Cause Marketing Older than Your Grandfather

Years ago I worked with the American Legion and I heard a side of the story about the development of the groundbreaking GI Bill that's not commonly known. Namely, that the American Legion that had agitated and lobbied for the bill and Harry Walter Colmery, a lawyer and former American Legion National Commander, drafted it. President Roosevelt signed the bill into law on June 22, 1944.

Now thanks to a timely email from Laurie Shaffer of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, I’ve learned about a campaign that has generated more than $750 million since 1934 and thereby helped preserve some 5.3 million acres of waterfowl habitat in the United States.

The effort is called Federal Duck Stamps. Perhaps like me you’ve heard the name but aren’t familiar with its ins and outs. Here’s how it works:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service produces an annual limited-edition illustrated stamp, similar to a postage stamp, although it can’t be used as postage. The price for 2010 edition is $15. A healthy secondary market in former stamps has developed over the years. Prominent wildlife artists vie to illustrate the stamp.

The money is used by the Service to purchase or lease important waterfowl habitat.

Now a new envelope and stamp set, called a silk cachet, has been released for $25. The extra funds will be used to augment the acreage of more than 38 National Wildlife Refuges along the Gulf Coast.

The first edition of the silk cachet was underwritten by Bass Pro Shops, a big-box retailer and outfitter. The silk cachet was unveiled at the Ducks Unlimited headquarters on July 27 in Memphis at a ceremony featuring the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar.

Comments

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...

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...

Cause Marketing

Search This Blog