Time for Labels and Boxtops for Education to Rebrand for Growth?

For some time now the two big prominent label collection efforts, General Mills Boxtops for Education and the much more senior and yet smaller Label’s for Education... founded by Campbell’s... have opened their respective campaigns to non-competing brands. It’s the classic win-win.

In so doing, they broaden their exposure and increase the amount of possible funds raised for schools. I suspect Campbell’s and General Mills also broaden their cost structure.

Meanwhile, the new partners are happy to participate with either of these well-established efforts because all the groundwork has long since been laid down and because both efforts enjoy strong relationships with tens of thousands of schools nationwide.

To get to this point both of the original sponsors have made efforts to erase their names from the efforts. ‘Boxtops’ is no longer named for General Mills. Label’s no longer features Campbell’s name or branding.

With all that now behind them one of label campaigns has the opportunity to take it to the next step by stripping out the increasingly anachronistic nouns in their names; ‘boxtops’ and ‘labels.’

Boxtops for Education participants now include such non-boxed items as Green Giant broccoli, Boise printer paper, and Hefty paper plates and platters. The ad at the left announces that seven Time, Inc. magazines titles have now joined Labels for Education campaign. Clip the UPCs from the magazines and take them to the schools; just the same as clipping the Label’s for Education seals off containers of Emerald nuts or Glad storage bags.

Plenty of brands have made this kind of transition. When it was becoming a computer company way back in the 1940s and 1950s, International Business Machines was hampered by its name, so it became IBM. Kentucky Fried Chicken wanted to get away from all three of its names, so it became KFC.

Making your name an acronym is the easiest way to rebrand. BFE and LOE don’t exactly sing. But neither did AT&T the first time anyone heard it.

‘Boxtops’ or ‘Labels’ could go all the way and completely rename their efforts. I won’t suggest any names, but it would be fun to help them rename their campaigns.

Why would they bother?

Think back on the IBM and AT&T examples. How does IBM sell business services if its name still says ‘Machines’? How does AT&T sell wireless telephony if its name still says ‘Telegraph’?

To be more pointed, how does Boxtops expand its effort to companies that don't have boxes?

The counter argument is that Labels for Education and Boxtops for Education have decades of built-in brand equity. There’s no denying that.

But more valuable still is all the infrastructure both efforts have in their relationships with tens of thousands of schools nationwide. Leaving aside Scholastic, what other brand can you name that is literally in every school in the country and for whom schools and parents both have largely positive feelings?

Given that, Boxtops and Labels could both be much bigger if they were willing to jettison their legacy names.

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 ...

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 ...

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 Marketing

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