Skip to main content

Cause Marketing for Good Bunnies

In the States it’s common to see promotions centered around various holidays; Father’s Day, St. Patrick’s, Halloween, the Super Bowl, etc.

According to National Retail Federation, the biggest holidays for retail sales are: the winter holidays (i.e.Christmas/Thanksgiving) by a country mile, back to school, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, followed closely by Easter.

Even though Easter falls three weeks later in 2009 than 2008… thereby allowing retailers to gear-up… Easter sales are projected to be off 14 percent as Americans economize during the recession.

So what to do if your company's annual sales rely heavily on sales during the Easter holiday?

Lindt, the Swiss chocolatier has partnered with Autism Speaks, an advocacy group, in a cute if slightly miserly cause marketing campaign.

When you buy a Lindt chocolate golden bunny between March 12 and April 12, Lindt will donate $0.10 cents to Autism Speaks, up to $100,000. You can also buy toy bunny ears, also benefiting Autism Speaks, for $3 at a microsite promoting the campaign.

Full retail on a 200-gram (7 ounce) gold bunny is $7, although you can probably find it cheaper. Still a $0.10 cent donation for even a $5 purchase seems too little both as a donation and a motivator to purchase.

Remember, research clearly suggests that larger donation amounts improve sales.

Kudos to Lindt for giving Autism Speaks good exposure on the microsite.

It’s not clear whether Autism Speaks didn’t feel like they had the negotiation or brand strength to ask for more, or if Lindt just flat out wouldn’t give a greater donation per bunny. But should they renew next year the donation should be closer to $0.25 or even $0.50 cents.
Labels:

Comments

Mario Vellandi said…
Indeed.
With an excellent 5% of sales, their contribution on a wholesale price of $3.50 would be about $0.18. Now if we consider that perhaps the company isn't making significant charitable contributions elsewhere, then they could reasonably raise that promotional rate to 10% since this is seasonal. Or if they're smart, they'll could find a logistical solution (packaging/displays/shipping) to drop the landed cost by $0.15, which they could pass on to the cause.
3/25/2009 9:32 AM
Paul Jones said…
Mario, it goes without saying that I agree.

Part of the challenge for Lindt is that they sell the Gold Bunny in a number of different sizes and combinations. And $0.10 is a nice round number.

I appreciate your point about wholesale markups. Because, obviously, Lindt doesn't get all of the $7 retail price.

But when a mom is standing in the Easter candy aisle and looking over the offerings, she doesn't weigh the donation against Lindt's wholesale price. She weighs the donation against what she pays at the cash register.

There's a lot of factors at work here. But it's clear that if the donation is not large enough, the campaign might not boost sales.

Thanks for your comment!
3/25/2009 9:58 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
11 comments
Read more

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...
2 comments
Read more