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.

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...

Cause-Related Marketing with Customer Receipts

Walgreens and JDRF Right now at Walgreens…the giant pharmacy and retail store chain with more than 5,800 stores in the United States and Puerto Rico… they’re selling $1 paper icons for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). This is an annual campaign and I bought one to gauge how it’s changed over the years. (Short list… they don’t do the shoe as a die cut anymore; the paper icon is now an 8¾ x 4¼ rectangle. Another interesting change; one side is now in Spanish). The icon has a bar code and Jacob, the clerk, scanned it and handed me a receipt as we finished the transaction. At the bottom was an 800-number keyed to a customer satisfaction survey. Dial the number, answer some questions and you’re entered into a drawing for $10,000 between now and the end of September 2007. I don’t know what their response rate is, but the $10,000 amount suggests that it’s pretty low. Taco Bell’s survey gives out $1,000 per week. At a regional seafood restaurant they give me a code that garner...

Cause Marketing

Search This Blog