Boston Law Firm Uses Green Cause Marketing Tactic

Hell has officially frozen over.

Boston law firm Sherin & Lodgen announced on Friday, Nov. 15 that during 2009 it will discount 15 percent from its standard rates to clients housed in buildings which are existing or registered LEED certified.

As I’ve pointed out before, cause marketing is about motivating certain behaviors. Usually it involves money going to a cause. However, there are plenty of examples of non-transactional cause marketing like this around.

But a law firm promoting that will discount its prices? Sacrebleu! De telles choses ne sont pas faites. Such things are not done.

Now, truth be told, you could probably go into Sherin & Lodgen… or darn near any other law firm… and negotiate a 15 percent discount off of standard rates and not even break a sweat. Especially given the current economy.

But reputable, non-ambulance-chasing law firms don’t ever talk openly about discounting and they certainly don’t issue a press release about it. Someone call the ethics section of the Bar Association!

That said, Sherin & Lodgen’s exposure probably isn’t that great. I couldn’t find anything that tells me how much LEED certified office space there are in Boston, but I’d be very surprised if it represents even 1 percent of the total. Plus, Sherin & Lodgen basically has three specialties; real estate law, litigation and business law. If you need IP help, you’re out of luck with Sherin & Lodgen. And, the discounting continues only through 2009.

At least once a year I see a cause marketing campaign that no one could have predicted even 5 years before. And this year I’ve already seen two such examples.

Amazing.

Comments

Tyson said…

Leave it to a law firm to get clients in the door with a "cause" based discount and then bump rates back up to standard once all the "real" work begins (after 2009). Genius.

11/21/2008 10:23 AM

Anonymous said…

this is certainly interesting, but I wonder how hard it actually does reverberate in the economy. I find it difficult to believe that because of that discount, someone will build a green office building here in Beantown. It does, however, provide a nice splash in the press pages and does some good for the law firm. Change comes in increments, of which this is certainly one.

2/05/2009 7:59 PM

Paul Jones said…

Hi Sean:

I agree with you on both counts. No new LEEDs building or retrofit will be launched because this law firm offers a 15% discount for 1 year.

And yes, the firm id doing this mainly for the public relations value.

But I posted on it because I thought it reflected the growing green Zeitgeist of the time.

Thanks for you thoughtful comment.

Warm regards,
Paul Jones

2/05/2009 11:22 PM

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...

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