Skip to main content

Your Webmaster Needs to Know About Your Cause Marketing

In the vitamin and supplement business one all-purpose word you see often is ‘support.’

Here’s a few from the Vitamin World website:
  • “Helps Support Sugar Metabolism,” about a cinnamon supplement.
  • “Supports Bone Health,” about a calcium supplement.
  • “Nutritionally supports antioxidant health,” about a resveratrol supplement.
Too bad Vitamin World’s webmaster couldn’t do a little more to more clearly demonstrate the company’s support of the nonprofit charity Vitamin Angels.

Vitamin Angels supports about 20 million children worldwide, usually with Vitamin A and multivitamin supplements. The Vitamin Angels website says that 1/3 of all childhood deaths worldwide are cause by malnutrition. Vitamin A deficiency in particular is a common cause of both childhood mortality and blindness. The lives of millions of children could be saved by easy to administer vitamin supplements.

Supplements are easy to make and deliver to children and mothers at key moments, which in a nutshell is what Vitamin Angels does. Vitamin World, a discount vitamin and herbal supplement manufacturer and retailer is one of Vitamin Angels biggest supporters. If you order online you can add a donation to Vitamin Angels when you checkout.

Alas that is all I could find from Vitamin World about its support of the charity using its site search tool. For that matter, there was nothing in the About Us section that told me about what Vitamin World does in terms of community support. There was nothing at the bottom of any page that said that Vitamin World supported Vitamin Angels’ vital mission.

That combined with this rather modest use of the Vitamin Angel logo in the FSI at the left served to give me a rather dim initial view of Vitamin World’s commitment to the charity.

By contrast, Vitamin Angels recognizes Vitamin World among its Founder’s Circle, its highest level of donors which recognizes sponsors who have donated $200,000 or more.

It was only after I did a Google site search of www.vitaminworld.com that my opinion began to change. The search turned up 1,100 results on the exact words “Vitamin Angels.” For instance, in February Vitamin World offered customers a reusable tote bag with the profits headed to Vitamin Angels, among other efforts.

In short, Vitamin World’s support appears to be both genuine and generous.

Someone just needs to get that message of support to the Vitamin World webmaster.

Comments

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...

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...