Cause Marketing

J.C. Penney announced yesterday a campaign whereby they will ask customers to round-up their change to the nearest dollar and send the money to the retailer’s long-standing efforts on behalf of afterschool programs. The campaign is called ‘ Pennies From Heaven ’ and the goal is to generate 100 million pennies, or $1 million. Pennies is also selling a limited-edition change purse for $9.99 designed by Mark-Kate and Ashley Olsen, the twin sisters who were once primarily actors and now are primarily a brand. There’s also a Facebook component, a ringtone, and promotions with Foursquare and Twitter. As of this writing, the penny counter at http://jcpenneyafterschool.org/ says they’ve generated 130,711,075 pennies. J.C. Penney’s Afterschool Program primarily benefits The Boys and Girls Club of America, the Y, the United Way, FIRST, a science and technology nonprofit, and my old friends at 4-H. So how do I take credit for any of this? My post on March 25, 2008 was called, no kidding, ‘Penn...

Today we return to the subject of matching cause and sponsor and cause marketing. Without resurrecting every post I’ve written on the topic there’s basically seven approaches for sponsors… Pick a cause that’s a direct fit: for instance, a restaurant or a grocery store sponsoring a food bank. Pick a cause that’s an indirect but related fit: McDonald’s sponsorship of the Ronald McDonald House. Pick a cause that’s meaningful to company stakeholders: Many sponsors of the various breast cancer charities fit this criteria. Pick a cause that has tons of popular appeal: Target’s sponsorship of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is an example. Split the baby and pick multiple charities but with a single theme. JC Penney focuses much of its giving on after-school causes , for instance. Pick multiple charities without a unifying theme. Pick a charity the CEO or executive staff likes. Pick a charity for no rational reason. Looking at this campaign from July 2009 benefiting Mother’s Against Drun...

Sunday’s newspaper was clogged with flyers from most of the major retailers in my market; Macy’s , Walmart , Target , JC Penney , Sears , Kohl’s and Kmart. The first six listed all devoted at least some space in their sales flyers to their respective cause marketing efforts. Conspicuous by its absence was Kmart. At left is the cause marketing campaign from Sears called Heroes at Home Wish Registry, which offers Sears gift cards to military members and the families registered in the program. Sears is the sponsor and founder of the campaign. (Macy's campaign benefits Make-A-Wish, Target's benefit's St. Jude; JC Penney's benefits the Salvation Army Angel Tree, and Kohl's benefits Kohl's Cares for Kids). I show this page from the Sears flyer because Sears Holdings owns the 1,327 or so Kmarts in operation. Indeed, go to either Sears.com or Kmart.com and you’ll see the overlap of the brands. Sears Holdings is publicly held, but controlled by billionaire-financier Edd...

The other day a new friend asked, “Is there such a thing as cause marketing targeted at children?” Of course cause marketing to kids would be a conundrum. While 4 to12-year-olds influence at least $128 billion in household spending , perhaps 5 percent of that total is money kids can actually spend on their own. And influence is a fuzzy notion. In my household, for instance, my kids have never influenced me to buy the sugary cereals whose ads run in hot rotation on Nick Jr. , although I might ask them whether they prefer Oreos or Pepperidge Farm cookies. But I couldn’t think of any cause marketing targeted at children so I promised to consult Alden Keene’s voluminous database of cause marketing ads . I was slightly surprised to find the example above, which comes from the September 2007 SI Kids magazine . Above is the third page of a three-page ad for retailer JC Penney. The first two pages are in a double-truck configuration and feature NFL player and all-around good guy Michael Strah...

Why Company-Named foundations Benefiting from Cause-Related Marketing Rub Me the Wrong Way. Just this month I’ve seen cause-related marketing campaigns for McDonalds and the Ronald McDonald House Children’s Charities; PETCO, and the PETCO Foundation; and, JC Penney and the JCPenney Afterschool Fund. Two other general merchandise retailers, Kohls and Mervyns, run ‘charity-flavored’ campaigns through their community relations departments. The Kohl’s program, called Kohl’s Cares for Kids, supports child injury prevention and immunization programs, and children’s hospitals. Kohl’s Cares for Kids is not an actual charity, although like JCPenney Afterschool Fund it uses the sales of plush toys to fund their campaigns. I don’t want this to be a 2,000-word post, so I’ll concentrate on the JCPenney Afterschool Fund . The organization, a 501(c)(3) public charity was formed in 1999 and “dedicated to ensuring that every child is safe and constructively engaged during the afternoon hours,” says t...