points. A DVD player is 4,400 points. A full-size basketball is 1,000 points.
2. General Mills Box Tops for Education. Labels for Education is plainly the model for General Mills’ Box Tops for Education. But General Mills expanded and improved on the concept. Consequently, in just over 15 years General Mills has given away $340 million to American schools. In the Box Tops campaign the values are standardized… every boxtop is worth 10 cents… and hundreds of General Mills’ products are eligible. Some 95,000 schools participate. In 2005 non-competing brands from other companies joined the program. A number of products from Bic are also now part of Campbell’s Label’s for Education program. One of the most notable improvements General Mills has over the Campbell’s program is that Box Tops rewards cash rather than merchandise.
3. US Postal Service Breast Cancer Semipostal Stamps. The enormously successful breast cancer research stamps literally required a change in U.S. law. Before the 1997 change in law it was unlawful for the US Post Office to charge more than the face value of a stamp. The Breast Cancer Stamps are sold for 55 cents and are valid for a one ounce first class envelope. That’s currently 11 cents more than a regular first class stamp. Through the September 2010 approximately $896 million in breast cancer stamps have been sold generating more than $71 million for two Federal research agencies: the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense Medical Research Program.
4. Red Nose Day in the UK. Started in 1988 by Comic Relief, the Red Nose Day is now held every two years. The next one is coming up on Friday, March 18, 2011. People are encouraged to do all kinds of stuff… the sillier the better... to raise money. It culminates in a sort of a telethon that airs that night on BBC. The money is split 60-40 between the needy in Africa and in the UK. BBC underwrites the telethon and corporate sponsors underwrite other costs such that Comic Relief has remained true to its ‘Golden Pound Principle;’ that is, every shilling that’s raised goes to the causes. The Red Nose Day raised more than ₤75 million in 2009.

Fortunes at the Bottom of the Pyramid

All four campaigns are classic examples of ‘the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid’ thinking.

The book of the same name by C.K. Prahalad, who died in April 2010, lays out how technology… and new ways of thinking about customers… can enable companies to deliver products and services of value to the four billion people across the globe who live on less than $2 a day.

In a similar way, these four single-element campaigns raise big money, not by asking for large donations, but by asking for small ones. The US Postal Service Breast Cancer Semipostal Stamp generates just six pennies at a pop! The Box Tops for Education campaign from General Mills just 10 cents.

Needless to say, this flies in the face of conventional wisdom in fundraising which goes something like this: ‘it’s just as much work to ask for a modest donation as a big one, so you might as well ask for a big one.’ In other words, focus on the top of the pyramid.

That’s rational thinking. But it leaves money on the table.

What can we learn from these four world-beating, large-scale, long-standing, big-money, single-element cause marketing campaigns?

At least the following:

1. Earnestness is fine. But a sense of humor can really help. The Red Nose Day in the U.K. has a very serious mission; alleviating poverty in Africa and helping the disadvantaged in the UK. But Red Nose Day is fun and light-hearted. Even when they show the people being helped, they avoid taking the pity approach.
2. The best campaigns have a strong media component. Labels for Education is in almost every FSI Campbell’s puts out (see above). Box Tops is on nearly every box that leaves General Mills, year-round. Red Nose Day takes over the BBC programming for an entire night and is promoted on-air before and after Red Nose Day is over. Many US Post Offices perpetually leave up posters for the breast cancer stamp.
3. Expand your ‘circle of trust.’ General Mills could have been content to keep their campaign entirely in house. Instead they broadened to include other non-competing brands. Ziploc and others like it because they get to participate in a proven campaign at low cost. General Mills likes it because it expands the reach of its Box Tops brand. Schools and students reap the rewards of General Mills outside the box thinking, pun intended.
4. You may have to move heaven and earth or worse…US Congress… to put your campaign in place. Labels for Education put its whole merchandise catalog online. Box Tops for Education conducts all its business via the Internet, except the shipping of Box Tops. Red Nose Day puts together a monster comedy show on television, plus it suggests dozens if not hundreds of ways for regular folks to do grassroots, plus it has to have in place themed merchandise, drop off points and donation collection procedures. No wonder they only do it every other year. In order for the US Postal Service to charge more than the standard rate for first class postage it literally required an act of Congress.
5. If the cause has real appeal, you don’t have to offer pricing discounts. When cause marketing is ultimately realized it preserves pricing power. The breast cancer stamp costs more than regular first class postage, not less. And still they’ve sold so many that $52 million has been raised. All you brand managers think about that for a moment. All you charity marketers ask yourself if your brand is that strong.
6. Big numbers and technology are your friends. The US Postal Service annually prints 35 billion stamps. That’s a big number. There are about 70 million schoolkids in the United States. That’s a big number too. The power at the bottom of the pyramid is the power of large numbers. Technology can help you effectively and efficiently reach down to the bottom of the pyramid. When Campbell’s first started Labels for Education, they had to print and distribute their catalog. No longer. Red Nose Day allows you to make your pledge and fulfill it completely online.

'Where's the Beef?' Cause Marketing

If you’re a NASCAR fan imagine racing against other skilled fans in full pro-race conditions at Daytona. Or imagine a little 11 on 11 action against other amateurs playing “the beautiful game” in between periods at the finals of the World Cup.

Nature Valley Granola Bars sponsors something very like that for amateur golfers in the United States called the Nature Valley Amateur. Meet the requirements, sign up, pay your fee (it’s never more than a couple hundred dollars) and you get to play against other amateur golfers on TPC courses across the country. The ad at the left is from Golf Digest in 2009, but the series is planned again for 2011.

At the end of the Nature Valley Amateur series, a championship is held at the famed TPC Sawgrass in Florida, headquarters of the PGA! TPC means Tournament Players Club, a chain of golf clubs operated by the PGA and optimized for professional tournaments.

Pretty cool, right? If you’re a competitive amateur golfer what a thrill it would be “step inside the ropes” as the press materials put it and test yourself against other fine amateurs on the very same courses the pros use.

So far we’re just talking about a corporate sponsorship campaign, not cause marketing per se. Except that Nature Valley Golf specifically identifies The First Tee as a partner in the ad and on the website. The First Tee is a nonprofit charity that works to introduce kids to the game of golf and teach them all its gentlemanly/gentlewomanly devoirs.

The First Tee has nine core values it endeavors to teach kids: Sportmanship; Respect; Confidence; Responsibility; Perseverance; Courtesy; Judgment; Honesty; Integrity.

The mission is equally high minded:

“To impact the lives of young people by providing educational programs that build character, instill life-enhancing values and promote healthy choices through the game of golf.”

(I can’t resist saying that I’ve been impacted by the game of golf once of twice when the foursome behind me neglected to call out ‘fore!’ I apologize in advance to anyone offended by that dumb quip. But any organization that’s still using the word ‘impact’ in a mission statement deserves what they get).

I looked all over the Nature Valley Golf and The First Tee websites, but I couldn’t see how The First Tee is tangibly benefited by its association with the Nature Valley Amateur, although I certainly could have missed something.

But you don’t have to think too hard about how The First Tee could be tangibly benefited by its association with the Nature Valley Amateur. Golf may be the most generous game in all of sport when it comes to charitable fundraising. Every nonprofit in North America knows how to raise money with golf tournaments, just as every golf course in America has hosted at least some nonprofit fundraising.

So where’s the beef for The First Tee?

Cause Marketing to Build Customer Loyalty

Suppose you face a fiercely competitive consumer-facing marketplace that was once a served by a regulated monopoly. How would you compete?

In the deregulated Georgia natural gas market, one company is using cause marketing.

In 1997 the Georgia Public Service Commission deregulated the natural gas market. The former monopoly, Atlanta Gas Light Company now provides only the pipes. The price of gas is no longer determined by regulators but by the market. The State has certified 11 natural gas marketers to sell to and service the market.

Not surprisingly those 11 compete on price, rebates, add-ons, promotions, and customer service. That’s because the gas is exactly the same no matter who markets it. And the delivery of the gas is still handled by Atlanta Gas Light Company, no matter who markets it.

My many astute readers are probably asking where the money comes from for the marketers to be so aggressive. The answer is that there’s a monthly access fee of about $45 apart from the cost of gas.

To this outsider it doesn’t look very different than the satellite TV market, which is delivered by Dish and DirectTV, but sold by numerous independent local marketers.

That kind of competition can be a kind of a merry-go-round. The customers churn a lot. They chase bargains. They’re literally being paid not to be loyal.

One of these Georgia gas marketers… Fireside Natural Gas… is trying to get off the merry-go-round with a cause marketing approach. From February 21 to February 28, 2011, Firesides’ Facebook page accepted nominations for one charity to receive $1,000 donation. From March 1 to March 15, 2011, Fireside wants you to friend them and vote on one the nominees.

I like the idea of Fireside using cause marketing to build loyalty. But there’s almost nothing in the way they’ve approached it that’s likely to build loyalty, including the paltry donation amount.

My hope is that Fireside will keep at it long enough to either figure out a more effective approach, or that they hire some professional help.


Tip of the hat to Kate L.

Big Cause Marketing From a Small Business

Years ago Junior Achievement had one of the most cleared-eyed policy manuals on cause marketing I’ve ever come across. It was insightful, strictly ethical, thorough, and filled with good ideas. And you’re going to have to take my word on all that because I can’t find it in my files or on the Junior Achievement website. If anybody has a copy, I’d love to see it again.

But I wonder what that Junior Achievement policy manual would have said about this modest campaign from an AlphaGraphics store in Salt Lake City?

In celebration of the store’s founding and the owner’s birthday, they’re hosting a BBQ benefiting Junior Achievement next Wednesday. Proceeds from the sale of the meal benefit the nonprofit charity whose three-part mission is youth development, education development, and economic development.

The programs and materials at Junior Achievement (JA) are strong. It calls on more than 375,000 volunteers worldwide who serve tens of millions of kids. It has a clean operating record, a long history, a broad reach, and an important mission.

The result is that JA is like catnip for sponsors. HP, Fedex, Sam’s Club, General Electric, Barclays Bank, Citi, Capital One, and others all give $500,000 or more a year. AT&T gives more than $5 million. And the postcard sized handcard at the left demonstrates that Junior Achievement is attractive to small companies, too.

If JA has a challenge it may be that there’s not much emotion traveling along with all its common sense appeal. That may be why they filled their 2010 annual report with so many images of Junior Achievers from desperately poor conditions.

So far as it goes there’s nothing wrong with this local campaign except a poverty of ambition. JA is an estimable cause and a terrific fit for AlphaGraphics. It deserves more.

• Why not close the street block the store is on and hold some kind of 'beat the pro' contest with players from the Utah Jazz (the NBA team) or the Real Salt Lake (Major League Soccer team) for a small donation? And invite their cheerleaders too.
  
• What about a long putt competition for $10 a putt? That would be fun/different on pavement. Structured correctly, an insurance policy would allow you to offer a $10,000 top prize for couple hundred dollars.
  
• Where’s the auction element? Where's the raffle?
  
• Will the mayor be there? What about the Chamber of Commerce?
  
• Why not invite local TV?
  
• What about a radio remote?
  
• Have the newspapers been alerted?
  
• The Facebook element is nice, but where’s the rest of social media outreach? This oughta be the site of meetups for several Twitter groups for the week.
  
• Where’s the appearance by the hotshot JA alumni who’s gone on to create XYZTech?
  
• Why not let all local JA volunteers eat free so long as they bring along a pal that pays for himself or herself?

All that could be done for free or at discounted rates by invoking the cause and all would also greatly benefit this AlphaGraphics store.

What else could AlphaGraphics do inexpensively to generate funds and awareness? Weigh in with your ideas in the comments section below.