Bounceback Cause Marketing

Cause marketing sponsors might have several reasons for engaging in cause marketing including boosting sales, building brand, and bolstering PR, among others. One of those goals might also be to give customers a good reason to come back after supporting a cause. Informally, it’s called a bounceback and you’ll see it commonly in retail settings for food and other consumables.

At the left is a current cause marketing campaign from Arby’s on behalf of a fundraiser called Happy Not Hungry that benefits childhood hunger fighting efforts from the Arby’s Foundation.

Make a donation to Happy Not Hungry during the month of September and you’ll get a coupon for a free item from Arby’s value menu, when you also purchase something else.

Although the flyer doesn’t mention it, the money passes through the Arby’s Foundation to No Kid Hungry campaign from the anti-hunger cause Share Our Strength.

There’s two elements to get right in a bounceback offer.

The first is that it has to both move people to donate as well as give them a compelling reason to come back.

The second is much more bottom-line. After you get people in your store, you gotta get them spending money.

A free coupon with no further purchase requirements might satisfy the first requirement, but not the second. It’s a fact of life that if people don’t have to spend money they won’t. So a free coupon with no purchase requirements guarantees that many people won’t crack open their wallets.

In this case the purchase requirement doesn’t carry a minimum dollar amount, so presumably you could buy small cup of coffee or a turnover and fill the terms of the coupon.

Naturally Arby’s is hoping that once you’re in the store you’ll get a hankering for some curly fries as well. After all, your main menu item is free.

Normally these kinds of bounceback efforts have a paper element; the coupon in this case. But they needn’t be. Arby’s could certainly offer the coupon as a text, an email, or even as a debit card.

Arby’s could also extend the cause marketing part of the promotion to the bounceback as well. For instance, spend at least 10 additional dollars on your bounceback trip and Arby’s will match your $1 donation to the Arby’s Foundation.

Or, perhaps Arby’s could reward your bounceback in a non-monetary way. A Foursquare badge. An attaboy on Facebook or Twitter. Your name or picture added to Happy Not Hungry’s Pinterest page or an Internet donor wall. A cool ring tone for your phone. Your name in lights on Arby’s electronic menu boards, etc.

Batting Your Eyelashes at Prescription Drug Cause Marketing

I’m a little chary about making sweeping pronouncements, but I believe I've just seen the first cause marketing promotion in the U.S. involving a prescription drug. The drug is from Allergan and it’s called Latisse , “the first and only FDA-approved prescription treatment for inadequate or not enough eyelashes.” The medical name for this condition is hypotrichosis. Latisse is lifestyle drug the way Viagra or Propecia are. That is, no one’s going to die (except, perhaps, of embarrassment) if their erectile dysfunction or male pattern baldness or thin eyelashes go untreated. Which means the positioning for a product like Latisse is a little tricky. Allergan could have gone with the sexy route as with Viagra or Cialis and showed lovely women batting their new longer, thicker, darker eyelashes. But I’ll bet that approach didn’t test well with women. (I’m reminded of a joke about the Cialis ads from a comedian whose name I can’t recall. He said, “Hey if my erection lasts longer than ...

Cause Marketing: The All Packaging Edition

One way to activate a cause marketing campaign when the sponsor sells a physical product is on the packaging. I started my career in cause marketing on the charity side and I can tell you that back in the day we were thrilled to get a logo on pack of a consumer packaged good (CPG) or even just a mention. Since then, there’s been a welcome evolution of what sponsors are willing and able to do with their packaging in order to activate their cause sponsorships. That said, even today some sponsors don’t seem to have gotten the memo that when it comes to explaining your cause campaign, more really is more, even on something as small as a can or bottle. The savviest sponsors realize that their only guaranteed means of reaching actual customers with a cause marketing message is by putting it on packaging. And the reach and frequency of the media on packaging for certain high-volume CPG items is almost certainly greater than radio, print or outdoor advertising, and, in many cases, TV. More to ...

Chili’s and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

I was in Chili’s today and I ordered their “Triple-Dipper,” a three appetizer combo. While I waited for the food, I noticed another kind of combo. Chili’s is doing a full-featured cause-related marketing campaign for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. There was a four-sided laminated table tent outlining the campaign on the table. When the waitress brought the drinks she slapped down Chili’s trademark square paper beverage coasters and on them was a call to action for an element of the campaign called ‘Create-A-Pepper,’ a kind of paper icon campaign. The wait staff was all attired in black shirts co-branded with Chili’s and St. Jude. The Create-A-Pepper paper icon could be found in a stack behind the hostess area. The Peppers are outlines of Chili’s iconic logo meant to be colored. I paid $1 for mine, but they would have taken $5, $10, or more. The crayons, too, were co-branded with the ‘Create-A-Pepper’ and St. Jude’s logos. There’s also creatapepper.com, a microsite, but again wi...

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