An Exploitive Cause-Related Marketing Campaign

In the September 2008 issue of Cookie magazine, a kind of parenting magazine for mothers who can still fit in their skinny jeans, I came across this small ad from the upscale retailer Lord and Taylor on behalf of a new charity called Cookies for Kids’ Cancer.

The headline reads “Buy a Cookie, Save a Life.’

My reaction was, “Oh no they just didn’t!”

The ad was one of seven on a single page; the kind the sales staff bundles together and sells for a bargain rate. So I automatically assumed that maybe Cookie magazine had put it together. After all, no charity would dare suggest that the purchase of a $3 cookie would actually save a human life. It’s exploitive and, well, a lie. And, critics be damned, cause-related marketing is not about lying.

So I double-checked the Lord and Taylor website and listed on Sept 13 for what appears to be each of their stores is the following notice:

BUY A COOKIE, SAVE A LIFE
September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. This year, help Lord & Taylor support the launch of the highly anticipated children's charity, Cookies for Kids' Cancer, by stopping by any Lord & Taylor store starting September 13th* and purchasing an all-natural chocolate chip cookie. 100% of each $3 treat goes directly to helping find a cure for pediatric cancers- it's a delicious way to make a difference.
*Event subject to change or cancellation. While supplies last.

OK, maybe Lord and Taylor did this.

So a checked the Cookies for Kids’ Cancer site and found this:

Thank you for visiting! We are busy readying our site for launch and plan
to go live on September 1st. Be ready to get involved! Start thinking about
where you could hold a bake sale! Cookies for Kids' Cancer, along with your
support, will make the letter "C" stand for COOKIES and not cancer.

The campaign is cute enough. There are a few children’s cancer charities out there, but none are nationally prominent in the United States. A new one with a smart mission and good marketing might be able to make good headway. Lord and Taylor is venerable (even ancient) retailer stateside, so a cause relationship with them is a nice coup for a startup charity.

But if Cookies for Kids’ Cancer sanctioned these ads, they’re getting their cause-related marketing off on the wrong foot.

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...

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...

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...

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