Cause Marketing

For some time now the two big prominent label collection efforts, General Mills Boxtops for Education and the much more senior and yet smaller Label’s for Education... founded by Campbell’s... have opened their respective campaigns to non-competing brands. It’s the classic win-win. In so doing, they broaden their exposure and increase the amount of possible funds raised for schools. I suspect Campbell’s and General Mills also broaden their cost structure. Meanwhile, the new partners are happy to participate with either of these well-established efforts because all the groundwork has long since been laid down and because both efforts enjoy strong relationships with tens of thousands of schools nationwide. To get to this point both of the original sponsors have made efforts to erase their names from the efforts. ‘Boxtops’ is no longer named for General Mills. Label’s no longer features Campbell’s name or branding. With all that now behind them one of label campaigns has the opportunity t...

In Time , Sports Illustrated and other magazines there’s been a series of ads running in hot rotation and in support of a website called ‘Takemefishing.org.’ The ads and the website are sponsored by Markel Insurance Company , which insures boats and other things and a slightly murky entity called ‘Sport Fishing Restoration.’ Takemefishing.org is so declarative it’s easy to guess what that’s about. But Sport Fishing Restoration ? Therein lies a fish story about the financing of World War Two, habitat restoration and government funded cause marketing. In WWII, Congress enacted a tax on fishing tackle to help fund the war effort. By 1950, the law was changed so that tax revenues would go to state natural resource agencies to improve sport fishing. Stuff like fisheries research, boat docks and ramps, habitat improvement and education. In 1998 Sport Fishing Restoration founded the 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation (RBFF) with members of the recreation...

The issue of Time magazine currently on newsstands is all about cancer, including a story on cancer research charities called ' Check Your Charity .' One charity highlighted in the article, called the National Breast Cancer Research Charity, made me do a double-take. Time reports that it took $12.7 million in 2009, and spent 52 percent on fundraising. The reporter’s lead says a lot; “It's not that the National Breast Cancer Research Center is a scam….” What gave me the double-take was that National Breast Cancer Research Center sounds so much like The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the New York nonprofit which took in $30.2 million in revenue in 2009 and spent a scant 5.9 percent on fundraising. The phrase ‘cancer research’ has become a marketing conceit. Put the words together and you have fundraising magic. But it sucks to be a well-proven charity like The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, when a less efficient charity can invoke the same magic words. "I shudd...

CITGO, the oil refiner and gasoline marketer faces a number of brand challenges. Is there a place here for cause marketing? The average gas price in the United States is currently $3.88 a gallon, according to a report in yesterday’s USA Today , with at least half a dozen states reporting $4 a gallon gas. Unlike our compatriots in Europe, Americans are entirely unaccustomed to high gasoline prices. It’s no exaggeration to say that President Obama’s chances of reelection in 2012 hinge, in part, on how high fuel prices stay. Pundits suggest that if gas prices nationwide in November 2011 are above $4, President Obama’s chances aren’t good. CITGO has been owned in its entirety since 1990 by Petroleos de Venezuela, the Venezuelan state-owned petroleum company. CITGO, therefore, is effectively controlled by Hugo Chavez, the autocratic president of Venezuela who has no love for the United States, and who has expressed his feelings about the USA frequently and venomously. Moreover, CITGO has be...

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. ...

A ‘Marketing Conceit’ Regular readers know that transparency is my bête noire . Directly or indirectly, I must have 10 posts that address the issue. But it bears repeating; when it comes to cause-related marketing, don’t try to snooker the customer. I saw this ad for Hooah Energy Bars in All You magazine, a women’s magazine published for Wal-Mart by Time Inc., and it has some transparency problems. The ad and the website say, “Every HOOAH bar helps fund research that improves soldier safety, diet, and quality of life.” Promotional material for its liquid companion, HOOAH Soldier Fuel energy drink use similar language. Supporting the troops sounds great doesn’t it? Especially to people like me with a military background (I was in the Army National Guard). But that’s not exactly what’s happening here. The formulas for the bar and the drink were licensed by the US Department of Defense to D’Andrea Brothers, LLC, which produces and markets them under the HOOAH name. In other words, the...