The key is to be part of peoples’ lives. People will always prefer to do business with friends. Has your business ever studied cause marketing and cause marketing examples?
Marketing is often confused with promotion, but it’s more than that. As Peter Drucker put it, “the aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” In truth, marketing is about insights more than anything else.
How were the results? In this article we will give you many cause marketing examples to learn from. You can use them to improve your success rate the next go ‘round.
Check out our thoughts on creative marketing.
Cause marketing definition
According to cause-marketing consultant Jocelyn Daw, cause-related marketing (CRM) is a mutually beneficial collaboration between a corporation and a nonprofit.
Here ia a useful video on cause marketing.
This collaboration is where respective assets are combined to:
create shareholder and social value
connect with a range of constituents (be they consumers, employees, or suppliers)
communicate the shared values of both organizations
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The beginnings of cause marketing
A Short History of Cause Marketing examines the history of cause marketing. It provides examples of popular campaigns.
In 1983, the term “cause-related marketing” was coined by American Express in a campaign to restore the Statue of Liberty. It can be argued that cause marketing started in the 1960s or the 1970s. Some say it started in the 1960s with the Jerry Lewis Telethon and Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Note that cause marketing is distinct from corporate philanthropy. This is because the corporate dollars involved are not outright gifts to a nonprofit organization. They are not treated as tax-deductible charitable contributions.
Nonetheless, nonprofits usually benefit from increased fundraising and exposure.
Likewise, corporations that are socially involved potentially benefit from increased brand loyalty and employee morale. Studies have shown that for products of similar quality, consumers will consider the company’s image and reputation when choosing a brand.
Causes brings over 140 million people together to form the world’s largest giving community. The belief that everyone has something to give is at the core of what we do. People just need a little inspiration, and to know that whoever they are, there is something meaningful they can do.
-Joe Green, Causes.com
In the increasingly competitive market for consumer attention, brands have to work harder than ever to break through the clutter. They must strike a chord with their audiences.
But in an environment where consumers are constantly bombarded with advertising, why work harder? Our answer? Because you can work smarter to make your marketing message stand out?
Take your marketing message a step further by aligning your brand in an authentic way with a nonprofit. A nonprofit that your consumers can relate to.
Cause marketing or cause related marketing involves the cooperative efforts of a for-profit business and a nonprofit organization for mutual benefit.
Cause marketing strategy
Here are useful cause marketing strategy elements to bring donors, a company or organization, and a cause together.
Cause marketing examples … point-of-sale
This occurs when a cashier asks you for a donation or encouraging advertisements are displayed at the register.
March of Dimes and Kmart have a successful point-of-sale campaign by asking customers to donate during checking out.
Purchase or action triggered donation
A consumer buys a product and a donation is made to a cause. On World AIDS day, Starbucks donates 5 cents for every beverage purchased.
Licensing
A company pays to use a nonprofit’s brand on its product. (RED)™ is an example that works with iconic brands and organizations.
Here developed (RED)-branded products and services, when purchased, trigger corporate giving to the Global Fund.
Message promotion
In this case, a company puts its resource to promoting a cause-forward message.
Ben & Jerry’s Scoop it Forward campaign created a partnership with Target and VolunteerMatch. Using a tasty way to raise funds and awareness, Ben and Jerrys is thanking volunteers.
It is letting people know where they can sign up to volunteer.
Employee engagement
This is a case where a company uses employee volunteers for social good.
When Home Depot’s employees volunteer for local Habitat for Humanity projects, they are participating in an employee engagement campaign.
Digital programs
Using the web and social media based services to promote and collect donations.
The best cause marketing campaigns
American Express Statue of Liberty Restoration
During a three-month period, American Express offered to contribute 1 cent for each card transaction and $1 for each new card issued.
They backed the offer with a substantial media campaign. The effort raised $1.7 million to restore the Statue of Libertyand Ellis Island. The results?
They moved the needle for Amex’s business and gave birth to the field of cause marketing. As a result, the number of new cardholders grew by 45 percent, and card usage increased by 28 percent.
Very impressive, indeed.
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Cops on a Rooftop
This campaign represented a creative Partnership between Illinois Law Enforcement, Dunkin Donuts & Special Olympics
A key question to discuss in a cause marketing promotion are the influential assets.
What do you have that will make a promotion a success? Well, Dunkin Donuts had 150 busy stores in Illinois. Illinois Law Enforcement had people-power. They had thousands of officers to support a fundraiser.
Both Dunkin and Illinois law officers were committed to finding a way to support the Special Olympics.
Someone had the idea to combine the two and put the cops on roof! Genius!
More creativity is just what we need in cause marketing. They could have just put donation boxes at the store registers and called it a day.
Instead, they chose a creative fundraiser that put the donation box on top of a roof where customers would take notice. The result?
Cop on a Rooftop raised $300k in the most recent year and has endured for 11 years. Donuts and cops really do make an awesome partnership.
Johnson and Johnson Future of Nursing Campaign
The Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing’s Future, a public-awareness campaign was launched by Johnson & Johnson in 2002. Its goal was to address the nursing shortage in the U.S. by recruiting new nurses and nurse faculty.
A secondary goal was to help to retain nurses currently in the profession.
To prepare soon-to-be nurses for the challenges of the workplace, Johnson & Johnson recently developed Your Future in Nursing. This was a training program that combines the interactivity of video computer gaming with real-life nursing scenarios.
New and future nurses can practice responding to scenarios in a risk-free and relaxed virtual environment.
This permitted developing communication skills that are such a critical part of the transition from classroom to bedside.
Boston Strong Tee
This campaign represented Partners Nick Reynolds, Chris Dobens, Ink for the People and One Fund Boston.
There are two reasons this represents an excellent campaign example. First, it raised a boatload of money for the One Fund. This fund was set up for the victims of the Boston Marathon Bombing.
Nick and Chris had hoped to sell a couple hundred shirts. Instead they sold over 59,000 tees and raised nearly one million dollars. Impressive, yes?
Second, what Nick and Chris did with Milwaukee-based Ink for the People is the shape of cause marketing to come.
Do-gooders like Nick and Chris are Halopreneurs. That is, they are small time operators that leverage a business platform — usually temporarily — to raise money for good causes.
Watch for more of them in the future.
Whirlpool and Habitat for Humanity
Whirlpool transformed its previously little-known commitment to provide a range and refrigerator for each Habitat home built in the U.S.. It helped them be a major driver of brand loyalty by employing a multimedia campaign featuring Reba McEntire.
What’s more, they did all cause marketers a favor by measuring and sharing the impressive results.
1,000 Playgrounds in 1,000 Days
The Home Depot and KaBOOM took employee volunteerism to new heights with this national three-year program.
It build great places for kids to play within walking distance of their homes.
Further cause marketing ideas
Impact-focused alliances
While the one-company-one-nonprofit partnership structure is alive and well, the emergence of wider strategic alliances is of note.
With a focus on creating lasting, quantifiable social impact, prospective partners are inviting more players to the solutions table. The goal was to attack an issue from all sides.
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Here is an example:
The Safeway Foundation and the Entertainment Industry Foundation launched a joint cause marketing program called Hunger Is.
While the campaign execution was traditional, on the back end, an advisory committee made up of nonprofits like Share Our Strength, Feeding America and Food Research and Action Center.
All are helping this alliance distribute funds raised via projects focused primarily on increasing school breakfasts.
The bottom line
We’ve been speaking about cause marketing in terms of a long commitment. Most successful cause marketing campaigns aren’t one-offs, but rather sustained, mutually-beneficial partnerships.
Collaboration between a business and a non-profit. This will be a less daunting proposition if you’ve done your homework and found a cause that syncs well with your brand image.
It’s possible to run a one-off cause marketing campaign. But you need to be clear what your goal is.
Are you trying to make a difference in the world? Are you trying to sell more product? Are you trying to improve your brand image?
These are each valid goals, but keep in mind that consumers are placing more and more emphasis on a business’ desire to do good, not turn a profit.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of word of mouth marketing created by remarkable customer service. And put it to good use.
It’s up to you to keep improving your creative marketing strategies. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
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Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.