Cause Marketing

Open an account with ableBanking and the Internet-based bank will make a $25 donation to the cause of your choice. More, albeit still undefined, donations are promised in time. It sounds a little like the bank promotions of yesteryear when a new account might bring you a toaster, a set of china, even a firearm ! I don’t know exactly how ableBanking makes money, but its parent company, Maine-based Northeast Bancorp owns a lot of insurance agencies in the State. It could be that ableBanking will serve as a lead generator for Northeast’s insurance business. In traditional ‘George Bailey’ style savings banks the bank pays an interest rate lower than the rate it is able to lend at. Savings banks made their money on the difference between the interest they’re paid and the interest they pay their depositors. George Bailey, you’ll remember, is the main character in the classic Christmas movie ‘Its a Wonderful Life.’ George worked for a savings bank that had a liquidity crises caused by a ve...

Remember your marketing class in college when the professor would show examples of consumer packaged goods that would tout ‘all new packaging!’ as though it were a genuine benefit? Well, over the last week or so the cause marketing blog has gone through a number of changes, courtesy of Charissa Wilson at Triple Latte Design . And while the colors are all-new, I think the improvements to the blog are more than skin-deep. First off, the blog is in a three-column design, which I think is easier on the eyes. Alden Keene’s definition of cause marketing is right up in the masthead, where you also see a bridge; a graphical representation of cause marketing. In the second column my contact information is front and center and we’ve added a RSS feed that finds and displays news and information with keywords like ‘cause marketing, ‘corporate social responsibility’ and ‘cause related marketing.’ At the top of the third column, on the far right side, is a feed of images of cause marketing c...