Skip to main content

'Checkout' This New Cause Marketing Study

In its most recent edition, The Checkout, the publishing outlet for research developed by The Integer Group, asked Americans an intriguing cause marketing question: “When choosing between two companies that each benefit a cause and sell the same product, similar in price and quality, which of the following would influence your preference for one brand over another.”

Let’s put some flesh on that. The question asks, in effect, when do you buy Progresso soup and when do buy Campbell’s soup, given that they both benefit education causes? Or when do you buy Yoplait yogurt and when do you buy Dannon yogurt, each of which generates funds for separate breast cancer charities?

No surprise, but ‘Personal Relevance of Cause’ was the top answer for both men and women, polling out around 70 percent (the graph was formatted such that exact percentages are hard to determine). The most surprising answer for me was the second most common answer. About 33 percent of men said that “Donates With Every Purchase” compared to about 38 percent of the overall population and about 44 percent of women who gave that answer.

Men seem to care less about transactional cause marketing than women.

On its website The Integer Group describes itself as “a global discussion about the impact of shopping culture on brand strategy.” The research based on a nationally representative study of 1,200 adults and is conducted by M/A/R/C Research.

The Checkout published the results of three cause marketing questions. The other two were:

“Which of the following types of causes do you find most compelling if you were to buy a brand based on its affiliation with a cause?”

“Which brands of products do you currently buy based on the brand’s affiliation with a cause?”

The top 10 finishers were:
  1. Yoplait
  2. Anything Affiliated With Breast Cancer
  3. (tie) Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Newman’s Own
  4. General Mills
  5. Yogurt in general
  6. (tie) P&G and RED
  7. Boxtops for Education
  8. (tie) Kellogg’s, Campbell’s and Girl Scouts
  9. Dawn
  10. Avon
The big winner in that list is General Mills, which is listed three times. General Mills owns the Yoplait brand and is responsible for Boxtops for Education. Dawn’s place on the list was unexpected. The survey was conducted in February, 2011, and it could be that Dawn’s work in the aftermath of the BP oil spill in April, May, June and July of 2010 was still fresh in people’s minds.

The other winner has to be (RED), which has only been around since 2006. No other brand on the list has been doing cause marketing for less than 10 years. Campbell’s Labels for Education has been going on for more than 35 years.

The biggest shocker has to be that ‘yogurt in general’ finished fifth, evidence that the Yoplait halo is big enough for the whole yogurt category. No wonder Dannon mimics Yoplait so closely.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Batting Your Eyelashes at Prescription Drug Cause Marketing

I’m a little chary about making sweeping pronouncements, but I believe I've just seen the first cause marketing promotion in the U.S. involving a prescription drug. The drug is from Allergan and it’s called Latisse , “the first and only FDA-approved prescription treatment for inadequate or not enough eyelashes.” The medical name for this condition is hypotrichosis. Latisse is lifestyle drug the way Viagra or Propecia are. That is, no one’s going to die (except, perhaps, of embarrassment) if their erectile dysfunction or male pattern baldness or thin eyelashes go untreated. Which means the positioning for a product like Latisse is a little tricky. Allergan could have gone with the sexy route as with Viagra or Cialis and showed lovely women batting their new longer, thicker, darker eyelashes. But I’ll bet that approach didn’t test well with women. (I’m reminded of a joke about the Cialis ads from a comedian whose name I can’t recall. He said, “Hey if my erection lasts longer than ...
4 comments
Read more

Cause Marketing: The All Packaging Edition

One way to activate a cause marketing campaign when the sponsor sells a physical product is on the packaging. I started my career in cause marketing on the charity side and I can tell you that back in the day we were thrilled to get a logo on pack of a consumer packaged good (CPG) or even just a mention. Since then, there’s been a welcome evolution of what sponsors are willing and able to do with their packaging in order to activate their cause sponsorships. That said, even today some sponsors don’t seem to have gotten the memo that when it comes to explaining your cause campaign, more really is more, even on something as small as a can or bottle. The savviest sponsors realize that their only guaranteed means of reaching actual customers with a cause marketing message is by putting it on packaging. And the reach and frequency of the media on packaging for certain high-volume CPG items is almost certainly greater than radio, print or outdoor advertising, and, in many cases, TV. More to ...
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