Cause Marketing

Let’s try a cause marketing thought experiment. Suppose you’re a dominant retail player in a growing $30 billion segment. Suppose your founder and CEO was ranked number 147 on the 2011 Forbes list of richest Americans, with an estimated net worth of some $2.5 billion. Suppose you had 435 outlets in 35 heartland states. Suppose you have your own in-house ad agency and a history of advertising both weekly specials along with image campaigns that you run on certain holidays. Now suppose your company is avowedly Christian and everybody knows it. Should you do Christian-themed cause-related marketing? If yes, who would your partners be? This thought was sparked by the ad above placed on Easter Sunday in newspapers all over its service area by Hobby Lobby, the privately-held retailer founded and owned by David Green, age 69. Since confession is good for the soul, let me confess that I’ve never seen cause marketing in my local Hobby Lobby store. But the ad… which hearkens back a time 35 years...