Jo-Ann, Fiskars and the American Heart Association

Woman 18-34, Enjoys Scrapbooking, Seeks Marketers Who Can Make Her Care

Scrapbooking is now the biggest chunk of the craft and hobby industry in North America, according to the Craft and Hobby Association, with estimated annual sales of $2.44 billion in 2006, a growth rate of 2.4 percent over 2005. The total craft and hobby market size is estimated to be $30 billion.

I only just found these figures, but they don’t surprise me. I live with a scrapbooker/ cardmaker. One of my wife’s sisters works for a company that has a substantial (more than 200 SKUs) scrapbook line. My wife and her sister have been to at least a half-dozen scrapbook shows together from Texas on west.

The research I saw from the Craft and Hobby Association, doesn’t break out the female-male gender ratio in scrapbooking, but I think it’s fair to say that more women than men scrapbook. The research does show that the age group most likely to scrapbook is 18-34, an attractive demo to nonprofits and to companies alike.

The research, conducted by IPSOS, found “7 dimensions of crafting:”

Relaxation & Accomplishment
Recommendation
Spend Time With
Others
Children
Economy & Value
Memory Keeping
Health

While my wife makes cards alone, she prefers to scrapbook in the company of friends and family. Drive past any scrapbook store in the country at 10:30 or 11 pm on a weekend and chances are it will be open. Scrapbook stores commonly host crops that go late into the night on weekends. The ‘croppers,’ frequently in groups, get access to large work areas and the store’s tools and inventory, and the stores get to sell to a captive audience long after the closest Wal-Mart is closed. So while IPSOS may have the order right for crafters as a whole, I suspect that the social aspect is one of the most important aspects of the hobby for scapbookers.

Where do they get their ideas? 54 percent said magazines, 49 percent said family/friends, 40 percent said books, 38 percent said catalogs, etc. Only 13 percent of crafters reported getting their ideas from the Internet. Of the finished product, 68 percent give it as gifts and 64 percent keep it for personal use. Just 14 percent are sold. Of those that are sold, 64 percent are sold to family or friends. IPSOS also did a craft participation cross-analysis and found that scrapbookers are most likely to also participate in card making, rubber stamping, woodworking, wreathmaking and floral arranging.

One last number. Crafters spent, on average, $276 per household in 2006 on supplies. I don’t know of any study that cross tabulates scrapbookers against charity supporters, but I’ll bet there’s a strong correlation.

So my question is, why is there so little cause marketing targeted to scrapbookers and crafters? There’s this half-hearted effort (pardon the pun) from Jo-Ann and Fiskars scissors benefiting the American Heart Association. Close To My Heart a multi-level marketing scrapbooking outfit has a cause marketing relationship with Operation Kids. There are a few more.

But I suspect that right now scrapbookers and crafters are a missed opportunity for nonprofit and for-profit marketers alike.

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...

Part 2: How Chili's Used Cause-Related Marketing to Raise $8.2 million for St. Jude

[Bloggers Note: In this second half of this post I discuss the nuts and bolts of how Chili's motivates support from its employees and managers and how St. Jude 'activates' support from Chili's. Read the first half here.] How does St. Jude motivate support from Chili’s front line employees and management alike? They call it ‘activation’ and they do so by the following: They share stories of St. Jude patients who were sick and got better thanks to the services they received at the hospital. Two stories in particular are personal for Chili’s staff. A Chili’s bartender in El Dorado Hills, California named Jeff Eagles has a younger brother who was treated at St. Jude. In both 2005 and 2006 Eagles was the campaign’s biggest individual fundraiser. John Griffin, a manager at the Chili’s in Conway, Arkansas had an infant daughter who was treated for retinoblastoma at St. Jude. They drew on the support Doug Brooks… the president and CEO of Brinker International, Chili’s parent co...

A Clever Cause Marketing Campaign from Snickers and Feeding America

Back in August I bought this cause-marketed Snickers bar during my fourth trip of the day to Home Depot. (Is it even possible to do home repairs and take care of all your needs with just one trip to Home Depot / Lowes ?) Here’s how it works: Snickers is donating the cost of 2.5 million meals to Feeding America, the nation’s leading hunger-relief charity. On the inside of the wrapper is a code. Text that code to 45495… or enter it at snickers.com… and Snickers will donate the cost of one meal to Feeding America, up to one million additional meals. The Feeding America website says that each dollar you donate provides seven meals. So Snickers donation might be something like $500,000. But I like that Snickers quantified its donations in terms of meals made available, rather than dollars. That’s much more concrete. It doesn’t hurt that 3.5 million is a much bigger number than $500,000. I also like the way they structured the donation. By guaranteeing 2.5 million meals, the risk of a poor...

Cause Marketing

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