Cause Marketing

Usually I highlight transactional-style cause marketing in this space, but there are other possible relationships including ‘joint-issue promotion,’ a category suggested by Wymer and Sumu in their book Nonprofit and Business Sector Collaboration . By that they mean a sponsor promoting various aspects of a cause outreach effort or mission. It’s especially common among health charities and pharmaceutical companies. After all, Pfizer, which makes the best-selling drug Lipitor, may well have a vested interest in outreach efforts from American Heart Association meant to lower cholesterol. At left are two examples of cause marketing based on joint-issue promotion. Camelbak has a cool new water bottle that features a UV light in the cap. Fill the bottle with water, press the button and in a minute the UV light kills the bacteria, viruses and protozoa in the water. It goes without saying, I suppose, that if you put muddy water in the bottle the UV light doesn’t do anything about eliminating an...

Up there in the masthead of the blog is Alden Keene’s definition of cause marketing: “Cause marketing is a relationship that bridges commerce and cause in ways that benefit both parties.” There’s nothing in the definition about money changing hands, even if that’s how we typically think of cause marketing. Indeed, cause marketing is often configured so as to raise awareness. That’s the case in the campaign recently profiled in this space from Feeding America and featuring Laila Ali and Curtis Conway and that’s the case in this multi-faceted campaign from Becton, Dickenson and Company (BD), a $7.3 billion (sales) provider of medical instruments and supplies. BD’s website says it basically has two philanthropic approaches; donations of cash and product, and “raising awareness for a healthier world.” In 2009, BD gave $11 million , split evenly between in-kind product donations and cash donations. If I read the graphic correctly all the in-kind donations went to global humanitarian groups...