B2B Cause Marketing

Throughout 2013 Rose Paving, which provides parking lot services to commercial and industrial properties nationwide, is raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Parking lot services means that Rose Paving does stuff like patching asphalt parking lots, marking them with parking stripes, repairing walks and installing and maintaining curbs, gutters, and storm sewers, and the like. This is a real B2B business. There’s not a consumer in sight anywhere in Rose’s business model.

As I often say in this space, most cause marketing is undertaken by companies that face the consumer. But not always. This is plainly a case of B2B cause marketing.

So how is Rose going to raise money for St. Jude, do a Facebook like campaign? Not exactly. Although if you do like Rose on Facebook you can get details about the effort.

Instead, Rose is taking its appeals to its customers… industrial and commercial property developers and managers… at the trade shows it exhibits at. Rose’s various booths will feature a banner in support of St. Jude that they’ll ask prospects and visitors to sign. For each signature Rose gets, the company will donate $5 to St. Jude.

St. Jude is a big cause marketing brand. The amount of money the charity gets from this effort by Rose Paving isn’t likely to go very far into the five figures. But I applaud St. Jude for taking on a campaign that many of its peers would have said no to.

Many of the big cause marketing charities have boxed themselves out smaller cause marketing efforts by demanding huge commitments and upfront money, thereby leaving money on the table from unconventional sources. And few know enough about the B2B space to be able to even suggest campaign elements to would-be sponsors.

Good for Rose Paving and St. Jude for partnering in this B2B cause marketing effort.