Cause Marketing

Bought a book today at Overstock.com and there waiting for me in the checkout window was an invitation to donate $1 or more to the Wounded Warrior Project. Great idea. A pity Overstock did it so carelessly. Currently, consumers tell marketing researchers they are mostly likely to respond to cause marketing appeals from military veteran’s causes like the Wounded Warrior Project. Gallup says that the military is the most-confidence inspiring institution in modern American society, polling out 14 points higher than the second place finisher, small business. In other words, in picking a veteran’s cause like Wounded Warrior to partner with Overstock put its finger on the beating pulse of the American zeitgeist. They just didn’t quite get it right. Read the call to action and you’ll know what I mean: “Donate to a Good Cause,” it reads. Wounded Warrior’s evocative logo is there. So too are the words “Learn More” with a link to some explication. But the call to action is the bloodless, “Dona...

The last installment of the Dynamics of Cause Engagement study released yesterday found that social media cause promoters aren’t the ‘slacktivists’ that they’re often portrayed to be. The study was conducted for the Center for Social Impact Communication at Georgetown University and sponsored by Ogilvy Public Relations. Instead, the study finds, people who engage with causes via social media are: Just as likely as non-social media cause promoters to donate money to the cause (41 percent vs. 41 percent). Twice as likely to volunteer (30 percent vs. 15 percent). Two and a half times more likely to participate in a cause walk or event (25 percent vs. 11 percent). Four times more likely to contact their political representative (22 percent vs. 5 percent). Four times more likely to request donations to support their charitable work (11 percent vs. 3 percent). Five times more likely to recruit others to sign a petition for a cause (20 percent vs. 4 percent). The bottom line is that social me...

Earlier this Summer results starting coming out from the Dynamics of Cause Engagement study and among the headlines was women are generally more responsive to cause marketing than men, providing further confirmation of what I’ve long suspected. But men aren’t absent from the cause marketing equation. I asked the Center for Social Impact Communication (CSIC) at Georgetown University, which authored the study, to parse out responses from men on key issues and they kindly obliged. Cause marketing targeted to men is a topic of some interest to cause marketers. Cause marketing is a form of sponsorship. Its biggest rival for sponsorship dollars comes from sports, which as a whole is about seven times larger than cause marketing. Men constitute the usual target market for sports. In short, men participate in sponsorship in a big way. But cause marketers are still learning how to target men. The topic of men and cause marketing came up at the recent Cause Marketing Forum in Chicago. Mike Swen...

Results released yesterday from the ‘ Dynamics of Cause Engagement ’ study show that Hispanics and African Americans in the United States are more likely than Caucasians to support causes online than offline, more likely to feel social sites networking help causes raise visibility, and more likely to feel that they personally can help causes through online social networks. The study comes from Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication, and took place in late 2010. Several results have been reported in the last month from the analysis of ‘Dynamics,’ survey, which was funded by Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. Another study, which also took place in 2010, found that among the 12 countries surveyed, 85 percent of Mexican nationals were likely to buy a brand that supports a good cause, the highest percent of any country surveyed. In that effort, called Edelman’s Goodpurpose Study 2010, Brazil, China and India followed closely behind Mexico. The United States finishe...

Earlier this month the Center for Social Impact Communication at Georgetown University published a study that found that the cause that most resonates with Americans right now is supporting the troops, something several sponsors seem to have already understood. Outback Steakhouse has long made cause marketing with a military theme a key piece of its promotional mix and community support. On Veteran’s Day, November 11, veterans and active duty military get a free Bloomin’ Onion appetizer and non-alcoholic drink. Going back to 2002 Outback has also sent employee volunteers to the Middle East to feed the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2010 Outback also had a special menu called “Red, White and Bloomin.’” When you ordered from that menu, Outback would make a donation to Operation Homefront . Outback’s donation to Operation Homefront came to $1 million in 2010. The Georgetown study, called the Dynamics of Cause Engagement , found that 71 percent of American were very or somewhat kn...