Finding the Entrepreneur That Wants to Support Your Cause Marketing

The latest numbers show that causes are still being squeezed on two sides: by increasing demands for services; and by donation rates that trail the increase in demand. Cause marketing can help fill part of the shortfall. But, as ever, causes face the challenge of knowing just who to approach.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was some way for charities to know which business people are most likely to be open to their appeals?

A survey published in Inc Magazine has some broad answers for charity fundraisers looking to partner with businesspeople.

The survey results, published in the March 2012 issue of Inc, draw on the work of Professor Noam Wasserman, who teaches the popular course ‘Founders’ Dilemmas’ at Harvard Business School. Wasserman has a new book out called The Founder’s Dilemmas.

Wasserman asked ‘roughly 2,000’ business founders what motivates them to start and operate businesses. The answers, not surprisingly, are different for women than men and change over time for both sexes.

In order the top-ranked overall motivations are: Autonomy; Power and Influence; Managing People; Financial Gain; Altruism; Variety; and, Intellectual Challenge, a close cousin of Variety.

For women and men the top answer for business founders in their 20s, 30s and 40s is Autonomy. Interestingly, that is the polar opposite of what non-entrepreneurs say they care about most.

The fourth most frequent answer for women in their 20s, 30s and 40s is Altruism.

Altruism also registers as the third most frequent answer for men in their 40s.

Inc posits that perhaps men in their 40s, having focused on financial gain in the first two decades of their life, are now considering their legacies and are, therefore, more willing to make financial sacrifices as they age to support causes.

According to census figures, there are approximately 6 million enterprises with employees in the United States. Only a fraction of those companies are good candidates for cause marketing.

But for those that are good candidates, the take-home lesson from the Wasserman/Inc study is this: the entrepreneurs most likely to respond to appeals to their sense of altruism are female founders of any age and male founders in their 40s or older.

Happy hunting, friends!

Comments

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

Search This Blog