Cause Marketing

The direct selling industry in the United States… think Amway, Avon, Mary Kay… was a $28.33 billion business in 2009, although the more interesting number may be the 16.1 million salespeople involved in direct sales. Philanthropically Avon and Mary Kay both are strongly… although not exclusively… involved with women’s issues. So who does Amway support with its philanthropy and cause marketing? The short answer is children and children’s charities. But there’s more to it than that. By itself Amway has 3 million Independent Business Owners (IBOs) and operations in 80 countries. Suffice it to say that just writing a check to the local children’s hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan where Amway is headquartered… which Amway’s founders have done in a big way… isn’t entirely satisfying for the IBO in Japan or Singapore or even Canada. Amway Global, ironically the North American affiliate of Amway Corp., mainly spreads its charitable dollars to three causes: Boys and Girls Clubs of America ...

Through May 9, 2010 each bucket of specially-marked KFC chicken sold generates a $.50 donation to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The KFC bucket also invites you to visit bucketsforthecure.com to make an additional donation. As the website URL suggests, the campaign sports the unwieldy name of 'Buckets for the Cure." The redoubtable Scotty Henderson , and many others, have raised the issue of "cause-nitive dissonance,' to coin a term. That is whether fried food should be supporting breast cancer research, since research has shown obesity be a risk-factor for breast cancer and since fried chicken is high in fat. Many, many others, including the Wall Street Journal , have weighed in. This issue of 'tainted money' is one I've raised more than once and can appreciate. Back in 2007 Newsweek reporter Jessica Bennett asked me, "Advertising is obviously not about morals. But isn't there a moral conflict in the idea that cause marketing is tapping into consu...

In baseball, a bunt is a small hit that goes no farther than the infield. And bunt is what the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) did with this ad that I’ve seen recently in Newsweek and BusinessWeek magazines. The ad’s call to action is that you go online and pledge “as little as” $1 for each home run hit during Major League Baseball play between Thursday, June 11 and Father’s Day, a holiday celebrating fathers that falls on Sunday June 21 this year. Why? Well 186,500 men in the United States are stricken with prostate cancer each year. And, “in the time it takes to play nine innings” nine men die of the disease, about 30,000 men a year. The PCF estimates that 143 home runs are likely to be hit over the 11-day period between June 11 and June 21. But while the body copy says you can pledge as little as $1 per home run, in fact, you can pledge as little as $0.25 cents . While these kinds of scoring-linked promotions are common enough, they’re usually set up so that a sponsor makes a ...

Recessionary Advertising Opportunity for Nonprofits You don’t have to look at the official figures from Magazine Publisher’s Association (MPA) to see that magazines are in a recession right now in the United States. And that may mean opportunity for your nonprofit. I just got a renewal offer from Fast Company for a $5 subscription, for instance. As in dollars, not Euros. Another unnamed business magazine kept sending me issues months after my subscription had lapsed. And while it’s hardly scientific, I’m certain I’ve recently seen more ‘space available’ ads going to nonprofits than in the past. The official numbers bear out the gloom for the industry. While individual titles vary, overall the magazine business is in a funk. Among the hundreds of titles tracked by the MPA’s Publisher Information Bureau, overall revenue was down 1.2 percent in the first quarter of 2008 versus the first quarter of 2007. Overall circulation was down 6.4 from first quarter 2008 versus first quarter 2007. ...

An Average Hour for Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki, Seven Months for Me On Tuesday, October 17, 2006 I posted my first entry on this blog called Eyeballs vs Tears . According to Google Analytics, in the 202 days since the blog has received about 4380 visits and 7300 pageviews, for an average of 1.67 pageviews per visit. I confess I’m pretty proud of those numbers, although they probably represent at best an average hour’s worth of traffic at Guy Kawasaki’s or Seth Godin’s blogs. Nonetheless, I think it’s instructive to parse the data revealed in Google Analytics and try to turn it from ‘data into information,’ as the immortal Peter Drucker (seen above) used to say. Not surprisingly, the most common Google search terms were phrases like “cause-related marketing,” “cause related promotion,” or variations on a theme. More than 200 visits came courtesy of Newsweek magazine’s article on the Red campaign in which I’m quoted. Philanthopy.com’s roundup of nonprofit blogs called Give and Take ...

Through the Glass Cleary Cause-related marketing campaigns have been in the news this last week in the States. Much of the coverage was prompted by the Ad Age article (registration required) that estimated that perhaps $18 million has been generated by the RED campaign while perhaps $100 million has been spent promoting it. Bobby Shriver, the cofounder of RED disputes both figures, but hasn’t provided new ones. Maybe he’ll save that for the Cause Marketing Forum coming up May 17 in New York City. I’m not going to rehash the numbers or try to mitigate damage. Plenty of people have already trod that sodden ground. But there is one element common to all the news coverage I’ve seen with which I’m in complete agreement… namely, the need for greater transparency. Here’s how they put it in the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek: The subhead in the Christian Science Monitor article dated March 12 reads; “Companies spent $1.34 billion on ‘cause-related marketing’ last year in the US, but...

On Tuesday I posted the first half of an email I sent to Jessica Bennett, a reporter at Newsweek . The rest of her questions and my answers follow. Ms. Bennett quoted me in her article, which you can read here . Also, my email to her included several links which I neglected to include in Tuesday's post. I've revised Tuesday's post to include those links. Feel free to read it here . 4. Are we buying merely to clear our consciouses? You know, I'm not sure if I'm equipped to answer this question. I will say this, Americans are far and away the most generous donors to charity: in 2005 those donations exceeded $260 billion . Part of that is because we don't practice the social welfare state the way the Europeans do. Part of it is because we have very favorable tax laws. But assume for a second that IEG is right and something like $1.3 billion comes from cause marketing. That's a pittance compared to the total donations going to charities. If we are buying to assu...

Right now the monster RED campaign is drawing all kinds of fire for spending dollars to make pennies. The rhetoric is flowing hot and fast in the new media and the old. A reporter for Newsweek even approached me for my opinion. I hope she quotes me. In the event she doesn't, I’ll post half her questions and my responses today and the remainder on Thursday. On 3/9/07, Bennett, Jessica 1234@newsweek.com > wrote: hi paul, ok, feel free to pick and choose from these and contribute your own thoughts if you think there's anything i've overlooked. also let me know if you've got any suggestions of background info or studies i should look into. 1. what's the premise behind cause marketing, why does it work, and how pervasive is it today? A lot of things are called cause marketing that are probably mislabeled. As I think of it cause marketing is generally a promotional tactic meant draw on the appeal of a cause to help sell a product for a company. Like most promotions, th...