Cause Marketing

King’s Hawaiian, which makes those fat loaves of pillowy-sweet bread is doing one of those democratized cause marketing efforts that I love to hate. Only I don’t exactly hate this one from my Hawaiian ‘ohana’ as much. You know what I mean when I say democratized cause marketing; the cause that gets the most votes takes home the biggest check. A second characteristic is that much of activation occurs via the standard social networks. American Express did it with its Members Project. Pepsi infamously did it with Pepsi Refresh. Redwood Creek, a wine brand, does one as well . And there are more. What I hate about these efforts is that they pit charities against each other in ways that I find unseemly. All of us want to see charities cooperating for the greater good, not elbowing out their perceived competitors at the trough.These kinds of promotions can bring out the worst in causes. Also, there’s a frequently a strong Matthew Effect at work in these efforts; the rich get richer and ...

Throughout 2013 Rose Paving, which provides parking lot services to commercial and industrial properties nationwide, is raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Parking lot services means that Rose Paving does stuff like patching asphalt parking lots, marking them with parking stripes, repairing walks and installing and maintaining curbs, gutters, and storm sewers, and the like. This is a real B2B business. There’s not a consumer in sight anywhere in Rose’s business model. As I often say in this space, most cause marketing is undertaken by companies that face the consumer. But not always. This is plainly a case of B2B cause marketing. So how is Rose going to raise money for St. Jude, do a Facebook like campaign? Not exactly. Although if you do like Rose on Facebook you can get details about the effort. Instead, Rose is taking its appeals to its customers… industrial and commercial property developers and managers… at the trade shows it exhibits at. Rose’s variou...

Trey Watson owns a fruit tree nursery in East Texas called Legg Creek Farm and so naturally when he decided to do some cause marketing he choose congenital heart defects. During the week of Feb 7-14, 2013 Legg Creek donated 10 percent of gross sales to several congenital heart defects causes. Wait a minute, you say, a fruit tree nursery and congenital heart defects? How does that track? In general, research shows that customers prefer to be able to easily understand the relationship between the cause and the sponsor. But certainly that isn’t always the case. Target, the big retailer, doesn’t have an obvious connection to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Kohl’s doesn’t sell only to children, so why is their cause called Kohl’s Cares for Kids? IKEA is an international retailer, but that only addresses half the reason for their support of the UNHCR, the United Nation’s relief agency. All these retailers can break the usual rule because either they support what I call the “universa...

Yesterday Regal Entertainment announced the final tally of its August Straw Vote; Boys and Girls Clubs of America garnered $97,721 and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospitals collected $65,692. Regal also split another $320,000 between the two causes. In the promotion, which I highlighted on August 1 , Regal donated $0.50 for each medium or large frozen fruit drink sold during the month. The purchase of cherry drinks supported St. Jude. The purchase of all other flavors supported Boys and Girls Club. At the outset Regal capped the total donation to both causes at $600,000. But when all was said and done, Regal had donated $483,413 to the two causes. That suggests that Regal thought the promotion had more legs than it actually did. Because 2013 is not an election year in the United States, it’s unlikely that Regal will repeat it next year, at least in this format. But that would be a pity, in my view. Some things just take a while to catch on. Actor Alan Rickman didn’t get hi...

Americans have a big polarizing vote coming up soon and pundits have been weighing in with their opinions, informed and not. Much depends on what the nation’s voters pick; will they go for red or blue? Frozen fruit drinks, that is. Starting today at polling locations at 520 Regal Movie theaters in 37 states, when you buy a medium or large cherry frozen fruit drink, the company will make a $0.50 donation to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Buy a blue or any other color of frozen fruit drinks and Regal will donate $0.50 to Boys and Girls Club of America. The total donation to both causes is capped at $600,000. The promotion runs from Wednesday, August 1, 2012 to Friday, August 31, 2012. Weekly vote totals will be tracked on Regal’s Facebook site. Regular readers know that I generally dislike these kinds of competitions that pit charity against charity. Most Americans like to think that what Peter Drucker used to call the 'Social Sector' is just one big happy family ...

Right now at Mimi’s restaurants, when you buy a ‘Miracle Balloon’ pin for $5 benefiting Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, you get a paper icon to be displayed in the restaurant and three bounceback coupons worth as much as $30. I once wrote that Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals had forgotten more about cause marketing than almost any other charity knew about the practice. I meant that as a back-handed compliment. From my vantage-point it seemed to me that many of the things that CMNH had once known in its bones about what did and didn’t work in cause marketing seemed to be lost to CMNH’s institutional memory. But this promotion tells me that Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals has regained its footing. This is a very solid paper icon campaign.   Mimi’s Café is a casual dining restaurant chain with more than 100 stores in 22 states, with a heavy concentration of the total units in California. Mimi’s Café is a division of Bob Evans Farms. What’s to like about the camp...

The first weekend after Memorial Day is the annual Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Telethon. Like Go Red for Women from the American Heart Association or Thanks + Giving from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Telethon serves as rallying point; a kind of concourse for sponsors, supporters and beneficiaries alike assemble and to wrap their cause marketing around. At left is a simple Telethon sponsorship activation from Ameriprise that appeared in the May 2012 edition of Costco Connection magazine. Costco is one of Children’s Miracle Network Hospital’s largest sponsors. These rallying points are a common feature of the very largest, most prominent cause marketers; Breast Cancer Awareness Month, American Heart Month, Hunger Action Month, the various walks and runs and races from the likes of the March of Dimes, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, American Diabetes Association, Susan G. Komen and others, and the aforementioned Thanks + Giving and CNMH Telethon. You can understa...

Every business day in this blog I chronicle the best and worst of cause marketing. As you seek inspiration for where to take your own cause marketing you must eschew the bad. But you must also learn how to refuse the good. I was reminded of this by an anecdote about Steve Jobs in a book I’ve been reading called ‘ The Idea Hunter ,’ by Andy Boynton and Bill Fischer. They tell about how Jobs was speaking to a group of executives at Yahoo when the subject of saying no to bad ideas came up. “That’s easy,” said Jobs. “The challenge is in saying no to good ideas.” Jobs came back to this theme more than once and in one instance was quoted thusly: “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.” Anyone with a modicum of judgment knows the stinkers. But it’s the good ideas that require real expertise to deal with. That’s because if you le...

One criticism of cause marketing I often hear is that money raised that way is almost certain to be a pittance for most charities. But such criticisms overlook a crucial point about cause marketing funds. Nationally syndicated author Cecil Adams, for instance, when addressing his “answer-man” column to the issue of pink ribbon cause marketing wondered why conscientious Yoplait eaters wouldn’t just send a $12 check to Susan G. Komen for the Cure rather than futz around with yogurt carton lids. More to the point, if your charity is not Komen or Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital… each of which annually raise more than $75 million via cause marketing…what’s in it for your charity? There’s two main answers; the second is that your sponsor-partner has a strong incentive to promote your cause as they promote their sponsorship. Charities shouldn’t settle for just brand-building or awareness-raising when they sign cause marketing deals, but it’s not ...

AutoZone, the car parts dealer with more than 4500 stores across the United States is headquartered in Memphis Tennessee. So too is St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Not surprisingly AutoZone is a cause marketing supporter of St. Jude. Fedex, another Memphis-based company sponsors the St. Jude Classic, a PGA Tour event held each year at the TPC Southwind golf course, also in Memphis. It isn’t always the case that cause marketing tie-ins take place between companies and causes in the same area code. For instance, another of St Jude’s sponsors is Target, headquartered 700 miles upriver in Minneapolis, Minnesota. But if you’re a cause looking to start a cause marketing relationship a logical place to look for cause marketing sponsors is in your own backyard. Here’s five reasons why: The prospect is more likely to take your call. Locality improves the chance that the sponsor will respond. You probably already know someone there or can more easily make a connection than if the prospe...

Last Saturday found me Christmas shopping and in two very different retail settings I came across examples of St. Jude’s Thanks + Giving effort, which are integrated in an exemplary fashion. At the left is an ad from Entertainment Weekly magazine for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital which activates the Thanks + Giving effort with the call to action, “This Holiday, give thanks for the healthy kids in your life, and give to those who are not.” Sponsors support their participation in Thanks + Giving with in-store promotions. I bought the gift card at the left at my nearby Old Navy where I had a choice between several versions of these kids’ art cards. Aside from the gift cards, the Old Navy I went to had little else that demonstrated their support of Thanks + Giving. By contrast, at AutoZone where I picked up a new lamp for my car’s headlights, Thanks + Giving was evident in several places. The front doors had a window cling that announced AutoZone’s support. Likewise, there was a pr...

Kathy Ireland is raising money for Jewelers For Children through the sales of her eponymous jewelry line at Fred Meyer Jewelers, and I want to help this ageless paramour from my youth. If only I knew what Jewelers for Children was. Ronald McDonald House Charities helps support Ronald McDonald Houses, which are homes away from homes for families who have children in hospitals. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption helps enable adoptions. Target does a lot of work with St. Jude, which is a children’s research hospital in Memphis. J.C. Penney supports after-school programs at 4-H and Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Home Depot and Lowes help Habitat for Humanity, which builds houses for people who need them. But Jewelers for Children I had to look up. It turns out to be a charity of the jewelry industry. Since its founding in 1999, it has donated more than $37 million to children’s charities, four of which… St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foun...

If you add a QR-code to a paper icon campaign, just how many code scans can you expect? Chili’s, the restaurant chain, added a QR code to its Create-A-Pepper paper icon which engendered 291,000 scans in September 2011. As of this writing, the Create-A-Pepper campaign generated $3,013,735 in donations to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital so far in 2011. It’s tempting to conclude that almost 10 percent of people who bought a Create-A-Pepper paper icon also scanned the QR code, but it’s not quite that simple. Not all the money from Create-A-Pepper campaign comes from the paper icons and Create-A-Pepper lasts longer than just September, which is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Moreover, Chili’s had a different QR code on other campaign marketing materials in restaurants which led people to a thank you from a St. Jude patient. “As the latest trend in mobile technology, QR codes gave Chili’s a unique way to say thank you while encouraging guests to donate to the Create-A-Pepp...

Dillard’s, the department store chain, has a cause marketing effort benefiting Feeding America that hits all the high points, until… cue the record scratch sound-effect… it doesn’t. So what is Dillard’s doing right? It’s a pretty good list. First off Dillard’s choose a venerable cause marketing partner, Feeding America, which has an accomplished record in cause marketing and a vitally important mission. At $2 per transaction, the donation amount is generous. The promotion itself is activated through this ad in my local newspaper. There’s a QR code in the ad that leads to a video about Feeding America’s Give a Meal holiday campaign, so check off that cool tactical implementation. Dillard’s, which has about 300 stores across most of the country, specifically states that the total donation amount is as much as the value of $40,000 in meals, so mark off the transparency checkmark, too. So far, so good. But here’s where Dillard’s stumbles, the promotion in question is for bras, shapewear, s...

Some sponsors do so much volume and have such great visibility and recognition that they almost have the pick of charities to partner with. So, like actor George Clooney, some sponsors have been seen with a lot of different pretty faces over the years. Toys R Us has had cause marketing relationships with at least 4 charities in the last 20 years and is currently with Toys for Tots. In the last year Purina, the pet foods brand, has done cause marketing campaigns with Adopt-A-Pet.com, as seen at the left, and with Susan G. Komen for the Cure. But there is value to strict monogamy in cause marketing relationships. After all, which is cuter, George Clooney canoodling with girlfriend #32 or a couple that’s been married 65 years that still holds hands and snuggles? With that in mind, here’s my short list of the positives of long-term monogamous cause marketing relationships. Customers begin to think of you and your charity partner as an inseparable pair. And that’s good for both your brands...

One way to activate a cause marketing campaign when the sponsor sells a physical product is on the packaging. I started my career in cause marketing on the charity side and I can tell you that back in the day we were thrilled to get a logo on pack of a consumer packaged good (CPG) or even just a mention. Since then, there’s been a welcome evolution of what sponsors are willing and able to do with their packaging in order to activate their cause sponsorships. That said, even today some sponsors don’t seem to have gotten the memo that when it comes to explaining your cause campaign, more really is more, even on something as small as a can or bottle. The savviest sponsors realize that their only guaranteed means of reaching actual customers with a cause marketing message is by putting it on packaging. And the reach and frequency of the media on packaging for certain high-volume CPG items is almost certainly greater than radio, print or outdoor advertising, and, in many cases, TV. More to ...

Pizza Hut would like to do some cause marketing with your charity. I know this because a flyer pasted on top of the box of the Big Dipper pizza we ordered the other day said as much. What Pizza Hut has in mind is discount card promotion. You can find plenty of similar efforts from other food retailers. If Pizza Hut’s is compelling to your audience, consider calling the number listed. But instead of this rather standard issue campaign, what if instead Pizza Hut offered a donation to your charity of choice… say $0.25… plus the opportunity to donate a much larger amount when you respond to customer satisfaction survey? The idea was waiting for me when I turned over the self-same flyer. When you complete the customer satisfaction survey on the phone or online, you are entered into a drawing for a free iPod along with 10 chances to win a daily prize of $1,000. These kinds of offers are commonly printed on the back of receipts (see below). If you read the fine print, it appears that Pizza Hu...

The printed edition of Fortune Magazine runs a regular feature called ‘My Metric’ wherein business leaders identify informal but telling measures of current economic activity. In the January 17, 2011 Michael Glimcher , CEO of Glimcher Realty Trust cited as his metric an increased number of black cars on the streets of New York City as a sign of the U.S. economy’s (still pending?) resurgence. That got me thinking, what unconventional metrics evidence the power of certain cause marketing efforts? One immediately leapt to mind, although only General Mills, which makes Yoplait yogurt in the U.S., can measure it. The Yoplait lid at left... which I purchased in December 2010... can NOT be redeemed for a $0.10 donation to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Instead it promotes Yoplait’s sponsorship of Komen’s Race for the Cure events, which are numerous. But I’d bet you a six-pack of Yoplait Greek Honey Vanilla that people nonetheless still send in some number of the lids above in an attempt to re...

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...

Nine local stations in my market are conducting a two-day radiothon benefiting the State’s largest homeless shelter... called the Road Home... yesterday and today. Their fundraising goal is $250,000 . This pales in comparison to the big dogs of radiothons, Children’s Miracle Network and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital , which generate tens of millions of dollars. But it’s an admirable effort nonetheless, none the least of which because it involves stations from two separate ownership groups and multiple radio formats! After getting killed in the early days of the Great Recession the Radio Advertising Bureau reports that radio has grown in 2010 , although more so at the national than local level. Still, how do you do ask a local radio station to do a radiothon at a time when stations can't afford to turn down even one ad? Here’s how: most stations do change the way they format their programming during the radiothon, but the time spent talking about the cause comes out of the ...