Cause Marketing

In the lead up to the eagerly-anticipated Social Media Week in New York City later this month, Lisa Chau interviewed Mike Hemingway , who helped create the Dove Real Beauty campaign while at Olgivy & Mather. Chau asked Hemingway the following: “Why doesn’t cause marketing work?” Work at what? Moving product? Increasing profits? Providing a meaningful source of unrestricted cash to nonprofits? Taking garbage questions like this out to the back alley and shooting them? As a practice, cause marketing has been grown faster than the rate of inflation for 20 years. Companies like General Mills, Campbell’s, and even Subaru have made cause marketing a centerpiece of their marketing strategy for years. In survey after survey, people from every demographic… even those who have complaints with cause marketing…would like to see more it. And, never mind that Hemingway’s brainchild… Dove Real Beauty… is a flavor of cause marketing. Here’s Hemingway’s response: “Cause marketing works in term...

The Reputation Institute and the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship recently released their list of the top 50 companies in the United States in terms of corporate social responsibility. In the survey of public opinion, the top ten were: Google Campbell Soup Johnson & Johnson Walt Disney Kraft Foods General Mills Levi Strauss UPS Berkshire Hathaway Microsoft I took the list and ranked the 50 according to the amount of cause marketing that I’m aware of from each company. 0 meant that I had never seen any cause marketing from them. 1 meant I’m aware of cause marketing promotions about once a year. 2 meant I’m aware of perhaps two cause marketing promotions a year. 3 meant I’m aware of perhaps monthly cause marketing promotions in a year. 4 meant I’m aware of the company’s cause marketing as often as once a week 5 meant I'm aware of cause marketing from the company on a daily basis. Of the 50 companies, the only one I was unaware of was Express Scripts, a pharmacy s...

It's not often that I get to 'break' news here at the Cause-Related Marketing blog, but today I do. Here's a press release, leaked to me, which announces that The Humane Society of the United States is the tenth charity to benefit from Windows Live Messenger's cause-marketing campaign called the i'm Initiative . The Humane Society of the United States Announces Participation in the i’m Initiative from Microsoft Windows Live Messenger connects customers to top social causes through the donation of Microsoft advertising dollars (May 21, 2007) - Starting today, anyone who sends instant messages to their friends, family or colleagues using Windows Live Messenger can also help animals at the same time. Through participation in the i’m Initiative from Microsoft, The Humane Society of the United States is offering supporters and other animal lovers who download Windows Live Messenger the opportunity to make a difference without spending a dime. Microsoft will donate a ...