Cause Marketing

Self Magazine publishes periodic pieces on cause marketing as a part of its GOOD initiative. The tent pole of GOOD is a consumer research study of 2,700 women that highlights the emotional impact that cause marketing can have, especially as compared to traditional marketing. Here, then, are links to three articles from the GOOD newsletter archive that I find especially notable: http://www.selfconnected.com/goodworks/0803/ http://www.selfconnected.com/goodworks/0806/ http://www.selfconnected.com/goodworks/newsletter/0711/

Today I stray a little way from cause marketing to address the topic of media allocation, but there is a relevancy and application for cause marketers. Recently Prosper International released an analysis of the media mix the Big 3 automakers use against data collected by Big Research of what media people say influences them in their purchases weighted by consumption and cost. To put it more simply, they asked people who said they planned to buy/lease a GM, Chrysler or Ford product in the next six months what media would be most influential in their decision. Then they sliced and diced the data to balance which media people said most influenced them to come up with the media allocation that would gave the most bang for the buck. According to Ad Age , in 2007 GM spent its media allocation this way: Magazine…..12.4% Newspaper…5% Outdoor……1.5% TV………….39.4% Radio………3.5% Internet…….7% Other……….31.5% Prosper’s recommended allocation is above. As you can see, using Prosper’s modeling GM’s TV...

Through the Glass Cleary Cause-related marketing campaigns have been in the news this last week in the States. Much of the coverage was prompted by the Ad Age article (registration required) that estimated that perhaps $18 million has been generated by the RED campaign while perhaps $100 million has been spent promoting it. Bobby Shriver, the cofounder of RED disputes both figures, but hasn’t provided new ones. Maybe he’ll save that for the Cause Marketing Forum coming up May 17 in New York City. I’m not going to rehash the numbers or try to mitigate damage. Plenty of people have already trod that sodden ground. But there is one element common to all the news coverage I’ve seen with which I’m in complete agreement… namely, the need for greater transparency. Here’s how they put it in the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek: The subhead in the Christian Science Monitor article dated March 12 reads; “Companies spent $1.34 billion on ‘cause-related marketing’ last year in the US, but...