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Interview on Small Business Cause-Related Marketing with LA Times Reporter

Got an email on Tuesday, July 8 from Cyndia Zwahlen a contributing columnist to the Small Business Report at the Los Angeles Times (that's their building on the left) who asked about "about small business and the mistakes they make when it comes to cause-related marketing, in particular developing and sustaining a relationship with a charity."

Here's how I responded:


I'd say that small businesses make 4 basic mistakes when it comes to cause-related marketing:

  1. They pick a charity that's a poor strategic fit. There's a lot of potential reasons for why a small business might undertake a cause-related marketing campaign for a cause. Maybe their customers are school-age kids so they pick a local school. A restaurant might choose a hunger cause. But if you're a local welding shop, you better have a pretty good reason to support the Susan G. Komen
    Breast Cancer Research Foundations; a reason your customers will easily and
    quickly understand. That's because research clearly demonstrates that both
    parties get the most bang for the buck when there's a clear strategic fit.

  2. They don't give the CRM campaign enough support. Times are tough right now
    and the first impulse of plenty of businesses is to retrench. But if you're going to do a cause-related marketing campaign you need to give it proper resources. Transactional cause-related marketing (buy this and $x goes to the cause) is a promotion. And like any promotion it requires an appropriate amount of support, and I'm not talking just about money. There are ways to support a
    CRM campaign using low-cost guerrilla marketing tactics. But even low-cost
    efforts require a commitment of time and mental energy.

  3. They're in the wrong kind of business to really do cause-related marketing.
    While I see plenty of what I call 'B2B cause-related marketing,' research
    suggests that companies that advertise are the ones most likely to benefit in
    terms of increased profitability from a cause-related marketing campaign. If you run a small cabinet-making operation that doesn't advertise, cause-related
    marketing isn't likely to help make your company more profitable. However, if
    you run a salsa-making enterprise that does advertise, it might.

  4. They pick a charity that's too big to be helpful. The biggest charities doing cause-related marketing bring in several hundred million dollars a year using just CRM. They run dozens of CRM campaigns a year using hundreds of staffers and volunteers. Some (but not all) won't be able to offer the kind of
    recognition or help with a CRM campaign that a small business might want or
    need. Now some small businesses might be OK being a minnow in a big lake. But small business owners that aren't OK with that should probably choose to support smaller charities.

Comments

Kate Lee said…
Hmmmm …. Might I add a 5th? Not doing the due-diligence to identify a good charity … not just one that meets the “right cause”, or one that’s the right size to work with them, but associating with a charity that has no track record, poor management, fiscal issues …

For example, if the right cause for your small business is a social-service organization that works with children, how do you select an organization with which to partner? There are probably several in any given geographic market that would fit the criteria … and any number of those organizations could be 4-star partners … as well as being a 4-star nightmare.

Worth putting the effort – and possibly a good consultant in marketing & CRM – to work!

Kate

Kate Lee
http://www.qalias.com/view_profile/Kate/A/Lee/779/0/
Kate Lee said…
Hmmmm …. Might I add a 5th? Not doing the due-diligence to identify a good charity … not just one that meets the “right cause”, or one that’s the right size to work with them, but associating with a charity that has no track record, poor management, fiscal issues …

For example, if the right cause for your small business is a social-service organization that works with children, how do you select an organization with which to partner? There are probably several in any given geographic market that would fit the criteria … and any number of those organizations could be 4-star partners … as well as being a 4-star nightmare.

Worth putting the effort – and possibly a good consultant in marketing & CRM – to work!

Kate
http://www.qalias.com/view_profile/Kate/A/Lee/779/0/
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said…
Nice post! Not enough people talking about small businesses and cause marketing. But I do at my blog, www.selfishgiving.com. I work for a mid-size nonprofit in Boston and frequently work with small and medium-sized businesses on cause partnerships.

Joe Waters

You can also find me on linkedin, facebook and twitter/joewaters
Anonymous said…
Cripes I went your blog from Google and didn't even realize it was yours! Sorry, dude. Disregard that last comment, although I did send out a tweet on it.
Paul Jones said…
I can recommend Joe Water's blog. A great deal of insight from an experienced cause marketer.

In July 2008, I posted on the topic of why I think nonprofit cause marketers need to rethink their strategy about smaller cause marketing gifts... including those from small businesses.

http://causerelatedmarketing.blogspot.com/2008/07/stop-leaving-cause-related-marketing.html

Fundraisers are leaving money on the table when they only have ways to accept money from big businesses.

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