Small Biz Cause Marketing

I saw a job description the other day for one of the chief marketers at Macy’s, the giant retailer. Among the listed job responsibilities was cause marketing, something Macy’s does well with sophisticated efforts for Make-A-Wish and the American Heart Association.

Big companies and big charities tend to suck all the oxygen of the room when we speak of cause marketing. But small companies and causes can do it effectively too.

Case in point is this wrapper at the left for a chocolate bar from the Big Island in Hawaii.

It couldn’t be more homey and local. The paper wrapper feels like copy paper and the foil wrapper it came in seemed home-wrapped. The printing looks like it came from an inkjet paper and the design is so rudimentary it might have been done in Word. The chocolate bar itself was a little thicker at one end than the other.

The place of origin is Pepeekeo a tiny town on the opposite side of the Big Island where the bar was purchased at an ABC Store. ABC Stores are home-grown in Hawaii also and are something like 7-11s, only more ubiquitous.

The benefiting cause is Hawksbill Turtle Recovery in Hawaii and the paper wrapper includes a 90-word description of the turtle, its struggles to reproduce, and how you can help.

This is cause marketing at its most grassroots level and further evidence that small concerns can profit from it too.

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