Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Still an Active Cause Marketer

In the immediate aftermath of Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s silly public missteps with Planned Parenthood (and KFC before that), a lot of pundits read the tea leaves and foresaw corporate defections from Komen’s sponsor list and public excoriation.

So much for all that.

On April 5, 2012 Komen and Caribou Coffee announced a deal whereby Komen would be the beneficiary of Amy’s Blend, a coffee blend names for former Caribou roastmaster Amy Erickson, who succumbed to breast cancer after a lengthy battle. Komen is also the partner in Amy’s Gardens, three gardens that celebrate Erickson’s valiant fight.

With 450 stores, Caribou is the second-largest coffee house chain in the United States, after the much, much larger Starbucks.

Caribou inked the deal despite the fact that there are anti-Komen websites, scholars whose careers hinge on being anti-Komen, an anti-Komen documentary movie, and a half-dozen of so direct competitors.

Komen absorbs the blows from all these brickbats and more and keeps on growing. (Although you wouldn’t have guessed from the way Komen was portrayed as the Goliath in the blowup that the breast cancer charity is not even half the size of Planned Parenthood).

Is Komen immune to any and all criticisms? Of course not. It’s just has a bigger store of goodwill than has been required by their several gaffes, perceived and real.

Add to that the fact that what Komen does is needed by the community of breast cancer fighters and survivors and you have a kind of replay in miniature of what happened to the United Way of America 20 years ago.

In February 1992 William Aramony resigned as CEO of United Way of America amid allegations of a lavish lifestyle funded by United Way monies. Aramony was subsequently convicted on 23 counts of fraud and other illegal acts. He spent 6 years in prison.

How is this like Komen in any way, shape or form?

Well, ask yourself these questions: Was United Way shaken by the scandal? You bet. Shaken to its very core. Before his fall, Aramony was a very capable operator. Has United Way suffered long-time ill effects from the Aramony scandal? It looks to me like its growth curve did. Although I’m not enough of a statistician to say if it was the Aramony scandal that did it or the concurrent transformation of the American economy that left the United Way with fewer large company payrolls to fundraise amongst. So was United Way done in by the Aramony Scandal? Not by a long shot.

United Way remains viable because goodwill for local United Ways is still high and because the substitutes for the United Way are only slightly better now than they were 20 years ago.

The opinions of its haters notwithstanding, Komen has only been tagged by these several dustups, not bruised. Komen remains well-positioned for the future.

Certainly that’s what Caribou Coffee is saying.

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...

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