Cause Marketing

Three different cause marketing efforts worth calling your attention to. On Friday, Nov. 16 participating Menchies will donate 10 percent of sales to the American Red Cross for Hurricane Sandy relief. Menchies is a self-serve frozen yogurt chain with about 230 locations across the globe. “Like the rest of the nation, we are deeply moved and feel we have a responsibility to be supportive in helping those impacted by the devastation Hurricane Sandy caused,” said Amit Kleinberger, CEO of Menchie's Group Inc in a press release. The campaign is activated via in-store promotional materials and public relations. Somali-born fashion model Ubah Hassan (that’s her at the left) and a partner have launched a line of umbrellas called Maji that generate a donation sufficient to provide water for 20 people in the Horn of Africa, a drought-torn region that includes Somalia. The umbrellas, in silver/black and blue/gold, are $40 at the Maji website . The charity partner is Oxfam America. The ca...

Qdoba Mexican Grill, a Colorado-based fast-casual Mexican food chain restaurant, is doing one of those instant-on cause marketing efforts benefiting the firefighting effort in the wildfire-ravaged state of Colorado. Next Tuesday, July 10, 2012 all 72 Qdoba restaurants in Colorado will ask customers for a minimum $1 donation to the Red Cross fund called Colorado Wildfires 2012. Everyone who donates a $1 minimum will get Qdoba’s chips and three-cheese appetizer free. Qdoba will match the first $50,000 raised dollar for dollar. The total goal, therefore, is $100,000. Qdoba has about 700 locations spread across the United States.  The money will go to the American Red Cross, which in cases of natural disaster like this provides shelter and other support to the people affected by the fires. During the course of Colorado’s wildfires tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes for at least a day. Kudos (Qudos?) to Qdoba for this instant-on cause marketing effort.

In 2011, Amazon’s sales were $43.59 billion and its profit was $7.64 billion. It is the world’s biggest etailer. That's part of their Seattle headquarters at the left. And how much did Amazon donate to charity? It's not clear. Although I suspect that MercyCorps and the Red Cross have both received meaningful donations from Amazon.com. We do, however, know that Amazon.com spent $1.5 million in lobbying in 2011, and more than $21 million since 2001 . Likewise, we know that Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s billionaire founder and chief executive, his mother and father, and his wife, author Mackenzie Bezos, have given more than $28,000 to Washington Senator Patty Murray (D) since 2009. Amazon’s website reports that its “customers have contributed more than $35 million to global relief programs since 2001.” But Amazon’s piece of that is probably in-kind only. A statement at Amazon.com says: “We… contribute to the communities where our employees and customers live. Our contributions can be seen...

At Causemarketing.biz I often review elements of cause marketing campaigns but I generally shy away from reviewing creative. That's because I don’t have a hardcore agency creative background. So it’s hard to trot out those kind of credentials, as in, ‘Back when I was at Crispin + Porter, Alex Bogusky used to say it was OK to try something different so long as it didn’t look like a mistake.’* With those confessions out of the way, the creative for the American Red Cross series looks like a mistake to me. The ads are meant to drive you to redcross.org/gifts , where you can pledge donations in various amounts to support the Red Cross’s vital mission, or to get you to donate blood. (Let me say that regardless of my criticisms of the ads, the American Red Cross is an vitally important cause that deserves your support.) The creative features a clay everyman with several other 3-D objects set against 2-D drawings in the foreground and/or background. The copy of the first ad at the left te...

A new study out Monday, June 6, 2011 finds that contrary to conventional wisdom, religious people are more likely to donate to causes that aren’t strictly religious than to those that are. The study, conducted by Grey Matter Research and Consulting in Phoenix and commissioned by Russ Reid Company of Pasadena, shows that just 41 percent of donors who attend religious worship services regularly support a cause they described as “religious,” other than the contributions they make to their place of worship. Instead, religious donors are more likely to have given toward disaster relief (68 percent), domestic hunger or poverty relief (66 percent), helping people with disabilities (56 percent), health care or medical research (54 percent), and veterans’ causes (52 percent) than they are to have supported specifically religious causes. In short, religious people aren’t ‘lost causes’ for fundraisers and charity work that isn’t explicitly religious. “There tends to be a stereotype that relig...

Horrifying natural disasters, especially when they happen to people that are geographical close and/or culturally similar… have great built in affinity, a necessary element to cause marketing. The Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan have already led to what I’ve termed “instant-on cause marketing.” What follows are two other examples of instant-on cause marketing efforts meant to benefit the people of Japan. In New York City, NBC Universal, the New York State Restaurant Association, among others, are leading a cross-town effort to benefit Japan through the American Red Cross. The campaign ‘ Dine Out for Japan Relief ’ asks restaurateurs to donate 5 percent of each meal during from March 23-30 to the Red Cross. At this writing the website listed more than 65 participating restaurants. On the West Coast in San Rafael, California, eco e-tailer VivaTerra offered 10 percent of all online sales during a 24-hour period to the Red Cross for Japan relief. An email, seen at the left, gave ad...

Today's post features an interview with John Wolf, Senior Director of Public Relations at Marriott about TownePlace Suites Make a Bed program benefiting the American Red Cross and enabled by Facebook. When you make a virtual bed at the promotion's Facebook page, Marriott will donate $2 to the Red Cross, up to $50,000. The Red Cross will use the money to provide comfort kits to people in need. Comfort kits include soap, razor, toothbrush and the like. 1. How did the campaign come about? Community service is at the core of Marriott International’s culture and TownePlace Suites has been a leading brand in giving back to communities where it does business. In this case, the Make a Bed Facebook application was a perfect fit. TownePlace Suites is an extended stay brand, serving people primarily on travel for weeks to months at a time with features, such as guest suites, kitchens, 24/7 access to food and beverage, and the TowneMap that familiarizes guests with the neighborhood. Bec...

It can’t come to soon for those in Haiti, but cause marketers… including some from smaller entities… are using the power of cause marketing to support relief efforts in the earthquake battered country. What follows is a representative few. But it’s an important list because it demonstrates that you don’t have to be an A-list celebrity, like George Clooney and pals , to do your part. If you see more examples of cause marketing on behalf of Haiti and Haitians I hope you’ll either email me at aldenkeene @ gmail [dot] com or comment below. One of the most prominent examples comes from Zynga, creator of the virtual worlds and games including Farmville, Fishville, Zynga Poker, and Mafia Wars. When you certain buy virtual items from Zynga for use in those games, a donation is made to the U.N’s World Food Programme. The donation to Haiti relief efforts from Zynga users is already north of $1.5 million ! Paper Culture , an online stationary story, is donating “100 percent of all proceeds from i...

We see evidence of big cause marketing all the time. You know, cause marketing so massive… like the Red campaign or Boxtops for Education … that it seems to create its own gravity. Plainly, when properly designed, cause marketing scales up very well, thank you very much. But what about the little guys? Does cause marketing scale down as well as up? Here’s why this is an important question. In the States small businesses… generally companies with 500 or fewer employees… represent 99 percent of all businesses that have employees, and over the last 15 years, small businesses have generated 64 percent of all new jobs . Small business is also really dynamic. Small businesses rise and fail quickly in round after round of Schumpeter-style ‘ creative destruction .’ Likewise, most 501(c)(3) nonprofit charities in the United States are small. There’s only one American Red Cross with its $4 billion budget , but at least 1 million smaller charities. Is cause marketing only for the top one percen...

In the last few months The Home Depot , has made a giant right turn in its charitable endeavors and landed in bed with Habitat for Humanity in a five-year, $30 million sponsorship deal , a little more than a year after CEO Frank Blake got his job. It’s a familiar place for Blake, whose wife, Mrs. Liz Blake is a Senior Vice President at Habitat for Humanity . Mr. and Mrs. Blake told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that they recused themselves in the negotiations between the two parties. I’m sure they did. And to be completely accurate, the relationship is actually between The Home Depot Foundation, which is a 501(c)(3), and Habitat for Humanity. Moreover Mr. Blake doesn’t hold a position on the Foundation’s 10-member board which consists entirely of Home Depot employees; I counted one executive vice president, three senior vice presidents, and six lesser lights. But to be frank, a CEO doesn’t need to have a vote to influence how the vote turns out on a board where everyone, in effect,...

Like Pepsi with Milk, There’s Something Wrong Here Some things don’t pair well. Like Pepsi with milk , or peanut butter and bacon sandwiches . Likewise this ad for a collectable doll doesn't quite work. The doll, called Little Miss USA, was issued by the Alexander Doll Company in the wake of September 11 in support of the American Red Cross . Plenty of cause-related marketing appeals popped up after 9/11. This one was in the February 2002 issue of Doll Reader . While you might associate dolls with a children’s cause, the problem isn’t the combination of patriotic doll and the Red Cross, per se. As we’ve discussed before, while ‘ strategic philanthropy ’ is frequently the best approach, for various reasons it may not be the preferred approach. Moreover, limited edition dolls of this type are more likely to be purchased for adult than child collectors. The problem isn’t the offer, it’s the ad itself. For one, the ‘portion of the proceeds’ language is weak and vague. Research shows t...