Cause Marketing

This is the second half of an interview with University of Georgia Journalism Student Cathryn McIntosh on the subject of cause-related marketing. Read the first half here . As before, I've edited this a little bit; this time because of some typos and to clarify some answers. Yikes! Needless to say as a former journalism student myself, I haven't been a good mentor when it comes to providing clean copy. So do what I say Cathryn, not what I do. Ms. McIntosh's questions are in italics and my answers follow. Do you think people take time to investigate the causes tied to the items they purchase? (i.e. A leopard printed bracelet “to save the leopards in Timbuktu?”) That depends. By now I think we all know what the American Cancer Society is about or the Heart Association. Those causes either move you or they don’t. Newer entities like Susan G. Komen and Make-A-Wish probably have pretty good top of mind awareness, too. For the majority of us, those charities don’t require a lot o...

High-Dollar Cause-Related Marketing Comes of Age Cause-related marketing has long been especially common in packaged goods promotions; Wish-Bone Dressing and Make-A-Wish or Yoplait and Susan G. Komen, to name just two. But does cause-related marketing work with high-dollar goods and services? More and more the answer is yes. Above are four recent campaigns… from Dell , Oreck , American Century Investments , and Levenger … that increasingly demonstrate that cause-related marketing has legs even when the items in play cost hundreds or dollars or more. Let me hasten to add that none of these high-dollar cause-related marketing promotions are exactly ‘first-movers.’ Ford and BMW have both done cause-related marketing promotions. Kitchen Aid has long made special editions of their appliances in pink that generate donations for Susan G. Komen. They’ve also done straightforward ‘buy a qualifying dishwasher and we’ll donate $50 to Susan G Komen’ promotions. Whirlpool … which owns Kitchen Aid…...