An Interview with a Student Journalist II

This is the second half of an interview with University of Georgia Journalism Student Cathryn McIntosh on the subject of cause-related marketing. Read the first half here.

As before, I've edited this a little bit; this time because of some typos and to clarify some answers. Yikes! Needless to say as a former journalism student myself, I haven't been a good mentor when it comes to providing clean copy. So do what I say Cathryn, not what I do.

Ms. McIntosh's questions are in italics and my answers follow.

Do you think people take time to investigate the causes tied to the items they purchase? (i.e. A leopard printed bracelet “to save the leopards in Timbuktu?”)

That depends. By now I think we all know what the American Cancer Society is about or the Heart Association. Those causes either move you or they don’t. Newer entities like Susan G. Komen and Make-A-Wish probably have pretty good top of mind awareness, too. For the majority of us, those charities don’t require a lot of due diligence.

Likewise, if the price of the item in question is small, it’s not terribly rational to conduct lengthy research on whether or not the cause meets your definition of being truly worthy. If the waiter says, “When you buy our creme brulee, $0.50 goes to famine relief,” you don’t really need to first look at the charity’s 990 (tax return).

Oreck made a larger donation to hurricane relief when you bought one of their vacuums. I might look into an organization’s background if the donation were north of $25.

But maybe your question is, ‘can a cause marketing campaign help me to look at organization I’m unfamiliar with even though the donation in question is small?’ In that case, the answer is yes, if the campaign is designed with that intent and well-executed it can do just that.

What do you think is the most successful campaign right now? Why?

Before the news broke about RED I would have pointed the finger at them. There’s really two kinds of campaigns that I have a lot of praise for. First of all, the long-standing single-element campaigns: General Mills runs a good one for schools. Yoplait’s campaign for Susan G. Komen is pretty good, too. Then there’s the big omnibus campaigns with lots of moving parts. The Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign is admirable. Likewise Susan G. Komen’s efforts during breast cancer month (October) are admirable. There’s a lot to like about St. Jude’s Thanks & Giving effort, too. I live in Salt Lake City and I’ve always thought highly of the Utah Food Bank’s cause marketing campaign in advance of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

How do businesses decide which causes to support?

There’s a couple of approaches, at least.

One is to take a strategic approach. Say you’re a food manufacturer, then a strong strategic approach is to support a hunger cause. For instance, Campbells does its Stamp Out Hunger campaign with the US Postal Service that benefits food banks nationwide.
Another approach is to support the cause that generates the most passion among your ownership or employees. Munchkin Inc., which makes handy stuff for kids and parents, supports Susan G. Komen because the young wife of the VP of marketing contracted breast cancer.
You could just be true to your brand. Ben & Jerry’s darn near has to support causes like the Waterwheel Foundation to be true to itself and to meet the expectations of its customers.
They’re not as common, but there are instances of what I call ‘Business to Business Cause-Related Marketing.’ McLane, a distributor to the convenience store industry, supports CMN and has brought along a large handful of C-store chains to CMN. While I know for a fact that the people at McLane really have their hearts in this effort, they started doing B2B cause marketing because their customers... the c-stores... benefit from it.
Find out what your audience is interested in or what issues they respond to and then find a corresponding charity.

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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